Geirangerfjord
The Azora left during the previous evening, and we woke up to find the Costa Fortuna moored in the fjord. As we got ready to go out, the oystercatchers came to ask for their breakfast - this time attracting a small group of tourists.
We took a trip on the fjord sightseeing boat,and saw all the famous sights of the fjord: the seven sisters waterfall, the suitor, and so on. We were also told about the fjord farmers. At one time, up to 100 people lived in remote farms on the mountainsides. On one, a woman bore and raised 10 children: her only access to the outside world being a footpath with 48 hairpins bends, down to the fjord. Another farm was accessible only by ladders. When the tax man did his rounds, the farmer could see him approaching, and it was not unknown for the farmer to pull up the ladders, so the taxman had to go away with unfinished business. Other families had to secure their children on a length of rope while they worked, so prevent them falling off the cliff. The largest farm had 100 goats, 60 sheep, 10 cows and a horse. When you see the steep cliffs, you wonder how anything at all could live up there.
After the boat trip we stretched our legs on a walk up the (very steep) hill. We got some good views of a rushing waterfall from there: considering this is August, you wonder what it must be like in the full spate of spring.
On the way back, we visited the local church. There was some very pretty painted woodwork, and this is obviously a very popular place, as the visitors´ book had 8 pages of comments just from that day! Nationalities included UK, Australa, Canada, Italy, Czech Republic, Germany and Malta.
We decided we were duty bound to sample the local speciality: waffles with jam and sour cream. The waffles are light and airy, the jam is quite soft, but really tastes of fruit, and most important of all, a proper cup of tea to wash it down.
Several local tourist shops sell reindeer skins. The hair is fine and silky yet rilient. The colours range from creamy white to dark greys and browns. We found one in the campsite shop, and we really liked the colour of it. We thought this shop might not be the cheapest place to buy it, so wandered round the other shops in the village, However, we eventually came back to the same place, as the price was It was 100 Kromer cheaper than the other shops, and the quality seemed just as good. We also found some reindeer sausage (similar to salami): it is very dark in colour and has a really strong but pleasant smoky flavour.