The Fjords Are Alive With The Sound Of Music

We are back. For the last 6 days we have been singing our way through the echoey Norwegian Fjords, without internet access and yes, they are more spectacular than the Austrian Mountains in the Sound of Music!!! We have travelled 2,389km roundtrip from John´s cousins outside Oslo (bottom picture), on 9 ferries to see 10 major fjords and cruise the entire length of three of them: Naeroyfjorden, Geirangerfjorden (photos 2, 3, 4 from top, both of these are UNESCO protected) and Fjaerlandsfjorden (fronting Jostedalsbreen, continental Europe´s largest glacier that we licked!).

The Norwegian fjords are simply stunning. They are literally flooded canyons/valleys of water, cut by glaciers during the last ice age (30 million years ago) and surrounded by cliff steep mountains. The longest and deepest fjord is Sognefjorden (which we visited by road), 204km long and 1,308m deep. We also saw many waterfalls - 9 of the world´s 20 highest are here! Another highlight was the Trollingsten Road (top photo): 7km of absolute hairpins rising 1,500m past an old stone bridge that the famous "Troll" lived under and yes, Paul let out his Billy Goat call as we past! The goats are still chasing us!!!

Our final conquest was the incredible Preikestolen or "Pulpit" rock which is a sheer edge rock platform with a 600m drop straight down into Lysefjorden (photos 5 & 6 from top). Suffice to say that my dive earned me douze pointes!

Here are some comparisons between the Danes and Norwegians as we bid farewell to them on our way to Sweden. The Danes: enjoy speaking English, are very friendly, dress very well, love their royal family, are very literate (lots of bookstores in Copenhagen), pay too much for cheap wine and 0.5L beer (20AUD & 12AUD resp) and have late running trains! The Nords on the other hand: speak even more English, are friendly only once they get to know you, dress down, do not speak much about their royals, are also literate, pay even more for wine and beer (30AUD and 15AUD resp) and do not have many trains. Both countries have lots of immigrants from Pakistan and Turkey and surprised us with their roads - there are hardly any freeways, roads are narrow two lane and it takes ages to drive anywhere since speed limits are low (80-90km) and no one overtakes because of automatic speed cameras everywhere! Distance travelled so far: 15,137km (equivalent of Sydney - Singapore - Athens in a straight line!!!).