Olden, Norway
Monday was mostly a sea day. We got up late today and enjoyed a room service breakfast in an our room to start the day. Later in the morning we attended an interesting lecture on the geology of Norway. David stayed for the second lecture on US/European politics. I opted to go back to the room and sort through photos. For the rest of the day we just enjoyed being on the ship,
We arrived on Olden at 6PM and will stay here until Tuesday evening. Olden is a tendered port which means we dock in the harbor and need to take a small boat to shore. The harbor is in a small town called Loen which is a few minute shuttle to Olden, once get to shore on the tender. The view of the area from our ship was spectacular as are most all of the views in Norway.so we just stayed on the ship and enjoyed the vuews, planning to head out the next morning..
In the evening we met a couple in the lounge who went to shore just after arrival and took the Loen Skylift up the mountain we could see from our room. They said the sites at the top were incredible and well worth the trip, but that the next day there would be another ship in port carrying 5,000 passengers. They were told the wait for the Skylift could be up to 2 hours. We decided we’d need to make it an early morning to get on the Skylift early and hopefully beat the crowds.
In the morning we took the first tender to shore. The skyline is located right next to where the tender docked. We were pleased to find no crowds had begun to gather and we actually arrived just as they started selling tickets. When we got to the Skylif boarding there was only one other couple waiting to board. We ended up being able to make the ascent on the first car for the day. Accompanying us was the crew who does the safety work on the Skylift. They amusingly asked if we were sure we wanted to be the first ones up. They said it hardly ever gets stuck. We were all fine and laughed at their jokes.
The ascent is incredibly steep and goes up 3,300 feet in 5 minutes.
When we arrived at the top it was significantly cooler than sea level and the winds were pretty strong. There were clouds but not so heavy that our views to the ground were impacted. We walked around for about an hour. It started to raid so we went inside and enjoyed a coffee at the restaurant before heading back down to sea level. The skylight and the area at the top, including the restaurant was very reminiscent of the one we visited in Alaska.
When we arrived back at the entrance to the Skylift there were hundreds of people waiting to board so we most certainly made the right choice to arrive when we did.
From the Skylift parking area we took the shuttle bus into Olden. Olden does not have much to offer for tourists or for residents. Many tourists take a tour out to a glacier but we just stayed in the town and walked around. There were a number of Norwegian outlet stores in town. We walked through one store. It had good quality clothing but there was nothing of interest and the prices were similar to home.
The only other things in Olden was one resturant, a grocery store and 2 churches. We we through both of the 2 churches which were both very interesting. The one church was a bit of a hike down a busy road with no sidewalks , Once we returned to the town we decided it was time to head back to the ship.
Our dinner this evening was a French Chef’s Table dinner which was excellent as were out 10 dinner companions. We had great food and excellent conversation.
After dinner we decided to call it an evening. The ship is heading to our next port, the City of Alesund,. We dock at 7:30 AM and have a long excursion that leaves at 8:30AM so we need to be up early..