An early start, as we said last night - to be at the bus station by 07:25 means being away from our attic by 06:45 (that still sounds painful and we're back now). The dip in temperature doesn't help but we are on our way.
Eric is raring to go.
Do you notice something - Eric is in bus shelter in the bus station, which is actually undercover anyway! We do wonder why they felt the need.
On the bus, in the pound seats at the front with the driver, and we pull off 5 seconds ahead of schedule, but we are happy with that. Almost as soon as we hit the outskirts of town it's straight into a tunnel that seems to go on forever (actually it's 3.8Km which, at about 2.5 miles in real distance, makes the Brynglas tunnels on the M4 at Newport even more pathetic).
Our destination is Norheimsund, which is on the Hardanger fjord. We have to go over a high part of the Bergen hinterland, and consequently it also passes through a lot more tunnels (I could provide the lengths of all these too but will resist - boring I hear you scream). As we are able to see the driver's dashboard we spot the temperature is dropping from the balmy 7 degrees at the bus station to just 2 degrees as we pass the plateaux. It's very obviously cold, as through the trees we see a lake and on second glance we note is actually just a sheet of ice. Doesn't quite look thick enough to skate on though, or at least we wouldn't like to try.
From here we quickly drop down to sea level and are soon aboard the boat. The weather has brightened and we are in cold sunshine again.
Eric has a quick check of the harbour before ensuring the captain knows where he is going
As is generally the case on these Norway Nutshell tours, we are using the regular fjord transport and so it has a number of ports of call.
First up is Herand and then to Utne below.
Another check on the directions and we are into the Sjorforden arm of the fjord heading for Lofthus.
Along the shore here are the apple and cherry orchards that this area is known for (not by me, but I'm sure other people may have paid more attention to the marketing department). It's pretty amazing that they can grow anything other than sheep on these steep slopes, and are even using tractors to spray the crop. I bet the health and safety guys haven't been told about this practice.
At Lofthus
we stop at the regular quay to collect a few stragglers and then next it's to a swanky looking hotel that has it's own dock where we pick up a party of about 60 travellers of fairly advanced age. We think it's going to get crowded at the waterfall viewpoint but discover they are not going that far as they have to have lunch at a restaurant opposite the Hardangerdidda visitor centre, which is where we are due to stop first when we eventually disembark from the boat and jump on a sightseeing bus at Eidfjord.
Back momentarily to the watery bit; as we motor along the villages on the shore all look very smart in the sunshine - this one is Kinsarvik.
Further on we have a view of a new suspension bridge, which we are reliably informed (and with great pride) is longer than the Golden Gate Bridge. As interesting as that fact is, there seems to be a bit of an issue, the bridge appears to have no roads accessing it, it just stands between the two sides of the steep-sided fjord. As we approach we can see that the roads emerge straight from their respective tunnels out of the cliff onto the bridge. Doubly interesting is that on the northern side we are told there is a roundabout inside the mountain where 2 roads meet. Useless fact - one arm of this tunnel is 7.5km long.
As we head on to Ulvik and then the final port of Eidfjord we pass some splendid views that I doubt our pictures do justice to.
The boat docks and we once again bag the front seats on the first leg of the sightseeing tour to the nature centre.
Passing some very grand scenery along the way, at the visitor centre a guide welcomes us in and we are directed to a cinema to watch a twenty minute film about the area. It's on a wrap-around wide screen in several sections, and it is as if you are on the helicopter flying over the landscape, all set to some stirring music. The 'flight' makes our stomachs drop away at times as they fly over the cliff edge following a waterfall and other such jolly japes. Good job we hadn't had our lunch yet. We are then herded through three exhibition halls with some interesting bits and pieces (but generally too many people for the amount of space).
There was a room full of fish tanks, some of which were very pretty.
Eric photo bombs our first reindeer picture but we manage to exclude him from the next. Eric says he just wanted to say hello to the local wildlife even though we did inform him that they are in fact, stuffed.
We finally manage to escape through a gap in the people and head outside. Unlike the people from the posh hotel, who are going to the restaurant, we have to slum it outside with our picnic. Really we think this is preferable as it is not raining and the sun is still making a breakthrough, but we are glad that we put four layers of clothing on for just such an event.
Back on the bus it's up to the Voringsfossen waterfall at the Fossi hotel. They are making some serious alterations to improve access to, and visibility of, the waterfall, as it is supposedly one of Norway's premiere attractions. To be fair it is pretty spectacular even though the water is rather a dirty brown colour where it's coming off the top of the plateau.
It starts snowing! A quick retreat to the warmth of the bus and a return journey to Eidfjord then the boat to Ulvick, where we get off this time.
We are told our bus will arrive shortly, which it does. However, about ten minutes into what was billed as being a fifty five minute ride, the driver informed us that we would have to change buses in a place called Granvin, and that would be in about ten minutes. This was a bit of a surprise to all the 'nutshellers' on the bus, and especially to the American family who had all their luggage with them (and boy did they have some luggage!). Not only that, but the snow had turned to rain. Consequently we arrived at Voss, where we were to pick up the train back to Bergen, a little later than expected. Given their tight scheduling we thought we might miss the connection, but as usual, needn't have worried.
As we had done this journey in the opposite direction on Fjord Cruise #1, we remembered to sit on the right-hand side for the journey back, and were rewarded with some of the views we'd missed last time.
Another long day. Dinner is a delicious omelette with tasty new potatoes. Soon to retire to bed.