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Today we are in Alesund along ith the Queen Elizbeth, The Crystal Serenity, Mein Schiff, and the Aida. Needless to say theport was like Ellis Island in the 1890's. We arranged a private tour through the ship. I have reached a stage in life where I just can't stand a bus tour. So Our guide Susan and our drive Leyla met us at the gate to the dock. Its the women in charge to day. We had a lovely new Mercedes to ride in, Dennis's seat was even heated. We decided today we would take the Troll Road and go to the Troll "Wall". It is a long trip. We didn't believe that it would take 8 hours but it did. But the scenery on the way there was beautiful. You go through soaring peaks surrounding deep fjords. Lettle houses are pserched on the mountainsides. Our guide was a wealth of information, a lot of it local. She was from Vancourver originally and came here one summer when she was 18. She got a job picking strawberries. Lived in a youth hostel and walked over the mountain everyday to pick strawberries. She met a young policeman in August and married him
OLE BULL'S HOUSE (OUTSIDE OF BERGEN)
THESE ARE THE ONLY TWO PHOTOS THAT HAVE UPLOADED IN TWO DAYS. SORRY in October 46 years ago. She spoke fluent Norwegian, but she still had her Canadian accent. Leyla was a young Norwegian girl in her 30's. She was an excellent driver. She spoke flawless English. Everyone in Norway speaks English.
The road up through the mountains is full of twists and turns, Then we would come to an area where there was farming. It would be tucked between the mountain peaks. We came to a beautiful waterfall. We got out and found a girl selling strawberries beside the road. The strawberries were delicious. the best I have ever had. Susan bought 3 baskets for her husband. She said they only last one day in the fridge. They were beautiful. We finally reached the troll road. There the mountains were shear cliffs alongside the road.We finally reached a point about 2/3 the way up the troll wall. There was a small cafe there when we had a lunch of a waffle with whipped cream and jam (WE WERE full of strawberries by this time). We walked down and looked over the edge to the tourist road. It was built by hand. it is too narrow and tortuous to get heavy equipment up to the ledge... However now tour buses ply their way up and down and sometimes get stuck on the curves. We made it easily down the road about 3000 feet to the beautiful valley below. We have been to Norway twice, this being our third trip. But we had forgotten how absolutely beautiful it is. People want to compare it to Alaska. Norway is Alaska on steroids!
We came back down to sea level and found ourselves in Alesund which is a beautiful city. Largest exporter of dried salted cod in Norway. It was still a madhouse in Alesund although the big ships were beginning to leave. What a beautiful day. The weather was perfect, not a cloud in the sky and around 70F.
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