The first sail day - we went into Geiranger fjord and back. It was either raining or cloudy for the whole day.
The ship we got on board is Hurtigruten’s Nordkapp. Hurtigruten is a Norwegian cruise company running the ferry type transportation service along the coast. It makes 33 stops from Bergen to Kirkenes and back. One way trip takes 6 days. It makes short stops in most of the ports, like 15 or 20 minutes. For bigger ports, it will stop for several hours to allow passengers to get off the boat and visit the city. It also runs excursions, some longer ones will pick up people from one port and takes them back at the next port.
The ship accommodates 450 passengers. It is a small cruise ship with restaurants, lounge, a nice gift shop, public area with comfortable couches and big windows, informative presentations and excursions. The service is friendly and efficient. The food is pretty good, buffets for breakfast and lunch, and sit down dinner with one free drink. They are big on environmental awareness. 95% of the food supply are local and they collect leftover food and give to local farmers to make compost. They call their kitchen “Coastal Kitchen”.
The first day of the cruise, we went to Geiranger Fjord. The fjord is one of Norway's most visited tourist sites. In 2005, it was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
There are many waterfalls along the 9.5 km long fjord. The two most notable waterfalls along the fjord are Seven Sisters Falls and the Suitor (Nynorsk: Friaren). Both falls face one another across the fjord, and the Suitor is said to be trying to woo the sisters.
The trip from Alesund to Geiranger is 4 hours. We sailed from Alesund to Geiranger and come back in the same route. Even though the weather was not good , it is still very pretty, especially when we sit in front of the big windows at the top of our ship.