Coffee and Dark Chocolate, please!: (bmw) touring the fjords

sunnmøre, the part of norway where I live, have a breathtaking nature and is world known for its deep fjords and steep mountains. the mountains are even called the "sunnmørs-alps" - stretching up to 17oo meters above sea level, rising straight up from the fjords. in the picture below, you should have been able to see the peak of slogen (in the middle of the picture, 1506 m.) but he is hiding under the clouds. respect to everyone who climbs that mountain - I will never even try!

take some time, enjoy the pictures one by one...

after many years telling them to come visit, sanna, stian and jan stian finaly came to check out my sunnmørske queendom - and how excited was I!? (johan, next time you come with as well!) here we are on the ferry from sæbø across to leknes, urke and øye, with geiranger as the final destination.

kor longt kjøme ej for dissa pengane? me ska på na hi sida!

we stopped at union øye hotel (from 1893) - right by the foot of slogen. take some time to look at the link, enjoy the intro, look at the details, read the history of the hotel as well as look at the pictures. its stunning!

union øye is such a delicate hotel. with old furniture, a million details, long hallways and creaking wooden stairs. and all the rooms are unique and are named by famous people who have stayed there during the last century. a young girl also haunts here - she worked at this hotel and drowned herself in the fjord from a broken heart. you can see her running in the right corner of the picture above (she stole sanna's clothing, left her naked and ran away!) and also in the picture below..

...perhaps the most coveted story is the one of Linda, the ghost. The saying goes that one of Kaiser William II's young officers fell in love with a mythically-beautiful young girl from the valley. But the two could not have each other. Now she wanders the hotel's "Blue Room." Guests who book room No. 7 are always handed a bowl of garlic to be placed in the room if no ghostly visit is wanted or outside the door if a meeting with Linda is what is desired. People from all over the world call to book the "Blue Room," and he assures them that Linda is a nice ghost. Whatever that means... "

a few years ago I stayed one night in this hotel myself, in this very room of queen silvia - one of the most beautiful rooms in the hotel, if you ask me! a wonderful experience! in the evening we sat in front of the fire in the cigar room listening to the hotel manager telling us stories from the hotels history....

then we drove to the lyngstøylvatnet (lake of lyngstøylen), where old pastures are lying visible under water - a rock slide in 1908 stopped the river and this lake came into being. trollish!

lyngstøylvatnet lies in the valley of norang - norangsdalen. its one of the wildest and most spectacular valleys in norway and even for someone born and raised at sunnmøre its breathtaking! and why not do a wee-wee or practice some boxing here?!

from norangsdalen we toured to hellesylt, and from there we took the ferry into the fjord of GEIRANGER (geirangerfjorden)!

geiranger is called the most beautiful place on earth. its described as having majestic green mountains, wild waterfalls and with the deep blue-greenish fjord being almost like a fairytale (som et ææææventyr!).

..enjoying the beauty of mother earth..

kjærstepar!

hugs livreim! nokon er glad i deg!
(remember the seat belt! someone loves you!)

geiranger - at the end of the fjord

grand cruise ships from all over the world come to geiranger- which is on the UNESCO world heritage list. this is costa magica. it can get pretty crowded in here!(yuk, all that smoke from the ships! pollution is one of the reasons why it has been threatened to be taken off that list).

coffee, cake and gossip - can it get any better, sanna? :)

heheh, look at this little fellow having his summer job charging money to drive up to dalsnibba (1504 moh) - from there one gets a spectacular view over geiranger and the fjord. we drove up there, some more excited than others (read; scared of heights..)! it was cold as a winters day, but stunning oh yes!