FAM trip Geiranger- and Sognefjord area

It is now over eight years that I'm working at Terra Nova, and still there is an area in Norway I haven't visited yet even though we sell it SOOO much as it's one of the classics: the area between Ålesund and the upper Sognefjord, an area nearly every tourist travelling in the fjord area passes in one way or the other. I had been several times to Ålesund, and also the area south of the Sognefjord is very familiar to me. Well, actually I had been to Geiranger already, at the very beginning of my time at Terra Nova. Only three months after my start in the company I was sent like a tourist on tour with one of our French groups that was travelling around there, but I admit at that time it was all so overwhelming in this to me new country and just too many beautiful impressions at a time to remember them all and in detail. Thus: it was simply high time that I caught up with the suppliers we sell in that area and to see the various places we send our clients to.
So together with my colleagues Aurélie and Emmanuel that were likewise lacking some knowledge of this area we organised a trip for end of July to catch up - and we just had an AMAZING time! Not only because we were most of the time super lucky with the weather in this so far pretty (weather wise) shitty summer, but simply for the extremely beautiful landscapes we passed, for the stunning places we saw, the many suppliers we visited, the nice people we met and the good company we were travelling in :-)

The pictures below follow our itinerary and tell about our trip. They are not really of high quality (some are actually pretty awful, but still tell about a place and show what we saw). A lot of the collages, especially of the hotels, were made with the scope to be reused in the report of our trip for the company and to be shared among the colleagues to get an impression of the places visited. Just so you know why they include pictures of pretty blog-irrelevant bathroom photos :-) And don't worry when you see unmade beds and hotel rooms in total disorder. This is definitely NOT how hotels in Norway welcome their guests :-) It's just that we hadn't announced ourselves at the hotels, but justed spontaneously popped by and asked if they had a room or two to show us. Only that it's absolute high season, hotels are basically totally fully booked in this period and thus they were often able to show us just rooms where guests had just checked out and the cleaning staff hadn't passed yet. We didn't mind, because this was already helpful for us to get an idea of the rooms in terms of size, layout, design and standard.

Friday, 21st of July:
We had an (extremely) early flight from Oslo to Ålesund. And with early I mean departure at 7:40 a.m. - which means we were at 5:15 a.m. in the bus to the airport!

About one hour later we landed in Ålesund where we had rented a car and off we went, along the E136 direction Åndalsnes.

In Åndalsnes we turned on the RV63 to drive along the famous "Trollstigen" (Troll Road), a steep road with a decline of 10% and eleven hairpin bends up the mountain. At the bottom of the road there is a camping with restaurant where we book a lot of groups for lunch.

Also in the café on top of Trollstigen they welcome many of our lunch groups.

Some 6-7 years ago they had restuctured the area and together with the café and the attached visitor centre they had opened a couple of panoramic platforms that offer tourists a great view over the Troll Road and the valley.

 

At the other end of Trollstigen the road leads down again to the valley and to the ferry quai in Linge where we took the ferry to Eidsdal.

Continuing on the RV63 we eventually reached the small town (or rather the village) of Geiranger, listed as UNESCO World Heritage site. Another hairpin bended road, the Eagle Road, leads down into the village and offers a great view over the village and the famous Geirangerfjord.

Our first stop in Geiranger is the major Union Hotel Geiranger. As we also book a lot of groups for lunch in this hotel and a lot of individual guest for overnights, we were invided for a 3-courses lunch which was pretty good.

Mandatory was of course a visit of the hotel, it's common areas (including the spa) and the rooms. Our main contact at the hotel she had actually offered us free access to the spa, but unfortunately our schedule didn't allow for it. What a pity! But anyway very nice of her!

A surprise was the collection of oldtimers in the basement belonging to the owner of the hotel which we were shown as well. There were at least eight of them! And the owner rents them out for special occasions such as weddings etc. Very nice :-)

Next on our programme was a 1,5 hours boat sightseeing on the Geirangerfjord. So we proceeded to the Tourist Information to get our tickets and to meet Katrin there, our main contact for the many activities offered in Geiranger. Katrin is also German and I have been exchanging so many emails and calls with her over the last eight years that it was just great to finally get a face to the voice and the email address. Katrin had sponsored our boat excursion and while waiting the 15 minutes before getting on board the boat, she gave us the opportunity to test for free their new e-bikes they have for rent. Within just seconds we effortlessly rushed up the mountain and up to this church and back down again. It was just a very quick trial tour of a few minutes, but still a great experience and good to have tested to better promote them to our clients when in Geiranger.

 

At 5 p.m. we boarded then a boat for a 90 minutes tour on the famous Geirangerfjord. When the captain saw us being bought on the boat by Katrin that made us pass the queues, he indicated us special seating right in front of the captains cabin (which is not an official seating place). Best view, not in the crowd with all the other tourists on board. VIP seats so to speak :-)

We obviously weren't the only ones visiting the fjord.

If you look closely, you see the winding road from the top of the mountain down to the shore. That is the Eagle Road we came down as well.

The mountain on the below picture provides the story for the film "Bølgen" (The Wave) that came in the movies in 2015. It's about the the unstable rock formation in this area, especially the Åkerneset crevice at the side of the mountain on that picture. The rock is constantly moving and the crevice increasing, which is why it is under permanent observation and measuring by the relevant autorities. Should it come to a landslide one day, it will cause a huge tsunami which endangers the nearby villages by the shores of the fjord, including Geiranger. The catastrophe movie depicts this scenario where the Åkerneset crevasse causes an avalanche resulting in a 80m high wave rolling towards the tourist destination Geiranger...

The waterfall on the mountain on the left side is called "the Seven Sisters" - because when it has more water it usually consists of seven separate streams.

After the tour a little stroll through Geiranger...

 

...during which we stopped in this local chocolate factory buying some home-made products...

...it was time also for us to have our "fika" - it was Friday after all and we have to keep up the office traditions, right?
Little side note for those that don't know what "fika" is: it's a Swedish tradition with the basic meaning "to have coffee", often accompanied with somethings sweet like a pastry, piece of cake or biscuit. In our Stockholm office our colleagues had always been gathering in the afternoon to have "fika", but some years ago our boss - who is Swedish - introduced this tradition also in our office in Oslo. In Geiranger, however, we had applied slight variations to the tradition and substituted the pastry by some locally produced chocolate and the coffee by some alcohol :-) That is beer for Caro and Manu...

...and for me my typical beer-coke-mix (which for real beer lovers and for non-Germans are just an extremely weird combination).

In the early evening we drove by car up the mountain to our accommodation: an apartment at the Westerås Gard farm.

We didn't have meals included at the place and thus had prepared our own dinner. In theory quite tasty, in practice a bit less since there wasn't the slightest bit of salt or pepper available in the apartment.

Saturday, 22nd of July:
An early start of the new day, with the mist and humidity still hanging in the mountains.

First item on today's schedule: breakfast. Of course! At the local bakery.

Next on the programme: a visit of Hotel Geiranger.

 E-cars for rent in Geiranger to discover the area.

Before leaving Geiranger, we quickly visited the Homlong Camping from where the kayak tours start that we sell to our clients. Just to see how far away it is located from the village centre.

On the road out of Geiranger that leads up the mountain at the "back" of the village, right in a turn, lies Hotel Utsikten which we sometimes book as well for our clients. Thus quick stop and visit also here. The great view over Geiranger give this hotel its name: utsikten translates to English as "the view".

Not easy to take a selfie looking against the sun :-)

A 30 minutes drive away from Geiranger, at 1.500 m.a.s.l. on the Dalsnibba mountain plateau, lies the Geiranger Skywalk, a new panoramic platform (inaugurated in 2016) offering a fantastic view over the world heritage area and towards snow-covered mountains. To get this view, though, one has to pay a road toll of approx. 130 NOK per car. We managed to convince the guy at the toll station to grant us as tour operator/agent (rather theoretically then realistically) selling this attraction a free drive up :-)

 

 

Trying again to take a picture looking against the sun with a "3-2-1: open your eyes!" approach.

 On the road again.

In Langevatn we turn right on the RV15, direction Loen.

On the way to Loen we passed by a little place called Hjelle which just caught our all hearts. We just loved this place which felt like a little peace of paradise: the tranquility of this place, the perfect location by the lake, the cosy café and especially Hjelle Hotel just hit us.

 

 

Me, I also loved those yummy redcurrants which I hardly could stop eating :-)

The little café with a tiny shop on the first floor where they sold very nice little things.

Also this hotel we sell to our clients so we went in for a visit and were (despite without appointment) very warmly welcomed by the manager, Mr. Hjelle himself. He and his family must have lived there for ages and generations as the village, the hotel and the family/owners have all the same name "Hjelle". He personally showed us around the whole hotel.

Very cosy the common areas...

...and also the rooms really invite for an overnight stay.

On this super warm day, when leaving the hotel, the manager offered us some ice cream and coffee. Very kind! And Manu liked the place so much and was so thankful that he made himself immediatly unforgettable to the manager when he took some coffee: instead of hitting the "cup" button on the coffee machine under which he had placed his cup, he pushed for a whole "pot". Result: Manu spilling coffee all over the place :-D
The place and the sun just invited to rest for a moment to benefit from the beautiful surrounding.

We really didn't feel like leaving again after this short time of relaxing by the shores in this beautiful place. We would have loved staying longer. But duty called! So we hit the road again...

...until we reached Stryn. We hadn't actually planned a stop here, but two hotels were just along the road. It's not really hotels we use much and rather as third choice accommodation in case the other alternatives in the area are already complete. But why not quickly having a look anyway since we were there!?
The first one: Stryn Hotel. Really nothing special, nothing fancy, rather old style. Pretty simple and located right by the main road. Also the town of Stryn in itself isn't really a big hit and seemed rather industrial. So booking guests here is really not the preferred option.

However, the second hotel, Visnes Hotel, positively surprised us. It's still located by the main road, i.e. basically in front of Stryn Hotel, but a bit more descretely placed and surrounded by some trees.

We were super friendly welcomed, even though the guy that opened us the door was more the caretaker of the hotel than involved in bookings or welcoming guests. But he was super happy to show us around and took us into basically every single room that wasn't occupied by guests - which was interesting as every room is actually very different and none alike (as the pictures also show).

The common areas. Maybe also a bit more "old-style" but at least with charme!

Also here, before leaving, we were offered coffee and ice cream - so nice! But as that would have been a bit too much caffeine and sugar in short time, we gratefully accepted though the bottles of locally produced apple juice for the continuing journey.

Just 10 km away from Stryn lies Loen where we immediately stopped by the brand new attraction (opened only in May 2017 by the Norwegian Queen H.M. Sonja): the Loen Skylift, a cable car that brings you in five minutes from the fjord up to Mt. Hoven at 1.011m.

When you arrive at the Mountain Station and its restaurant you have 210 degree panoramic view overlooking Mt. Skåla and Lake Lovatnet in the east, Jostedalsbreen Glacier and Olden Village in the south and the Nordfjord that winds its way towards Stryn.

Super beautiful - except the price which is with 485 NOK p.p. return ticket a little less "beautiful"! Luckily we managed also here to get free tickets after explaining that we work for a tour operator (potentially) selling Loen Skylift to tourists coming to Loen. So we got the chance to be offered an amazing view from up the mountain... and to enjoy a burger with fjord view :-)

Seems to be a great place for hiking up there! Right parallely to the skylift goes a "Via Ferrata" up to Mt. Hoven and a bit further to the east is the trail for the hike to Mt. Skåla (which is actually on my "to hike list"). So maybe I'll come back one day.
But for now there was no time for hiking. The next hotel visits were waiting for us, the sister hotels Alexandra (first pictures) and Loenfjord (second pictures).

I knew Loenfjord Hotel was rather simple as hotel, but of Alexandra Hotel I was a bit disappointed as it didn't live up to my expectations I had based on its reputation. It was certainly of good and higher standard than Loenfjord Hotel and also the dinner buffet is probably as amazing as people say about it, but that one room we managed to see wasn't as special as I thought. But all in all, nothing wrong about this hotel and certainly a good choice for accommodation in that area.

After the two hotel visits in Loen we continued southwards on the RV60 until we reach Fjærland.

Located inside the Jostedalsbreen National Park and overlooking the valley of Fjærland lies the Bøyabreen glacier, a side branch of the large Jostedalsbreen glacier which is the largest one in continental Europe.

Very close to Fjærland lies also Mundal, a village with a hotel that we book quite a few times for our clients. Unfortuantely we missed the road exit and didn't really have time to turn around for a hotel visit as our schedule was already very tight. We still had to reach Marifjøra that evening - preferrably before 8 p.m. if we still wanted to get the dinner booked at Tørvis Hotel where we stayed that night.

We just arrived on time to check-in, have a little apéritif on our balcony before we were served a super delicious dinner at the hotel restaurant.

 

After dinner we went for a little stroll around the area, just to discover that Tørvis Hotel is located pretty isolatedly by the fjord as there was nothing around but mountains, water, a few red sheds, one small road and not even a handful of houses.

Sunday, 23rd of July:
Another early start of the day - but a beautiful one with sunshine. Perfect to take some pictures of the hotel.

 

As small and isolated as Marifjøra might be, at least it has this café/bakery right next to the hotel which looks quite nice.

The next hours were dedicated to visiting some more hotels in the area. To start with: the two hotels in Sogndal which meant driving some 20 minutes back the road we came the day before.
The first one was Quality Hotel Sogndal, of the chain "Choice Hotels". Simple and ok. Nothing bad, but also nothing fancy. The common areas a bit old fashioned. A hotel for those that need an affordable alternative to the super beautiful but quite expensive other hotels in the area.

Just a few metres further from Quality Sogndal lies the Hofslund Fjordhotel. A hotel of bit better standard than the Quality Sogndal, more stylish and charming which we actually sell a lot. Nevertheless this was the only hotel during our whole trip where we were not welcomed at all. We presented ourselves as with all the other hotels, saying who we were, where we were coming from, explaining why we were there and always kindly excusing for showing up without prior notice - which hadn't created any problems to anyone so far. To the contrary, everyone then showed us gladly around. Except here! The owner refused to let us in to show us rooms or parts of the hotel. In pretty unfriendly tone she told us that it is unacceptable to simply show up without preparing them. We have their phone number and email addresses and could have well announced our intentions and made an appointment for the visit. And anyway it isn't suitable to come "like this" for a hotel visit. When saying "like this" she looked pejoratively at us from head to feet making clear that our clothing wasn't appropriate either. Since we had an outdoor activity on our schedule later on that day, we were already dressed in our outdoor clothes. But we didn't look "shabby" or so. Still neat and proper, just more sporty - which is especially in Norway so totally normal! Mrs. Hotel Manager simply wasn't pleased. So we turned around and left, just taking a photo from the outside of the hotel (which she hardly could forbid).

Despite this unfriendly reception we'll certainly continue selling this hotel as it is nevertheless quite nice, well located, also right by the fjord, we have pretty acceptable rates there and it's requested by our clients. We can just hope that guests are more warmly welcomed!

We had actually discussed the fact of not announcing our coming in advance. And we had explicitly agreed on not doing so as we wanted to see how service minded, friendly and spontaneous hotel staff is to adapt to unforseen situations with clients, be it staying guests or us as tour operator selling them. Let's say that this hotel (or rather the manger - hopefully not all staff is alike) from that point of view totally failed! And it's like "mystery shoppers": you experience a supplier/service at it's daily, natural routine and standard (with all it's pros and cons) without giving the chance to create a brightened up, but fake situation.

At our next stop we luckily experienced then again the total opposite: a super warm welcoming! Walaker Hotel in Solvorn: just another place we totally fell in love with!

Beautifully located right by the fjord.

What a cosy garden!

Also inside a warm and cosy, welcoming atmosphere.

 

 

What a view! Just beautiful!

The hotel actually exists of three different parts. Above was the main building. Below is a second building with more rooms. Both historical, cosy style.

Then they have a third part in this white, flat annex building with rather modern rooms on ground floor, with own terrace and garden and fjord view.

Certainly not as cosy and beautiful as the other rooms in the other parts, but the less expensive option in the same great location! And meals are still served in the historical part of the hotel.

Unfortunately we didn't have time to stay for a while to enjoy maybe a coffee in the sun in their garden. The next hotel visit was waiting for us: Bestebakken Hotel in Hafslo - yet another hotel to simply fall in love with! We met Lindis, the owner, manager and chef of this great place. Also she - despite not being "warned" of our coming - was so pleased to see us! She really took her time (actually nearly too much time - it seemed she didn't wanna let us go despite our time pressure) to show us every single room and corner of her lovely place. Also here people had just checked out and none of the rooms had been cleaned/made yet. But she couldn't be bothered by that, neither could we. Lindis knew for us it was just important to get an idea of how rooms look like. But I admit that after all her talking and explanations and the amount of different rooms we saw, I got totally confused by the various room types. The only thing I remember about this hotel: super nice and absolutely a place to (continue to) sell!

 

No, this is not the entrances to some hobbit rooms. Probably just some storage, but nothing rented out to guests :-)

The common areas. During the meals, guests sit all together at one long table, no matter the country they come from or the language they speak. This makes the meals a very social get together. I like that :-)

Rooms in the main building.

The red building, with even more rooms.

 The garden...

...with their own herbs patch/bed for all the cooking by Lindis.

And of course also unforgettable: their alpacas!

I think it took us some 10 "good bye, Lindis, thanks a lot, wonderful place you have" before Lindis really let us go and we managed to hit the road again, continuing on the RV55.

In Gaupne we left the RV55 as our next destination was the Jostedalsbreen National Park where we sell a lot of glacier hikes on the Nigardsbreen to our clients. The Nigardsbreen glacier is, like the Bøyabreen, a branch of Europe's largest glacier Jostedalsbreen. Here, at the Breheimsenteret visitor centre, we were supposed to meet Steinar, our contact for the glacier hikes, at 11:30 a.m. - only that we weren't quite on time.

 

But we had a cup of coffee and a nice chat with Steinar before he accompanied us to the car park from where the glacier hikes start. They sell various tours, longer ones, shorter ones and tours suitable for families. Since we sell a lot of their tours, we were invited by Steinar to participate in their "Short Blue Ice Hike". The excursion starts at a car park from which one can already see the glacier. Here you meet your guide and get your equipment: crampons and ice axe before taking a little boat for ten minutes over the glacier lake. Alternatively one can also walk from the car park to where the boat takes you. In either way, once arrived where the boat drops you off, one still has to walk some 30/45 minutes to the actual bottom of the glacier.

Once arrived at the glacier we put on the crampons and got some climbing harness with which we were for security reasons attached one by one to a rope led by the guide.

And then the adventure could begin :-)

 

  

Our guide (with a totally incomprehensive name I absolutely wasn't able to remember). In summer she works here in Norway as glacier guide. The rest of the year she works as mountain guide/sherpa in the Himalaya.

 

 

After approx. 1,5 hours on the ice, we left the guide and walked the way back to the boat pier on the lake and actually even further to the car park as this was just an additional 20 minutes walking instead of taking the boat back. The great weather was simply inviting for a nice walk, enjoying the sun and nature.

 

 

Back at the visitor centre we allowed ourselves a refreshing ice cream (which was basically our lunch) while enjoying the view on the glacier and talking about this great experience. We really loved it and think it's a super nice activity to continue selling to our clients. However, we agreed that the walking on the glacier was a bit too slow (for our taste). We were proceeding only at a snail's pace. But not because of walking on ice is slower than regular walking, but simply due to some super slow people in our group that were afraid of every step they made and that caused us stop every five metres.

After having spent the last 5,5 hours in Jostedal, it was really time to go on. We still had to arrive in Bøverdal that evening. However, right after getting back on the RV55, in Nes, we had one more hotel stop planned, at Nes Gard which we also sell to our clients. Again we were most welcomed and the owner would have loved to show us some room, only that they were fully booked that evening and everyone had already arrived and checked in to the rooms. So we could only see the common areas.

 

  

It was probably good they didn't have any rooms to show as we were extremely short in time. It was nearly 7 p.m., we had dinner at 8:30 pm waiting for us at our hotel in Bøverdal and it takes approx. 1:45 hours to get there. It's just 80km, on a German highway I would need less than 40 minutes for that. But in this case the road called "Sognefjellet" - by the way one of the most beautiful tourist roads - is a in parts even narrow road winding itself through the mountain area west of the Jotunheimen National Park. Stunning road - despite the heavy rain that started right when we were on that stretch of road.

Eventually we made it to the hotel on time. At 8:20 p.m. we arrived at today's final destination: Elveseter Hotel.

We immediately went for dinner - which was really very good! It was good to finally relax a bit. Nevertheless, the "work day" wasn't over yet: one last hotel visit for the day. The owner/manager and our main contact at the hotel, Inger, wasn't working the next day to show us around, so we took the hotel visit still in the evening after our dinner. Elveseter Hotel is a very special place. It calls itself "kunst og kultur hotel" (=hotel of art and culture) and its common areas are indeed full of paintings, artefacts and other cultural/historical objects. It's the many different common rooms which make this hotel so particular.

 

The sleeping rooms, though, are very basic and only of secondary importance at this mountain hotel. They are often pretty small and of simple standard. They are just not meant to be used for spending more time than just sleeping in them; it's the common areas which invite to hang out and socialise.

Some clients really appreciate this concept, others less as they are looking out for a spacious, cosy room to stay in which they'll hardly find there. In any case: we liked it :-)

Apart from their many different hotel rooms, they also rent out some apartments, located some 300m away from the reception. That's where we stayed for the night. Same here: pretty basic, mountain style.

 

Monday, 24th of July:

It had been raining the whole night through and still continued when we left Elveseter Hotel after breakfast. We continued on the RV55 in direction Lom. On the way we quickly stopped at Røisheim Hotel as we sometimes book this for our clients. It's a small hotel of very good standard and indeed it looks also very charming. Unfortunately we weren't able to see any rooms as all rooms were occupied and noone had checked out yet.

On our drive into Lom, we passed by a hotel we hadn't heard of and thus don't use so far for our clients, but which looked like worth a visit anyway: Nordal Turistsenter. The common areas are pretty nice, the rooms a bit simpler, but certainly a place to keep in mind for guests.

Afterwards, short stop at Lom stave church, dating back to the second part of the 12th century.

There is actually another hotel in Lom, Fossheim Hotel, a very nice one which we also book from time to time for our clients. We should have stopped there for a quick visit, but totally forgot it.

So in Lom we turned again on the RV15 leading back to Geiranger - this time under (dark) grey clouds, though. Nothing was left of the nice sunshine we had here just a couple of days ago.

Panoramic view over the Geirangerfjord from an observation platform on the Eagle Road. When we had come down this road on Friday, it had unfortunately been just too crowded for a photo stop. Would have preferred this pictures with sun ;-)

The sun only reappeared while queueing for the ferry in Eidsdal back to Linge we had taken already on the way coming.

This time between the ferry in Linge and Ålesund we didn't pass by the Trollstigen Road, but took the direct way via the RV650 and E136. Some 30km before Ålesund, in Skodje, we stopped by another hotel: the Storfjord Hotel, a luxury hotel that Bill Gates used to stay at a few times. When we arrived the hotel was in full last minute preparations for Landrover who had privatised the entire hotel for an event and about to arrive soon - which is why no one had time for us, let alone to show us some rooms or let us in for a look.

Our impression from this 2-minutes visit: very nice, but a place of money! Luxury!

A 45 minutes drive after this quick visit, we arrived back in Ålesund where we first of all checked in at our accommodation: Hotel Brosundet - where we got rooms in the annex which was the former Clarion Collection Bryggen Hotel.

The rest of the afternoon we dedicated to visiting the hotels in town.

First one: Quality Hotel Waterfront - unfortunately totally fully booked, so no chance at all to see any rooms. So we went straight on to the next one, First Hotel Atlantica: didn't really convince us, a bit shabby, breakfast served at the bakery in the same building by the reception.

Scandic Hotel Scandinavie: positively surprised us. A chain hotel, but quite nice.

Scandic Hotel Parken: nearly in front of Scandic Hotel Scandinavie, similar standard, but not as nice (at least the one room we could see).

Thon Hotel Ålesund: better than First Atlantica, but really not out favourite, a bit old-fashioned.

Radisson Blu Hotel Ålesund: pretty ok, nothing wrong about it, but for a Radisson Blu hotel I would have expected more, higher standard.

Scandic Hotel Ålesund: the room we saw was ok, but not as nice as the renovated, modern common areas.

Ufff, finally done with hotel visits. That was the last one on this trip and enjoy the rest of the evening in Ålesund.

Molja lighthouse - it is acutally possible to overnight in it.

Despite the beautiful weather and the great panorama we would have been offered, we didn't go up to the viewpoint at Mount Aksla, though. We were simply too tired and hungry and Aurélie and I had already been up there at a previous stay in Ålesund. So we headed back to our hotel where a light, simple evening buffet was included in our stay - which was quite miserable, though. I think I have never eaten such awful pasta in my life - not even before my times in Italy. The bolognese sauce was ok (for non-Italian standard), but the pasta was simply overcooked... by estimated 15 mintues! I hope that was just a one-time error by the chef!

After "dinner" we went for a drink in a nearby pub where we met with Suzon, a former trainee of our that was with a group on tour as tour leader and also staying in Ålesund that night.

Pretty soon though we called it a day and went off to bed. We had quite a short night ahead of us.

Tuesday, 25th of July:

The alarm rang at 4:30 a.m., departure to the airport at 5 a.m. and the flight back to Oslo leaving at 7 a.m.

Emmanuel was lucky, he had taken the day off, but Aurélie and I went straight back to the office, more physically present then operationally effective.

For the three of us this was an amazing and informative trip! The landscapes were as to expect stunning and people we met so friendly and welcoming. We have finally met many suppliers we work with a lot when selling tours to our clients and understand their standards and services. We now better understand how things work, where they are located, how hotels look like, how the staff is. And last but not least we were extremely lucky with the weather (with the short exception between Bøverdalen and Geiranger).

Thanks a lot, Emmanuel and Aurélie, for your pictures which I used as well in this post :-)