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This summer (2017) my parents took my sister and I on a Holland America cruise throughout Norway. Having been on a Holland America cruise a couple summers before, I was thoroughly excited-- mostly for the good food, but also for the chance to see a new country! Since I have a plethora of pictures from this trip, I'm not going to bore you with a ton of stories. I've also decided to split my Norway pictures into two or three posts. Anyways, they say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here's a photo essay of our trip to Norway.
Amsterdam
I know what you're thinking- Amsterdam isn't part of Norway. Well, duh, it's in the Netherlands. But we did start our Norwegian cruise in Amsterdam, so here are some pictures of our few hours there!
Once we got into our room aboard the cruise ship, Dad and I decided to run into town and back in the couple of hours before departure. Thankfully we got to see the Central Station!
I didn't know this before the trip, but Amsterdam is actually about 2 meters below sea level, so our ship had to go through one of four locks of the North Sea Canal.
We saw so many kiteboarders as we were leaving The Netherlands!
Flåm
After a whole day at sea, we arrived in the quaint little village of Flåm. Sitting at the end of a long fjord, it is quite isolated from the rest of the world. Once we got there, my dad surprised us with tickets for the Flåm Railway. The train took us right by some beautiful waterfalls and luscious, green valley, then it took us to the Vatnahalsen Hotell for some waffles (with homemade lingonberry jam) and coffee. When we got back to town we hiked up the hill a ways then did some shopping. Although there wasn't much to do in the small town besides shopping, this was still one of my favorite stops of the whole trip!
The beautiful Flåmsbana
View of our ship, the MS Koningsdam, from our hike
Bergen
Our second stop on the cruise was a larger town called Bergen, home of the composer Edvard Grieg. Since it was Father's Day and my dad loves classical music, my mom surprised him (and Juju and I) with a tour of Grieg's home and a piano concert of his music. After the tour, we took the Fløibanen Funicular up to the best view of Bergen. Overall, I absolutely loved this town for its charm and unique history, and because I play piano I especially loved getting to see Grieg's home.
Grieg's home
Apparently this statue of Edvard Grieg is actually life-size!
The concert hall where we got to hear a few of Grieg's greatest works
The view from the top of the Fløibanen Funicular
Such a colorful town!
Geiranger
At the end of Geirangerfjord lies its namesake, the town of Geiranger. Here we made the brave decision to take the Panorama Bus Tour to access two of the greatest viewpoints of the fjord via a mountainside road with way too many switchbacks. The amazing view made the scary bus ride worth it! After departing Geiranger, our ship sailed right next to the famous Seven Sisters Waterfall. What a sight!
So magical!
The Seven Sisters!
After only three days in Norway, I was already in love.
Stay tuned for more Norway pictures!