05-15 Eidfjord, Norway

We have an early morning shore excursion and all three of us are doing the Waterfalls and Waffles Tour. We went up for breakfast at 6:30am to the Lido Restaurant on the Lido deck, Deck 8. At breakfast today Brian said that waking up this morning was like Christmas, he couldn't wait to see what was out his window/door.

After stopping at the room for coats and cameras, we headed for our meeting location in the Showroom at Sea Theater. After waiting ten minutes, we walked out to our bus. Our tour guide tells us about 900 people live in Eidfjord.

We arrived at the waffle place and get off and go inside. It's a nice little place. They have a restaurant that seats about 100 and some rooms here. There's a lake out front across the street, but you can't see it because it's covered in snow.

We all sit down; there are only 16 of us. They serve us coffee and waffles with strawberry jam and sour cream. The waffle is plate-sized, soft, in the shape of several hearts and cold. Strange. No directions on how they eat them (a baby-sized spoon is at each place) or why they serve them with sour cream. No history of the hotel or family that runs it. They just served them and then nothing. Strange.

We still have time to view and walk - to nothing. Snow is everywhere with nothing for contrast. Except Brian.

Our next stop is at Sysen Dam. We are just in a parking lot - with other buses. No place to go but in the parking lot. Pictures of the "backside of dam" and snow covering the countryside are all that is possible.

The highlight of the tour was the massive Voringfossen Waterfall in Fossli. There were workers there working on improving the viewing area. There were many places to view the waterfalls and we took pictures from each of them. It was a photographer's dream world.

In this picture you can see the road we traveled on, the steepness of the valley and terrain, and the walkway to other viewing areas of the waterfall.

Here you can kind of get an idea of how deep the ravine is from the size of the people on the viewing platforms.

All new viewing area on the right side.

Family photo: Brian, Karen, and Pat

After we returned to town and exited the bus, we found a normal grocery store and went in and purchased some lunch and drinks. We found a cafe that was closed for the day and had a wonderful view of the river.

We had previously planned on taking a hike up to a nearby lake, Eidfjordvatnet, but instead of going through the forest we decided to do an out and back to there along the river - a more scenic route for us. The sun was out and we were down to our base layer for the walk.

Arriving at the lake we kicked back and enjoyed a moments rest.

Pictures, pictures, and more pictures.

It was usual for us to try to spend as much time ashore as possible. We headed back to the boat from the lake with enough time to get into town and shop the few shops that would still be open.

All aboard.

Bye, bye cute little town of Eidfjord.