Schmidts in the UK!: Anniversary Cruise--Geiranger, Norway

Our second port of call was Geiranger, Noway, which is right in the heart of the Norwegian fjords. Geirangerfjord is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. This stop was our favorite of the cruise and definitely the highlight of the trip. Sailing in and out of the port was GORGEOUS and I may have gotten a little carried away with the photos. ( : I've posted a bunch but none of them really do it justice.

We woke up early and went out on deck to get some photos of the sail in. It was chilly but absolutely stunning. I wish we had woken up even earlier.

We may or may not have forgotten to comb Riley's hair in our haste to make it outside.

Sigh.

Windy!

The pathway seemed too narrow for the cruise ship to navigate. So gorgeous!

Our ship docked in Geiranger, which was a pleasant surprise since we were originally told we would be tendering because the port was very small. It turned out that Geiranger had just debuted a floating pier about a week before, which saved us the time and hassle associated with taking small boats the short distance ashore. I had prebooked a combination boat and bus tour in an effort to make the most of our short time in Geiranger. The pier was right in the heart of the very small village so we had some time to look around before our boat tour began. It was actually not necessary to prebook as tickets were sold at the Tourist Office at the pier but it was nice to save time waiting in line. While the boat tour was beautiful, I wouldn't recommend it if you're cruising since you can see the same views during the sail in and sail away (for free and with less crowds). The girls spotted Viking Ship Tours in the water, which looked much more exciting...the guests even got to wear costumes! In hindsight, I think this would have been alot more fun! Nevertheless, we enjoyed the beautiful views from the boat and the bus trip took us up to a few lookout points high above the village that were truly beautiful. The roads leading up to the lookout points were completely crazy....hairpin turn after hairpin turn...so we were definitely glad we booked a bus tour rather than considering renting a car.

Norway loves its trolls!

Our ship with the SeaWalk, the brand new floating pier

Another troll! The girls got a kick out of its pickle nose!

Ready to board our boat trip!

The Viking Ship we wish we had known about!

The Seven Sisters Waterfall

Hugs!

I love these guys' expressions while Riley posed as King of the World! (We do this same pose everywhere we go!)

So pretty

From the lookout point above

Family photo!

Wow...

Wayne's self portrait

Lyla was wiped out after all the fun

Geiranger is gorgeous and my advice to everyone is to go, go, go! It was a very small village so one day was sufficient to see most everything. We did see some abandoned farms that are along the mountainside that you could visit if you were there longer. My favorite part of visiting Geiranger was the sail in and sail out. After we had reboarded the ship, we took the girls to an early dinner at the buffet and then sent them to the Kids Club so we could enjoy a leisurely dinner and check out the views. We ate at the informal Mexican restaurant onboard and sat outside, where we had virtually the whole deck to ourselves with amazing views. I had left my camera in the room but couldn't resist taking some iPhone pics. Some look blurry because we passed through a sun shower, resulting in a beautiful rainbow!