Summary

The author shares their captivating experience visiting the Geirangerfjord in Norway, detailing the breathtaking natural beauty and the exhilarating journey to reach it.

Abstract

The article is a personal travelogue recounting the author's visit to the Geirangerfjord, one of the most famous fjords in Norway and a UNESCO World Heritage site. The author describes the fjord's stunning landscape, including snow-capped peaks, glaciers, and numerous waterfalls, as well as the nerve-racking drive to get there, filled with twists and turns. They highlight the dramatic change in scenery from green fields to snowy peaks and emphasize the emotional impact of the experience, reflecting on the privilege of witnessing such natural splendor. The author also recommends a guided local ferry tour for the local perspective and storytelling, and they suggest visiting the Nordfjord and Loen, accessible by a skylift offering panoramic views. The article is punctuated with personal reflections on the joy of travel and the beauty of nature, encouraging readers to visit these places and document their experiences.

Opinions

The author expresses a deep love for traveling and discovering new places, particularly natural landscapes.
They find the Geirangerfjord to be an otherworldly beautiful place that surpasses the need for words or pictures to describe it.
The author values the personal stories and passion of local guides, which enhance the travel experience.
They believe that traveling can lead to profound personal insights and reflections on life choices.
The author is of the opinion that the stress and effort of the journey to the fjord are well worth the experience.
They suggest that the beauty of the fjords encompasses all elements of nature that they love, including mountains, snow, vantage points, the sea, and glaciers.
The author encourages readers to pursue writing about their travel experiences as a way to preserve memories and share stories.
They recommend subscribing to their posts for more travel stories and suggest considering a membership to access a broader range of writing and potentially become a writer themselves.

The best places I’ve been to — Fjords

Fjords are beautiful, this post covers the most famous one — Geirangerfjord in Norway

The first glimpse of Gierangerfjord! — Ilam Padmanabhan

I’ve loved traveling and discovering for as long as I remember. I’ve written some posts about travel (my Iceland series here). My thanks to Anne Bonfert and Warren Patterson for inspiring me to write this particular one. All pictures are from the author.

In this post, I will write about one of my favorite places in the world — The Fjords. I’ve been lucky enough to visit a few, but I will cover one in specific in this post.

Fjords are long, narrow inlets of the sea between steep cliffs created by glaciers. The one we will read about today is arguably the most famous of them all — Geirangerfjord. It is on the Unesco World Heritage List, and for a good reason.

We stayed at a small town about 170 KM away and planned a day trip to the Fjord. It is one of the most famous routes to drive in Norway, but we didn’t know how scary it could be. The road is full of twists and turns, and at points, you feel like the car could just fall off the edge.

We climbed about 1200 meters in less than 20 minutes, and the change in scenery was dramatic. The snow-capped peaks and glaciers replace the green fields and with many waterfalls (from melting glaciers) along the way. We must have seen hundreds of small and big waterfalls in the entire day. And many of them could have been world-famous just by themselves if there were elsewhere.

Random waterfalls! So much beauty everywhere!

The first glimpse of the Geirangerfjord was after a few hours on the road. It is a beautiful, still fjord, and it’s hard to believe that this place is real. The snow-capped peaks and glaciers surround the valley, with waterfalls cascading down the cliffs. You know, some places look so out of the world that they are meant to be Microsoft windows background — this is one of them!

We took a guided tour on the local ferry. I always enjoy hearing the locals share their own stories. Wikipedia and other travel blogs could state the same facts. Still, I appreciate the love and passion that locals put in their stories. A lot of passion and some myth make facts so much fun.

Usually, a picture is worth a thousand words. But that rule fails in Geirangerfjord, so I will let the pictures speak for themselves. Sometimes the beauty is so deep that all one can do is just submit to it and soak it in.

I was busy taking photos the first few minutes into the ride but then put my phone down and just sat there in the boat. I just couldn’t be bothered taking pictures anymore. I didn’t want to waste a moment distracted from the beauty surrounding me.

How lucky and privileged am I to be here, in one of the most beautiful places nature has given us. My mind wandered around all the small and big choices that led me to this moment. Travelling and nature have a strange way of getting you to think about deep things.

So much beauty exits, if only we cared to look!

After a couple of hours, we hit the road as the day was only half done. We decided to drive back another route to visit one of the most beautiful places to photograph Nordfjord — Loen. You’ll understand when you see the pictures.

A skylift takes you up 1000 odd meters in about 5 mins. If there was ever a staircase to heaven, it might be modeled on this skylift. The panoramic views of the Fjord are just stunning.

Look carefully at the bottom left, a brave person chose another way to get off the mountain!

This was in the middle of summer. So even when it turned 8pm, we still had the time to take some photos and still drive another 150+ KM.

When we started our ride back from Geirangerfjord, we had a small conversation about whether this was worth the additional stress. We were so glad we didn’t miss it.

Sun, mountain, clouds, sky, water combine their magic!

And this is Norway. We are bound to pass through some beautiful lakes regardless of where we drive. Enjoy the pictures at the bottom of the post!

I love mountains.

I love snow.

I love vantage points.

I love the sea.

I love glaciers.

That is exactly why I love Fjords. You get all of them in one.

Traveling is the best thing one could ever do. Writing about travel is the next best thing! What a way to remember the beautiful places and experiences!

Thank you for reading. I hope you get lucky enough to visit this part of the world one day! And if you do, write about it. You have a reader waiting here!

If you came this far, you might also enjoy reading about my trip in Iceland & Fjords in Norway!

I would like to tag Anne Bonfert for her story about the life of a skydiving instructor — https://medium.com/@anne.bonfert/when-you-got-60-seconds-to-perform-3a70d2027e79. I tagged this story on another post of mine, but I enjoyed this enough to talk about it again!

Follow me for more like this, and you can also subscribe to emails so you’ll know as soon as my next post is out. If you are not yet a member, you can join in and get access to the work of thousands of writers, use the link here!

You can also subscribe via email, I’ll send a weekly selection of my posts for free directly to your email!! Use this link!

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Ever fancy becoming a writer? Get rid of all that useless crap from social media, get access to the work of thousands of amazing writers, become an author, and possibly make some money. It costs only $5 a month. Why not give it a go! Use this link! Yes, I get a small commission (at no extra cost to you), but it wouldn’t change our lives.

By the way, I write on a lot of other topics. More about what I write here!

Please follow me on Medium/ subscribe to emails so you’ll know as soon as my next post is out.