Real Norway in Maloy

Mark was on day 3 of his flu bug, and we were arriving at the third port of our cruise. Mark was feeling good enough to smile during breakfast on the back deck overlooking our docking location in Maloy, Norway.

The water of the Norwegian Sea was as smooth as glass this morning, except the ripples caused from an occasional boat coming and going from the tiny town of Maloy.

While we were trip-planning at home, we tried to get some information about things to do at this stop. But we couldn't find any other ships that stop here. In fact, this was the first time we could find that MSC had made this stop. We guessed that this was a cheap port for the cruise company. So instead of a touristy village that caters to the cruise crowd, we have landed at a real Norwegian town where real people lived and worked real jobs. We could see three big buses waiting to take some of the ship passengers on excursions. But we had 6,000 passengers disembarking, and we weren't sure this little town was ready for us.

We planned to do our usual free hiking tour of the area. We had read about the murals in town, and we started with a mural tour. The details in these huge paintings were spectacular!

Maloy was situated on an island with water surrounding it. So of course, all the murals featured some aspect of the sea life.

We had to say that the paint jobs looked fresh, and the art was very well done on this fiddler crab fiddling.

We tried to put one of us in the pictures, just to give some comparison of how big these murals were. Most of them covered entire buildings.

Sometimes the person in the picture was supposed to look scared, because she was about to be swooped up by those sharp talons

While we arrived on a very nice summer morning, one of the murals led us to believe that the weather can be quite nasty around here.

Our walk around Maloy took us down to the dock, and the sea still looked like glass.

The folks working at the local visitor center were over-run by hundreds of visitors. But they had time to give us a map of the hike they would recommend. They've gotten lots of rain this week, and they explained that the hike we had planned to Veten Mountain would be muddy and slippery. Since Mark wasn't feeling 100%, this walk around the lake was a better fit for us.

What that map didn't show was the elevation gain to get to that lake. Instead of calling their town streets "avenues" or "drives," they were called "gates." Gate 1 was very close to the water, and ran parallel to the sea. Gate 2 was higher up the mountain, still running parallel to the sea. Each gate was straight up the side of the mountain, and we had to climb to Gate 7. From here we could see the bridge that connected the island of Maloy with the Norwegian mainland.

From Gate 7 we could also see where our ship was docked. We didn't have to worry about competing with other ships in this little-known port. We had already determined that no other ships made stops in Maloy. From this view we could also see the streets (aka gates) below us.

As we started the part of the hike on the nature trail, we saw that some of our fellow passengers got a ride up the hill. It looked like a local was making some cash today by charging cruisers for a little elevation gain. It didn't take us long to find our way to the lake at the top of this mountain.

From this angle we could see Mount Veten in the distance. That was the destination we had planned before we knew the trail was muddy and that Mark wasn't feeling well. Either way, we had wandered another of God's Norwegian wonders today.

Just like the Norwegian Sea, this lake was as smooth as glass. It was hard to imagine that Maloy was sometimes cold and windy like one of the murals depicted. Our weather this day was beautiful!

After walking the entire loop around the lake, we started on the loop through town. It wouldn't take us long to walk the length of this little Norway town. We passed by a school and a church and a hardware store. This was a town where real Norwegians live and work. The flowers here have a short growing season, but they were beautiful! After seeing many this day, Denisa finally stopped to take a picture of one.

We walked the entire length of Gate 7, then took the very steep path down towards the water and our ship. We had planned to do a more rigorous hike, but we thought the 8.5 miles we walked this day was far enough--especially since it started to sprinkle when we neared the cruise ship. We were lucky to make it to our room before it started raining hard. All this rain must be why the mountains of the Norwegian fjords stay so green.

Mark's flu symptoms seemed to be getting better, but Denisa was now coughing more. She was afraid that she had caught Mark's flu. So instead of going to the 1.5-hour meal in the dining room, we opted for a quick run through the buffet for dinner. We still had one more port on this cruise, and we hoped that the two of us stayed healthy enough to enjoy it.

Norwegian Fjords to Hellesylt, Norway

We needed a sea day to recover from our 18-mile walking day in Copenhagen--and we got it. We slept in and didn't set the alarm clock. While staying in an inside cruise cabin, there's no morning light to wake you up! Even though we got out to eat meals, Mark spent most of the day resting. Did we wear him out in Copenhagen? Denisa went to all the usual at-sea activities--the cooking demonstration, the fruit carving, the Norwegian language class, the latin line dance. She hoped that Mark was feeling better for the next day's entry into Norway!

Mark was still tired, but he was up early the next morning because our ship was scheduled to enter the Norwegian fjords early. We had breakfast on the back deck to get the best views.

A fjord is a long, deep, and narrow channel that was carved from massive glaciers.

We didn't have ideal weather, as the clouds hung over the top of the mountains on both sides of our ship. These fjords are basically u-shaped valleys surrounded by steep mountains and filled with water.

Of all the cruises we could have chosen in Europe this summer, we chose this one because it cruised up the fjords instead of just stopping at ports on the coastal edge of Norway. We also chose this cruise because it won't be available much longer. The country of Norway recently passed a law that will only permit zero-emissions ships into the fjords after 2025. Because that will exclude most cruise ships, it seemed like 2024 was the perfect time to cruise the fjords of Norway.

We spent most of the morning circling the decks. We saw little houses perched at the water edge in the picture above. There were no roads going over that mountain to that little white house that must depend on boat travel. We also saw fish farms not far from our ship as the channel narrowed.

We were hoping for some better weather, as a little blue sky peaked out from the clouds, and a few rays of sunshine hit the water.

We were cruising up one of the most famous fjords in the world. This is Geirangerfjord, a UNESCO world heritage site known for its steep cliffs and clear water.

That's why we took too many pictures this morning of this once-in-a-lifetime journey. We have wandered into another of God's wonders!

As it got later in the day, more of our fellow cruisers showed up to watch the spectacular scenery pass by.

The captain made an announcement in the middle of all this beauty that we would be delayed in our arrival to our destination of the day--the tiny village of Hellesylt. We had to wait until another ship passed by before we could enter a narrower part of the fjord. Seeing that huge cruise ship dwarfed by the mountains of the fjord helped to give some scale to the grandeur around us.

Since our time in the port would be shorter than planned, we were rethinking our options for the day. We wanted to take a well-reviewed hike, but now we needed to do it faster. If we could get a ride to the trail head, that would speed us up. So Mark used google translate to get the question we would need to ask a driver in Norwegian when we arrived:

It was only a 4.5 kilometers ride (less than 3 miles), but the uber web site said it would cost $55 for a one-way trip. Ouch! We knew they used on-demand pricing, and when 6,000 passengers arrive in a tiny village in the middle of no where, demand (and pricing) goes way up! So we went to Plan B, which started with a nice walk around the village. From the bridge we could see the town's waterfall as water rushed down the mountains. 

From that same bridge, we could also see our ship.

We walked a little further for a lovely view of the roaring waterfall and summer flowers and the white church on the hill.

Even though he wasn't feeling 100%, Mark still walked all the way to the edge of the waterfall . . .

and then all the way up to that little white church.

We had to take a picture of the RV park that seemed to be right at the nose of our ship. We were seeing evidence that RVing is a great way to explore Norway.

Even with his flu-like symptoms, Mark couldn't stop himself from exploring Norway. We decided against the hike three miles from town, and opted for one we could walk to easily.

Even though this hike was shorter, it was not necessarily easier. We were at the bottom of a mountain, and we were heading straight up the Asenakhen Trail. Trails in Norway are graded as green/blue/or red depending on their elevation gain and length. This one was a medium blue trail.

We went up and then down to our first view point  at a little log cabin at the edge of the fjord. The shingles have long ago been encrusted in plants.

Mark doesn't usually need to lay down during a hike, but this was one hint that he wasn't feeling well today.

After a little rest, we went further and then took another little rest.

We kept climbing up to get more and better views up the Geirangerfjord.

We were glad to see that blueberries also grow wild in Norway.

When we got to the top of the hike, we were greeted with an old rock wall. Along the way we also passed signs for places that had hard-to-spell Norwegian names like Oykjellhammaren and Laypesvodene and Nesevegan. We have no idea how to pronounce them, and we feel a little sorry for Norwegian school children that have to learn to spell such long local words in their language.

The picnic table says we have made it to Asen--the peak of the Asenakhen Trail. Mark can still smile when he doesn't feel well when he's in such a beautiful place.

From here, the hike was all downhill, as we looked over the green meadows and tall mountains that surrounded us.

Old barns and houses spotted the landscape, as we walked down a gravel road in our circle back to town.

Even though we kept the clouds, we were blessed with some peeks of blue sky above the peaks.

We passed a herd of cows, fattened up from the thick grass on the mountain. It rains here almost daily, so we were lucky to stay dry on this walk.

When we walked back to town, Mark was ready to go back to the room. On this day when we were going to take it easy, we still walked eleven miles. Denisa knew he didn't feel well when he went back to the ship early. Denisa stayed in town to do a little more exploring and shopping. She took a picture of Norway's mascot--the troll.

Her only purchases were two different kinds of cough drops from the two little convenience/grocery stores in this village. She had a little cough that started yesterday. What's going on with that? As she walked back to the ship, the clearest skies of the day showcased the Norwegian fjords and our day in Hellesylt, Norway. We've been blessed!