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| Stavanger, Pulpit Rock |
First
of all, Norway is truly a land of wonder.
Throughout my adventures here I have been told about trolls, river
spirits, and wood nymphs named Huldra.
For those who don’t know, because I certainly didn’t, “the huldra
belongs to the underground people and is supposedly a beautiful young girl with
long hair, walking around in the woods, trying to seduce young men and lure
them to marry her and move underground with her. She is often seen herding
cattle - cows which are exceptionally fat and full of milk, and the leader cow
has a bucket with little silver bells on its horns. She is dressed in a
national costume or a white blouse and a skirt, and her chest is decorated with
silver and gold. But you recognise that she’s a huldra if she turns her back to
you: She has a cow’s tail!” WHAT?!
I know
this sounds pretty fantastical but these are traditions found mostly in forest
areas and agricultural districts which are mostly all the places we are seeing
so… I have been keeping my eyes peeled while I have been hiking this last
week.
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| Stavanger, Pulpit Rock |
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| Stavanger, Pulpit Rock |
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| Stavanger, Pulpit Rock |
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| Most of us that went on the hike- Stavanger, Pulpit Rock |
Stavanger
was such a perfect day. We left the ship
and it was a sunny 70 degrees outside and couldn’t help but soak up to
sun. I actually got a sunburn this day,
which was brilliant, because I matched my pink pant suit I had to wear that
night in the showJ
This day we hiked to Preikestolhytta, or Pulpit Rock in English, and
this is a true “bucket-list” place. The walk to
Preikestolen is very steep in places. The path starts at the Preikestolhytta,
at an elevation of approximately 886 feet above sea level, and climbs 1982
feet. The hike takes 1-3 hours depending on experience and fitness level and we
HAD to do it within 2 so needless to say we were kicking our butts. Being that
the hike it pretty short the total elevation gain and loss over the course of
the hike is more than one might initially expect, or at least more than I
expected, as the path climbs and descends various ridges where you are
practically climbing. It was well worth
the trip though once we go to the top as only the pictures can attest to so
feast your eyes on me sitting at the edge of the world. :)
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| Molde, Norway- Getting ready to hike!! |
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| The mountain that we had to get to the top of |
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| View from the hike up to Troll Chruch- Molde |
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| View from the hike up to Troll Chruch- Molde |
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| Entrance of the Troll Church |
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| View from the entrance of the cave |
The
next place we went to was Trollkirke, or Troll Church, in Molde which was also
a rather difficult hike because there was no trail at all. The views on this equally gorgeous day were
incredible. I felt like I landed in the
land of pastoral paradise. The troll
church, after we finally arrived above the snow line of the mountain, was a
cave that had an underground waterfall
of ice cold snow runoff surrounded by walls of white quartz. I felt like I seriously was in the Lord of
the Rings movie. There couldn’t have been anything more appealing to the
imagination than that.
The next cruise is a chartered cruise, meaning the entire ship was bought out by one group. Supposedly it is a spanish group where only 15% of the group can speak minimal English. This ought to be interesting, but seeing as they have spent $14 million dollars to rent the ship for a full week and have brought on $6,000 of additional wine, I am thinking they are just going to want to have a good time:)
I'll let you know how it goes.
