June 6. Olden

 I learned something today - I'd misunderstood the exchange rate, confusing the AUD with the GBP. So where I thought Norway wasn't too expensive, I was completely wrong and the latte and hot chocolate this afernoon cost about $20. This came to light when I didn't understand why the cable car ride down the mountain yesterday (and this was just down) cost $58 Australian.

Anyway, that's the main downside for what is turning out to be a spectacularly beautiful place. I'd expected it to be nice, but reality often exceeds your imagination. We were in Olden today. This is deep in the fjords, you go down the Nord Fjord and turn into the Innvik sub-fjordç and Olden is in one of the stubby branches at the end. All of that happened while we were asleep, of course, but this afternoon I'm in the lounge waiting to see us leave.

We got off the ship this morning and walked up the valley. There is a series of lakes, fed by snowmelt, which run through a river to the fjord. We just got a short way up the river.

Olden New Church

Olden River

After lunch we had an excursion. This took us up the Styrn Valley, one of the other branches of the Innvik Fjord, to the village of Hjelle at the far end of the lake.

Cafe, Hjelle

Fimnally, we drove back to Loen and went up the cable car to near the summit of Mount Haven. This was considerably higher than yesterday's mountain, over 1000m and the gondola went up a near-sheer cliff. At the top was a cafe, walking trails criss-crossing the gravel plateau between patches of snow, and paragliders lined up to jump off the mountain. We wandered, took lots of photos, and had a hot drink.

Loen Valley left, Olden Valley centre, Fjord right.