The Road less travelled – From Balestrand to Geiranger

Today begins with another early breakfast to allow us to catch the 8:05 am ferry (216 Nkr pp) to Fjaerland up another beautiful fjord, heading to the Jostredal Glacier which is the largest on the continent of Europe. We dock at Mundal (Fjaerland is actually the name given to a group of hamlets) Mundal is famous for two things –1) Its collection of second-hand book stores, and 2) it’s the ancestral home of a recent (30 yrs recent) Vice-President of the USA (answer below) who recently opened the extension to the Norwegian Glacier Museum that is situated nearby at the southern end of the glacier, dominating the skyline at the end of the ferry trip.
We have been a bit apprehensive regarding our onward travel from here by bus that involves four changes. Turns out that we needn’t have been. The first trip (28 Nkr) takes only 4km to the museum, where there is a (coincidental?) wait of 2 hours till the next bus arrives, We therefore take the bait and visit the museum which is excellent and should be on every would be Al Gore’s to do list (No the V-P isn’t Gore). There is an excellent 5-screen wrap-around movie of the glacier, a la Cinerama/Cyclorama of years gone-by.
We head out to the bus-stop in a drizzle, and meet a young couple from Central Spain who, it turns out, are headed to Geiranger like ourselves by buses and ferry – they have a bus-schedule book that a bus-driver gave them. It contains details of our route that are correct, whereas the info that I had downloaded from the internet was incorrect! No biggie though – our departure and arrival times are correct. We stop next to change buses in Skei (Shkay) for a few minutes, meet an English elementary teacher also headed to Geiranger who joins our group, and we all catch the next bus to Stryn (pr Streen) on the Nordfjord. These two trips take us around the Glacier with magnificent views that, since we aren’t doing the driving, we can really enjoy. We pay 48 Nkr (pp) to Skei, then (Nkr 166 pp) to Hellesylt (Helly-Silt). Our Spanish friends actually pay on board by credit-card! Is Norway functional or what? In Stryn we make the last bus change for the trip to Hellesylt arriving there with half an hour to wait for the Geirangerfjord ferry – a public ferry that nevertheless has an ongoing commentary in eight languages (130 Nkr pp). The trip is excellent, although since it’s the fifth boat trip in as many days perhaps some of the “wow” factor was missing – You can suffer from Fjord overload you know! Total cost for the day’s travel = 592 Nkr, or about Can$ 85. We arrive in Geiranger around 6.25 pm uncertain of our accommodation’s whereabouts – and, of course, the TI is closed – now why would they do that in high season, when a lot of visitors are coming in on that ferry and some, like our English teacher, had yet to find accommodation? We wander into an internet cafe and ask a waitress if she knows of Marak Hyttel – Yes, she says, taking us over to the window, pointing – “It’s right there!” – and so it was. Even better there was a grocery store on the way, where we filled up with supplies that will allow us to eat in. Only problem is that, like Balestrand, there is no VinMonopoliet, so Norway ain’t that functional after all! Not a bad day – Off to bed in our cabin.
Oh yes! Who was the American V-P? Think back to Jimmy Carter’s veep – Walter Fritz Mondale (or Mundal as was).