Briksdal Glacier

The View From My Beer

After my walk to Briksdal Glacier I was able to enjoy a cold can of Hansa Pilsener at the local Kafateria while waiting for the bus to return us back to Olden. They had an outdoor sitting area that was not crowded allowing me to sit and enjoy the views of one of the many colossal waterfalls that are a feature of most Norwegian fjords.

Briksdal

The third stop on my 14-day cruise to Norway & Iceland was Olden. Both cruises to Norway had stopped in completely different ports until now. This was my second visit to Olden, which I didn’t mind because Olden had been my favorite port of call on my previous visit to Norway. I felt I had already covered much of the Olden area , so I decided to focus my attentions today on visiting the nearby Briskdal Glacier, which was a short 30-minute drive by bus from the cruise terminal.

My Walk

After a 30-minute bus ride from the cruise-port, we were dropped off at the glacier trail head and given 2.25 hours to make the walk to Briksdal Glacier and back. It was about a 5km return journey. There were some moderate climbs in the first third of the journey, but after that it flattened off.

Briksdal Glacier

There were three major elements to today’s walk. First there were the fjords themselves that towered above us and the amazing waterfalls everywhere that was dumping melted snow and ice into the streams below. Then there was the river that we followed upstream from the car park to the glacier. It was loud. My watch issued sound alerts that I was in an area with loud sounds. The volume of water flowing down the river was awesome in and of itself. At one point we crossed a bridge near one of several waterfalls the stream descended and we all got soaked from the spray as we passed by. The third element was the glacier. There were markers that showed just how much the glacier had retreated over the past 155 years. It it was a lot, at least 1km from the markers to the current glacier position. The glacier soared above a very pretty and serene lake, with an unusual azure color.

Farewell Norway

On my return to Olden, I got off the bus in the village and walked back to the ship. This gave me one last chance to take in the scenery of Norway one last time before I departed. One of the things I had been doing was locating trolls on display in the various towns and cities we visit. I made a point of saying goodbye to my Norwegian friends.