by Alan K. Lee
On our tour of Scandinavia in August 2026 my wife and I had the pleasure of spending a few days exploring some of the fjords and mountains of Norway. The scenery was truly spectacular.
Even though the weather was not great, the three days we spent exploring this area east and north of Bergen were memorable to say the least. (I had thought we spent five or six days there. It was only after reviewing my notes that I realized that it was only three.)
Our first stop after leaving Bergen was the small town of Voss. There we boarded a train that took us, with a stop at Kjosfossen Falls and a change of trains in Myrdal, to the town of Flam on Sognefjord. It rained the whole way, but the scenery was still magnificent. I can only image what it’s like on a sunny day.
From Flam our tour bus took us to Gudvangen where we boarded a boat for a leisurely tour on Sognefjord that took us back to Flam.
There are literally hundreds of waterfalls cascading down the near vertical slopes lining this section of the fjord. The tour probably only lasted an hour or so, but the memories of that spectacularly scenic boat ride will last a lifetime.
After lunch in Flam we boarded the bus again for a long drive to Leikanger that included a trip through the longest mountain tunnel in the world (24.5 kilometers – a little more than 15 miles).
Leikanger is a small town located on the north shore of Sognefjord. We stayed at Leikanger Fjord Hotel. The tour company had used another hotel in town previously, but that had been converted to housing for refugees from the wars in Ukraine and Syria.
The next day we took us scenic drive to Stryn, on Innvikfjorden, where we had lunch, then up to the Dalsnibba Skywalk, a privately owned viewpoint nearly 5000 feet above the town of Geiranger on Geirangerfjord. The road up to Dalsnibba was a series of hairpin switchbacks that didn’t look navigable by a big tour bus like ours, but our driver managed without much difficulty. He obviously had done this before. There were two giant cruise shipped anchored at Geiranger, but from the viewpoint they looked tiny. It was cold and windy, but we braved the weather for about a half hour, taking in the incredible view.
Then we drove back down the hairpin curves and on to the town of Geiranger, which involved another steep descent on seemingly unmanageable switchbacks. The town is perched on the steep hillside at the head of the fjord.
Geiranger is a bit touristy due the150 or so cruise ships that visit each summer. Upward of 300,000 tourists visit Geiranger each summer, but it’s a pretty town.
The next morning our tour took us to the Trollstigen (“Trolls Trail”), with a stop at Gudbrandsjuvet, a narrow gorge where legend has it that a young man kidnapped his bride- to-be and escaped by jumping across the gorge.
The Trollstigen viewpoint overlooks a glacial valley. The road up to the viewpoint from the valley is one more series of hairpin switchbacks. It’s an incredible feat of engineering and awesome to see. I had seen a number of spectacular photos taken from the viewpoint over the years, but no photo (including the ones that I took) can convey the feeling of actually being there.
After returning to Geiranger and having lunch at Berzerk Bar & Grill, we took a hike up the well named Waterfalls Trail.
The falls on the creek that cascade down the steep slope through the middle of the town are an awesome sight. There was an amazing amount of water cascading down the seemingly endless series of waterfalls – quite an impressive and powerful display.
Later that afternoon we boarded a small tour boat for a cruise on Geirangerfjord. Like our cruise on Sognefjord, hundreds of waterfalls cascade down the cliffs on this section of Geirangerfjord.
The weather wasn’t the best, but the scenery is so spectacular that it hardly mattered. Geirangerfjord was without question one of the highlights of our time in Norway. It’s no wonder that so many cruise ships make it one of their stops. It’s also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The next morning we retraced our route past the turnoff to Dalsnibba, then turned south towards Lom and Lillehammer, thus exiting the mountains and fjords section of our longer tour of Scandinavia. Look for more posts on Oslo and Stockholm in coming weeks. And check out posts on our earlier stops in Copenhagen and Odense, Denmark, and Bergen and Telavag, Norway.
Posted November 14, 2026
All photos © Alan K. Lee