Our third day in a Norwegian port during our 2013 cruise on Crown Princess had us waking up to find the cruise ship docked in the village of Olden. This wasn’t a surprise as this was where we were supposed to be but it was a fabulously enchanting and unexpected view to draw back the curtains of the room and gaze out upon. One look at this website tells you that we like to be on or near the water – it’s practically in our blood as we were born and live in a naval port – and so anything cruise-related is going to be wonderful already, but there’s an extra dollop of magic when you bring in snow-peaked mountains to the mix too. A lot of the big, impressive mountains of the world aren’t terribly close to the water because that’s the way geology works but fjords are something else entirely. Visit Norway on a cruise ship and you’ve got the best of both worlds: water and rock on a huge scale. Olden looked gorgeous.
Olden is situated at the southern end of the 106-kilometres long Nordfjorden and early in the morning it was cast in shadow from the imposing landscape, the sun not yet high enough to do anything other than illuminate the peaks of mountains on the western shore of the water.
The scene was one of serenity and if you were deaf then you can imagine it still would be, but as the short video clip (temporarily removed) below shows, it wasn’t quite the spot of tranquility you might imagine from the still photography.
We spent a little time out on the balcony taking in the view, remarking how spectacular it would be to have the fjord water and mountain around you all year long, and taking numerous photos. If you’re looking at some of the photos below and thinking There are an awful lot of very similar shots of the same thing there then welcome friend, you must be new around here. I’m Mark and I take lots of photos of the same thing then post them on this site.
Crown Princess was docked opposite a few buildings, one of which offered souvenirs for anyone who fancied picking some up. Tour buses were parked outside it and there was a land train too. To our right, southwards on account of the direction in which the ship was facing, we could see a building which appeared to have once been a guest house although looked to have been converted to provide tourism services. A popular place to visit not far to the south of Olden is the Briksdalsbreen glacier and there were plenty of options available for anyone fancying a trip to see it, from taxis to hiring cars, or taking the scheduled shuttle bus, or going on a more guided tour. Our plan while in Olden was to visit a glacier too but we would be travelling east of the village on an organised excursion through Princess Cruises to the Kjenndal glacier instead.
Our excursion wouldn’t be for a while so we had time for breakfast then headed up to the top deck for more views of Olden and its position in the Nordfjorden. Olden doesn’t have anything worth mentioning historically but geographically it’s in the Jostedalsbreen National Park which accounts for the breathtaking vistas in every direction. Flat fjord water reflecting the Norwegian landscape was mesmerisingly beautiful.
The time came for us to head to the meeting point for our glacier trip, and, since this was only our second ever cruise and everything was even more exciting than it still is, I couldn’t help but fire off some more photos as we passed through Crooners. You can read about the organised trip portion of our day docked in Olden in Lovatnet Lake And Kjenndal Glacier Excursion.
