Adventure of the Seas, Alesund, Norway (Part 3) - Trollstigen Viewpoints

Part 3 - We arrive!  We had driven from Valldal, Norway.  The entire drive was rather leisurely, no rush. Including the stops, we took about 2.5 hours to get here, from the car rental company in Alesund.



This was taken after I had parked the car.  See the road on the left side of the picture.  That is where we just came from.  Be aware that the Troll road is not open all year round.  Do check the Norweigian visitor website for the opening dates.  Before I set off from Alesund, I double-checked again with the car rental agency that the Troll Road was open.

Now the road is in the middle of the picture.  If you have watched the video, you will see that suddenly we come upon this Visitor Centre, after a bend.

That isn't smoke.  Those are clouds.

It would be a cloudy day.   In the distance, that triangular building is the Visitor centre cafe.

The clouds were really low.  Alright, maybe we weren't that low. The carpark was at 700M above sea-level.

This was the most famous viewpoint.  We will be heading there shortly.

I took this picture while waiting for my family who were in the toilets.  The toilets are just to the right.  See that group of men dressed in black?  I think they all rode their motor-bikes up the Troll road.  I saw some cyclists too.  I think you must be rather fit to cycle all the way here.  The uphill must be quite terrible, though the downhill would be super fun!

Video of the Parking Area


A souvenir store.

Spotted this 2-headed Troll.

Haha, funny sign.  My kids were asking us what Trolls were.

Alright, now we head towards the various viewpoints.  Time to check out some videos.

This was clearly man-made.  Still, very pretty.

Looked like we were trekking into the mountains.  Fun!

Looking back, at the Visitor Centre and cafe.

Videos
Here are some videos of the walk.

We walk towards the 1st Viewpoint

From the 1st viewpoint


From the 2nd viewpoint


From the 3rd and most famous viewpoint


I hope the videos brought it a bit more life for you.  Next, would be many pictures I took of the Troll Road from the viewpoints.  The funny thing is that I have yet to drive the Troll Road!

See the platform?  This was the first viewpoint.

And all the people walking.

More views of the Troll Road and the valley.

Rocks.  They are surprisingly heavy, even though they look small.  The stupidest thing one can do is to try to kick them with you feet.  (Ok, I didn't try, though I was tempted)

Another view.  Look at the hairpin turns.  I will be driving down the Troll Road soon.

Quite amazing.

You can watch the cars coming up and going down.  It is actually very safe.  Just drive slowly.

You can just make out the other visitor center at the base of the Troll Road.

Now, that is a big piece of un-melted ice.

Quite a big chunk.  Surely it would have melted by now.

And now, we head back to the Visitor's Centre.  We did spend some time at the various lookouts.

Very low hanging cloud.

Unique architecture.  Those were the gift shops.

Decided to go inside the cafe to take a look. Not many people, many empty seats.

Prices of the Trollistegen Kafe.  Coffee for 25 NOK. (abt USD 4)

Oh look!  This machine looks really familiar.  I think this was the exact same model as the coffee machine in the Adventure of the Seas Diamond Club Lounge.

Some food on sale.

Here is the price list.  Trollburger of Beef or BBQ Chicken Burger at 169NOK each, or about 28 USD.

Waffles, if you care for any.

I saw this troll and I thought let's investigate.

This plaza is pretty new.  2012!

Some customers.

Ice-cream for sale too.

There are the prices.  We didn't buy any.

Pretty low cloud cover all day.

Instead of heading down the Troll Road immediately, I decided to back-track a bit first, to check out something I missed on the way here.

What did we miss and where were we now?  Read my next blog post to find out.