Norwegian Fjords & Paris – Part 5  Lærdal, Norway 

Saturday morning found us anchored off the town of Lærdal at the end of the Songenfjord which is the longest fjord in Norway instead of the village of Vik.
These photos show our view at breakfast. Bucolic.
Today may be the last sunny morning outside for a couple of days. Rain is forecast, but hey, we’ve been super lucky with the weather so far.

Since we had been to Norway before and were lucky enough to have seen the sights in this area we decided to take the tender ashore and just do a little wander around the town. 
The captain said he’d never been here on a ship… so I guess he did a pretty good job finding it. 😉
The town of Lærdal caught us by surprise. The small town was filled with Norwegians and their camping cars. There were a LOT of challenging long hikes from here and the people were taking advantage of the incredible weather at the end of the famous Songenfjord. 

 Many of the very old wood homes had these sprinkler systems set up. We are guessing the fire trucks connect directly to the valve and there are little sprinklers along the length of the roof eaves. (see bottom 2 photos) There have been many stories of fires completely destroying entire villages that had homes built in wood.

So today ending up being a wander and photography stop. The town has an old part with old charming homes and galleries. 
As you can tell, we captured some wonderful shots. 

After our cocktails in the Den, we wandered up to the specialty Italian restaurant Aqualina, for dinner where we had a view looking aft as we cranked at 18 knots out of the Songenfjord. 
Joe started with the Gamberetti con Ravioli all’aragosta – Lobster ravioli, grilled shrimp, creamy lobster sauce.
I started with the Caprese Classica (v) – Seasonal tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, extra virgin olive oil.
Then Joe had the Cioppino – Fisherman’s soup with mussels, clams and shrimp. Presentation was excellent as the bowl was served with just the seafood in the bottom and then the soup was poured over it all.

Joe had the Costata di Vitello (gf) – Garlic, lemon & herb crusted veal chop*, potatoes with arugula-pistachio pesto, maple balsamic grilled portobello mushrooms … I mean really?!
I always choose the eggplant parmigiana when offered as Joe doesn’t really care for eggplant 🍆. 
I’ve learned to enjoy a little of each course in the specialty restaurants otherwise they’ll need a forklift to disembark me at the end of the cruise.
And then there was dessert … Soufflé al Gianduja – Hazelnut chocolate soufflé, espresso sauce… with a decaf cappuccino. 
Mine was Limoncello di Sorrento Mousse con Meringa – Sorrento lemon liqueur, mousse and lemon gelato. Definitely the best! 😋
We tried the dessert special white chocolate brownie with Carmel gelato 🫤

We had Beaufort 8 (65 km/hr) winds as we exited the Songenfjord before turning south to duck in to the next fjord heading to Eildfjord tomorrow.
Sadly the weather is changing to rain for a couple of days.