P&O MS Arvia; Wednesday, 09 September, 2026

Overnight the ship had sailed up the Norwegian coast and then turned down into the Sognafjord. Otherwise known as the King of the Fjords this is the longest and deepest fjord in Norway, we had sailed the full length overnight and by the early morning had moored up at the cruise terminal in Skjolden, where we woke to whilst overcast still stunning views of the head of the fjord from our windows.

It was an early breakfast as we had to be off the ship by 08:45 for our booked tour of the day, a three-hour coach trip entitled Sognefjell Mountain Scenery. Heading out of the harbour we drove through the town and along the edge of the river the flows into the head of the fjord a couple of kilometres out of town to a viewpoint of the stunning Åsafossen Waterfall, whose flow had been improved by several days of wet weather prior to our arrival.

From the waterfall we continued along the length of the river to the town of Fortun where we turned off of the river road and started to climb the Sognefjellsvegen, the road that leads up to the highest mountain pass in Norway. At around 1,400m it’s not as high as some of the alpine passes in the centre of Europe, but still pretty impressive.

We stopped off at a viewpoint about two thirds of the way up, though that was right in the middle of the cloud bank that was hovering around the peaks meaning there would be periods of nothing by fog, followed by a few seconds of everything clearing to review the stunning vistas of the snowcapped peaks around us before it all disappears again.

From the viewpoint we pressed on up to the plateau at the top of the pass, and by here we were well above the cloud cover and out in brilliant, if almost freezing, blue skies as we looked over the plateau and the two glaciers that lie up here, with one helping to feed the rivers that flow into the fjord 1400 feet below us.

After about 30 minutes up on the pass we got back on the coaches and started the journey back down the mountain to the town, stopping off about halfway down for a quick pit stop, before a slightly slower return journey as many of our fellow passengers had taken the opportunity of not being on a tour to walk the couple of kilometres to the Åsafossen Waterfall and the road wasn’t designed for two way traffic and several hundred cruise passengers walking alongside it, so the coach driver had to drive very slowly back into town.

Despite that we were back at the ship in time for lunch, so we headed straight to the dining room for a bite to eat and then mum headed back to her cabin, whilst I headed back out into Skjolden to explore the small town.

The total population of Skjolden is less than 250, so having 6,000+ cruise passengers descend on you a couple of times a week during the season means the town isn’t probably as authentic as it once was, but it’s still in a very pretty location at the head of the fjord and I spent a good couple of hours wandering around before heading back to the ship well ahead of all aboard time.

The ship set sail a little after 17:00 and we watched the sail away from our balconies as we slowly made our way back up the Sognefjord, heading back in about 18:30 for our evening Drink, Dinner, Walk, Drink, Bed routine.

By luck we managed to get one of the rare window seats in the restaurant which meant we were able to enjoy more of the fjord views as we ate.