P&O MS Arvia; Thursday, 10 September, 2026

Having left the Sognafjord late at night we’d sailed further north and then entered the sixth largest fjord, the Nordfjord to transit all the way along the fjord, and it’s longest arm the Innvikfjord to reach the cruise port at Olden, once again waking up to a beautiful fjord view.

It was another early start and breakfast as we headed out of the ship to join our four hour Beauty of the Nordfjord tour. This started off by driving around the edge of the Innvikfjord to the town of Stryn before climbing up into the mountains above the fjord and heading inland, stopping for a photo stop at the edge of the Hornindalsvatn lake before reaching our first stop of the tour in Nordfjordeid.

This is a small town located at the end of the shortest arm of the Nordfjord and weirdly I had been here before on my mammoth near 10 hour coach journey from Ålesund to Bergen in May 2025, this was the place where the once a day buses in each direction meet during a comfort stop, which was also part of the reason for stopping here today, though the comfort break was accompanied by cake and coffee.

From Nordfjordeid we continued on our scenic drive heading back through the mountains, mostly in a long tunnel, to the start point of the Innvikfjord arm of the Nordfjord and then drive along the length of the fjord on the Fv613, although more poetically called the Panoramaveien. There was a stop at one of the most scenic parts of the road, overlooking a sweeping bend in the fjord, for photos before we continued along the road and back down into Stryn, then continuing along the fjord side road into Loen where we headed inland a little to visit a spectacular waterfall.

After the waterfall it was back on the bus for the short drive back along the fjord side road to Olden and the cruise terminal, though too late for lunch, so we had to make do with the cake that we’d had earlier, and the substantial breakfast.

Mum headed back to her cabin, and I headed back out into Olden to have a wander around the town.

Unlike Skjolden the previous day it’s clear that Olden has been receiving cruise traffic for much longer and has much more infrastructure set up around the port (and the town itself), but that still didn’t stop it being a very pretty town to wander around, including taking in the historic old church in it’s dramatic setting with the mountains rising up behind it.

I spent a good couple of hours wandering around Olden before once again getting back to the ship well ahead of all aboard time, mostly to avoid long queues for security screening and the lifts.

The ship set sail earlier this evening, so we were able to take in more of the cruise back down the Innvikfjord before heading down to drinks and dinner.

My evening walk was about the same time that the different arms of the fjords all come together to form the Nordfjord proper, but by then the light was fading quite quickly, and there was a bit of a chill in the air, so I didn’t stay out long before heading down to the bar for a nightcap.