Early in the morning, National Geographic Endurance entered the famous and spectacular Trollfjord. Tall, snow-covered, and moss-speckled cliffs squeezed our ship on both sides as the width of the fjord was just a bit wider than our beam. Waterfalls fell all around us, the beginnings of them hidden by the fog covering the tops of the fjord sides. It was indeed easy to believe that we were in a sacred habitat of trolls.

Later in the morning, we visited a picturesque fishing town called Reine. Millions of traditionally harvested codfish were drying on the rows of wooden racks. Two local soccer teams–representing great black-backed gulls and common gulls–occupied the soccer field, apparently ready to start playing.

In the evening, our ship stopped near one of the islands in the southern section called Vaeroya. A semicircle of cliffs and steep slopes surrounded the old village of Mastad. Here, guests had the options of two hikes. One group climbed a steep slope to the summit of a mountain. The second group hiked along an ancient road by the ledge on a cliff that leads to another old village. Currently, no permanent population resides in this village, and people use their ancestors’ houses as summer cottages.