Scandinavia Trip: Norway-Trolltunga

This day was definitely our most researched day. We hiked Trolltunga! It's one of, if not the most popular hike in Norway. Matt found an image for this as we were planning our trip and decided we absolutely had to do this! I was not sold right up front. If it would have just been the two of us, sure, count me in. But life is a lot different with an 11 month old baby! Matt doesn't seem to see it that way so he was planning on doing this hike no matter what. He researched logistics, needing a permit, what time should we start, where do we park, etc. I looked into hiking this thing with a baby. Nearly every post I read said DON'T DO IT!!! I finally found one couple with a really small baby (like three months old) that had completed the trek. They seemed like more avid hikers than us, and they started at night so they could camp along the way. If you know me at all, you know camping is out of the question for me, especially with a baby! But they gave me confidence, just the same. So we planned out our day! We stayed at a hotel full of other hikers. The front desk, although very kind, didn't provide much for information we didn't already know. In fact, it seemed like Matt knew more than they did! So we tried to get to bed early and woke up super early. We seemed to be the first to leave the hotel that morning. What Matt had read was there was a parking lot that holds about 30 cars that is about two miles up, and everything we read said the first two miles were the most strenuous. We decided with a baby and me being pregnant, we really wanted to snag one of those spots! We must have been car 28 for the day because two cars after us, they put up the 'parking lot full' sign. Whew!! All our efforts and early rising paid off big time!! We grabbed our gear and were ready to hit the trail. Little missy was very excited!

The terrain was unlike anything I had ever seen before.

There were several cabins off in the distance. Beautiful, and quiet, but I have no idea how the residents get up there!

One of the toughest parts was climbing this cliff of stairs. It seemed never ending!

The views were seriously breathtaking!

We made it to a clearing after our never ending stairs, and let Ramsey get out and walk around a bit. Such a pretty sight!

We climbed most of the elevation at the start. Then we walked past several lakes.

We knew we were getting close because all the pictures we had seen has this lake in the background.

Love my little cutie!

As I said, I would never camp but it looks like these campers woke up to a gorgeous view!

We had a little more elevation to gain.

And then we waited in line about 30 minutes to get our pictures taken on the cliff. 

We made it!!

It reminded us of the Lion King cliff, so naturally, Ramsey became Simba for a few moments! And everyone clapped!

Admiring the view.

Selfie at the top!

Then we ate our lunch and enjoyed the view. We definitely got there at a good time, people behind us in line waited over an hour or more to have their picture taken.

As we hiked back down, we enjoyed more gorgeous views! It's so crazy how the views change from your point of view. We saw new, beautiful sights from the same trail. 

Ramsey was quite the little trooper. She actually slept most of the way up and back!

Everything we read told us to fill up our water at any creek we find. It was seriously the coldest, best tasting water I've ever had. I really wanted to bottle it up and bring it back home with us, or at least drink it the rest of the trip!

And we made it to the bottom! We were tired and sore, but satisfied from our accomplishment and everything we saw! Our drive produced some more beautiful views.

These waterfalls were gushing!

I think she was happy to be back in the warm car. She LOVED looking through her books on our drives!

We stopped for dinner at a little restaurant. Someone was looking very cute! 

There was another family in there with a baby, and Ramsey couldn't get enough of that baby!

We grabbed a hotel for the night that overlooked a cute little downtown.

She woke up tired the next morning and slept some more!

As we were leaving our hotel, we saw these pictures in their conference room. Mostly confused as to the point of these...

We had SUCH a great time in Norway. Matt and I were just talking and we both agreed we would repeat the whole vacation again if we could. Or I would just go back to Norway and stay a long, long time!