Close to the professional level.

For Saturday morning, we had booked a bus to Preikestolen. Preikestolen is a rocky ledge on the Lysefjord, with a steep 600-meter drop into the fjord. In the last 10 years, it has become quite a tourist attraction. In 2019, there were over 5,000 visitors in one day. Despite it being the weekend, we hoped it wouldn't be overcrowded. After all, it wasn't summer vacation in Norway yet, and the borders were still closed. However, there was already a tour group on the bus with us. The bus company recommends allowing two hours for the ascent. In my hiking app, you can specify different fitness levels and get corresponding travel times. I had never paid attention to it before because we were never in a hurry on our hikes. But since we also had to catch the bus back, it was important to know how long it would take us for the journey. So we kept a close eye on the time. We agreed that we didn't want to dawdle to be up there early and avoid as many people as possible. The trail is beautiful, and you can see different landscapes as you go up. At the bottom, you start with a lot of pine forest. There are marshy meadows in between, with wooden bridges built over them. Then there is a slightly steeper climb, which you tackle with the familiar stone steps. At the top, you walk comfortably across a rocky landscape, with small lakes scattered around. There weren't many people on the way up. You could walk at your own pace and easily and safely overtake others. But there were already many people sitting on Preikestolen when we arrived. Since we're not the type of people who sit on the edge and dangle our legs, we kept a safe distance from the cliff. We found a spot further up and enjoyed the view and the sun. Looking out over the fjord is truly fantastic. By the way, it took us one hour and 15 minutes to get up there. According to my app, compared to the expert fitness level, we were only 9 minutes slower. After taking many photos and having some food, we left Preikestolen. It had gotten much busier around noon, and more and more people were streaming towards us on the way back down. I still can't imagine how there could have been over 5,000 people there in one day. By the way, we were just as fast on the way back. The bus took us through many tunnels back to Stavanger. After a meal at the hostel, we went out again and drove to the swords stuck in the ground on the coast. According to a legend, Harald Fairhair united Norway there in 872, and now they symbolize peace, unity, and freedom. They're not that impressive, but if you're in Stavanger, you can take a look at them. There were also some bathers on the beach. And the biggest surprise was a little ice cream truck. They actually had real ice cream there. In Bergen, you won't find an ice cream parlor. There are only shops that also have a soft-serve ice cream machine and offer soft-serve ice cream. But you can't find real ice cream. We actually thought that ice cream is eaten all over the world, but apparently not so much in Norway. Although, now I remember that back when Norwegian students were on exchange, they all bought a lot of ice cream because it's not so common in Norway. Anyway, in that moment, Pia's wish came true, and we each treated ourselves to two scoops of ice cream for a total of 10€. After all, we were on vacation. Then we enjoyed the hours with ice cream, sun, and the beach. Later, we went back.