(And so I continue writing about the Norway cruise that my wife, Mary Pat Treuthart, and I took in May.)

Wednesday, May 14, 11:14 a.m. (Central European Summer Time): The nice thing about rising early on a cruise ship is that you can avoid having to bump elbows with most of the other near-three-thousand passengers.

And if you’re even halfway intent on working out, you can find plenty of room on the outdoor track to get in some exercise. It’s particularly nice to do so in the early-morning air, as our ship sails through ever more impressive ancient cuts in the earth that Scandinavians refer to as fjords.

The one we navigated this morning, our fifth day at sea, is called Geiranger Fjord. And according to literature provided by the Celebrity cruise line, it is considered “remote even by Norwegian standards.”

“Winding your way through the Geiranger Fjord,” the advertorial report continues, “feels like the entrance to a secret world, protected by massive, snow-capped mountains on either side.”

I won’t argue with the sentiment, especially if you add in the waterfalls. Most notable is the one collectively referred to as the “7 Sisters,” which attracts the attention of an admiring, photo-taking crowd. The name comes from the seven separate streams that make up the falls, the tallest of which is 250 meters (820 feet).

Said to be the “39th tallest waterfall in Norway,” the site is a natural focus of local folklore. According to the website Nordic Visitor, “the ‘sisters’ dance playfully on the mountain while the Friaren waterfall (‘The Suitor’) flirts with them from the opposite side of the fjord.”

Sites such as this are why Geiranger Fjord has been deemed a UNESCO World Heritage landmark.

As much as I appreciate nature, I also like to watch how the ship’s crew navigates this huge of a vessel in such a confined space. After scoring a coffee and croissant in the Oceanview Café (again, the place we lovingly call “the troughs”), I stood for a long while and watched the process. First, some local workers scurried here and there in small boasts to help tie the ship to its anchoring buoys. Then when they were done, a multi-section pier unfolded slowly from the port like some giant Lego creation before hooking itself to the ship’s starboard side.

It is that same, lengthy pier that we’re going to walk along in search of the bus that will take us to our next adventure: a jaunt up the 1,500-meter(4,900-feet)-tall Dalsnibba Mountain to what’s known as the Geiranger Skywalk.

1:37 p.m.: We’re aboard a bus headed up the mountain. Our guide, a young woman from Hungary who speaks perfect English, fills us in on the history of the road we’re taking. Turns out it was completed in 1939, though a more rudimentary route had been used for decades.

The road itself is some five kilometers (just over three miles) long, and it boasts 11 hairpin turns on a 10 percent grade, all of which our driver handles with ease. As we climb, the world turns wintry, with snow and ice covering the landscape, and one huge blue area – our guide informs us – being a frozen lake.

 2:29 p.m.: We’re headed back down. We’d stopped at the Skywalk, from which we could see down into the fjord and were even, with our naked eyes, able to spy the Celebrity Apex in the distance. The cold wind soon drove us inside the Geiranger Skycafe, which we were able to buy hot drinks, pastries while looking over the obligatory selections of souvenirs. I (heart) Norway buttons and bumper stickers seem to be everywhere.

Our guide tells us that what we’re experiencing is unusual. What she means is that other than one or two other buses, we’ve had the road pretty much to ourselves. It seems we’ve benefited from exceptional timing, late enough so that the road is cleared of snow and yet early enough to miss the crowds, especially those that come in August.

And, she adds, the weather has been kind as well. Despite how cold it was at the top, we could see for miles in any direction and the sky was clear enough for the sun to make at least an occasional appearance.

4:56 p.m.: We returned to the ship in plenty of time to make our scheduled 4 p.m. departure. Which was good because I’ve heard horror stories about people having to run to get back on board, not to mention the travails of those who don’t make it and have to find another way of getting to the next port all on their own.

We did suffer a disappointment, though. After quickly devouring some sandwiches, we showed up only to lose the afternoon trivia contest – our first loss, by the way. (We figured out why quickly enough. Because most of the passengers hail from the UK, most of today’s questions were British-themed.)

Still, we came in second, and we might have won had we been able to come up with the exact date of Prince William’s marriage to Kate Middleton. (For the record, it was April 29, 2011).

Anyway, we consoled ourselves by sipping glasses of chilled prosecco as the Celebrity Apex sailed back out the Geiranger Fjord, past the 7 Sisters and then off into the open sea. It was as good a way as any of saying goodbye to this segment of our cruise, not to mention a fitting manner in which to say our farewell to Norway itself.

The country didn’t seem happy to see us go, though, as the sea was choppy and the ship – as big as it is – rolled back and forth with the waves.

The good news was that the rocking made for good sleeping.

Next up: Leaving Norway, on to Bruges.