- The perk side: Easy hike, short distance, and well-constructed path.
- The downside: Lots of people, long queues and some chumps with drones
Preikestolen, aka the ‘Pulpit Rock’, is one of the most visited attractions in Norway. It seems like a steep dangerous cliff from the side, but it is actually a spacious safety plateau once you walk on it. According to Visit Norway, the hike to the top is around 8-km long and takes around 4 hours for a round trip. It has also been marked as a medium-difficult hike.
We took just an hour to hike up and one more to walk down (slowly). The trail is well constructed and paved, and the steepness was not as bad as we thought. For us, we would have rated this one as an easy and accessible hike. However, it is better to be well prepared than regretting having not prepared well.
We have been blessed with amazing weather and, even better, we met the boys from a school’s chorus group. My Norwegian was not so good, my husband could not care less, and they did not introduce themselves in English, so I could not catch which school they were from and why they were there. (At least, I knew one of the tasks is to sing for us!)
They dressed up in the old-style white top and knickers, with a touch of flat caps. We think that they were to represent people from the Norwegian Resistance Movement during WWII. The singing started out wonderfully and deteriorated over time and the amount of beer, I guess?! lol Still, they and their chorus were delightful!
We climbed up to the upper cliff, not long nor difficult. We would recommend you to try it!
It was even more spacious, less crowded, and gave us a better view of Preikestolen. We sat and lay there for a while, chilled, had our lunch and coffee before starting our descending.
If you used to despise selfie sticks, brace yourself for ‘the drone’! FYI, drone use is prohibited in the hiking area. Still, there is at least a couple of chumps there who would hover the drones! You’re warned!
