Beauty is Sometimes Exhausting! June 29,2010

We rotate seats everyday and today, beyond the fact that it was a long day, I was almost beautied out by the end of the day. Still, today was my most favorite day so far. We started the day a little earlier than normally planned because our tour director likes to get a jump on the other tourist buses which you come to appreciate when it comes to taking rest stops, shopping or lunch breaks!

We started the day by taking a bus ride along the Nordfjord and then crossed the mountains and had a inspiring view of the Vatedalen Valley with Lake Jolster a beautiful focal point. The valleys are more narrow than in the Rocky Mountains and consequently you have very steep climbs from the valleys to the tops of the mountains surrounding the fjords. We climbed up to a high point where we could get some good pictures of Europe's largest glacier -- Jostedalbreen. The fjords have a very green appearance as does the glacier. Unfortunately, though our tour director provides a lot of history and current opinions on Norway, his home country, I almost always immediately go to sleep when he starts talking. However, today Pam and I and Karrah and Megan are sitting in the very front seats, so there would be no disguising a snooze on my part. I did manage not to embarass myself by sleeping today. We stopped in Fjaerland to see a very informative Glacier Museum. The 5 screen multimedia presentation of the glacier and some skiers was definitely an experience. One perception about glaciers that I corrected today was how carved they look from centuries of assault by the weather etc. We were supposed to have a two hour cruise on the Sognfjord. However, that cruise ship had mechanical problems so Oevin, our guide quickly went to plan B and moved us to the next port further down on the fjord. We did have a rather short ferry ride to another port where we caught a ferry that would deliver us to Gudvangen (the Nayordal River Valley is even more isolated and specatcular than the other river valleys we saw earlier today) Then with a quick bus trip to Flam, we also caught the Flam tram ride to the top of the mountain near Myrdal and saw an amazing waterfall just before getting to the peak. Then it was another hour train ride back down to the bottom. Because of the steep climb, this tram ride was spectacular also. I don't know if my pictures will do the waterfall justice but I will try to share some. Finally, we took the bus from Flam to our hotel - Hotel Stallheim which sits at the top. No TV in the rooms of this hotel. After dinner we went into one of the banquet rooms to catch the World Cup match between Portugal and Spain. Exhausting day, we saw so much. There are so many spectacular waterfalls in Norway----it you love photography as Pam, Megan, and I do, this is a match made in heaven.