Snowballs, or Day 13 in Bergen, Askwall, and Balestrad, Norway

We woke up at the crack of dawn (well, here the sun was well up, but somewhere, it was dawn) and headed for our first boat of the day. Today we were doing our first half of one of the "Norway in a Nutshell" tours. And by tours, all it really means are all the modes of transportation are set up for you, but you kinda guide yourself.

So we got on our express boat, and went up the coast to Askivall, where we jumped across the dock to a fjord cruise. We spent a little less than two hours going up the Dasafjord, and being amazed as the cliff got higher and the rocks got more sheer.

The mountains, at first, weren't cone-shaped, like one normally thinks of them. They were bulbous mounds sticking out of the horizon or off a cliff-face, defying gravity it seemed.

We got off our boat, and were pointed to a local restaurant (probably the local restaurant) for lunch.

It was a fixed dish of salmon, apple-butter sauce, and nettles. Yup, like the stinging kind, except they had been cooked and mashed (and flavored deliciously) until the "tickle" went away. We were all pleased with the meal, including the couple from Utah that we got to chat with.

We transferred to a bus to take us up some windy, one-lane roads to Sognefjord, where we are staying the night at Balestrand on the water.

On the bus, we saw a bunch of cute clusters of houses with smokestacks, and piles of wood, and sheep in the (sometimes unfenced) pastures. As we climbed, the woods became thicker, then sparser as we hit the point where snow was still on the ground.

The driver let us off at a pull-off where he told us to walk a bit to find a waterfall. Not only was there rapids where we walked to, but a tiny but sturdy metal bridge to go across it. It was roaring and load and the spray woke me up from the lull of the bus.

Next stop was to look down from the sheer height we were at (which was incredible) and throw a  few snowballs.

We got to Balestrand a bit cold and soggy, so after getting to the hotel, it was looking at the view out the windows here and a pilgrimage to the grocery store for lox and cream cheese. And chocolate. And bad TV ("Supersize vs. Superskinny", "Cops", "Dating in the Dark").