Wow, today has been a full day. We woke up early to go to the glacier tour. I was glad they did not squeeze us in yesterday. They were packed yesterday (I'm guessing 50-60). Today, there were 7 of us. First we met two ladies in their 70's from Sacramento on the boat and talked with them a while. We had a 1 1/2 hour boat trip up the fyærland fjord. Then we took a short bus ride to two different glaciers.
We were not able to get close enough to touch or walk on either glacier, but they were cool to see. They have a blue tint at spots, which I found intriguing. This is were ice has recently split off, and ice will absorb slightly more red and yellow light, and less of the blue. Once the exposed ice has a chance to melt a little, or snow falls on the ice, the blue appearance will go away. The other fact I learned about these particular glaciers, is that they are moving 2 meter/day down the mountain.
The second glacier had a lake in front of it. As I was leaving the lake, I found a path through some woods I thought would get me a closer shot, and being curious, and always up for a good picture, decided to see where it took me. I walked through tree limbs, carefully over rock in a creek, balanced on some tree limbs someone had put in the really muddy areas. Finally I came to a rope with a sign saying to go no further, so I stood on my toes, lifted my camera as high as I could to get a close shot. I was so excited at what I had done to get a good picture, and I had not fallen into the water or mud. Then I turned to go, walked a few feet and noticed people just to the left of me where the lake was - the shore of the lake actually went to the same place as my path, with only a small step over a little water. And the picture was much better since there were no trees in the way.
After the glaciers and a trip to the glacier museum, the bused dropped us in the town where the boat would meet us for a 3 hour wait. At first, I figured it was a tourist trap, and they were using this to get us to buy there food and souvenirs. Not exactly. This town had a market (i.e. grocery), hotel (oldest in Norway), church, and about 5 bookstores (seriously). The only food was in the backyard of this place, where they had set up 6 or so tables and had a grill on the back porch. Our choice of food was hamburger, hot dog, or spicy sausage, served with potato salad. By now, the 7 of us had become a group, so we walked the "town", looked for the oldest grave in the church cemetery (1833), and ate lunch. We got to know each other better. All but one are taking the same boat to Bergen tomorrow. Two of the ladies are on our same flight home. The 7th guy is an American who has lived in Paris for the last 20 years; he just came from Bergen.
After we got back, 5 of us (minus the older ladies) bought a six pack and drank beers on the pier, then the guy from Paris joined us for dinner (the other two had dinner already pre-paid at their hotel). Before I knew it, the day was over, and it was time to go back to the room and pack for the last leg of our trip. In some ways, its like I've been gone forever, but yet it's hard to believe it's almost over.
So anyway, on to Bergen.
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