We were on a long bus tour today and had time to come home, take showers and go to dinner so were blogging and posting later than usual, and it's likely to be short because Mark is in a food coma and making happy little sighs when he thinks of tonight's dessert: "Fraisier" Sweet Strawberry Cake.

We docked in the tiny town of Skjolden today (population 200) and were greeted by the school brass band playing march music. It was really cool to hear such young kids (elementary/middle school aged) playing so well and willing to come out to greet the cruise ship. This town has only been used by cruise ships since 2010, so I guess we're still a novelty.

Our bus tour took us to one of the 28 remaining Stave churches in Norway. It was built in the 1600s and Mark took some pictures. I, however, uncharacteristically had to desperately go to the bathroom and my option was the little closet toilet in the back of the bus (yickky) so I missed the church tour. We also stopped in a small town (Sogndal) for shopping, then to Skei for lunch and some souvenir shopping (quest for a new baseball cap completed), then we turned back around to visit the Boyabreen glacier and the Norwegian Glacier Museum, where we watched a movie and walked through a fake glacier. It's a pretty cool little museum and I could have spent more time there.

We also drove past Walter Mondale's family's home village and our tour guide said that the Vice President helped pay for the glacier museum.

Now that we're at the end of our time in small towns deep inside the fjords, a few observations. The weather is unpredictable, but mild. The rain comes in even while the sun is shining, which is just weird. Parts of the rocky cliffs and pine forests look like northern Minnesota, but all of it seems bigger here. The fjords are beautiful, around every corner is another inspiring sight to behold. There are a lot of people living in semi-remote places here and many rely on tourism. The water is always a blue-green color due to all the glacier water. There are tons of waterfalls, each one more spectacular than the next.

Tomorrow is an early day in Bergen, so good night.