Holy shit, Norway is so stunning!

OK, hands down, Norway is the most beautiful state or country we have ever seen — it is just magnificent! I have never seen mountains like this — from miles of forested mountains that were great to, right next to the last one, the blackest, sharpest, most jagged bare mountains that are what mountains looked like hundreds of thousands of years ago, before they were civilized with trees, with no greenery hiding the bare primitive bones of MOUNTAIN. Towering over the road, hundreds of waterfalls, fast flowing rivers and fjords upon fjords — simply breathtaking. Everyone, start looking for trips to Norway next year — hurry, before someone else discovers what could be, should be yours! We started out from Trondheim by train, at Domas (I think) we switched back to our coach, masterfully driven by Vitaly, and saw the imposing, beautiful, treeful nmountains with stunning valleys of GREEN grass, sheep and farmsteads — everything in immaculate order. How do they do that? How is every house (that is not a ruin of course and not lived in) and yard and farm so pristine??? And then, those mountains that you know are filled with trolls and maybe a giant man-eating spider, but certainly trolls, lots of trolls, maybe all the trolls in Norway, Sweden and five other countries. For miles, these mountains upon which no tree lives; though later, on one side of the road, those mountains, still majestically imposing but a tiny bit kinder, allowed some trees to grow, random small groves of evergreens and maybe birches, enough to serve as counterpart to that black jaggedness against the blue sky — oh, but that left side, strict in its black glory, treeless. Utterly treeless. The waterfalls flowing for thousands upon thousands of feet down to rivers and fjords. It all just took our breath away, awestruck silence when all the superlatives have been spoken and proven inadequate.

Everyone ran their phone batteries down taking so many pictures because there was not one place that was less photoworthy than another. Have I convinced you? Are you leaving this blog to hunt for airfare? There is nothing else I can tell you that matches those mountains. Hold on! We are coming back with photos that will never live up to those real life mountains and fjords, but might entice you.

We were on a very scary road, then a short ferry ride, and then, that earlier road looked like an eight-lane interstate to the road that we went down, thousands and thousands of feet, to Geiranger on a fjord whose name I don’t know. There were hairpin curves you would not believe — in a giant coach — yikes! I think the first road had 11 hairpin turns — they were as nothing in the face of the descent to our hotel!

I had a couple of local gin — very delish! — and tonic with dried lime slices; ohso, ohso good! Laird had beer. Dinner was good, a squash puree (they said curry, but I didn’t have any taste of that) with veggies and rice, quite good. Nice to have a vegetarian meal. Interesting that we saw tons of sheep, but we have not had any lamb or mutton, and I don’t even think I’ve seen any on menus. Maybe they just have them for the tourists to look at and exclaim over??

Tomorrow, we take a ferry to somewhere and do something — how’s that for an information-laden sentence???

Oh, my today’s story: on the train, which was on very rough track, I had gone to get Laird a cup of coffee (not doing that again!), came back, gave him the coffee and he got up to let me into my seat. As I was poised to move in, the train lurched and I flew backwards, landed smack, flat on my back. Of course, the first words out of my mouth were F a D (everyone who knows me can fill in the other letters; after all, there may be children present), I think at least twice. I just wanted to lie there for a bit to process what had happened, but, of course, everyone wanted to help me up. I seem to be unhurt, though my arm, which I think engaged with a train seat arm, stung and hurt for awhile and my back was not all that happy to be slammed to the floor, but other than abiding neck pain, everything shut up after awhile. But Deb, our tour manager, gave me some anti-inflammatory cream and I bought some paracetamol at a grocery store near our hotel when we got down the road from hell. So, I’m guessing I will live.

That’s pretty much it. I bought two tshirts so I don’t have to do laundry; Laird is doing his — hope it is better than the last place that had a laundry (actually a sister hotel of this one) — it took him hours and clothes were still not dry.

So, if I’ve gotten to the point of talking about laundry, you know it is time to stop this.

Laird is back! With wet laundry. Don’t ask.