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CABC Scandinavia Choir Tour

Days 13-14: Oslo to Balestrand

We finally made it to Oslo where it was raining, and since some of our group had opted to take the train from Stockholm to

 Norway, we had to pick them up (and ironically they beat us there; that would have been the better way to go!).  Once at the

 pickup point, several people had to use the potty, but our rather gruff guide said that was virtually impossible between now

 and the end of the city tour (another couple of hours later). We talked her into it, though, but those who were unprepared got  a soaking! It took everyone so long to relieve themselves that those of us who were fine decided to be funny and, once  everyone was back on the bus, announce to our guide that now we had to go... ☺

We then had our brief city tour before we finally made it to our hotel (they had blocked the street, so we went around the block several times trying to find a way in). With the rain you really couldn’t see much to appreciate it, but picked up a Little Gull in the harbor and a flock of Fieldfares on the lawn way up on the mountain near the ski jump, so that was nice. Once we checked in I tagged along with Duane and Rosi to a couple of shops; they had several nice Norwegian sweaters which were tempting to get for gifts, but very expensive, and I wasn‘t ready to be that extravagant. We then proceeded on to Burger King (which was much fancier than any Burger King I’d ever been to in the States!), and after that I decided to come home and crash.

                    A soggy view of Oslo                                        Rain doesn't stop the sight-seers!

It was dribbling all the next morning, and the bus didn’t arrive when it was supposed to, so Fatima got us a series of vans that got us to the train station on time!  Once we found our train (which was a trip because the "gates" weren’t marked nearly as clearly as at an airport) we had a very nice ride to Flam, alternately enjoying the scenery and various card games. At Myrdol we switched to another train that took us through very tundra-like mountain habitat and by some very scenic waterfalls (we got out at one where a "maiden" was singing up on the rocks, complete with Wellies...), and before long we were at Flam, where we caught the hydrofoil to Balestrand. And what a trip that was! The fjords were gorgeous, and even picked up a new trip bird: several Black Guillemots! Everyone was getting blown away once the hydrofoil got going, but it was a lot of fun taking pictures of everyone up there!

                                    Our high-speed train takes us over the mountains of Norway to the fjords!

            We stop for a spectacular waterfall, complete with Norwegian maiden (with your bins you could spot her Wellies...)

                                                                    More wonderful scenes from the train

We pulled into Balestrand and our quaint little hotel, stuck our heads out the windows (one guy said it was as though we had our own little version of Hollywood Squares going on), and had another great buffet dinner (I wish I had brought my camera to get a shot of the dessert plate Rob had...). Afterwards we had some more "awards": some of the gang did a rendition of Ain’t Got Time to Die re-named Ain’t Got Time to Shop, and I think that was technically Fatima’s roasting, as much of the lyrics had to do with "spending alla my time to catch Fajita (a nickname someone gave her)"!

                            Views of Balestrand from our hotel (including the "Hollywood Squares" scenario...)