norway

we night trained from Stockholm to Oslo. The train was packed. Our sleeper car had six people stacked on bunks with our luggage with no airflow. The ride was much bumpier than the others we've had. We had 3 hours in Oslo in the morning before our connection to " the land of the fjords. We walked around the city for the wait on the near empty early morning streets. It seemed to have character but not that of Stockholm. The train ride across Norway was truly beautiful. It followed a river for several hours with mountains and waterfalls all around. We arrived in Myrdal for a transfer with too many tourists on the Flam railway. Every guidebook we ever looked at recommended this half hour train ride from top to bottom of the fjord. Naturally every visitor with Rick Steves guidebook in hand accompanied us on a Silver Dollar Cityesque train through lush Rocky Mountain-like terrain. We stopped at a huge waterfall on the way down and out of nowhere comes blaring elvish music and two women rise out of the rocks in the distance dancing at the foot of the falls. We were jealous of the people biking down which would have been the greatest. Biking down hill has to be the funnest thing period. Put it in Norway, ouch, to good to be true.

Flam is a small tourist village at the mouth of one of the more popular fjords. Though intensly beautiful it is equally expensive as evidenced by 5+ dollars for a bottle of water. We stayed in the cheapest guest house we could find but still the most expensive of our trip. We hiked up along a river for the rest of the evening and explored the paths near our guest house. I also ate really expensive fish sticks rivaling any 88 cent box of van de camps.

We had a boat trip through the fjord and and bus ride back up the mount. I was waiting for the transmission to fall out as we puttered up the sharp switchbacks. Kelly was waiting for us to fall of the cliff. I officially doubled the number of waterfalls I've seen in my life the past two days. We caught a train to Bergen the 2nd largest city in the country. It lies on the west coast and has a sweet fish market. We think this is the farthest north we've ever been or will be on this trip. We did our usual find a park and read to close up our day. I'm reading Twilight now. It's your typical teen fantasy vampire love story. Right up my alley.

In the morning we'll train back to Oslo to catch a Ryan air flight to next stop...Ireland.

I'm taking full advantage of free wifi at our hotel and have typed all this puppy of an entry out on my iPhone. Think about that.

We've been thinking and praying about vision and future a lot. Also contending to walk in authority that Jesus says we have like when he sent out the 72 to heal sick and preach the coming of the Kingdom...