The ship docked in Eidfjord, a small village of 920 people, but cruise ships stop there for its proximity to some major sightseeing sites in southern Norway. Located directly on the fjord, due to the warming influences of the Gulf Stream, Eidfjord rarely gets below freezing the winter, whereas the regions in the surrounding mountains can see temperatures drop to -40 C.

We took a coach NW about 2 hr (with stops) to Voss. There we boarded the train that connects Bergen and Oslo. Luxurious, quiet, smooth. The train trip is considered one of the prettiest in the world and with good reason. From Voss we traveled 2 hr east across the Hardangervidda, Europe’s largest mountain plateau, to Geilo. The plateau, scraped smooth by glaciers millennia ago, averages 3500 ft high (high point 6100 ft) and is dotted with lakes and residual snow. From Geilo we returned SW to Eidfjord by coach. Over eight hours of remarkable scenery narrated by a young, knowledgeable college student. During our last coach trip, we experienced a short, light shower, our first in the 2 1/2 weeks of our trip. The guide said that was the first in this area since May 5. Norway like most of Northern Europe is experiencing unusually warm temperatures and dryness. A forest fire was burning near Stavanger. Estonia was on fire alert.

Learning for the day: Norway is self-sufficient in hydroelectric power. In fact it exports the excess green energy to Northern Europe. Realizing the North Sea oil play will dwindle over the next 50 years, the state is using some of the royalties to build additional hydroelectric plants for future income. Norway has about 1100 tunnels. We went through quite a few, some quite long. The tunnel approaches to the suspension bridge actually have round-abouts in them. One tunnel had a steep grade to negotiate so it incorporated a 400 deg rotation to minimize the grade.