Day 5 - Balestrand Part 2

Back in Fjaerland after our glacier tour, we had a couple hours to explore before the ferry left to take us back to Balestrand. Fjaerland is also known as Booktown, so I was excited to check it out. Of course, most of the books were in Norwegian, but I'm not picky! Todd managed to rope me in after not too long, and we had lunch next to the water. Then we spent some time walking through town. It's a very small town, so it wasn't too hard to see most of it in a short walk.




When Kaiser Wilhelm was young, he would visit this area. On a climbing expedition one day, one of the young boys with him fell to his death. He is buried in Fjaerland. The graveyard is small and unassuming (which is surprising, considering how long this town has been here...). Right across the street you can walk along the water.





It was raining as we got back on the ferry so we pulled a couple deck chairs back under the overhang. We had to wait for about 15 minutes for the afternoon bus to return from the glacier. It was something straight out of a comedy watching everyone file onto the ferry, hustle out onto the deck in the rain and drag their chair back under the overhang. Since nearly everyone was wearing sneakers, the only sound you could hear was the squeaking of wet rubber on the deck. Then just when you think everyone is settled, one last guy goes running out for the last chair. We were happy to just sit and enjoy the view on the ride back. Until the sun decided to peek out just enough...


We had a quiet evening in Balestrand. We had dinner early and then took a walk through town. There was an old Viking burial mound just a few blocks from our hotel. I stood on one of the hills for a while, gazing out onto the fjord, trying to imagine a dragon ship coming into view through the evening fog. It wasn't too hard to do. From there we just strolled through the neighborhood.