I took this picture out a bus window in Norway. Indeed, not the most ideal place for taking photos; time was short, so I took a tour of Norway’s Hardangerfjord and Sognefjord which utilized Norways excellent public transit system. The day went something like a train ride, then a bus ride, then a boat ride, then a hike up 800 feet to a huge waterfall, then a train ride, then a walk around a lake, and at last a train ride back to Bergen, where I stayed in a youth hostel. In all, touring of a couple of mighty fjords took me around 13 hours. I essentially followed a pre-made tourist type of trip, but changed the timing so that I could spend three hours hiking in mountainous Flam, which was difficult, beautiful and a highlight of the entire trip.

This photo shows a fjord valley. Over thousands of years, glaciers have carved rough rock into giant mountains with a narrow valley between. This photo doesn’t give a great sense of scale; the mountains on each side of the valley rise about 2,000 feet above the valley floor. Quite steep, and very impressive in person.