We recently spent a fun couple of weeks traveling around in Norway. We flew to Oslo (which included a short layover in Iceland) and spent a couple of days there before driving to Lillehammer, Trondheim and Alesund on the west coast as well as several tiny, scenic locales tucked among the many scenic fjords. Our travel wasn’t just limited to roads, with many ferry crossings in our rental van. And our travel wasn’t limited to driving either, with an overnight, and next-day, ship cruise from Alesund to the bustling seaport of Bergen. We also took passenger ferry cruises far into a couple of deep fjords that were as beautiful as any landscape we had ever seen. Norway has about 200,000 fewer people than Minnesota and seems to have a knack for preserving the old, while embracing the new. We visited the nearly 1,000-year-old stave church in Heddal, in Telemark, where one of my great grandmothers was baptized. The old church has been through a few restorations but retains a distinctively medieval look and is still in use from May through September. In fact, as we arrived there, folks were coming out from a confirmation service, the women all dressed in colorful traditional Norwegian bunads. It was quite a sight.