Today was J. R.'s birthday and the Celebrity Apex pulled, perhaps fittingly, into the village of Olden. Olden is a small village located at the mouth of the Oldeelva river on the southern shore of the Nordfjorden and has a population of only around 500 people. After meeting in the theater, we headed off the ship to meet a large bus that would take us our tour, "Destination Highlight: Briksdal Glacier with Trollcars". We boarded the bus and took a short ride to the glacier parking lot.

The excursion description made the troll cars out to be much more than they were, basically oversized golf carts. It started to rain as we waited to board our cars and they would save us a 3K hike up the mountain, so we were pleased with our decision. They also had covers built in to keep your clothes dry during the ride up the switchbacks to the stopping point near the glacier. It was quite cold on the way up, especially at Kleivafossen waterfall.

We exited the troll car and began a short, but strenuous 700m hike to a view point near the Briksdal Glacier. Briksdalsbreen is a western arm of the Jostedalsbreen glacier, the largest in mainland Europe and is about 10.4 square kilometers. It extends from 1910m above sea level to around 350m. After the initial uphill climb to near a small waterfall, the trail leveled out and we were able to walk to a small stream and lake to view the glacier.

The rain had stopped so we decided to do the 3KM hike down the mountain as we had seen some beautiful scenery from the trollcars and wanted to get closer to it. We were able to pause on the bridge right at Kleivafossen to get some photos of the magnificent waterfall. Despite a relatively slow pace, not having to wait for the troll cars meant we arrived back at the mountain lodge just as some of the last troll cars from our group were arriving.

We were offered a variety of Norwegian cakes and coffee and tea at the cafeteria after our tour and they were all very good. We had some time to spend in the small village and gift shop before getting back on the bus.

The bus made a stop at Oldevatnet, an 12km long lake in the valley between Olden and Briksdalen. The lake is divided by a small strait which makes it appear to be two lakes. It is fed by the glaciers and changes color based off the time of year and glacial runoff.

We returned to the Apex and went up to the Mast Grill for some lunch, having only had cake since breakfast, before going to the Martini Bar. Putu made J. R. a special martini for his birthday and also went up to one of the restaurants to get him a chocolate lake, which was very nice. What was not so nice, at least for J. R., was Putu arranged for the lounge singer to serenade him with Happy Birthday during their evening performance. Janie enjoyed that a lot.

Dinner in Blu was very good tonight with a great corn chowder and pork tenderloin, and another chocolate cake for J. R. We opted to skip Ollie Mulkeen's swing, soul, pop and rock performance and instead went to the Sea Thermal Suite, which was empty, giving us time to use the saunas and relax on the heated stone loungers. We returned to the martini bar for a night cap. We wanted to do the Eden show, Night of the Arts, but those shows are always very crowded and you have to get there very early to get a seat.

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