Aalesund, Norway

June 27
I am going to try not to bore you with tooooo many waterfalls and colorful houses and little streets with quaint stores.  It seems that Norway is full of them and we are having trouble differentiating one from another.  You must be having the same problem.
We are starting to have Dejavu’s.  Didn’t we see that village yesterday?  Isn’t that the same waterfall we saw 5 days ago?  Anyway, on we go.
Aalesund is another town on a fjord.  It had a terrible fire in 1904, where 80% of the town burned down.  The buildings, like most in Norway, were built of wood and built very close together.  Most of the towns we have visited recently have had terrible fires.  When Aalesund was destroyed,  Kaiser Wilhelm, who often vacationed there, sent his warships with supplies and rebuilt the city in the  Art Nouveau style.  So at least this town has some different style buildings.
Today we took a little train around the town.
                                         
We first went to a view point.  Wonderful.  I could post 50 pictures….I won’t…
      
                                             
No, it is not your imagination and you are not seeing double.  The ship docked behind ours is an exact duplicate of ours.  She used to be a Princess ship and now she is with Oceania. 
So here are some pictures of some of the same kind of buildings and some of the Art Nouveau style.

              
          
                                            
Can you tell much difference?
Here is the view from the ship and the first sunset we have seen in over a week.  By the way, it occurred at midnight.  I couldn’t stay awake long enough to see the sunrise, which I was told happened 3 hours later.


                                                                                       

How to comment....I fixed it

I just figured out why some of you have been unable to comment.  Sorry, it was my fault.  There is a setting I needed to check.  It is checked now.

So to post a comment, just click on the word comment on the bottom of the post, then you must click on who is commenting.  Now there is a choice that says "anonymous" .  So if you are not logged in on Google, you can choose anonymous.  Then touch publish.  I hope that fixes it.

One thing though, since you are showing as anonymous, please put your name on the comment so we will know who wrote it.

Sorry for the confusion and looking forward to more comments.  Off to 2 more ports before we return to Dover.

Trondheim, Norway

June 26
Took the shuttle bus into the center of old town, yes, again.

The first place we walked to was the Nidaros Cathedral .  This Cathedral is the largest in Scandinavia and has the largest organ in Norway.  It is built on the grave of St. Olav, who brought Christianity to Norway and is visited by pilgrims.  

Since we arrived on a Sunday, the church was closed to tourists.  So we walked around the cemetery and saw the tombstones that are scattered around the outside of the church.  There are some very different tombstones there.

This is the flat stone over the body.  If you look closely you can see writing.  Unlike all the other tombs and tombstone that are carved in stone, this one was written into a thin coating of cement like material.  This allowed for more delicate writing and for more writing.  Not all of the writing has survived.  Never saw anything like it before.
                                    This tombstone is unlike anything we have seen before.  Very interesting….

As we walked around the church I heard the choir and the organ, through a back door.  So I sat down and listened.  It was beautiful.  Sounded like a huge choir with an angel boy singing lead.  While I was listening, Duane walked around the church and saw people exiting.  So we went to where they were coming out and found other people going in.  So, of course, we went in.  The service was still in progress, so we took seats and stayed.
When communion was offered, Duane went up with the rest of the locals and tourists alike.  The music from the inside was so much better than listening through the door.  The choir was only 8 people, 4 women and 4 men.  The angel boy was actually the female priest singing like an angel.
It was magnificent. 

                                      

                      Pictures do not do it justice.
From the church we walked the small town.  We saw a small flea market.  If we had the local currency, the Krone, we could have bought a Norwegian Waffle.  Oh, well.
We saw a Burger King.  Right, not a Mc D’s.
                           just couldn’t resist a picture.

At a nice restaurant, we saw seats covered with skins, probably not real, to keep you warm.
                                                                                       

An interesting thing about Trondheim is that it had the first “bike lift” in the world.  “Bike Lift” you say.  What is that?  Well there is a big hill in town and the city wanted to promote bicycle riding.  So to help in that regard, they installed a free bike lift.  You put your right foot on this belt and sit on your bike.  A board comes out and pushes you and your bike up the hill.  I am sorry that it wasn’t working today.  But here is what it looks like.


So now for some scenes of the town.  Like the rest of Norway we have seen, very colorful.


                
                                                                      
                                   

Honningsvag, Norway

 

June 24

    So here we are in another Norwegian town.  This one is really small.  The fjord is beautiful, as they all are.

The ship stops here because it is near the northern most part of mainland Europe.  As you might remember, the last port at Longyearbyen, is the northern most populated place on earth.  But to the north of where we are, in Honningsvag, is North Cape.  The “northern most part of mainland Europe”.  I make a point of this because we were given a map of the town and it looks like this:

                                                      

You should note that we are on an island.  An Island.  How is this the norther most part of “mainland” Europe?  I asked.  Well, it is connected by a tunnel, I was told.  So based on that explaination, England is on Mainland Europe, too.  Who knows…..it works for them and our ship stopped there.

We walked around the town for a couple of hours.  Seems 2 hours of walking is my limit.

First we walked to a church.  This is not unusual.  Churches are a serious draw, especially for me.  Why?  Don’t know.  I love cemeteries, too.  Especially ones with old tombstones.

                                                             

Duane could not resist seeing what it was like in the pulpit. 

                            

We were unable to find any old tombstones, which was very strange.  It seems this church is the only building that came through WWII.  So where are the old tombstones?  I found someone placing flowers at a tombstone, and luckily he spoke English.  It seems that you pay to have someone buried and you have to pay again every 50 years.  So unless the family still lives in the area and pays the fee, the plot will go to someone else.  So, no old tombstones.  Interesting.

We found a recycled items art gallery.  The artist, who wasn’t there, is from the US.  She collected over 1200 shoes and boots that washed up on the shore and made them into art.  Here are a couple of examples.

      

This is the latitude of the town

                                                

and here is a native dressed lady in a shop of just handmade stuff.

Of course there are trolls here, too.  This troll hit me in the head

   and this troll lives with me 

I just had to take this picture…..FEED ME SEYMOUR !!!

                                              

Longyearbyen, Norway

 

June 22

The first thing we noticed, at 5am, was the view.

 

                            

Strange name, Longyearbyen.  It is actually named after an American who came here to mine coal.  He named the town, the river and the glacier after himself.  He sold his mine, but left his name.  There were a total of 10 mines here, but only #7 is still operating.  They mine very “clean” coal.  Clean coal or oil is very hard to find.

Anyway, there are about 2,000 people living here.  Many go to the university and many work in the tourist industry.  Why tourism, you ask?  Longyearbyen, also known as Spitsbergen, is the northern most populated area on earth.  It is an island off the coast of Norway, and part of Norway.  That is its claim to fame.  People come from all over the world to see the northern lights in winter, which lasts 8 months and to see the midnight sun in summer, which lasts 4 months.  OK, that is not exactly true, but you get the idea.

We went on an excursion this morning.  We were surprised by what the excursion really was, verses what the description said it would be.  We went to find fossils on the Longyear glacier.  So, we expected to get driven to the glacier and look for fossils.  Nooooooo.  We were driven 5 minutes from the ship to the edge of town.  We disembarked the bus, expecting another vehicle to pick us up and take us to the glacier.  Nooooooo.  We had to walk to the glacier.  Over rocks of all sizes, through snow that is now slush, and over (and in) riverlets of melting snow. 

                                                         

                                                                         

1 1/2 hours into our hike, I decided that the next riverlet ford and snowy bank and the next steep hill of rocks was more than I could do, knowing that whereever I went, I would have to come back from. 

So, Duane continued up and over and I turned back.  Oh, did I mention that we had 3 college students as our guides and each was armed with a rifle?  No….well they were.  You are not permitted to leave the town without a weapon.  Why, you ask?  Polar Bears, I answer….

                                   

(The dog is a retired sled dog, as you can tell by the tension in the leash)

Polar Bears are not nice, we are told.  So we must have armed escorts.  OK.  So, when I decide to turn back, I have no such escort.  Other passengers have already bailed out on the walk and one of the guides went back with them.  The other two guides are with the ones going on.  So I make my way up the slushy hills and across about half of the loose rock field.  Without someone to help steady me, my sneakers are not good footing for this rock field.  So, I found a rock that was pretty stable (did I mention that the rocks in this field move?  They do) and sat down.  I was going to wait for Duane to come off the glacier and go back with him. 

No guide, no gun, just me.  Anyway, the guide who went ahead with the others, came back and helped me balance over the rocks and guided me to the others.  Then the 8 of us went back to the beginning of the hike and waited for the strong ones to return.

Duane brought back pockets full of rocks, but alas, no fossils.  Turns out they never went on any ice, just on the moraine in front and on top of the glacier.  Thinking we were going to spend the morning on ice, we packed all the cold weather clothes we brought.  No need for any of them.  We were sweating like crazy.

So, all is well.  We are tired.  Right now, at 4pm, Duane is asleep.  I am OK as long as I don’t stay in one position too long.  Then I get stiff. 

So tomorrow I will know whether I overdid it today.

                                                                     

Summer Solstice

 

June 21

This is the day we came on this cruise for.  To see the sun on the longest day of the year.  To see it not set and make high circles in the sky.

Well, the  best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry. So tonight, at 10 pm the sky is totally overcast.  Not foggy, but high clouds that give no indication of the sun’s location.

So we are very glad we got to see the non-setting sun 2 nights ago.  We will have the opportunity again for the next 3 nights, so wish us luck and blow the clouds away.

Good night.

Here it is…..

 

June 20th…..1:30 am

Here I sit, unwilling to go to sleep.  The sun is above the horizon, behind a cloud bank.  But it keeps poking its head out, so I can see it.  I am waiting to make sure that it is traveling higher in the sky.  That means for sure that it has not and will not set tonight.  Then I will get some sleep.  Tomorrow we arrive in Tromso, a town 280 miles north of the artic circle.  We plan on just walking around to look at the town.  We may also have to find some wifi to post this with, since the ship’s wifi isn’t working. 

Anyway, this may be the night that we get to see the midnight sun, even though the solstice is not until tomorrow.  More later.

It is….it is….it is.

at 2:30 am the sun shows no sign of dipping and instead is rising.  So we have seen our first midnight sun.  Hope to see it again tonight, even though we are both very sleepy today.

                                c

Off to see Tromso after I finish blogging.

OK I am in Tromso.  It is raining and cold.  We are dressed for it, but we don’t see any reason to stay ashore.  The internet on the ship is not working so we are at an information booth using their wifi along with the rest of the ship.  So we will head back to the ship.  No pictures from here because it looks just like the last stop.

Still we saw IT !!!!

Hellesylt/Geiranger, Norway

 

June 18

Today we saw a real fjord, or actually more than one.  First we went to Hellesylt to drop off the passengers who went overland to Geiranger.  We made the trip by ship.  I think they missed out.  They don’t think so.

We didn’t go ashore today.  It was very rough going last night with seas at over 8 feet.  So I took some seasick pills.  Duane kept waking up to look at the fjord.  So come this afternoon, we both were too tired to go ashore.  So, we took a nap. 

But as you will see, we also took PICTURES….

               

                                                      

                               

   

See, we were really here.  Even if my eyes are closed.

In the show tonight was a comedian who used audience members in his act.  It is very strange, but this cruise is the only one we have been on that there is very low participation by the passengers.  Like at Kareoke, only 3 people got up to sing.  That included me.  So at this show, when the comedian asked for a volunteer, no one volunteered.  So I did.  It was very funny.  He had me read from Othello.  He had highlighted some lines and I was to jump around and read randomly from these hightlighted lines.  He filled in the rest.  Fun was had by all.

Bergen, Norway

 

June 17

Last night we watched to see if the sun stayed out.  Here is a picture of 1am.  But, the sun did set.

                                                 

The first view of cute Bergen

 

         

Today we took another hop-on/hop-off bus.

                                                         

Bergen is at the end of a fjord that looks more like a bay.  No high cliffs.  That is supposed to come tomorrow.  Bergen is a city with 7 hills.  We only spent time in the old part of town.  In 1944 a munitions ship exploded in the harbor and destroyed one whole side of the city and set fire to most of the rest.  So there is not a lot of old original buildings left. 

This church was rebuilt after the accident.

So we rode around the city and got off at the only Catholic church in town.  We weren’t able to go inside because someone was getting married. 

                                   

 

So, we walked back down the hill to the port area. 

Then we walked around the rebuilt tower and church area.

Then we walked to the fish market, an area with booths of all kinds of fishes, cooked and raw, and lots of crafts boots.  Some of the most fun is going shopping for non-touristy stuff, like hair conditioner.  Some languages are harder to guess at than others.  Luckily, 90 % of Norwegians speak some English.

By then I was very tired and we got on the bus and went back to the ship.

                                                                   

These kinds of baby carriages are very popular here.  I don’t see them at home.

   Guess they let dogs driver here….

 

                                            

Of course I had to post this….