Itinerary: (Daily blog is below itinerary…scroll down)
8/17 – 8/18/2023: Fly to Southampton, England
8/18-8/19/2023: Overnight at Hilton, Heathrow Airport
8/19/2023- Board Sky Princess, Reserve Class Mini-Suite M108
8/20/2023 – At Sea
8/21/2023 – Bergen, Norway 10:00AM – 7:00PM
8/22/2023 – Flam, Norway 7:00AM – 4:30PM
8/23/2023 – Andalsnes, Norway 10:00AM – 7:00PM
8/24/2023 – Trondheim, Norway 8:00AM – 4:00 PM
8/25/2023 – At Sea
8/26/2023 – Honningsvag, Norway 10:00 AM – 8:00PM
8/27/2023 – Tromso, Norway 9:00AM – 5:00PM
8/28/2023 – At Sea
8/29/2023 – Olden, Norway 8:00AM – 4:00PM
8/30/2023 – Skjolden, Norway 9:00AM – 5:00PM
8/31/2023 – At Sea
9/1/2023 – Zeebrugge, Belgium 10:00AM – 6:00PM
9/2/2023 – Disembark in Southampton, England and fly home
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9/1/2023 – Friday- Zeebruge: My last post this trip!
Our port today is Zeebruge, but we have a ships excursion to Ghent. This is also the port for Brugge, but we have been to Bruges twice before, but never to Ghent. Coming into port, we see lots of wind turbines. This is a big commercial port and our guide said over a million cars pass through here every year. Most of the cars we saw were Toyotas, but there were other brands.
The weather forecast for today was not good, and we drove through a lot of rain. We boarded a bus and the drive to Ghent took about an hour. The guide gave us some history of Ghent. He said: Ghent and Bruges were medieval cities. Before 500AD, this area was under Roman Rule. There were two abbeys built in Ghent in the Middle Ages, St. Peter and St. Bavo. The monks built dykes, grew wheat and brewed beer. Ghent was the largest city in Europe before 1500 because of their wool industry.
Upon arrival in Ghent, it was still raining lightly.
We walked to a canal boat for a tour by boat. The boat had covers that were similar to pool umbrellas.
It was interesting, and somewhat exciting, as the boat captain would lower the umbrellas as we went under bridges, which were very low. We had to lower our heads to keep from getting smacked in the head.
There are several canals in Ghent and we passed by Graslei which is a quay in the historic center of Ghent. The quay was a part of the medieval port, and is a part of the protected cityscape with its row of historic buildings. Many of the buildings have been turned into restaurants with their outside eating area overlooking the canal. We tourists love that stuff.
But, today, our time in Ghent is limited, so we really just got a brief overview.
We saw several historic buildings. Some of my favorites:
Along one section of the canal are what I assume to be condominiums. On one balcony was a statue of a woman that looked like she was going to dive into the canal.
On the other side of the canal was apparently her lover, also getting ready to dive into the canal to meet her.
A poem was along one wall.
After our boat ride we had about 1 hour to explore on our own, which was nowhere near what we needed. I was interested in St. Bavo, an abbey founded in the 7th century. The abbey is famous for what is considered a masterpiece by Van Eyck, “Adoration of the Mystic Lamb”, created in 1432, and is considered as one of the greatest artistic masterpieces of Belgium. So after our boat ride, due to our limited time, we headed directly to St. Bavo.
I am not an art aficionado, and neither is Dave, but this seemed to be an important piece that we should see. We found the church, wandered around, and finally found an entrance to see the masterpiece. But, you had to check your backpacks, and buy a ticket, and then walk to the back of the church. The tickets were 16.5 Euros per person, and with our limited time, we decided not to do it. If we would have had an hour to peruse the masterpiece and other artifacts, it would have made sense, but we just did not have enough time. ☹️The parts of the Cathedral that we did see were very interesting. They had a lot of beautiful stained glass and the pulpit was probably one of the most decorated we have ever seen.
Another interesting artifact they claim to have, but we did nor see (was probably with the masterpiece we didn’t see) is a reliquary of John the Baptist’s head. They also have artwork by Peter Paul Rubens and Jan van Cleef – as well as artists I’m not familiar with. So this cathedral had a lot of interesting (to us) stuff, but we just didn’t have the time to see everything.
We saw the old opera house and in front was a statue of Jan-Fran Willhelms, a famous Flemish poet, playwright and essayist. I assume his statue is in front of the opera house because he sought to promote Flemish culture and the Dutch language as well as seeking greater political autonomy for Flanders within Belgium.
On the way back to the meeting point, we grabbed a “sandwich” which we split, and it was our lunch. It was called a pizziola (?). Basically 1/2 a sub bun with some salami, cheese and sauce which they heated for us. Then we discovered we were a bit turned around and had to rely on our Google map to get us back to the meeting point, which we found with only a couple of minutes to spare!
The drive back to the port was quiet and uneventful. We did some more packing, went to a shopping raffle to see if we won a $1,000 shopping spree (we didn’t) and then we went to dinner. We said goodbye to some ladies from Scotland who were celebrating their 70th birthday. We sat next to them at dinner several nights. I told them the secret to staying young was to marry a younger man 😳! As usual, we went to a “game show”, then grabbed out last “free” glass of wine, and headed back to our stateroom to finish packing. We have an early morning tomorrow, and then many hours of traveling. We’ll leave the ship about 8:00am, and arrive home about 2:00am Sunday – but with the time difference, it will be 23 hours after leaving the ship.
We are at Heathrow airport as I write this, and just found out my boarding pass calls for secondary security screening!
8/31/2023 – Thursday – Sea Day: No pictures today! We peeked out at the beautiful full super moon last night. Fortunately the sky was clear – but no northern lights ☹️. This morning we slept in, and just grabbed a pastry and coffee from the International Cafe, which is kinda like a coffee shop. We were not too active today. We redeemed some of the cash due to us from on board cash credits given to us from the travel agent, and because Dave is a shareholder. If you own 100 shares of Carnival stock, which is the parent company of Princess, they give you money to spend on the cruise, which is called onboard credit. You can pay for shore excursions, clothes from the boutique, etc. However, Princess owes us $60 from an excursion they canceled sometime prior to June. We keep waiting for them to refund the $60, and have involved our travel agent, but almost 3 months after the fact, we still don’t have it. So we wasted some time standing in various lines to see if anyone onboard could help us get our refund.
Today is our last sea day and it is also formal night. This afternoon we packed up about half of our stuff – mostly dirty laundry. Tomorrow is our last day onboard, but we have a ships excursion to Ghent, so the rest of the packing will happen tomorrow evening. Generally you need to put your luggage out by 10:00PM the night before you disembark.
We had a nice dinner since it was our last formal night. I had escargot and Dave had cheese tortellini for appetizers. We both had lobster thermidor for our entree.
We have not been overly impressed with the evening entertainment on the ship, and generally just go to a game show or listen to music in one of the lounges. Tonight was a game show, “Majority Rules”. We never win anything, but generally the game shows are funny.
Afterwards we might get a drink and head back to our room, which is what we did tonight.
8/30/2023 – Wednesday – Skjolden: our port today is Skjolden. It is located at the end of the longest navigable fjord in the world, 125 miles from the North Atlantic. Today is kind of hard to write about because much of our day was riding on a bus. We have an all day ship’s tour to Lom, Norway, about 50 miles away, which is in the eastern part of the country. To get there, we have to cross the mountains, on the highest mountain road in Northern Europe, the Sognefjellet National Tourist Route. It was finished in 1938. The highest point on the road is 4,700 feet, and is Europes highest mountain pass. We have views of the Hurrungane Mountains and can see glaciers in the distance.
However, Dave and I both felt the scenery yesterday was better. Before the road was built, people would cross the mountain with horses. There was an old house where they would sometimes stop and spend the night. Our guide said there were lots of people crossing, and one year there were 1600 horses and 2000 people.
There are cairns built with stone, and many topped with a stick, to designate the trail for crossing the mountain in the snow, before the road was built.
There is a monument we stopped to see for 6 men who froze to death while crossing the mountain. There were also 6 individual stones to remember the men.
While we were stopped there, 4 sheep came running towards us!
We saw several sheep while driving, some were even laying on the road. In the summer, the sheep graze in the mountains, and then in the winter, the farmers gather up their sheep and bring them back to the farms. Apparently each farmer has an area where their sheep graze and they do not wander far from that area.
I thought the best part of our day was when we arrived in Lom. We visited the Norweigen Mountain museum and saw an exhibit on items that were found in melting or retreating glaciers. Some of these items are thousands of years old. By the number of pictures, you can tell I am fascinated by this stuff…and this is not all of my pictures….
They also had a full size replica of a wooly mammoth.
After visiting the museum, we had lunch at the Fossheim Hotel and restaurant. The hotel started as an inn in 1897 by the Garmo Family, who still runs the hotel. Our lunch consisted of salmon, mixed vegetables, potatoes, lava cake and a small scoop of berry gelato.
Next we visited the Lom Stave Church built in 1158, using the traditional post and beam construction. It is one of the largest stave churches still standing in Norway. It started as a Catholic Church but changed to Lutheran in 1608. In 1997, Norweigens who left Lom, Norway for America donated an organ to the church. Since the 1960’s, the church has had an electric organ, but the carved wooden front remains from the donated gift. The church has expanded twice, but the basic church was still there. According to the guide, there was some ancient graffiti carved into some of the wood. Near the roof someone had carved “I made it up here” and next to a bench, someone had carved “I am bored”. Outside the church was the cemetary and the guide said there were no ancient gravestones as the ground is recycled. So the stones are removed, but any bones that are found are left in the grave when the new coffin is put in place.
Leaving Lom, we headed back to the port and made a couple of photo stops.
We stopped to see a 131 foot column that had been carved to show the history of Norway.
Our last stop was the Asafossen Waterfall. During the rainy season, or in the spring when the snow is melting, a lot more water pours down.
We were suppose to be back to the ship by 4:30, but we were late, not getting back until 4:50. So we were a little late departing this port.
This evening’s entertainment was the “Marriage Game”. They ask 3 couples to volunteer and ask them embarrassing questions like the old Newlywed Game on TV. Always very funny!
8/29/2023- Tuesday- Olden ( actually Loen): According to our guide today, the population of Loen is about 200, and Olden’s population is about 400. Today there were 3 huge ships visiting the area. Sky Princess with 3,848; P & O Iona about 5,200, and an MSC ship, but not sure which MSC ship. So at least 10,000 people from cruise ships descending on this area. The P&O ship took the one port space in Olden, so our ship is anchored in Loen and had to tender people ashore. I give Princess credit that their tendering operation was pretty quick because they used two exits with two tenders always waiting. It was a pretty quick trip from the ship to the shore. The ship is anchored at the end of the Loen Fjord, which is a short distance from Olden. We are right next to the Loen Skylift which takes passengers to the top of Mt. Hoven, about 3600 feet, in just five minutes! It is one of the steepest cable cars in the world. People were waiting in line for 2 hours to go up. We did not go on the Skylift.
We are feeling very fortunate because it is a beautiful day with lots of sunshine. Rain had been forecast, but we did not experience any rain. Our tour was the “Briksdal Glacier Hike”. Dave and I always seem to have some type of adventure on our trips, and maybe today was the day, but our trip is not over yet. The drive to the Glacier takes maybe 25 or 30 minutes and the scenery was gorgeous. We saw more Troll Marshmallows. The farmers in this area call them “Tractor Eggs”.
We passed an old church in Olden.
There is a picturesque lake surrounded by mountains, with a few farms scattered here and there.
Our guide told us about our hike which he said takes an average of 45 minutes but 55 minutes for slower walkers. He said we would see a split in the path and he suggested we stay to the left and take the stairs because it was shorter. Supposedly it is about 700 feet gain in altitude, but my trusty compass app was showing over 900 feet. We started walking up the path, and reached a split. We stayed to the left, as he suggested, onto the Kaiser Wilhelm trail…this was our adventure. The guide did not mean this split, but one that was further along the path.
The Kaiser Wilhelm trail was shorter, but that means it was MUCH steeper, as you can see in above photo. We had to rest quite frequently. No one followed us up this path, but we did see people coming down.
They were all encouraging saying the Kaiser Wilhelm Trail was shorter. As we approached the point where the trails meet, people were astonished that we took the Kaiser Wilhelm trail. We were astonished, too. Our legs weren’t very happy either, but we made it in about 55 minutes. The glacier was interesting and the water coming down was not as cold as I expected, but maybe that’s because I was testing it close to the shore.
After spending some time at the viewing point for the glacier, we headed down, but this time we took the longer but more moderate path. About half way down we found the stairs our guide told us about. After our hike, our guide met us at the restaurant where our buses had dropped us off, and we were treated to coffee and cakes.
The glacier we visited is interesting as it is an arm of the Jostedalsbreen Glacier, which is the largest glacier in Norway. While the glacier has been retreating during most of the 20th century, it actually advanced in the 1990’s. It has retreated pretty dramatically since 2000. Increased winter precipitation caused the mass gain. Record high snow accumulation was measured during mild and wet winter seasons.
We visited the gift shop and I tried to buy something for Dave, but he wouldn’t let me.
On the way back to the ship we stopped for a photo op of some scenery.
Soon after we returned to the ship, it was sail away and we were heading out of the fjord.
8/28/2023 – Monday – Sea Day: A few nights ago, we went to the entertainment in the theater, a “mentalist”. Supposedly he can read minds, but I think it is more of a magic act. I find it entertaining, Dave finds it boring 😂😂.
When we were on our tour yesterday, each time we got back on the bus, the driver had to take an alcohol test or the bus wouldn’t start! Our guide explained it’s the law in Norway.
Last night we went to a specialty restaurant, The Catch by Rudi, and we had the same meal as the last time we went: crab cakes appetizer for Dave, smoked salmon under a cloche for me, and surf and turf for both of us. This time Dave took pictures of my salmon appetizer. This salmon is so good, I would have liked it as my entree.
After dinner, we went to a high deck with lots of other people for a northern lights watch … but they did not show up again ☹️. The sun never totally set on the horizon, and this is what the horizon looked like about midnight (while we were still watching for the no-show northern lights).
Our captain made an announcement that it may still be possible to see them tonight if the sky is clear. 🤞 But, it is not looking good.
We went to the Captains circle party where the people who have cruised the most on Princess are recognized. The 2nd and 3rd place people had cruised over 1,000 days with Princess and the 1st place people had cruised over 2,000 days – I forget the exact number, but it turned out to be over 7 years!
We also went to another quiz game. The most points you could get was 50, and we had a negative score. I enjoy these games, but we just don’t do well ☹️.
We are keeping an eye on the hurricane. Hoping everyone stays safe.
8/27/2023 – Sunday – Tromso: We docked about 9:00AM this morning, but we are a bit out of the town. There are shuttle buses, but we have a ships tour at 12:30PM, so we just relaxed this morning after breakfast. Tromso is located on Tromsoya island. Tromso is the largest urban area in Northern Norway and the 3rd largest north of the Arctic Circle. The Gulf Stream gives Tromso a milder climate than other places at the same latitude. We did see trees here!
At 12:30ish, we boarded the bus for our tour. Our first stop is the cable car, Fjellheisen, built in 1961. The cable car takes us 1300 feet to the top of Storsreinen Mountain. When we got up this morning it was very foggy, so we were concerned with what we’d actually be able to see. But the clouds were lifting and while not totally gone, we had some magnificent views from the mountain top. Besides the viewing platform at the top of the mountain, there was a little playground, a snack shop, and lots of places to sit and enjoy the view. This is billed as the best place to view the northern lights. I’m sure that’s true, but we are scheduled to sail away at 5:00PM. With the sun coming out, it was very warm up there and we did not need our jackets.
Leaving the mountain, we drove to the Arctic Cathedral, built in 1965, an Evangelical Lutheran church. Since it is Sunday, we were told we could only view it from the outside. But when we got there, they let us go inside. It is made of metal and concrete, coated in aluminum giving it a very modern appearance. The inside seats 600, and has a beautiful stained glass mosaic in the front. Looking towards the back you can see the organ pipes. On the lower level were pictures of the construction.
It is strategically located as it is at the end of a bridge that connects another island to Tromsoya island, so it is in front of you as you cross the bridge.
Our last stop was the Arctic University Museum of Norway. At the museum, our guide directed us to a small theater where we watched a movie for about 15 minutes of the northern lights over Tromso. Then we wandered around the museum. Of course we did not have time to see everything, but we saw a skeleton of a whale, and several other preserved species such as a huge turtle, a bear and rabbits. We moved on to an exhibit of the Sami people, showing how they lived. One surprise is their tents look like teepees.
Another exhibit was about how the Norweigen people were affected during WWII. Some of the local residents had no choice but to comply with the Germans, and were tried after the war for doing so. However it seemed they were not condemned, as they really had no choice. One story told about how one business owner helped build a railroad. But the Norweigen legislators had approved building the railway before the war, so even though he build it at the demand of the Germans, it was approved and needed anyway. One story told about a Jewish mother and her two year old daughter. Both were sent to the gas chambers. The Holocaust was a very terrible part of history and all the stories are just so sad.
After leaving the museum, our guide gave us a little tour of the city on the way back to the ship. We drove through the university area, and our guide is a student from Greece working on his Masters degree. Education is very inexpensive in Norway. Because our guide is European, he only pays about $60 a semester for his education. He has to pay for his own meals and lodging, which is expensive in Norway.
We got back to the ship and our departure was delayed about 30 minutes due to the ship having thruster issues.
Tonight we have reservations in the Catch by Rudi, specialty restaurant again. We also have hopes of seeing the northern lights again. Nothing but clouds last night, but the sky has cleared up considerably, and the captain also made an announcement that tonight may be our best chance to see the northern lights. 🤞🤞🤞
8/26/2023 – Saturday – Honningsvag: we are as far north as we are going in Norway. We have a private tour today, however, the two private tours I booked on this trip were actually big bus loads! I think the old philosophy was booking a private tour, as opposed to a ships tour, so you would have a smaller group and a more personalized experience. Not any more!
The tour was of the North Cape with Finnmark Tours. They had two big buses! We thought we were getting to the meeting point early, but both buses were pretty much full when we boarded. An audio guide played as we drove, and the narrator had some humorous comments. It is cold in this part of the world, with the high temp in the town being 50°. But we drove past a mountain lake and the audio guide called it their beach. It actually looked like a beach at one end. She said men walk into the water and come out as women 😂😂😂. We are seeing lots of reindeer in the wild.
All the reindeer belong to the Sami people, who are the indigenous people in this area. There are about 80,000 Sami people living in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. We had a photo stop in the northernmost fishing village, Skarsvag. Our audio guide said 70 people live here, but by the number of houses, I would think the number would be higher than that. The audio guide also said everything in this part of the world seems to be the “northernmost” something.
The next stop was advertised as a visit with a SAMI family with traditional SAMI outfits and reindeer. Actually, my map called it “Matkemuittut Somby SAMI Souvenir Shop”. It was a roadside souvenir shop with SAMI souvenirs, teepees showing how the SAMI people live, and there were reindeer. We did not see a family, just one man running the souvenir shop wearing a SAMI hat that has 4 points.
The next stop was at the North Cape, which is the northernmost point of Europe and Norway. Our bus driver gave us 2 1/4 hours for our visit, which was not guided – we were on our own. The North Cape location is designated as 71°10’21”. There is a very large building which has bathrooms, a movie theater, gift shop, restaurant, etc.
We were able to see the movie right away, but had to stand as the theater was packed. The movie showed the four seasons at the North Cape. Then we visited the gift shop where we purchased a little troll holding a replica of the globe. I also bought some Christmas napkins. That will probably be the extent of my souvenir purchases. Then I convinced Dave it was time to head outside into the cold to visit the “Globe”. The point is marked with a globe, erected in 1977, which has become the symbol of the North Cape. It was VERY cold and windy by the globe. Fortunately we were pretty well dressed for the weather. People were civilly standing in line, freezing, to get their pictures taken with the globe, including us. Of course there were a few “special” people who would come in from the side, but fortunately they were in the minority. We were fortunate that the weather cleared a little before we headed out to the globe. I don’t think they get many sunny days, and the audio guide indicated the North Cape was frequently blanketed with fog. We took one family’s picture and then they took our picture.
We walked around a few minutes and then decided we’d had enough of the cold and wind and headed back to the building. We were able to get a drink and we sat in a window seat in the warmth looking out at the globe for a short time. I was really glad we had as much time at the North Cape as we did because so often we feel rushed. This time I felt we had time to wander and enjoy the visit.
The bus took us back to Honningsvag and gave us a little tour of the town. The population is about 2300. Honningsvag, and the North Cape, are on an island, Magerøya, an area of 271 square miles. Gasoline is about $9.25 gallon. We saw lots of seagulls in the town! The driver told us the weather is impacted by the Gulf Stream and the harbors do not freeze over. The Arctic landscape we saw is interesting because there are no trees.
Our driver said this area is 80 miles north of the tree border. The no trees kind of surprised me because the elevation at the North Cape was only about 900’ above sea level (according to my compass app on my trusty iPhone). One interesting landmark in the town is the church, which was built in 1885.
During WWII, the whole town was destroyed except for the church. Our driver told us the people lived in the church for awhile as the town was rebuilt. We had the option of leaving the bus at this point and walking back to the ship, which we did. We passed a neat looking antique shop, unfortunately it was closed. None of the other shops looked that interesting. King crabs are a big revenue producer here, and we saw it on the menu at one restaurant for $160 – supposedly enough for 2 people though. We did not get any king crab.
We saw one other interesting landmark in town! They had turned a telephone booth into a library!
We walked back to the ship and grabbed a snack to hold us over for dinner. Tonight is suppose to be one of the better nights for viewing the northern lights, so we are hopeful. Dave stayed up last night until about 12:30am, but didn’t see anything. Unfortunately there is so much cloud cover, I’m afraid our chances are slim. But, we keep hoping.
8/25/2023 – Friday – Sea Day: Today is Lily’s birthday. Since Norway is 6 hours ahead of Florida, I was intently watching the clock. I think she gets up for school at 6:30AM, and my plan was to send her a message at 12:30PM Norway time. No matter what I did, I could not get a message through to her. No email, no text, nothing ☹️. I am bummed.
We crossed the Arctic Circle about 5:00AM, and we are continuing North to our next port Honningsvag for the North Cape. This will be as far North as we can go.
Last evening we had reservations at a new Specialty Restaurant onboard, The Catch at Rudi’s. It is primarily a seafood restaurant. Dave had crab cakes for an appetizer, shapewise, they looked like big, toasted marshmallows. My appetizer was interesting – seasoned salmon served under a smoke filled cloche. When the waiter lifted the cloche, the smell was amazing, and the salmon tasted good, too. For the entree, we both had surf and turf. The lobster tail was small, supposed to be 4”, but it was one of the best pieces of lobster I’ve had. The steak was good, too. We rarely order steak at any restaurant because Dave has a special seasoning he uses at home and restaurant steaks just can’t beat the flavor of Dave’s steaks. The steak we had last night was very tender, and had good flavor, but not as flavorful as Daves. For dessert, Dave had a cheese plate and I had Chantilly lace with chocolate sauce. My dessert was crème filled pastry ball shaped, with chocolate sauce poured over. It was a very good meal and we’ve made a reservation for another night.
Being a sea day, we slept in this morning. The captain said there is a possibility of seeing the northern lights tonight, so I don’t want to be too tired to stay up, just in case….
We went to a presentation on the Arctic, and the room was so cold we about froze!
Tonight was a formal night, so we got dressed up, but our interest in getting decked out is waning. Dave hates to wear ties and I can never find comfortable dressy shoes. We did dress for dinner then came back to our room and dressed down a little before going to the production show tonight, Spotlight Bar. The guys and girls in these production shows are really talented. Some great voices and energetic dancers.
Hope to see the northern lights tonight, but it is a bit overcast ☹️.
8/24/2023 – Thursday – Trondheim is the 3rd largest city in Norway with a population of about 205,300. It also has about 40,000 students. We have booked a short ships excursion “Nidaros Cathedral and Archbishops Palace”. I had to Google it, but Nidaros was the medieval name of Trondheim, as the city sits at the mouth of the River Nid. Thus the name, “Nidaros” Cathedral.
We board a bus and our guide gave us a tour of the city, pointing out the University, Octagonal Churches, Fortress, Shopping area, old part of town and new part of town. During the bus tour, we entered a tunnel that had a round-about! The bus driver went around a second time just so we could experience the round-about in a tunnel.
As seems to be common in Norway, Trondheim houses and buildings are mainly wood and Trondheim has experienced many fires, and then the city is reconstructed. The city was founded in 997 by King Olav and Trondheim was the capital of Norway until 1217. Our first stop was an overlook to see the city from above. Our guide pointed out the landmarks, and we could see our ship in the distance.
Our next stop was the old bridge, crossing the Nidelva River, constructed in 1681 after the 1681 fire.
On one side of the river was wooden warehouses built on stilts (pilings) as a fire preventative. But being along the river, the water could be used to extinguish fires, too. On the other side of the river was where the workers and laborers lived, and they would have to cross the bridge everyday to go to work.
We did not have time to wander in the area across the bridge, but our guide told us the houses have garages that are built into the hillside in what had been German bunkers during WWII. It is also the location of the Trampe bike lift. The bicycle rider puts their right foot on a footplate and leans forward, and is propelled uphill. Apparently it takes some getting used to because many people fall off. Our guide referred us to YouTube to see the bike lift in action.
After visiting the old bridge, we walked to Nidaros Cathedral, which is adjacent to the Archbishops Palace. Nidaros Cathedral was founded in 1152 and took 230 years to complete.
The front has sculptures depicting Norweigen kings and saints. One of the statures had a pilgrim type hat and the guide said it was to pay homage to (religious) pilgrims. Some pilgrims travel from Santiago de Compostela in Spain, to Nidaros Cathedral. One statue is of St. Denis who apparently was beheaded as he is holding his head in his hands.
Nidaros is the northernmost medieval cathedral in the world. It was the seat for the Catholic Archdiocese of Nidaros until 1537, when the Protestant reformation occurred it became the seat for the Lutheran Bishop. The interior is huge and seats about 1,850 people. I am not familiar with the mechanics of pipe organs, but there were many pipes under the beautiful rose window, and more in a transept.
St. Olaf is entombed in an unknown location below the cathedral. We visited the crypt, and saw where marble gravestones were smashed and then used in the walls in the 16th century.
Leaving the cathedral, we visited a side building on the way to the Archbishops palace to see the Crown Jewels. The medieval regalia have been lost and Carl Johan paid for the making of the essential items himself for his coronation in 1818. Unfortunately, photography was not allowed. We saw the coronation robes, the kings crown, the queens much smaller crown, and the prince’s similarly small crown. Also the kings and queens scepter and orb.
After seeing the Crown Jewels, we walked to the nearby Archbishops Palace. Silly me, I was expecting a Palace! Instead, this was a museum, with many artifacts from the construction and reconstruction of the cathedral and Archbishops Palace. There were displays of the many workshops belonging to the archbishop. Some of those pieces have been recovered and pieced together. During one excavation, the archbishops mint was found. It was displayed with a model so you could see what it looked like. The archbishop gained the right to strike coins for part of the 13th century and again in 1458. Signage indicated this mint was from about 1500 and is the oldest intact mint in Europe. In order to preserve the woodwork and tile, the entire workshop is kept moist. While we were there, misters came on to moisten the whole display.
We fished our visit to the cathedral and palace (?), and reboarded the bus. Our itinerary indicated we would visit the Kristiansted Fortress, but that didn’t happen.
Norway was invaded by Sweden in 1718 and the fortress played a crucial role in repelling the Swedish forces. Apparently Norwegians still hold a grudge against Sweden, as our guide said when they play soccer, they have to beat Sweden.
8/23/2023 – Wednesday – We booked an excursion in Andalsnes with a local company, Norway Excursions AS. One of the benefits is that it didn’t start until noon! We met at the visitors center and saw a short movie about the area. This area is important for extreme sports, and normal sports enthusiasts, too. The movie showed a couple snow skiing, some base jumpers which is no longer allowed, and mountain climbers on a rock on top of a peak. Also showed a little story about a troll: A camper was awakened by a large noise and went to explore. She saw little fairies flying around and then saw a huge troll. The troll lifted a whole tree to clear a path for her. Then the sun was rising, and the troll turned into stone because they only go out at night. If they are out in the daylight, they turn to stone, and that’s how all the mountains in this area was formed! It seems this area of Norway is “Troll crazy” and we see Troll statues and dolls everywhere.
After the movie we were loaded on two buses to be taken to the Troll Road (Trollstigen).
On the drive, our guide pointed out 3 mountain peaks and said their names were The King, The Queen and The Bishop. We had photo stop before heading up to admire the Stigfossen waterfall which has a vertical drop of 590 feet.
The Troll Road is one of the most visited roads in Norway. There are 11 hairpin bends, (each bend has its own name, which are long Norweigen names so I didn’t catch them) leading up to the summit which is 2,815 feet above sea level. The Troll Road is very narrow, built in 1936, and the bus drivers must have nerves of steel. As Dave said, the road was not made for the huge tour buses, but they go up and down all day long during the summer months. It is really exciting when the bus meets a camper, or an idiot driver. The bus drivers seem to know how to pass each other, but the other drivers have no clue. At the top there is a 10 minute walk to get to a platform at 2,625 feet that hangs over the side of the mountain, but has really nice views. It almost looks like an airplane.
A little frustrating as we only had 30 minutes at the top. We literally had only enough time to walk to the platform, take a few pictures, walk back to the parking lot, make a quick pit stop and get back on the bus. It would have been nice if we could have had a snack and visited the gift shop, but that didn’t happen.
The bus took us back down the Troll Road. Before the trip I was concerned I’d get car sick, because of the hairpin bends in the road, but I didn’t! When we got to the bottom of the Troll Road, the bus took us to see the Troll Wall (Trollveggen). The Troll Wall is the tallest vertical rock face in Europe, about 3,600 feet tall. At its steepest point, the summit ridge hangs over the base of the wall by 160 feet. This is where many base jumpers jumped, and many lost their lives, which is why it is now illegal.
Can you see the rocks along the side of the road in the picture above? Our guide told us there is a rock along the road to memorialize camper vans that crashed along the Troll Road (she was kidding of course).
We pretty much lucked out with the weather today. Apparently the Troll Road and Troll Wall are frequently covered in fog, or it is pouring down rain. We did have some misting, but no rain really until after the tour ended. There was some fog, but I was satisfied with what we could see.
8/22/2023 – Tuesday – Today our port call was Flam, Norway. It is a tiny village with a population of 450 people, but they have over 1 million visitors a year. It is down a fjord, seems remote to us, but it is a beautiful setting.
So far our weather has been very nice. In the mornings we start out with jackets, but by afternoon, jackets aren’t needed. We did have a few sprinkles of rain today, but more of a light mist than anything.
While the scenery is beautiful, we were disappointed in our tour today. We started out on a bus, driving through one of Norways longest traffic tunnels, and drove maybe 20 minutes to Gudvangen, which has a Viking village. We arrived about 9:00 am, but the Viking Village didn’t open until 10:00. Gudvangen is located at the end of the Nærøyfjord (fjord) which is 11 miles long and only 1600 feet wide in spots.
Many of the houses in Norway have sod roofs, which according to our guide, aids in the heating and cooling.
Nærøyfjord Is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which is probably why we stopped here, and also as a bathroom break. We reboarded the bus and drove awhile longer and stopped at Tvindefossen Waterfall to take pictures. It is a pretty sight with the water falling 500 feet.
We continued to Voss, which is a bit larger town. On our drive the scenery was beautiful with many smaller waterfalls (or falling water streams?), sheer rock faces on mountains, green valleys with farm houses tucked here and there.
We saw lots of what our guide called Troll Marshmallows! Like Iceland, Trolls seem to be very popular in Norway, too.
Troll marshmallows are grasses, maybe similar to hay, that are encapsulated in white wrapping and then used as animal feed in the winter. I like the name Troll Marshmallows!
Both our guides yesterday and today mentioned how most of their cars were electric. Dave mentioned to me how odd it is that everything uses electric as opposed to gas or oil, yet one of their biggest exports is oil, and we’ve seen some oil platforms that are huge. We saw a gas station and I was calculating the price of gas. I asked our guide if the price was for a liter, and first she asked me to repeat the question, and then said she didn’t know (but someone else did). So the price of gas is about $7.75 per gallon!
We arrived in Voss and had about 1.5 hours free time. The population of Voss is around 16,000. Our guide said if you can’t find what you’re looking for in Voss, then you don’t need it! I guess this was planned to give us some shopping time and maybe to grab a snack. We did buy a snack here and mostly just walked around. Voss was bombed during WWII, and the only buildings left standing were the church, originally built in 1277, and the Fleischers Hotel.
The church was closed so we could not go inside, but we walked around the churchyard.
We met up with our group at the train station, and we are taking two trains back to the ship. The first train goes from Voss to Myrdal, and was a regularly scheduled train. The second train was the Flambama Scenic Railway and went from Myrdal to Flam where our ship was docked.
The train takes about 1 hour to travel 12.5 miles, passing through 20 tunnels totaling 3.75 miles. We were traveling downhill as Myrdal is at 2,840 feet above sea level and Flam is only 6 feet above sea level. Inside one of the tunnels, the train makes a 180° turn (inside a mountain!). We made a photo stop at the 280 foot Kjosfossen Waterfall and everyone on the train was able to get off the train to see the waterfall and take pictures. There was a woman with a portable boombox up on some ruins doing an artistic dance and playing music when we stopped at the waterfall. She was not doing it for donations, as she was some distance away from the stopped train. She was just expressing herself.
We arrived in Flam and exited the train to huge crowds of people who I assume were waiting to board the train.
Back in our stateroom, we were sitting on our HUGE balcony 😁, and I was writing this blog. The sun was so hot my iPad shut down and gave me a message that I had to wait to use my iPad until it cooled down!
We had dinner in the Reserve dining area again. They had a pork dish that they called smoked pork. I was thinking about ordering it, but decided on haddock. Since I asked about the pork, the waiter brought me a piece…it was ham!
After dinner instead of going to the Princess Theater, we went to the Vista Lounge to hear Foggie Flax again! The Vista lounge was packed and we had to find folks to let us share their table! He is really good! I’m wondering if anyone went to the Princess theater to see the magician tonight!
8/21/2023 – Monday -Bergen, Norway: We booked a Ship Excursion, as we have scheduled for most ports this trip. We especially liked the start time of 1:00PM 😁. Bergen is the second largest city in Norway, after Oslo, with a population of about 290,000. Our first stop was the Gamle Museum, which is an open air museum. It is a collection of 55 old houses which were threatened with being torn down, most of which originally were in the center of Bergen. It looks like a small town, and is built to resemble what Bergen looked like in the mid 1800’s. Bergen’s house were primarily made of wood and therefore susceptible to fires. The museum is normally closed on Mondays, but was opened for us. Of the 55 houses, 5 of the houses were open for us to enter and explore. We saw the Baker’s house, the Sea Captain’s house, the Barber’s house, The Dentists house (which also hosed the umbrella merchant, and the surgeon), and the House of Craft and Trade which was the printer, bookbinder and photographer. The property was originally owned from 1784 to 1993 by a family that built a shipyard, a summerhouse, and later a park in the form of an English garden. A few of the houses are still private residences! I tried to get more information from our guide about that, but she didn’t seem to know the circumstances.
The next stop was the Bergenhus Fortress. The oldest part dates from around 1270, it is built from stone, and in medieval times was the Royal residence. Part of the complex includes the Rosenkrantz Tower. The tower was named after governor Erik Rosenkrantz (1519-1575). The Governors quarters are at the top, but the structure also contains dungeons. It is connected to the Royal hall, known today as Haakon’s Hall. In the 12th and 13th centuries, it was the site of royal coronations and weddings. Haakon’s Hall was damaged during WWII but has been restored. Inside Haakon’s Hall is a tapestry that supposedly is also a calendar. Frankly, I found it very plain compared to other tapestry’s we have seen.
Our next stop was in the Hanseatic part of town, who were German merchants. Our guide said they weren’t allowed to go further north, so traders from the north would come down to Bergen and would trade with merchants from the south, making Bergen a very important port with a lot of trading. We visited the Schotstuene (a reconstruction), which were assembly rooms for the German merchants (1360-1761) and apprentices. Norway is very cold, and the German merchants and apprentices were able to get warm meals, hold parties, court proceedings, schooling, games and religious ceremonies. Our guide said if someone was being punished, they would have to pay a fine of a barrel of beer, and beer was very expensive. This complex also held apprentices, I believe they were learning about seafaring. Our guide said their lives were very difficult, and it sounded like a lot of hazing went on, which resulted in several of the boys losing their lives. These boys probably came from poverty and if they survived their apprenticeship, they could make a good living. We saw the kitchen, which was very rustic. A pit for a fire was in the middle and pots hung over the fire. The pots could be raised or lowered, depending on how much heat was required. There was very little ventilation, so this room would have been unbearably hot and smoky in the summer months.
Leaving the kitchen, we walked past a building that had a window in the floor showing a much earlier relic, maybe before 1000.
Our last stop were the wooden buildings along the waterfront which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. We passed a couple of sites along the way…
These buildings are Hanseatic heritage commercial buildings, established around 1350. The original buildings were destroyed by fire, but there are some stone cellars remaining that date to the 15th century. These are a combination of old buildings and reconstructions.
Our tour was over and we returned to the ship. Spent a few minutes on our balcony enjoying the view.
We missed our lunch due to the timing of the tour, so we went to early dinner and the early show in the theater. The entertainer was Foggie Flax, and I was not expecting much. He was the lead singer for the Liverpool band Mercury, but he is very talented. He impersonates many famous vocalists, and entertained us tonight with covers of Roy Orbison, Joh Denver, Rod Stewart, Michael Jackson, Paul McCarthy, and more. He is also a comedian. We really enjoyed his show.
8/20/2023 – Sunday – Sea Day so not much today, and no pictures! It’s a nice day to chill out and relax. Dave and I actually like Sea Days. Tonight is our first of three formal nights, traditionally the captains welcome, with a champagne fountain. Our first port is tomorrow, so more action.
We had breakfast in the Reserve class dining room, and then went to a “Destination Presentation” on our first two ports: Bergen and Flam. Julio Delgado-Corredor was the presenter, and he was quite entertaining. His pointer didn’t work, so he used a mop handle to point to the screen. It was pretty obvious the pointer failure was planned as the mop was very handy. But he made the presentation fun to watch. Bergen is the second largest city in Norway with 290,000 people and Flam is very small with only 600 people! However, we keep hearing how beautiful the scenery will be.
Next we went to an Enrichment Lecture by Phil Demeulenaere on “Norway and Denmark – The World’s Happiest Places”. He started out OK, giving some facts on Norway and Denmark, compared to the United States. At about the 15 minute mark out of a 45 minute presentation, Phil said Norweigens do things that make themselves happy, and started talking about himself and his wife, showing slides of his family and then items in his own house which he had purchased from all over the world as this is his 99th cruise. We would have left, but there were people sitting on both sides of us we would have to have climbed over. We will not attend any more of his enrichment lectures.
We attended the Cruise Critic’s meet and greet and met some of the people we had been chatting with online. Several of the ship officers attended and discussed their responsibilities which was interesting.
We had a light lunch in the International Cafe – I had pea soup and lamb quiche and Dave had a tuna salad sandwich. Then we went to another “Destination Presentation” with Julio. He gave us an overview of Andalsnes and Trondheim, which are two more of the ports we will visit. Julio really is entertaining, and used the mop again as a pointer. At one point he could not reach what he wanted to point out, so one of the stage hands came out and lifted him up. Physically, he looks like he has the same physique as Danny DeVito, so not very tall. He definitely keeps your attention in the presentations, although he has an accent making him, maybe, a little difficult to understand.
Usually the “Destination Presentations” push the ship shore excursions and focus on what you see if you take a ship shore excursion. Julio has not recommended or even mentioned one ship shore excursion. He has really talked about where the ship will be docked and highlights on each port, and some information on how to reach various sights using taxis or public transportation.
We checked out a new restaurant on Princess, Rudi’s Fresh Catch, but could not get an answer at the reservation line. So we’ll need to try again tomorrow. I’m a little concerned all the specialty restaurants will be booked since there are so many people onboard.
We heard there are 4000 passengers onboard, where capacity is 3660. “Capacity” is when there are 2 people in every stateroom, but many staterooms have sofa beds, or overhead bunks. Since we have seen a lot of kids onboard, I’m sure there are more than 2 people in a lot of staterooms.
We also checked out “Vines” which is one of the bars onboard. They had a couple of Chardonnay wines on their menu that the restaurant didn’t have last night. Dave is feeling optimistic 😁.
It is formal night, so we got into our dressier clothes and headed down to dinner about 7:00. We thought we were being really smart and would avoid a lot of people because of the Captains welcoming and Champagne waterfall. We were wrong! Apparently lots of others had the same thought. Supposedly since we have “Reserve” dining, we’re not suppose to have to wait in line….we certainly didn’t have to wait as long as the non-Reserve people, but we did have a short wait. For dinner we both had a crab cake appetizer, and a seafood platter for the entree. The seafood platter had 2 pieces of fish (salmon and ?), shrimp, and scallops on mashed potatoes with carrots and broccoli. The scallops and shrimp were very good, but the fish was dry and overcooked. We had to wait a long time for the entree, and the waiter kept coming by apologizing.
The evening entertainment is a production show, which means lots of singers and dancers. The theater was packed! Like every seat was taken! We got there a little bit early, and still had to search for seats, and people poured in after us! The show was very good and we recognized most of the songs. Of course the costumes were beautiful, too.
Dave has started getting a Milky Way martini after the show for his bedtime beverage. But he did find some good Chardonnay, which is a good thing!
8/19/2023 – Saturday: Embarkation Day – not much today! We booked a transfer with Princess to travel from Heathrow to the ship. The Princess transfer is less expensive than hiring a car, and more expensive than the bus, National Express. We have taken the bus before, but last year when using the National Express bus to visit Windsor, the return bus from Windsor to Heathrow never showed up. So, we are a bit soured on National Express. It takes about two hours to get from Heathrow to Southampton, and lots of traffic even on a Saturday. Our driver took us to the wrong dock in Southampton and had to back track to get to the correct dock. So that was a bit exciting. We got to the ship about 12:30 and embarkation was pretty quick. Our stateroom is M108, and is a “ Reserve Class Mini-Suite”. Reserve class means we get a special dining room. Mini-Suite means a balcony and larger stateroom.
We have a huge balcony, and can look forward, backwards and to the side (port side). Our stateroom is on top of the bridge. The bridge sticks out on the sides of the ship…kinda like a hammerhead shark. So our balcony sticks out over the side, too. I don’t know why some of the pictures are blurry ☹️. They’re fine on my camera, but when I post to this blog, some of them look blurry.
We got settled in, unpacked, etc., and checked out a few places on the ship. By 6:00 we decided to go for a before dinner drink in the Elite Lounge, which is reserved for frequent cruisers. They serve appetizers. Dave wanted to order a Chardonnay, and was very disappointed in their selection. This is probably the straw that broke the camels back if he doesn’t like the wines. I had a glass of Prosecco, which was OK. Then we went to dinner in the Reserve Class dining room. Basically the difference is an additional entree and appetizer, and more attentive service. Dave had a pork dish with scallops, and ordered a rosé, which I think he thought was OK. I ended up drinking water 😳.
We went to two games after dinner. For the first game, they played a part of a song and then stopped. You had to guess the next line of the song. We did OK, but of course we didn’t win. The second game was like Jeopardy with categories of History, Music, Geography and Movies. We got 12 points out of 20 and felt pretty good. The winners had 17 points ☹️. But, there are usually teams that play these games, and Dave and I are a team of 2!
We went to the evening show which was “ A Tribute to Dusty Springfield” with Sammy Lomax. She did a good job and put on a good show.
8/17/2023 -8/18/2023 Thursday/Friday: We left home for our flight to Newark, then we get a connecting flight to Heathrow. We had a 2.5 hour layover scheduled in Newark, as we like to have plenty of time between flights, just in case of delays. Good thing! Due to thunderstorms and lightening in Tampa, our flight to Newark was delayed 2 hours! Needless to say, we were concerned with making our flight from Newark to Heathrow. Fortunately, the pilot made up some time, and we actually had an hour in Newark. Considering we had to change terminals by taking a bus, we were relieved to get to our gate for Heathrow as boarding started. Whew! We had premium economy seats, which are like the old business class. We got better food and drinks than economy (supposedly), but the food was pretty awful.
We arrived at Heathrow at 8:00AM, an on time arrival. But, the UK is 5 hours ahead of Florida, so it was 3:00AM “our time”. We arrived at terminal 2 and we are staying at the Hilton at terminal 4, which is the same Hilton we stayed when we were disembarked due to COVID in 2022. We kind of remember our way around. Saturday morning we are suppose to meet our transfer from Heathrow to the ship, also in terminal 4, so very convenient.
Back to our arrival, it is a very long walk from getting off the plane to going through customs. The good news is the customs process is very easy with certain passports, including the USA, but the lines are very long. So a long walk, and a long line ☹️. Going through customs, you put your passport on a reader and stare into a screen. If the computer thinks everything matches, the gate opens and lets you into the UK. Our luggage made it to the UK! Another Yea! We were able to grab a luggage trolley, which was a good thing, as we had another long walk to the “Tube” where you can catch an underground train from terminal 2 to terminal 4. Then another long walk to the Hilton which is attached to terminal 4 by way of a very long tunnel. So we landed at 8:00AM, and got to the hotel about 9:45AM. So even though it’s an airport hotel, it is a bit of a process.
Good news! They have a room ready and we checked right in! With out jet lag, we just chilled for awhile, and caught a little shut eye, but not too much.
Our plan is to go to lunch at one of the same places we ate last year. It is the Blackbird Pub located at the Earls Court stop on the Piccadilly tube line. This is the area where I had my nails done last year. There are lots of shops and restaurants at this stop, and I would think it would be a great area to stay in if you were visiting London. It is not the center of town, but transportation is close, and it’s probably cheaper than central London.
We went to Blackbird Pub and we both had mini-meat pies for lunch, served with red wine gravy and mashed potatoes. Dave had Chicken, Bacon and Leek. I had steak and mushrooms. While the restaurant was much busier than when we visited last year, we enjoyed the mini-meat pies again. I’m only posting one picture because they both looked exactly the same! Sorry that the gravy is the highlighted item and not the pie….Dave is usually my photographer, but I took this picture ☹️.
This evening we will eat at the restaurant in the Hilton, and probably crash early to try to catch up on some of that lost sleep.