Scotland

Today was our whirlwind highlights tour of Edinburgh. Bear in mind that the port is a 2 hour drive from the city of Edinburgh, so already we lose four hours to just traffic.  So, what can one cram into a five hour visit?   Edinburgh castle, half of the Royal Mile, a visit to Saint Giles Church, a lunch at the Saint Giles café, and a visit to every single tartan and cashmere store (which is almost every other shop) on the friggin' Royal Mile. Tom finally found the Graham Clan tartan bow tie he so desperately wanted; at the shop at the port, five minutes from the ship.  OK, I'm a little weary and probably a little cranky.....the tie looks really good.

Bus passengers:

The day was foggy, wet and windy. With all the wind swirling around, the fog droplets made a pretty good sideways rain, covering both sides of my glasses.  But Scotland weather certainly lived up to its reputation.

We attempted to follow the Rick Steves Audio Europe Walking Tour of the Royal Mile, but one of us did not have it downloaded to his phone. So sharing it was a little complicated, not to mention we kept walking past the thing we were supposed to see, or not seeing the things he was talking about or probably just missing parts entirely due to us being covered up by rain gear. 

All in all, we would love to return and spend more time in both the city and the country.

Looking down the Royal Mile from Castle Hill.

The line for tickets.

Castle views:

This one is from the bus as we left... The fog kept dropping... And yes, that is Tom's GoPro photo-bombing my picture.

The sunniest it got all day:

We're now back on the balcony with our own cocktail hour.

I'm feeling a lot better already, 😉

Somewhere crossing the North Sea

Today we have a sea day, also known as sleep in and relax.   After we left the protected fjords of Bergen, we hit the open ocean last night and there was a bit of rocking and rolling.  Or as the captain said, 'a little bit of weather and waves, but not so bad'.   It was a perfect night to retire after dinner and watch tv or a movie from the bed.  And as promised, it cleared up around noon today and we now have sunny skies on our way to Glasgow/Greenock, Scotland.

Tom reading on the balcony.

Sea days are interesting....there are a lot of activities onboard, 90% of which don't capture our imagination, but they are there for those who do.  We have come to prefer reading, people watching, visiting with table mates and of course, we still have to check out the 'Once In A Lifetime' shopping opportunities.  Tom couldn't help himself at this last event and now has 5 new port t-shirts; Kristiansand, Glasgow, Cork, Boston and New York.  That's in addition to the 2 purchased a week ago showing the full Baltic Itinerary and Russia.

Which is not to say we don't have opportunities.  Everyone does a cruise vacation a little differently. And every cruise I do things a little differently, although I am more of a creature of habit than not.  Even so, on this cruise I have yet to play Trivia (I know!) or get in the jacuzzi or watch anything on the Movies Under the Stars.   I haven't worked out at the gym, either, but I did find it two days ago while wandering the ship.  Nor have I played bingo, had a massage or footprint analysis(??) or eaten at a specialty restaurant.  (We did eat at the Chef's Table one night, and it was terrific, and so much delicious food.  I was full after the appetizers, but hey, I did my best.). Other offerings that I have not yet attempted are gambling in the casino, shuffleboard, basketball, golf or Zumba classes.   One of these days I must try one of the above, but don't hold your breath.

Walking down the halls this morning I saw a fair number of departure luggage tags, so I presume we will again have people departing the ship in this next port as we have had happen all along.  This is the first cruise we have been on with people arriving and departing at so many different ports; I imagine the logistics are crazy with this happening so frequently.  And we all were asked to present ourselves for UK immigration inspectors onboard today.  Tonight we have to turn in our passports for Irish immigration, having completed Scotland immigration before noon today for tomorrow's arrival.

Tonight is another formal night, so we'll have appetizers early during cocktail hour and then head off for a nice dinner and a show.  

Greetings from Bergen, Norway

The We were once again blessed with a beautiful, sunny day. Upon arrival around 10 this morning we took a shuttle bus into town. We walked around the old town and saw many interesting traditional buildings in the harbor area and the fishmarket. We didn't do too much else, but here are a few pictures from our day. Oh, and we did buy reindeer sausage.

There's not much else going on today. Tom is probably going to go take a Jacuzzi, and I might watch a movie or I might take a nap or I might do both. Tomorrow is a sea day and we plan on resting up before our arrival in Glasgow/Greenock, Scotland.

Kristiansand, Norway

9/11

I cannot start this post without mentioning what happened 15 years ago today and utter a silent prayer for all those who were lost that day, and for those who's lives were forever changed, which is all of us to one degree or another.

We were given clearance to leave the ship in the city of Kristansand.  We had booked a tour, mostly because of the archipelago boat ride that came with it, and we're glad that the extremely rainy and windy night had turned into a partly sunny morning.  After a countryside tour (lakes, treed hills, lotsa rocks) we found ourselves in Lillesand.  Which was was pretty much closed up for the day as it was Sunday and everything is closed in Norway on Sunday.  But it did make for some pretty photos without worrying about people being in them.  

We then got on a boat with quite an experienced captain (who lives in the area) for an excursion through the rocky archipelago surrounding Kristiansand.  The extreme southern coastal location makes this area the big summer getaway for Norwegians.  Most of the islands (hundreds of them) are summer home locations, each with boat docks as that is the only way to travel between the islands and the mainland.  Some of the homes are year round due to what they call mild winter weather.  Their heat wave hit today, when it got up to 65 or so and they announced 'after a rainy and windy summer, we finally got summer weather today in the fall'.  I didn't have the courage to ask what they meant by mild winters.  But while we were bundled up on deck with long pita, jackets, hats and lap robes, we passed about five homes where we saw people sunning themselves as if they were on a Southern California beach in July.

I previously mentioned the local captain, who drove our rather large boat (100 passenger) through some very narrow passages, barely wider than the boat itself plus performed a nifty little chicane turn through two overlapping boat docks.   

Here are pictures of the boat and some of the homes on the tour along with a few from Lillesand.

The only open shop in the whole town

Yeah, we just drove through that...

...in this!

Dining

Up to last night we had a table for the four of us, late seating.   Between Happy Hour drinks, appetizers, soup and/or salad, entree and dessert, dinner was at least two hours ending after 10.  And because of our early tours, we pretty much ate and went to bed.  Not the best for us or our digestion.  And nobody was remotely hungry at breakfast.

We had previously decided to switch to earlier dining for this leg, as well as to try and eat less... soup OR salad, skip dessert...yeah, right.

We found out last night we were still at the same table and time, but without Ken and Sandy. 😞 We missed all the laughs last night.

We told Jigger and Melissa--our waiter and assistant--we didn't like finishing so late because of the full stomach and early bedtime... And they were wonderful.  Brought our food immediately and we were the first ones out of the dining room, well before some other tables even ordered.  To be fair, they had just joined the ship that day and were a bit lost on finding the correct room.

Of great humor to us was the table of six just behind us.  It was three couples from the east coast.  Only one couple found the right room.  Two couples wandered into an Anytime room and sat down, waiting for their friends.  For twenty minutes.  Meanwhile, the first couple was also waiting....

'Do you think they are lost?  Where could they be?  Maybe you should go call'

'The dining room is on their card... Let's

just wait'

'George, you should go look for them'

'It's just now eight, they'll be here'

'Well then I'll go'

'No, you don't know where the room is'

'I'm not even hungry, now'

About 10 minutes later the other two couples show up, with a long tale about the two men looking all over their incorrect dining room for the 'missing' couple.  Finally someone looked at their cruise card and discovered they were in the wrong room.  

Then began the musical chairs:

'It's too cold in here'

'Move over one, I'm under a draft'

'Maybe I should sit over there, it's farther away'

'No, stay where you are.  You'll hate it more over here, I know you'.

'Geez, after all this walking and rushing around I'm hungry'.

At about this time Tom turned to Jigger and said "It's getting too warm in here, can you turn down the heat?"  Leaving the other table speechless.  But we laughed.

Today, Sunday, finds us in Norway.  This time down south on Kristiansand and Lillesand.  More on that in my next post.

Turnaround Day

Saturday found us in bright and sunny Copenhagen for the transition from the Baltic cruise to the transatlantic.  Sadly, this is also where Ken and Sandy left us, headed to Amsterdam for a few days and then home.

We opted for a quick trip around Copenhagen on the Hop On Hop Off bus.  Well, it was supposed to be quick...but ended up twice as long as they told us due to some mechanical difficulties.  All we had really wanted was a loop trip with narration, and one quick stop at the Little Mermaid to see her from the front.  After three hours, half of it spent waiting for a broken bus, we grabbed an Uber ride back to the port and gave a ride to stuck crew member, as well.  Lucky us, she works at the champagne bar and said to stop by any time for a glass on the house.

It's time to head out for a tour, so I'll come back later and tell you about dining.

Stockholm

Yesterday, 9/8, was our visit to Stockholm.  The previously mentioned folding dock can be seen on a You Tube video, because I failed to take a photo of it.  Naturally.

What I did remember to photograph is here.  We very much enjoyed the Vasa museum, which showcases a 1640 warship for the king that sank only 20 minutes after launch and was buried in freshwater mud until 1961.  The reasons for sinking were several, but they all boil down to the fact that nobody would tell the king 'that design won't float'.  Narrow beam, top heavy design, loaded with heavy cannon, open cannon ports at launch, and a little breeze, all combined to sink the Vasa.  Which is fortunate for us, because we now have a beautifully restored ship to look at.  The museum is a stunner, and we wished we had more than an hour here.

Sandy and Ken had seen this ship at the beginning of the restoration 47 years ago and tell us back then the museum was open air (they actually built the building around the ship after they put the puzzle together) and the ship was only rebuilt from the bottom up to the waterline.

After the Vasa, we went to Old Town, Gamla Stan, where I people watched and the others continued with a walking tour. I got the better end of the deal as I got to see the same sights, without touch standing, and I was able to browse a few antique shops on the square.

Fountain which is still used to fill water bottles.

Narrowest street in Stockholm, only one  person at a time.

Lastly, we did see the former bank building where the phenomenon known as Stockholm Syndrome originated.  We're told that one of the women hostages married one of the bank robbers while he was in prison, and after his release they went on to have four children and are still married after 40+ years.

That, my friends, gets us back to our rest day today, and our return to Copenhagen tomorrow.  

We sadly say goodbye to Sandy and Ken tomorrow as they head off to Amsterdam and then back to California.  They have been terrific cruising partners and I cannot believe we will not have them on our next two weeks of travel. 😱