Museum weekend

    It was warm in Oslo this weekend, I'm glad I brought along one decent short sleeved shirt to walk around the museums. I went to the Viking Ship Museum and a couple of close by maritime museums. They were located away from the central part of the city so I took a water taxi to get there. The taxi passed 4 cruise ships in the harbor, so as you can guess it was busy.

   The Viking Ship museum was built especially to show 3 ships from the 800 AD era that were excavated in the early 1900's in northwest Norway. They were all working-type boats that were eventually used as funeral ships for local kings and queens. They were on display with some hand carved sleds and a wagon, along with other relics buried with the ships.

   One of the maritime museums housed the M.S. Fram, which was specially built in the 1880's for ice exploration. It made two Arctic expeditions with some (locally) famous Norwegian explorers trying to be the first to get to the North Pole. In one of the voyages, the ship became trapped in packed ice and stayed stuck for 3 years. The crew left with enough provisions for 5 years so they had enough to survive. But with the ship stranded, the members of the main expedition team decided the only way they could make it to the pole was by dog sled. So they set off on a year-long trek over the ice but only got to 86 degrees north before they gave up and turned back south. The sled teams eventually were picked up in northern Russia by another ship and they returned to Norway around the same time the Fram got free of the ice jam.

   The Fram later made a trip to Antactica with Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen who became the first person to make it to the South Pole in 1911. The ship is now housed inside it's own museum and visitors are allowed onboard and even below deck. You can guess how cool I thought that was.  Outside the Fram Museum is the M.S. Gjoa (don't ask me to pronounce it) which was the first ship to make it through the Northwest Passage over the top of Canada to Alaska, in 1906.

   And while I'm not fond of Indian food, I couldn't help but think how great dinner would be at such an authenic ethnic restaurant, so I took a picture.

   The main strip in Oslo is Karl Johans Gate which is pedestrian-only and about 3 miles long from the Royal Palace to the main train station. All along it are tall buildings, shops, bars and cafes and it's always crowded. On Saturday night there were thousands of young people (20 something's) out cruising from bar to bar. Every few blocks there were street musicians, some pretty good but also a couple of gypsies playing mostly unintelligible stuff on acordians and tamburines.

   As I walked down the hill towards my hotel, from a distance I heard what sounded like the entire drum section from the Notre Dame marching band. When I got up close, it turned out to be one teenager with a set of drums and a couple hundred people standing around going crazy and cheering him on; he was terrific. The sound bounced off the tall buildings and you could hear him for blocks.

   With thousands of young people out, many of them drunk long before the bars closed at 3am, you can imagine what the street looked like last night. But this morning I was out at 9:30 and it was perfectly clean; every trash can even had fresh bag liners. There were families out walking with little kids and dogs and the only hint of last night were a few small puddles of water that hadn't yet evaporated from the cleaning crews' excellent work.

Oslo

    I made it to Oslo late this afternoon after a 7 hr train ride from Bergen. The trip turned out to be as scenic as advertised and I had a nose-print seat at a clean window. The scenery changed a few times along the way from coastal salt air, to fresh water mountain streams, then to almost blinding white over the top. The highest point was about 4,000 ft and the bright sun and white snow made me wish I had sun glasses. There were country hillside scenes of horses and sheep with new lambs, also some long tunnel stretches. No moose though ;-(

   At first look, Oslo is a very pretty city and there were big crowds roaming the main streets around the harbor after dinner. The city population is around 500,000, double the size of Bergen, but it looks much bigger. It seemed like the whole city was out tonight.

   I'm staying at a Thon Hotel not too far from the harbor. The online rate was good and the room is big so it'll be a comfortable place to spend the week. My legs are starting to feel all the walking I've been doing. Tomorrow the Viking Ship Museum ..... and lots of exploring the city. Have a good weekend, everyone !

Last day in Bergen

    I got my train ticket and then did some shopping and sight seeing. I went to the aquarium and was probably the only adult there without a little kid in tow, but the fish didn't let on if they noticed. I was down at the warf and saw some construction going on. There were guys working with actual logs replacing the floor in one of the old wooden warehouses; talk about authentic restoration! 

   I managed to get all my photos on Flickr; they're not organized other than being in thumbnail format so you can go through them pretty quick. Here's the link if you're looking for something to do: http://www.flickr.com/photos/19368857@N02/sets/72157617530107651/ Sorry but you'll have to copy and paste the link in your browser address to get to the site. I'm not smart enough (yet) to send it to you in the quick format.

   Off to Oslo tomorrow for my last stop on this trip, enjoy your weekend everyone.

Back in Bergen

    We got into Bergen on Tuesday afternoon and it was an easy transfer to my hotel. It was raining so I didn't get around as much as I'd like, but I did find the train station and a place close to the fish market to have an outdoor beer.

   After a long night's sleep, today I found the martime and cultural museums. They were on a far side of town (pretty too) after a big walk up to another old church. Funny how you can hardly get me into a church at home, but it's the opposite here (even though I don't stay long).

   I did a little window shopping at the old warf area where some of the original wooden buildings are now used as art studios and shops for tourists. It started to rain again in the afternoon so luckily I found myself close to a another bar with an awning. I relaxed a bit and watched people walk by until the rain stopped.

   Tomorrow I go the train station to buy my ticket for Friday's trip to Oslo. I saw a sign at the station yesterday saying I need to buy the ticket a day ahead. The train ride is around 8 hours through the mountains, so it should be pretty out the window.

   Is there such a thing as scenery fatigue? I'm having luck uploading my 400 (or so) pictures onto Flickr. I'll include the link on the blog after I organize them a bit, it's pretty messy in there now.

Monday

    Can you believe I'm still on the ship? I haven't spent this much time at sea since I had a uniform on. And I almost totally forgot it is Memorial Day at home, so I hope everyone enjoys the 3 day weekend.

   We pulled into Trondheim this morning at 6:30 and I was off the ship right away. I ran into some bad luck though, the fish market is closed on Mondays and the cathederal didn't open for the day until after the ship pulled away. I had a good 2 hour walk though and it was interesting to watch the rush hour, especially with all the grown adults using bicycles.

   I took a couple of interesting shots, the front of the cathederal and a viking gargoyle. There's also a street full of restored buildings on a canal that are used as shops and studios. Tomorrow the at-sea part of my trip ends. We pull into Bergen at 2:30 and I transfer to a hotel for the night.

   I booked another 2 nights at the same place and got a good rate at an internet site I read about in the Sunday NY Times. There's lots to see in the city, including a couple of museums I missed last time I was here. After Bergen my plan is to take a train to Oslo for a few days. It's supposed to be a great place and there's a viking museum I especially want to see.  My agenda is not firm on my last week here, so if I see something cool, I might just go with it. It's been a great ship ride, the weather couldn't have been better.

   It feels good to get my sea legs back (for a little while). I said goodbye to my dinner table mates tonight, Mario and Aida from Chile were with me the whole time. They're both in their 70's and speak English pretty well; it's nice to have someone to talk with now and then.

   I'm not sure if I'll keep up the daily posts on dry land, but if there's any cool pictures I'll try as I get a chance. I return home on June 5th. I have a Flickr site that I'll be loading all my pictures onto once I get an internet connection that's quicker than the ship's. I'll send a link once I get it done in case you have some time to kill at work one day ;-)

Sleepy Sunday

   Another perfect day sailing the coast. The sun is out, the water calm and visits are only at the small ports. Very little of the sailing is in open waters, most is between islands and the coast, so that tends to keep the water smooth. These ships are very maneuverable and the pilots are experienced; they sail within 100 yards of rocky islands and do it at 15 knots. That's too fast and close for a navy guy like me.

   We passed by a mountain with a hole in it, the tour director said it happened back in the last ice age. There's ancient Norwegian mythology that said the hole was caused by an arrow from one of their gods. The captain took two passes at the island, for passengers sitting on either side of the observation lounge.

   A couple of practical things ... There's a picture of a gasoline station and gas is 10.40 something. Let's see .... 6 Kroner to the Dollar and 4 liters to the gallon, that around $7.00 a gallon. Diesel is a little less. At these prices, my Touareg would be in the garage a lot.

   Also here's what my stateroom desk looks like. Which one do I shave with, and which do I talk into?

   At one of the stops today there were ladies on the pier with little tables of hand knitted souvineers; the only shop open was a 7-11 type convenience store. They have a strange assortment of stuff to sell; I'll have a hot dog, a slurpie and a guitar, please.

   Tomorrow at 6:00 am we pull into Trondheim again. I'll go back to the cathederal and also head to the busiest place in town, the fish market of course.

Lofotens, Part 2

   Today we transited the Lofotens again, only this time it was during the afternoon, not like last time after midnight. There was a touch of rain in the morning but the afternoon turned sunny and gorgeous again. We made a 90 minute stop at Svolvaer, the "supposed" most scenic town in the islands. It was nice for sure, but nothing like the rest of the scenery.  We started today at the north side of the islands and took a couple of narrow channels to make it to the south side, from here it's back to the coast on the mainland.

   The makeup of passangers is hard for me to figure out. I don't think there are more than 2 Americans on board right now. There are maybe a couple dozen Brits at most and aside from one conversation I heard in French today, it mostly seems German with a few Norwegians. Although the German and Norwegian languages are very different, I can't tell them apart yet. The Norwegians seem more 'town to town' passengers, while the Germans are tourists like me.

   I saw one little kid today with a Norwegian "Where's Waldo?" book and there was a 20-some fella on the pier who just got off the ship. He was waiting for his motorcycle to get taken off the car deck, then he started it up and drove away for a private tour of the Lofoten roads. I've never really wanted a motorcycle, but for a few minutes today, I was thinking about it.

   When we stop in the small towns, the visits are usually only 30 minutes or less. It's enough time to walk around but there's never much going on. Every dog in the village gets his picture taken by the ferry folks. I've included a couple of shots in Sortland today, some flowers I haven't seen before that were covering someone's lawn. At first I thought they were dandilions, but they're much prettier.

   There are also some pretty houses. I got another shot of the woman statue in the Svolvaer Harbor; I really like it. And no, John, I didn't take the polar bear plunge. The ice water baptism when we crossed the Arctic Circle was enough swimming for me on this trip. Have a good weekend, all!

Back in the Norwegian Sea, heading south

    We've rounded the bend at the top, left the Barents and re-entered the Norwegian Sea. The mountains have gotten big and the houses colorful again. The ferry line has 13 major ships making the north / south trip. One leaves every day, so at least daily we pass one of the other vessels and you can tell the crews all know one another.

   There's a special thing my ship (Nordkapp) does every time it passes the Finnmark, the crews on both try to get as many passengers out to wave at the other. The crew also has banners they hang and last night there was also pot banging and even firehoses involved. It's 3 minutes of craziness and then it's over. When the Finnmark was pulling away you could see how far it had listed over to one side because everyone was crowded on their port side.

   Today we visited Hammerfest again, last time was at 5:45 am so this trip there were people in the streets and the church and museum were open. They also have their own Polar Bear Club on the pier, you can join just by walking in and giving them 100 kroner. They have over 100,000 members (in a town of 15,0000) but other than getting to wear a special pin, I'm not sure what special privledges go with that.

   I had a blog posting comment about calving glaciers, I don't think they're a problem at all up here. There aren't any big glaciers open to the sea. But further south near Geirangar there was a major tidal wave years ago when huge rocks slid into the fiord. The wave washed away a few houses.

   Speaking of comments, I love the ones that folks have sent in. It's nice to hear from friends and family back home. It was also so extremely nice of Steve C. to have such special concern for my fellow passangers, the last picture today is to ease his troubled mind.

Kirkenes

    We reached Kirkenes, the end of the line today, about half the passengers got off for flights back home, and a couple of bus loads arrived for the trip south. There's not much to the city, even the gift shop was closed today (Thurs at 10:00 am). The city is very close to the borders with Russia and northern Finland. The main industry town used to be iron ore mines, all now closed.

   You could tell Russia was closeby, it was much more grey and not nearly as clean as any of the Norwegian town we've stopped at. There's a Russian Icebreaker tied up in the port next to a fleet of rusting Russian fishing boats.

   The whole coast of Norway is ice free throughout the year thanks to the Gulf Stream which pumps warm water from Florida all the way up here. We're actually at a higher latitude than any place in Alaska, but it's all pretty much open water except around Kirkenes where the fiord goes inland and the warmer water continues to the east. There were a few small chunks of ice floating in the harbor, there's supposed to be a small calving glacier not so far away.

   All the buildings in Kirkenes, Hammerfest and most of the other towns were destroyed during the war by the Germans when they retreated near the end. I was talking to a German passenger who said they acknowledge how bad it all was, but they do get tired of hearing it, almost every tour guide talks about it. In Kirkenes, the population hid out in abandoned mine shafts for months until the Germans retreated, they say even 10 children were born in there.

   There's a monument in town for the Russians 'liberating' the town in 1944, and there were flowers at statue today. The flowers had wreaths with Russian writing, I guess the Norwegians don't have the same level of appreciation these days as the Russians.

   At the North Cape yesterday and in town today I was walking on perma-frost. The top couple of feet of soil is all that thaws in summer, underneath it is all permanently frozen. There were small flowers growing in the soil, and it felt spongy under my feet.

   Practical matter: I did find and figure out the laundry machines. They were computer controlled (PLC's) with automatic soap and softener dispensing. There were no I&C Techs nearby, so they must be reliable. There were about a dozen settings all in Norwegian, but somehow everything came out (clean) that went into the machine.

North Cape

    Today at a ship stop, we all took a bus tour to North Cape, the northern most spot in Europe. The point is on a cliff about 300 feet above the Barents Sea and there's an observation point, a couple of cool statues and of course a gift shop.

   On the way to the point there were lots or reindeer herds grazing on what little grass there was. It was hard to get a picture from the aisle seat of the bus, but we did stop at a small Sami house where we could get a close up look at a reindeer and the old deer herder. I didn't know this, but reindeer are white in winter and brown in summer, they're also bigger than the ones I've seen at zoos and on lawns at Christmas time.

   I haven't seen any whales to tell Casey & Timmy about, but at least I can show them something.

   One of my nameless friends sent me a note asking if I was really up here, or was I hiding out in my basement posting pictures from postcards. So here's my face (Joe) at the North Cape for proof. He suggested I have a recent newspaper front page in the picture, but no one could read it anyway. The Norwegians have a strange alphabet.

   Half the 250 or so passengers get off tomorrow at Kirkinnes, near the Russian border and fly home. I get to do all this again from the other direction. Some of the towns I didn't get to see because we stopped in the middle of the night. On the southern leg, I'll get more of a chance.

   The midnight sun takes getting used to, it's hard enough figuring out what day it is on vacation, but with no night time, it's even harder. It's 10:30 at night here now and it looks no different than 10:30 in the morning.

   Tomorrow I try to find the ship's laundry ..... it's definitey time.

Tromso, 70 Deg North and beyond !

    Tromso was a lovely city of over 100,000, it's a university town so there's more to do and see. I went to the Arctic Cathederal, an aquarium with seals and arctic fish, and I walked over the bridge across the harbor. Afterward I rested my legs and celebrated with a beer and shrimp sandwich at an outdoor pub. The beer was local and pretty good; shrimp too. 

  Weather remains great and it's not been very cold (yet). Tromso was about 50 degrees, so it was easy to walk around with just my golf pullover. Tomorrow at the North Cape tour, I'll layer up a bit, it's supposed to be in the 30's.

   I'm posting some pics of the ship today, my stateroom is a decent size with a fold down couch, currently hiding an unmade bed. I have a small but comfortable shower and sink where I can wash and hang dry some of my clothes. There's a laundry onboard but I haven't tried it yet.

   I spend a lot of my time in the observation lounge. It's one deck directly above the bridge, so it's the same view as the folks have who are doing the piloting. No surprise that I like it up there, and if I doze off in my seat, not a problem anymore (smile). There's also a bar with live entertainment nightly, I haven't spent any real time in there, but it's close enough to take a beer out to the observation lounge.

   I'll try and post the restaurant, and anything else I find interesting later, I have another 6 days on the ride south.

Lofoten Islands

    They are still impressive, the Lofotens are a 60 mile wall of mountains jutting up from the ocean floor stretching southwest from the mainland. They are more jagged than the glacier-worn mountains on the mainland. We snaked through some tight passages and made 4 stops in the islands overnight.  
  
   The town of Svolvaer had a statue of a woman waving goodbye in the harbor that i liked. The picture here shows it, but it was so much better on the front side through my binoculars. Maybe I'll get another shot it on the southbound leg.

   We went through a very narrow passage called the Troll's Fiord around midnight. All the passangers were on deck to see it and some of the ships crew dressed up as trolls making fun of the passangers in Norwegian as we passed by. You can see how close we were to the cliffs, at one point someone could have jumped down from the cliff onto the ship's deck.

   We had a small ceremony yesterday where King Neptune welcomed us above the Arctic Circle. All the passangers were lined up to have ice water dumped down everyone's back. He got 3 or 4 ice cubes inside my turtleneck and I had to dance around a bit before they dropped through my jeans onto the deck.

   This evening we stop for 4 hours at Tromso, a major town in the north, above 70 degrees north latitude. There'll be a midnight choir concert in the cathedral, I'll try and stop in to listen.

Bodo

    Bodo is a nice little city at 67 degrees north latitude. I expected it would have turned cool by now, being so far north, but I had to take off my pullover in town because it was too warm. The city center is a short walk from the pier, I look a leisurely walk over to see the sights.

   The cathederal was closed, so I wandered around some and found the biggest fishing supply store I ever saw. Outside I bought a hot dog and strolled back to the ship; I could understand why the Bodo section of the Norway Travel Guide was small.

   I've also posted a picture of one of the many lighthouses we've sailed passed on the trip so far. Tonight we head into the Lofoten Islands; I was last here as a young lieutenant in the navy and I was very impressed. Now that I have seen so much more of the world than I had when I was 26, we'll see if that great first impression holds up.

   There are 4 stops tonight between 7:00pm and 4:00am; I wonder if I'll get much sleep.

Monday 5/18 at sea

    Next major stop after Trondheim is Bodo, we arrive Monday at 12:30 for a 2 1/2 hr visit. It's not a long walk downtown from the pier so I'll go see the city center.

   Along the way from Trondheim, we stopped at the small town of Ornes. We picked up a Volvo and a couple of young passangers with their electronic gear. We pulled in to the pier at 9:25 and pulled away at 9:35.

   We crossed the Arctic Circle this morning at 7:23, the houses are getting fewer, the snow lower in the mountains and the land is much more rocky than farm fields. Makes you better understand what a 'Norwegian Bachelor Farmer' must be like.

   For Casey & Timmy, I've seen a lot of fish and have salmon every day for breakfast and lunch.

   I decided not to march in the parade, it moved too slow and I could see more of the city and the parade by walking around on my own. Enjoy the start of your work week all; more from Bodo later this afternoon.