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 ;-)