Trekkin

Day 27 – 5 August 2023 – Reykjavik, Iceland

Up at 4.30 am, organise our bags & ourselves, marvel once again as the water flushes down spinning in the other direction to home. We are out the door of the hotel by 5.15 am & take the short walk to the metro station, there are people standing on the platform already waiting & in no time the next driverless train was there. We travel a few stops & get off at Christianshavn, the next train arrives in the other direction just as we get off to take us to the airport. We must be on the right train, there are lots of other travellers with luggage bags heading the same way. The Metro train gets to Kobenhavn Airport just before 6 am so we have plenty of time to check our bags & go through security before our flight at 8 am.

Our flight to Iceland takes just on 3 hours & our clock changes by 2 hours (we gained 2 hours).  It is raining as we descend down through the low cloud, damn. Thankfully our bags are on the carousel & our driver is waiting at the exit for us & we are in the car on the way from the airport into the capital, Reykjavik.  It takes around a 40 minute drive from Keflavik Airport to our hotel. He drops us at the hotel, we are too early to check in, but we can leave our bags so we go for a walk into town. The rain is only light & misty, a nuisance more than anything else, good that we have our rain jackets on though.

The main shopping street is based on the old port town & runs down the hill from our hotel to the port. It is a very long shopping street, there are many restaurants, café, bars with some interesting wares. The shops are a mix of old & new buildings, with a lot of the shops catering for the tourist trade. There are a few cruise ships in today, including a large Holland America ship, the “Rotterdam” & the town is packed with tourists, mainly American & French. We are drawn to the harbour to check out the ships, but we found some very interesting boards with maps, history & the ships that sank from when records began, my goodness a lot of ships & seaman had perished around this island. We are hungry for lunch & we found a place to sit outside (it isn’t raining anymore & very pleasant with our coats on) & have lunch (or we thought, Iceland time it was breakfast).

After lunch we continue to explore the town, we reach the spot where the town was first settled, with parts of the ruins dated to 871 A.D. & read the historical signs that tell us about the first buildings. We turn & start heading back up, admiring lots of murals on walls, some quirky, others more traditional. We spot a street painted with rainbow colours, then look up & spot this most amazing building. It is Iceland’s new Lutheran church “Hallgrimskirkja” standing 73 metres tall & absolutely captivates us (& all the other tourists) with the modern style & its sheer presence, it is a stunning building.

When we walk inside the church it is just as modern & stunning inside, an architectural masterpiece. The new organ has 5,275 pipes, can you imagine cleaning all of them. The font is another work of art, cast from glass. The ceiling is so impressively high & the domed arches are a work of art in themselves. The Lutheran church must have plenty of money to have this amazing building created. We walk through some back streets, not very far, find our hotel again, thankfully, then check in properly & settle into our room.

Back out again we walk down to the sea & follow the shore along to the “Sun Voyager” sculpture, an imposing & interesting looking piece of polished metalwork installed in 1986. The sculpture loosely resembles a ship & is interesting to view. We turn back up towards the main street, admiring some of the new apartment blocks with water views, the apartments must cost a lot. We browse along looking in the shops & find a bakery, the “Sand Bar”, so we stop & have a bite to eat there for an early dinner. We are a bit peckish as we have lost out with the change of time & with Copenhagen time being 7 pm it is only 5 pm in Reykjavik. The restaurants don’t start serving dinner till 6 pm so the pizza, some pastries, coffee & hot chocolate goes down well.  We got used to being catered for on the cruise, now we will have to organize ourselves with food. The bakery food is good & we walk slowly back up the main street & back to our hotel, weary & tired. A good day.

Day 26 – 4 August 2023 – Copenhagen, Denmark – 3rd full day

Another early breakfast & then onto the close-by Bella Centre Metro station into Copenhagen city & Kongens Nytorv again. We help another couple staying at the hotel on holidays with directions for the train, we are old hands now. The plan today is to ride the Hop-on Hop-off bus around the city. The bus is parked waiting across the other side of Kings Park & as we stroll across we browse the stalls that are set up. On the bus we listen to the commentary about Copenhagen & the various buildings & sights through the supplied headsets, it is well done.

Our first stop is the statue of the Little Mermaid, based on the character in the book by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. We can tell where the statue is by the crowd lining the fence. The brass mermaid sitting on rocks in the water close to shore is little & not that special, we don’t see why so much fuss is being made about her, but we made sure that we saw her & took several photos.  When in Kobenhavn (the real name) it is a must see. There are so many other really good sculptures in Copenhagen.

Back on the bus & we admire lots of impressive buildings, castles, museums, art galleries & churches before getting off at “Frederiks Kirke”, & walking down to the Danish Royal Palace, home of the royal family. The change of the guard is in progress (a bit subdued, there is no music because Queen Margarete isn’t in residence) & we watch it for a while. The royal guard wear similar uniforms & hats to the British royal guard. We talk to a policeman standing guard on crowd control & he tells us that the only royal in residence is the Queen’s sister. That is the only royal house with a flag flying. He points out the Queen’s residence plus the residence of Prince Frederick & Princess Mary. It’s good to see that (our) Princess Mary is put up in a decent shack, a bit close to her mother-in-law though. Apparently most Danish think that Mary is OK.

We decide to walk along the shoreline, looking at all the boats & buildings along the waterfront, including the Queen’s wharf & waiting rooms. The statue of the Little Mermaid is even busier than before as we walk past & explore more parks. We get on the bus again & get off at the 400 year old Rosenborg Castle. This is another impressive castle with gardens & moat. We walk the full way round admiring it, watch the changing of the guard at this castle then discover that the wait to get inside is more than an hour. We move back to the bus & travel on until we get to the bus start point.

Time for a late lunch at Nytorv alongside the old port canal (apparently the longest stretch of bars/café & restaurant in Denmark, if it gets cold there are several heaters under the umbrellas that go on & blankets are handed out – a very popular place), again a table for two in the shade, it is hot in the sun. We decide on traditional Danish seafood Smorrebrod, (we have been told that we must try it if we are in Denmark) an open sandwich on Danish rye bread. Tereza decided on a Danish squid dish. Delicious when washed down with a Danish Carlsberg beer. It is after 4pm by the time we finish & take a stroll the length of the canal to the main canal & back, admiring the old buildings & boats lining both sides of the old canal. It is very busy with throngs of people walking & on bicycles.

Back to the Metro station & back to our motel by 6pm, another great day.

Day 25 – 3 August 2023 – Copenhagen, Denmark – 2nd full day

Our hotel has a nice breakfast selection so we started the day around 7am. We decided to visit a castle today & boarded the Metro rail into Copenhagen city. We got chatting to a young woman with a baby in a pram also heading in & we mentioned we wanted to visit “Hamlet” castle & she suggested another “Frederiksborg” castle, which was also in the direction she was travelling. We travelled with her into the city, then changed from the Metro to the train with her after buying the correct tickets (with her help) for the journey. Our ticket was checked today. We travel a long way into the countryside & Marit with baby Marta got off & told us our station was one stop further, Hillerod.

From Hillerod station the walk was downhill to the lake, past rows of old shops with washing strung out on lines between buildings across the street (as decoration). We boarded a small vintage boat at the lake that took us across to the castle. The boat captain & his helper were volunteers, we didn’t have to pay. My goodness, this is a really big & beautiful looking castle. Frederiksborg castle was built in the time of King Christian IV (1588-1648) & restored after a fire in 1859. After crossing the first moat & through the outer gates we were in the keep, a very large area that leads to the drawbridge over the next moat & the castle. There are fountains & some tall towers & the roof is verdigris green, the colour of the copper roof that has oxidised.

The first thing that strikes us once inside is the ceilings, amazingly ornate & beautiful. The first downstairs ceiling has reliefs of stags fighting, with real antlers. Next is the chapel, my goodness, is this beautiful, it is full size big church.  Again, the ceiling in the chapel is amazingly beautiful, as is the pulpit, the altar, the organ pipes, the stained glass windows. Even the doors are a work of art with carved wood, inlays & design. Next is the rotunda, another amazingly beautiful room with an extraordinary piece of art in the middle of the ceiling.

We keep walking down ornate hallways lined with artworks on the walls & the ornate ceilings. Room after room is filled with beautiful artwork, ornate furniture & beautiful objects, not to mention the ceilings, all different, all beautiful. This palace is stunning, room after room of magnificence, each room is another WOW moment. The Great Hall is that & more, it truly is great with more amazingly ornate ceilings & walls, it is so large. We climbed up several spiral stair cases. We ended up on the top floor with a modern art exhibition. It was a disappointment, the modern art is no match for the old art masterpieces downstairs. Some famous modern artist scored this huge upstairs floor to display her work.  Amongst the many art pieces we recognised Queen Margarete II, crown Prince Frederick & Prince Christian. This Royal family always calls the first son heir to the crown, Frederick & his son Christian.  We also found Crown Prince Frederick’s portrait & cleverly showing him & then in the reflection in the mirror Princess Mary & their 4 children.

The walk back to Hillerod Station was a different route with more old shops. This time we took the train into Copenhagen Central Station, this is a huge railway station with very tall ceilings & all the ceiling support structure is either old trussed steel or massive wooden beams.  We walk past Tivoli Gardens, full of children screaming & having fun on many of the amusement park rides. Apparently Walt Disney used the Tivoli Gardens as a model for his Disneyland Amusement Parks. In the city we walk admiring more of the old buildings & get to Restaurant Karla to meet a friend for dinner. We are there a little bit early & wait for her, we don’t have to wait long, she is early too.

Dinner is traditional Danish style food & we chat for ages over dinner before we say our farewells & catch the train back to our hotel. Another great day.

Day 24 – 2 August 2023 – Copenhagen, Denmark 1^st full day

The end of our cruise this morning so an early breakfast, finish packing, then off the ship around 9am to line up with the other 1,800 people from the ship needing taxis this morning.  After around half an hour in line we get into a Mercedes taxi & off to our hotel.  Our driver got confused with the address I gave him, on my sheet of paper it started with a Capital O, but it should have started with a capital O with a line through it, a totally different street. After that was sorted we got to the right hotel, checked in, dropped our bags & walked the 100 metres to the nearby railway station.

Five stops & we were in the middle of Copenhagen city at the Kongens Nytorv station. The train is very efficient, driverless, & on piers once out of the city. In the city it is underground. We walked across the Kings New Square to the old town port canal, Nyhavn, then walked along both sides of the canal looking at the brightly coloured historic canal front houses, lots of them now are restaurants, cafes & pubs. It is very crowded, it is a very warm sunny day & the canal front is bustling.

We decided to go for a canal boat ride, there is a very, very long queue for one of the canal boat operators, they charge 50 krone, the other operator has a short line & we go for that one & pay 140 krone each.  It was worth it, it is hot & we didn’t bring our hats & we would like to see a lot in the few days that we are here.  Around 150 people are in the long, low, wide boat, sitting 8 across. We can see why it is so low, the first bridge the boat hardly fits under. Later on, another of the 14 bridges we pass under is so narrow the boat just manages to squeeze through, then it has to turn the corner, great boat handling skills.

The tour lasts around an hour & we are impressed by the young man guiding us, he has a great sense of humour & switches between Danish, German & English quickly & easily whilst explaining what the sights are. We only get a glimpse of some of the sights such as churches, palaces, museums, library, etc., but it whets our appetite for more, Copenhagen is a beautiful city. When we leave the boat the waiting queues are amazingly long for the canal boats. It is now 1pm & we decide to have lunch so walk along the eateries along the canal & stop at one that had some free seats in the shade. Tereza had fish & chips (for a change & for easy one hand handling) & I had Danish mussels with a Danish beer. Delicious. There are so many people walking along the canal. Aren’t people working or are there so many tourists?

A golden church spire catches our interest & we decide to walk & have a look. It is only a few blocks away & when we get there, it is a massive round structure with a beautiful big dome on top. The door is open so we go inside for a look, it is beautiful inside as well, the dome is impressive from the inside & a very long way up. The altar & organ are also very impressive works of art. This church is called “Frederiks Kirke”, it is also dubbed the “Marble Church” & was started by King Frederik V in 1749 & completed over a long time, finally finished in 1894.  A little further down there are three golden orbs with crosses on top of another old building, it is a 19^th century Russian Orthodox church.

We are tired by now with all this walking & catch the train back to the hotel, trains come past every 5 minutes & in a short time we are back in our hotel, collect our bags from storage & into our room. Tereza asks me to remove the cast from her broken arm, so we do that carefully & Tereza has a shower to wash her arm for the first time in six weeks. Now for the rehabilitation to get the fingers, wrist & arm working again.  Fingers are stiff & sore, the rest of the skin on the arm feels sensitive, but the place where the bone broke feels OK, hopefully it has mended, (I have only been gently massaging it with some cream).  The weather was great, about 21C, Ron got sunburnt. Another wonderful day.

Day 23 – 1 August 2023 – Gothenburg, Sweden

It was overcast & foggy as the ship glided into Gothenburg harbour this morning. The harbour is out in the boondocks, to get into the city it is about 20 minutes drive, the Volvo museum is the only thing close by, otherwise it looks like an industrial area. Again the Captain & crew did a great job of manoeuvring this big ship into the dock outside the Volvo Museum. Just after we dock a large vehicle ferry reverses into the loading dock next to us, it is very close to the bow of our ship. Breakfast at 7am then on the tour bus for a trip out to some western islands. As we travel alongside the Gota River we pass many green farms with white farmhouse & the red outbuildings. Our first visit was the old town of Kungalv with the old 14^th Century Bohus Fortress just outside the town. The old houses lining the narrow streets of the old town are quaint with some of the buildings dating back to the 1500’s. The houses are built close together for the protection from strong winds.

There are lots of sailing boats moored near the Stenungbaden Yacht Club just before we cross the really high Tjorn Bridge spanning the Askero Fjord. Our guide Aneta told us that not long after the first bridge was built a ship collided with one of the bridge piers on a dark & foggy night dropping the road span into the water with seven cars driving over the edge into the water far below & the occupants being killed. The bridge was redesigned then rebuilt over a couple of years. After we cross the bridge we turn into a viewing area & get off the bus to stretch our legs. In the carpark the parking stoppers are large concrete sleeping ducks, very cute.

We are now on the large island of Tjorn & drive along past lots of farms & farm buildings before we get to the small town of Kladesholmen on its own small island. This is an old fishing village & all the houses are squeezed tightly together & jumbled over the rocky island. The bus stops & lets us off just after it crosses onto the island as the roads are too small for the bus to drive on, the roads are hardly wide enough for cars. Some of the streets are so narrow you can only walk two abreast. We stop for a look at the Svenskakyrkan church, both outside & inside. The church is simple yet very beautiful inside. We continue exploring this small quirky town & enjoy the buildings & architecture & history associated with the town. Our guide tells us that this town is very expensive to buy a house & rich Norwegians are buying houses here.

Our next stop is the small port town of Skarhamn, we stop next to a new large watercolour art museum, with no time to go & look at it. We walk over to the harbour & look at the myriad of sail & motor boats tied up in the harbour. Across the harbour is the Skarhamn town church with two ropes hanging from the bell tower to create a smiley face on the tower, very cute. Not far down the road is the Hotel Nordevik & we stop there to sample some herring. We are served a sample of two types of herring, one with mustard that is a little sweet & another with onion that is very tasty. The herring is served with a little sour cream & jacket potato, with a no alcohol beer to wash it down. Delightful.

Back on the bus & we head back towards the ship past more rolling green farms & farm buildings then we start to get into the light industry area of Gothenburg. We see two of the newest buildings in town, one is called the “lipstick” as it is a tall red building, the other is called the “zipper” as the architecture on the outside of the building looks like a zipper opening on one side & closing on the other, very clever. Back on the ship for a quick lunch then over to the Volvo Museum.  Gothenberg is the place Volvos were manufactured, it is a very fitting place to have such a great museum to show off the great designs & innovations. Every time I’ll put on the seatbelt I’ll think of Volvo, they invented it.  

The Volvo Museum is around 100 metres from the ship & exhibits great examples of all models of Volvo vehicles since 1927, including cars, trucks, buses & special vehicles. The museum is on multiple levels & even features a fighter jet, as Volvo supplied the engine for it. An interesting display of Volvo racing cars showed another aspect of Volvo that I was not aware of, with Volvo race cars very successful in both rally & circuit racing. There is even a Volvo caravan on display. It is a shame some of the Volvo concept cars never made it to production, there are some very smart looking cars amongst them. Our pick was the blue 1933 open convertible, absolutely beautiful – I never thought I would ever say that about a Volvo.

Back on the ship we discovered another little area we had not seen before – an art gallery with five Pablo Picasso ceramic art pieces – no idea how much these are worth, I guess a lot. We headed to the Dutch Café on-board for a coffee & some Dutch pastries, coffee was good, pastries OK.  Back to our cabin & we watched the ship depart from the dock, some more great boat handling skills as the ship was manoeuvred out of the tight docking area, then motored out through the long, twisting narrow channel bordered by low rocky reefs all the way out to the Skagerrak Sea. The seas are amazingly calm, the sun is out & it is 22 Celsius – it turned out an amazing day after a dismal start.

Dinner then a show featuring the dancers & singers, they capped off another great day.

Day 22 – 31 July 2023 – at sea – Alesund, Norway to Gothenburg, Sweden

A lazy start today, 8.30am for breakfast then afterwards we sat upstairs in the Observation Deck with Tereza reading & me writing up the blog. We have been blessed with the weather on this cruise, there is hardly a breath of wind today, the skies are sunny & blue with a few white clouds & the seas are flat with a low swell, perfect cruising conditions. A number of cruise ships go past in the other direction, heading north, plus lots of cargo ships in both directions, we can always see ships. The Norwegian coastline can be seen in the far distance, around 50 kilometres away. Last night & today we come across some Hungarians, this is the first time on this cruise.  Apparently there is about 20 of them on the one week cruise.  They seem to be in awe that we come from Australia & are amazed that after 62 years of living in Australia I can speak Hungarian so well.

Lunch is again superb then afterwards I have a sleep & Tereza reads a bit more. Afterwards we do a few laps of the ship on the outside Promenade Deck, a very pleasant walk. At 3 o’clock we went to listen to Clare giving an information session on Gothenburg in Sweden, our port of call tomorrow. Back in the cabin I read about what we will be doing in Iceland & have another sleep. Life is good.

Dinner is again superb & afterwards we listen to Kaigi, the singer, his partner, Michelle, is feeling sick. Clare interviewed Kaigi about his life & life on the ship & his music career. He trained as a classical pianist but has changed & trained in vocals as well. He is a very versatile performer. Another lazy great day.

Day 21 – 30 July 2023 – Alesund, Norway

Alesund is just after the start of the fjord & it is not very long before the ship turns 180 degrees & noses into the port & squeezes past a giant Disney cruise ship, the “Disney Dream”. I thought our ship was big, the Disney ship is even bigger. Moored on the other side of the Disney ship is the same Ponant ship that was anchored in the Geirangerfjord yesterday. Alesund’s population is about 280,000. There will be a mass of tourists in Alesund today. We are amazed that being Sunday all the shops are closed, the only things open are some restaurants, cafes & church.

We are up early for breakfast & depart the ship at 8am for a bus tour to the nearby islands of Giske & Godoy. It is a short drive to the tunnel entrance near the old port then the tunnel takes us under the sea for a number of kilometres onto the island of Valderoya for a short drive then we exit the tunnel & cross over firstly an arched bridge, then a flat bridge & causeway to the flat island of Giske. The roads are narrow & the farms are small. We stop at the old Giske church, the graveyard around the church is very tidy & orderly with lots of old graves. This island was apparently the home island of a former Viking King & there are lots of old Iron Age & Viking Age relics & graves. Most people that live on the island have the surname Giske, or some derivative of that. The headstones in the cemetery attest to that.  The church dates from around 1130 A.D.

There is a small boat harbour next to the church lined with old boat sheds. In front of, inside & between the two boat houses closest to the eastern edge of the parking lot lies the excavated ruin of a large stone building, built somewhere between 1160-1290 then destroyed by fire in 1611. It was almost certainly the main residence of the rich & powerful Giske family that owned more than 100 farms on this island.

Back in the bus & in through another undersea tunnel to the next island of Godoya. This island has a very high mountain splitting the island into two. There is a farming village on the inland side nearer to Alesund & a tunnel under the mountain takes us to the small fishing village of Alnes on the Atlantic Ocean. This is virtually untouched & the small fishing houses typically have an old boatshed nearby. The bus squeezes along the narrow road between the houses, I don’t know how we didn’t take out a picket fence nor the roof of a house near the road.

The wooden lighthouse at Alnes was established in 1853, with this one constructed in 1937 & is still in operation today. The French glass lens dates from 1905 & is still in use. Most of our busload take the narrow steep stairs up to the top of the lighthouse. It is steep & a lot of the people take it very slowly going up & even slower coming down, it is very crowded as there is about six busloads stopped here. The view from the top of the lighthouse over the small town is great. The nearby Visitor centre is blended into the slight hill, with a great job by the architect & builders to minimise the building on the landscape. The floor to ceiling windows all round gives great views out to the Atlantic Ocean. The café inside is busy.   The tourists are allowed to use the toilets, six busloads is a lot of people. The mountain has a large lake in the top, it must be a volcanic crater lake, it supplies water to the houses on the island. 

The drive back through the tunnels & over the bridges to Alesund takes no time.  We start up the mountain that overlooks Alesund, passing some old World War Two artillery concrete bunkers as we near the top, another tight turn for the bus. This place is busy, there are so many buses & cars up here that we have to wait in a holding area for enough space to free up at the top so that we can drive there. As well as the ship tour buses there are a number of red hop-on hop-off buses waiting as well. We wait around half an hour before we are allowed through on the road to the lookout, only four buses at a time are allowed in.  The lookout area is very crowded but we manage to get some great views over the city & the three cruise ships in the harbour, the Disney ship is huge. The clouds move in & our views are obscured so we go back to the bus & we head back down the mountain through the old port area to the ship. Our guide points out lots of interesting buildings & some of the history around them, included the great fire that destroyed 8,000 houses in 1906. Some of her family were involved with some of the buildings that she pointed out & it was interesting hearing the stories.

Back onto the ship for a quick lunch before we ventured out for a walk along the canal & around the very close old port town. The old buildings are well restored & look beautiful lining the waters of the old port. We walk around to the old light house on the end of the breakwater, the building has been re-purposed & is now a quirky honeymoon suite that belongs to the hotel on the shores of the harbour.  There is a polished brass sign on the door explaining that you can make reservations at the nearby Hotel Brosundet, regardless of your wedding date. It also says “Please do not attempt to open the door, it rattles & scares the newlyweds.”

The old warehouses on the old harbour waterfront have mostly been converted to apartments & hotels, we walk all the way round, admiring some of the historical ships, as well as a Viking ship reconstruction moored along the pier.  The walk is very pleasant, there are gardens & flowerpots in bloom & we are both weary as we walk back onto the ship.

The ship leaves port on time reversing out passing close to the Disney Dream. We get waves from some of the passengers looking across at us we pass. The captain then spins the ship 180 degrees as we clear the harbour & we sail the short distance out the fjord past the now cloud free island of Godoya that marks the northern entrance to the fjord.

Dinner followed by the World Stage dance group with another great dance program before we head off to bed. Another great day.

Day 20 – 29 July 2023 – Geiranger, Norway

Geirangerfjord is another amazing Norwegian fjord, this fjord is surrounded by lots of steep mountains that plunge into the depths of the fjord (1,600 metres deep), with waterfalls running down everywhere. We wake to low cloud half-way up the mountainsides but as we continue sailing the clouds lift & we eventually get treated to a beautiful sunny day. Having breakfast whilst gliding past the fjord mountains is magical, the walls of the fjord close in on the ship. As we reach the small town of Geiranger at the end of the Geirangerfjord we need to manoeuvre around a Ponant cruise ship at anchor. The captain skilfully manoeuvres & turns the boat 180 degrees as he reverses into the port area. The ship is tied up to two stern anchor mooring buoys & one bow mooring buoy, then the magic happens. The port has what is called a “Sea Walk”, a large floating pontoon that extends out & forms a floating mobile pier for the ship, a very clever invention. As soon as the Captain gives the all clear swarms of passengers disembark to enjoy the beautiful day ashore. The normal population of Geiranger is 280 people, it now swells in size by another 2,500 from our ship plus the passengers from the other ship plus all the other tourists. There are lots of people in town today.

Tereza & I take our time hoping that the swarm of people disembarking slows down a bit, no luck, it is busy. We walk along the foreshore & cross the bridge over the Geirangelva River where it discharges into the fjord. There is a campground here, right on the water, packed with campervans. The walk upstream is beautiful with the river rushing downhill over many large rocks. This walk must be very popular as there are lots of tourists also walking, it is busy. As the path gets steeper the water is roaring down & we see the waterfalls ahead. The stairs start & I leave Tereza at the base of the stairs & walk right to the top, it is a long way with lots of flights of stairs. People are constantly stopping to take photos & slowing everyone down. The falls are beautiful & I take lots of photos & a video before heading back down to a patient Tereza. The walk back to the ship is just as pretty & we take our time & enjoy the scenery. The ship looks small in the background floating on the fjord.

After lunch it is time for our tour to Mount Dalsnibba, we wait a fair while for our bus to arrive, it is bringing back people from the previous tour & has been delayed. The other ship in port has put more bus traffic in the town & it is also the last day of the Norwegian school holidays so all the Norwegians are out & about as well. The drive out of town is on a very narrow road full of steep & tight hairpin turns, our bus has to stop & wait at times, other times vehicles stop & wait for us. Often another bus meets us, amazingly closely they just squeeze past us. These bus drivers are amazingly skilful. The scenery is stunning as we slowly climb the mountain, everything is so green, the farm pastures are so lush &  really rich verdant green, we are told it rains a lot here. Our first stop at a lookout is a real pain for the bus driver, someone has decided to unhitch & park a caravan in the carpark where the buses would normally park. The views are stunning from the clifftop viewpoint, the ship looks small in the distance. The trees disappear as we climb above the snowline with lots more tight hairpin bends & lots more buses, motorhomes & cars. The surrounding mountains all have patches of snow & as we climb the last part of Mount Dalsnibba, we see the nearby glaciers with their thick ice.

Mount Dalsnibba views are amazing, today is 24C, sunny with no wind, amazing for being nearly 5,000 feet above sea level. There is a viewing platform built out over the edge of the cliff at the highest point on the mountain, we can see forever in any direction. Plus looking down through the patchwork of holes in the foot grates, it is a very long way straight down, also slightly scary. There are snow patches on all the high mountains as well as below us on this mountain. The nearby glaciers are extraordinary with their thick blue ice. Down in the far distance our large ship is just a tiny speck on the fjord. The ship is about a 16 story high building & nearly 1,000 feet long, hard to believe how these enormous mountains dwarf it. The road below is a tiny thread laying in a zig-zag jumble down the mountain valleys.

Our descent back to Geiranger is just as stunningly beautiful, then we drive through the tiny town & out the other side up another steep narrow zig-zag road with more sharp hairpins. This is called the Eagle Road & we stop at the Eagle Bend lookout. The views over the Geirangerfjord are stunningly beautiful, it is unbelievable any scenery could be this good. Next to the lookout is a small waterfall dropping off the mountainside, a number of people step under it to cool off. All too soon we are back on the bus & down the steep mountainside with the many hairpin bends of the Eagle Road. We board the ship, we are one of the last bus tours to get back & not long afterwards the Sea Walk pier is contracted, mooring lines let go & we start motoring back up the fjord admiring the steep mountains & waterfalls from an outside top deck. We go up to the running track on deck 11 (midship) (having the same idea as a lot of the other passengers) just to see one more time these majestic mountains & waterfalls as we are leaving.

The ship slows to a standstill as we reach the Seven Sisters waterfall & the Suitor waterfall, directly opposite each other around 15 minutes sail from Geiranger. The waterfalls are beautiful & Tereza & I pick out from the rugged cliffs, faces in the rock, there are a number that we see close to the waterfalls. The meaning of the waterfall names & how they came to be are explained to us by commentary. From here are two of the oldest farms on the Geirangerfjord, now abandoned. One farm is about 500 metres up next to the Seven Sisters falls & the other is the same distance up near the Suitor waterfall. Absolutely no idea how anybody can walk up the Cliffside to get to these farms, there are no roads & the mountains are amazingly steep. It must have been a very hard life living on these farms. The Captain then did a party trick, he spun this massive ship 360 degrees across the fjord between the two waterfalls, so that the bow was nearly touching one waterfall & the stern another. Absolutely amazing that such a large ship could fit (I did say nearly 1,000 feet long) across the fjord & very impressive boat handling skills. We feel so privileged to be here to see nature at its best.

We were late for dinner so were scrambling to find something to eat, but we managed.  We went & watched an Irish male singer on the World Stage, he had a great voice. Amazing day.

Day 19 – 28 July 2023 – Ulvik, Norway

Another early wake up as we watched the mountains of the Haradangerfjord slip past the windows & we had breakfast as the ship made its final approach to Eidfjord. The Captain spun the ship around & did another great job of inching alongside the dock at Eidfjord. Our tour this morning is to Ulvik & we drive along the shores of the Eidfjord then entered the tunnel to drive over the Hardanger bridge There is a roundabout inside this tunnel & we turn around & off towards Ulvik & exit the tunnel straight onto the Hardanger bridge, it is a single span suspension bridge 4,528 feet long with a clearance to sea level of 55 metres. The views of the fjord from the bridge are exceptional.

Lush green farms surround us on either side with farmers mowing their hay as we make the scenic drive along the Osafjord then the Ulfjord to the tiny town of Ulvik overlooking the picturesque bay at the end of the Ulfjord. Our destination is the Hardanger Cider farm & factory for some cider tasting. The buildings have an amazing view over the Ulfjord & the town of Ulvik. Two busloads from the ship have the place to ourselves with tables & chairs all setup inside with a glass of apple juice on the table plus three tasting glasses for each of us, a lot of glasses. The owner, Nils, explains the farm & the process of making cider. All of the apples are grown on-site from his orchards on the hillside & he uses all of the apples in making apple juice & apple cider.  There are no additives in the process, everything is natural, not even added sugar to ferment, the natural sugars in the apples are enough.

Our first taste is the apple juice, it is very cloudy & deliciously fresh. The first apple cider we taste is around 4% alcohol & is very nice. The next is a sweet apple cider, made using a sweeter apple, this is also around 4% & is also very nice. Our next is apple cider infused with elderberry flower, a slightly different flavour, also 4% & also very nice. The next apple cider is infused with raspberry & you can smell & taste the flavour, also 4%. The ice apple cider is next & is 10% alcohol. With this cider Nils explains that the apple juice is first frozen, then as it melts the top 10% of the liquid is used to make the apple cider. This 10% has more of the natural sugar of the apple so makes for a higher alcohol content. It is also very nice.  Our final taste is of apple brandy, this has been distilled by Nils then stored in oak barrels for 3 years to mature, improve the flavour & reduce the alcohol content. This is 34% & is very strong, but with a nice apple taste. Tasting over, Nils takes us out to show us the sheds & the rest of the process. There are hundreds of glasses to collect & clean.

The factory is spotlessly clean with stainless steel machines for crushing the apple, stainless steel tanks for fermenting the juices & stainless steel pumps for moving the juice. A stainless steel bottling machine finishes off the cider making process, all very impressive. We are shown the still for making the brandy next, again all very clean, with racks of Spanish oak barrels stacked neatly next door in various states of aging. The shop has a full range of cider & some of the tour group purchase bottles to take home. We are tempted to buy a bottle or two but common sense prevails, we have about 8 weeks of travel before returning home. The views from the farm over the orchard are fabulous.

As we drive back along the Ulfjord a man is swimming, I can’t imagine doing that, the water must be freezing. We pass the old Ulvik village church surrounded by lonely gravestones before turning off & driving up the mountain road above Ulvik to see some of the mountain lake scenery. The road is very narrow & fortunately we don’t encounter many vehicles. The scenery is stunning as we pass mountain streams running through the forests & the many still mountain lakes, some of the views are breathtakingly beautiful with amazing reflections in the still lakes.

All too soon we are back into the tunnel that takes us back across the tall Hardanger bridge. Along the fjord we stop at the old ferry port, it was used before the bridge was built, for some photos of the bridge. The scenery up, down & across the fjord are stunning, snow on the tops of the mountains making it just that little bit more special. Back on the ship, a late lunch & the ship casts off at 3pm.  We make our way back up the fjord.

The bow of the ship is open & we take advantage of that to watch as we sail back under the Hardanger bridge.  We take in the beautiful views as we cruise back out towards the sea. We chat to a few people then head off to dinner & watch some more beautiful scenery. The dance show on the World Stage is an incredible combination of great choreography & an amazing light show with music to match. It was thoroughly enjoyable & after the show we sat & chatted with a couple we met, then watched the same dance show all over again, it was very good. A late night & another great day.

Day 18, 27 July.  Sea day

Sea day for us means a more leisurely get up time. Not for the crew, they have to be there to make the passengers feel pampered & cared about.  This morning we were amazed that we had so many more people on board.  It is only a week long voyage through some fjords.  I suppose it is a floating resort, your stateroom is cleaned, great food from different dining rooms, entertainment & if in port you can part take in different excursions. Ron & I prefer the Lido eatery with many different types of food where you can pick as much & whatever you desire.  Most of all we like Lido because of the big windows & while eating we can enjoy the scenery. We often share table with different people from all over the wold, very enjoyable.

Today, on return to our tidy stateroom, we watched from the balcony the sea roll by, the wind was cold out there. Ron started looking at the very many photos from yesterday & writing up the blog, while the memory is still fresh in the mind.  I read.  Before long it was lunch time, decision making, what will we choose to eat.  After lunch we attended a lecture about Nordic Pioneers, very interesting.  I enjoyed how simple plastic Lego came about, & how it evolved & only the imagination is the limit. No wonder our grandchildren love it.  We wandered around the onboard shops (we find it disappointing).  We thought of having Dutch pancakes (not that we were hungry) just because we were at the Dutch Café, but we were saved, couldn’t find a table.  We returned to our room, the sea still looked the same so we watched a movie.  Dear oh dear it is time for early dinner because we want to go to some entertainment tonight.

It was Captain’s welcome tonight, my goodness some people were dressed to the 9s.  Some long shimmery dresses & dinner jackets & bow ties.  We had to walk through the crowd in casual wear (we haven’t got anything over the top dressy, our luggage only weighs 15 & 16kgs & it has winter & summer clothes crammed in). Ron had a nice chat with the Captain Barhorst (he is very friendly & approachable) before his official duty started, complementing the crew for their skill in Skagen for manoeuvring this big ship out of the very small docking area in such strong 40 knots winds, the Captain said that the tug boat help was appreciated.

After dinner we listened to Rolling Stone rock band, sitting further away from them, they were good, not too loud.  Michelle & Kaycee played duo piano & sang 1960’s & 1970’s music, they were very good.

Apparently someone is living on this ship for 5 years – it certainly beats nursing homes.  Ron & I find this easy existence (where they even tell us what day it is in the elevator) strange, but lapping it up because in one week’s time we will have to depend on our own devices. We will spend 3 days in beautiful Copenhagen, after that two weeks in Iceland. The sea is beautiful & calm, it was light until about 10.30pm.  It has been an easy relaxing day, but a good one.