Norway Fjord Cruise

Oslo, Norway; Saturday, August 2, 2014

Left the house yesterday around noon time for the 3:30pm flight to Newark. The flight was delayed for 2 hours due to the weather near Newark (per our understanding). The subsequent flight to Oslo was also delayed. We finally got on the plane around 9pm. After a 7 hour flight, we arrived in Oslo around 11am local time, August 2. Bob and I did not get to sit together. We each got a window seat in the econ+ section front and back. Awful! Bob was able to sleep. I was not, so I was pretty wiped out.

We're not very lucky with the weather here - it's raining when we arrived in Oslo and it'll be raining the entire time we're here, according to the weather forecast. Oh well .... We took a taxi from the airport to our hotel, which cost around $130, for the 20+ miles. We were told Norway was expensive so we were not too surprised. The taxi driver was a nice man from Somalia, Africa. He's been here since 1989. The taxi was a nice Mercedes wagon, with front and back sun roof. Unfortunately all we could see through the sun roof was rain.

Our hotel was in downtown. I did not see anything special on the drive from airport to here. The only thing that got my attention was the golden yellow fields, not sure what crops they were. They reminded me of Palouse.

The entrance to our hotel was inside a building that had some stores, restaurants, etc. The receptionist was nice and friendly, speaking absolutely perfect English. We got room 713. After opening the door to our room, we were quite surprised by how small the room was. Even though the room was clean, modern, and the bed looked comfortable, it was really small! And it had very little storage space. Aside from the queen size bed, there was one desk and one chair. The TV was at the foot of the bed, facing the pillows. Thankfully there was a decent space between the desk and the bed, so we could put both suitcases on the floor. The room had a nice balcony which we're unlikely to use. We booked this hotel because we saw good reviews from tripadviser. I think if it's for just one person, this could be a nice choice. We then decided to find out if there're bigger rooms. The front desk told us the only bigger rooms were junior suites which were about $100 more than ours. We took a look at the junior suites - they were significantly bigger, with a separate living room. We decided to splurge and changed to the junior suite, which was just next to our original room, #712. 

We took a shower and then went out and had a late lunch (around 3pm local time) in a seafood lunch restaurant right next to the hotel. It was actually a fish market, with an attached eating area, including tables outside. We had the best fish and chips! After lunch, we walked to Karl Johans Gate which was the main drag that led towards the Royal Palace. There were quite a lot of people. The rain had stopped and the sun was out, quite warm especially under the sun. I stepped into a few stores but were unimpressed. Everything was expensive. A can of coke zero cost $5. Ouch! We were both very tired so we came back to the hotel and took a nap. I was so exhausted that I did not even have the desire to bring my camera along. Took a few shots using my iPhone.

Had dinner in the hotel - breakfast and (simple) dinner are included. Cold cuts, salads, and a couple of warm dishes of potato, corn/peas, and some breaded/fried turkey cutlets, plus a mushroom soup, breads, and dessert. Simple but good enough. Earlier today on our walk we found a Chinese restaurant that looked decent. We will try it out tomorrow.

After dinner, we went out for a stroll and walked to the pier area. It was past 9pm and the sun was not set. There were a lot of people on the street and there were many road side eating places, many restaurants. Bob and I were saying, even though we're not "wowed" by Oslo so far, this place is clean and pleasant. Hope to find more interesting things tomorrow.

Oslo Day 2; Sunday, August 3, 2014

Went to bed before mid-light last night. Woke up to drink some water and forgot to put the cap on the bottle afterwards, then fell asleep and ended up having the water spilt all over the bed. Duh! Bed was comfortable.

Got up around 9. Breakfast was quite impressive. Not as impressive as the big buffet spread in ChengDu's Shangrila, but very good as European breakfast buffet goes. All kinds of bread, all sorts of cold cuts plus smoked and cured salmon, eggs, bacon, sausage, cereals, fruits, cheeses, coffee, a good variety of tea, you name it!

We left the hotel around 10:30am. Today's plan was to visit the Vigelandsparken - the park that has a lot of sculptures designed/modeled by Gustav Vegeland. We first walked to the central train station where we will boarding the train to Bergen on Tuesday. We wanted to scout out how far it was and if we could walk with our luggage. After that, we walked to the tourist information center by the city hall (Radhuset). We have heard of Oslo Pass, which would allow us to ride the public transportation and visit all the museums. One can get the pass for 24, 48, or 72 hours, for difference prices. The information lady was very helpful. She said we could walk to the sculpture park today, and visit some museums for free. And if we want to visit more than 3 museums, the Oslo pass would be worth it, otherwise it's better to just pay at the museums. She recommended taking the T and ferry across the water to Bygdoy and visit the 3 museums there on Monday. So we bought the 24 hour pass for tomorrow. Today we would walk around Oslo. It was cloudy today, but no rain. The sun was behind clouds making it more pleasant for our walk.

We walked again along Karl Johans Gate towards the Palace, then around the Palace to the back of it. The area in the back of the palace was a park, with ponds, water fountains, ducks, trees, and nice lawns. From there, we walked through residential streets towards the park. Very pleasant walk! The streets and buildings reminded us of Boston's back bay. And it was so quiet and peaceful! There were a couple of cafes here and there. We sat down at one of them for Bob to have a cup of good latte (and for me to use the bathroom). There was a young lady sitting there, drinking coffee and eating lunch, reading the paper, with her baby sleeping in the stroller. Another young man drinking his tea, eating his sandwich, reading on his phone, with his baby sleeping in the stroller. So cute.

Got to the park, walked around and saw the sculptures, took a few photos. Quite a lot of tourists there. On the walk back, we were looking at the map trying to figure out where to go. A very kind Norwegian young man stopped to ask if we needed help, and told us where to go. It turned out the area where we walked on the way to the park was indeed a very nice area. We chose to walk on the main shopping street on the way back, stopping at one of the cafes recommended by the kind young man. All the shops are closed on Sunday - good for Bob :-) I could only do window shopping. I found there are more shops like our Crate and Barrel or Pottery Barn in Oslo, selling things that I found interesting and attractive. 

We had lunch at the Asian restaurant that we found yesterday, not far from the city hall. We ordered a Chinese black bean duck dish, and a Japanese cod fish dish. Both were quite good, very tasty. The duck was a little too gamy for my taste but the sauce and vegetable were good. After lunch, we walked by the pier (where we were last night) and towards the architecture museum and the museum of contemporary art. Both turned out to be rather disappointing to us. Well, we are not museum people to start with. These 2 museums were a bit beyond our comprehension. We're glad that we did not have to pay to go in :-) I took a few photos of the contemporary arts which might prove my point. But we did like some of the sculptures in the modern arts museum.

On the walk back to the hotel, we saw the building that's the opera house and ballet theater. Kind of a unique place. There was a show of some sort outside the building. People were sitting on the slopes, watching, cheering. The building was by the water. There was a modern glass sculpture in the water which resembled a crumbled glass building (or ship). 

There were a lot of constructions going on in Oslo which sort of ruined some of the nice scenes - cranes, rubbles, and other construction mess. There were many many hotels. We saw the one, Thon Hotel Opera, which I booked last year and had to cancel. Glad we did not book there this time. It's facing the opera house, but also a large construction site. 

Had supper at the hotel again, same kind of salad, cheeses, cold cuts, and an entree of fish and rice, plus a soup. We wanted to have a walk after dinner, but turned back after 5 minutes because of the weather. The rain had hold off for the entire day, until after 8pm. The sky had become very dark, darker than 10pm last night, and thunders were heard. So no walk tonight. Hopefully there won't be rain, at least during the day, tomorrow.

Um, accidentally found out that the original room we were given, 713, was the smallest in the hotel. One of the hotel staff at dinner commented that that room was too small. Now I am wondering why they put the 2 of us in such a small room in the beginning.... I will ask to find out.

Oslo Day 3; Monday, August 4, 2014

Could not fall asleep last night worrying about various stuff back at home. Finally drifted off and it was almost 11am when we got up. Ugh! Missed the one good meal, breakfast! :-(

It rained all night last night, and was still raining when we got up. We had bought the Oslo pass but really did not have much motivation to go to the museums in Bygdoy, so we thought we'd go to the visitor center to see if we can return the unused Oslo pass. We left the hotel after noon time and walked to the visitor center by the City Hall (the rain had stopped by then). Unfortunately the tickets were non refundable (because they had no way of ascertaining if the tickets were used or not). So we decided we'd use it and see those museums any way.

On the way to the visitor center, we had stopped at a few stores for me to explore. I spent some time in the department store near our hotel. The things I liked, the wool blankets, the felt booties, wool hats, various household items, and some gadget stuff, were so expensive that I really could not justify buying them. The wool blankets would cost $200-$300 at least. A simple wool hat would cost $100! A cute wooden dog (by a designer, I guess), would cost more than $100! Very disappointing :-(

Since we did not have breakfast, we wanted to have lunch before we headed to Bygdoy. I saw a Chinese restaurant yesterday called Mr. Hong, by the Kar Johans Gate, so we decided to check it out. It opened for lunch at 2pm. We went in. It was very dark. Very Chinese. We sat down and decided to give it a try. Then we found out it only served buffet, and the buffet was very different from what we're used to - you pick things from the frig and the chef would cook for you. What they had in the frig really did not excite me. Then a big Asian/Chinese tour group came in with 30+ people. We decided to leave. We had no idea where to go, so we went back to the same restaurant that we went yesterday, Mahayama Asian restaurant. At least the environment was pleasant and the food was tasty. We had a beef dish, a seafood dish, and some assorted dim sum. It was OK. Again, I think the vege was more tasty than the meat.

After lunch, we took the ferry over to Bygdoy. When we got off the ferry, the rain started again. We walked in the rain first to the Norsk Folkemuseum. This museum reminded us of our Plymouth Plantation, Williamsburg, etc. Interesting reconstructed old wooden/log houses from different areas of Norway's past. Interesting to walk through.

Second museum we went to was the Viking Ships museum (Vikingskipshuset). Aside from the 3 wooden ships, we did not stop to read all the stuff. The shape of the ships was interesting and beautiful, kind of like in the fairy tales.

Third museum was the Kon-Tiki museum, and the last one was the Fram museum. The Fram museum showed artifacts from the polar expeditions made by the Norwegians to the north and south poles in the late 1800s. Pretty amazing that they made it to those areas with wooden ships and no modern facilities at all!

It was raining the entire time we were on Bygdoy. After we took the ferry back, the rain had eased off a little. We took a detour to see the shopping area by the pier, Aker Grygge, which was very disappointing, perhaps because of all the construction that's going on. We got back to the hotel before 8. Had supper in the hotel - it sure is convenient even if the food was just OK.

Got email from Melissa - JJ has not been doing well .... My heart is very heavy and I really would go back if I could!!!.... Scrambled to call the vet .... Will talk with Dr. D at 11:30pm local time.

Oslo to Bergen; Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Did not go to bed till about 2am and could not sleep. Very worried about JJ ....

Got up at 5:30am and finished packing. Had breakfast at 6:30 then headed towards the train station shortly after 7. The weather was cooperating, no rain. It was less than 10 minutes walk to the train station, even with dragging 2 heavy pieces of luggage.

The train to Bergen was on track 3. We booked comfort seating which was only a little more expensive than the standard seating, but boy it was worth it! The train was clean and our seats were comfortable. Unfortunately we did not get the seats that faced forward, which made me a little dizzy at first until I got used to it later.

The train was very punctual and left at exactly 8:05am. It stopped at a number of stations during the 6+ hour ride, but only for a few minutes at each stop. People got on and off very orderly. The sceneries along the way were interesting and beautiful, especially as we got further north from Oslo. There were golden yellow fields of crops, mixed with the largely green landscape. There were steeply pitched roof houses, either white with black roof, or red with black/grey roof, very different from the houses we see back in the US. There were a lot of waterways. And the landscape was different from one area to another. Unfortunately I was not able to take any meaningful photos as the train moved quite fast, and we were often blocked by the structure (like a tunnel) which protected the train and railroad from falling rocks.

I was exhausted and slept for at least 1/3 of the way, and finally felt better. Oh the train provided free wifi, so I was able to check my emails. But it kept logging me out, so I was not able to really write anything. The train arrived in Bergen shortly before 3pm. Coming out of the train station, we were at a loss as to where our hotel was and how to get there. We went into a hotel across the train station to ask, found out that if we walked, it would take about 15 minutes. Looking at the cobble stoned walkways, and our luggage, we decided to take a taxi. This time the taxi fee was reasonable, about $20. And our driver was a nice guy from Ethiopia.

Coming out of the train station we already had a good feeling about Bergen. Riding in the taxi and seeing more of the city, we started to really like it. It turned out our hotel was right next to the famous Bryggen area - the harbor front place with the beautiful and colorful old houses. The hotel looked much nicer than the one in Oslo (both are Clarion Collection Hotels). We checked into the hotel. Our room was on the top 6th floor, with slanted ceiling and 2 gable windows, which look out at the colorful houses on the hill. Beautiful! The size of the room is not big, but big enough for us, with a decent size bathroom (and the shower has a door!), a queen bed, 2 seats, a desk and a chair, and a storage unit that we can put things in! This hotel is definitely a winner! Can't beat its location and everything else is fine.

After settling into the room and checking my emails, we went out to explore. I walked into every shop along the way, while Bob sat outside happily waiting. Again, everything I liked was terribly expensive, and I really did not want to buy just souvenir junk. But, just looking at the various things was fun! We walked, and I snapped pictures. Oh, we walked through the fish market by the water. Pretty amazing stuff!! One can actually order things and they would cook for you right there. The really fresh king crab legs and stone crab claws made me drool .... But I simply could not imagine eating them right there, in the cool weather and breeze .... Need to find a good seafood restaurant tomorrow! Oh, first time I saw whale meat!! They looked quite dark. We were told they tasted like beef, very good. Maybe I will try it tomorrow if the restaurant would serve it.

Most shops were closed by 6. We wondered back to our hotel and had the simple supper here which came with the room. Even though this was like cafeteria food, but we're actually happy with it, because it is so convenient and saves us the hassles of trying to figure out where to go. The front desk told us that we do not want to miss breakfast. I would imagine it might be even better than what we had in Oslo. I like that!

Bergen, Norway; Wednesday, August 6, 2014

The 8am wakeup alarm Bob set on his phone did not work. We woke up at 9am (we did not got to sleep until past 2am, could not sleep). Made breakfast which ended at 9:30. The breakfast in this hotel was actually not as good as the hotel in Oslo. It has similar stuff, but much less choice i cereals, milk, etc. We went out to explore after breakfast.

We actually walked around the harbor some more last night. The sun did not start to set until 10pm, so the light around 9:30pm was really nice for photos, but the good light did not last long before the sun fell behind a mountain beyond the ocean water. We had to wear a windbreaker at night as it got rather chilly.

It was a nice day today, no rain. We wanted to go take the cable car up the peak overlooking the harbor, but the line was too long. There were 3 cruise ships docked in the harbor today. 2 from Costa, 1 from Oceania - the Nautica. Plus there were other tour groups, so no wonder the line was long. We decided to try it later, and started wondering the neighborhoods around the harbor. I wanted to see the aquarium, so we walked in that direction. Half way there, we ran into another older couple who just came from that direction. They did not think the area where the aquarium was had anything interesting to see, so we decided to turn back - we had seen some of the best aquariums in the world (Baltimore, Singapore, etc.), and it would be hard to beat those, plus Bob was not too keen on going. The older couple was from Toronto, Canada, and they're on Nautica. Had a good chat with them. They had been here a few times before and they had sailed quite a lot on Oceania. We commented about how lovely Bergen was and how uninteresting Oslos was :-) The gentleman was a geologist, his wife appeared to be of Japanese origin. Lovely couple.

After poking into all the shops (of any interest at all) and buying a few T-shirts (only affordable thing), we decided to try the cable car again. This time the line was shorter, but still quite a line. But the wait was not too long, as the cable car ran continuously and there were 2 of them. The view from the top of the peak was indeed quite impressive! This city was truly charming with so much character! 

The ride to/from the peak reminded me of Victoria Peak in HongKong, except the one in HK was longer, more crowded, and the view from the V Peak was so much more hazy. Here there was no pollution.

We came back to the hotel after the peak, about 3:30pm. I checked my email, wrote my blog, while Bob took a nap. We did not have lunch today because of the late breakfast, neither was hungry. We each had a ice-cream cone on the peak, and decided to have an early dinner. We decided not to have the simple hotel supper, but to find a good real restaurant to have a Norwegian seafood dinner. Our DK Eyewitness Travel Norway book had a few recommendations. We were going to choose Cornelius. It was on an island and we had to take a boat to go there. Unfortunately the boat would not return until 10pm, and we wanted to take some sunset photos. So we ended up following the hotel's recommendation and had dinner at the restaurant called Enhjorningen which was just a few doors down from our hotel, in one of the old buildings of Bryggen. It was a seafood restaurant. Bob had the whale ham appetizer, I had oysters, and we each had the fish trio entree which had salmon, halibut, and monk fish. The whale meat was quite amazing, the texture was just like beef. And its color was dark dark red. The oysters were served with just lemon. Now I know I would not like oysters without the cocktail sauce! Thankfully they had tobacco sauce. With that I was able to swallow the oysters - too expensive to waste them :-). The fish dish was good. We're glad we went - our only real Norwegian DINNER on this trip. But was it worth the $, we don't think so.

After dinner, we went on the roof of the hotel and got a gorgeous view of the harbor! Took a few photos but did not quite get the exposure right. We then walked around the harbor again, with my real camera. Took more photos. By the time we came back to the hotel, it was almost 10pm. The sky was not dark yet.

I really can't say I am enjoying this trip. JJ's condition is not good. Melissa and Kirsten are really angels and they're taking such good care of him (and Djuna). But JJ's condition is very worrisome .... I really wish I were home ....

Bergen Day 2; Thursday, August 7, 2014

We went to bed before mid-night last night. I woke up before 6 and could hear it was raining outside. And it turned out to be a rainy day the entire time. I remembered seeing a T-shirt with the words "Bergen Rain" and wondered if Bergen was knowns for its rain. Later I asked the guy at the hotel's reception desk about this. Bergen indeed get a lot of rain - average about 200 days of rain per year! Gee!! But this year was different - they had very sunny and warm June and July. I guess we were very lucky yesterday and were able to see what we wanted to see and take pictures without the rain!

With the rain, there was not too much to do really. We did not do too much research so we did not have anywhere specific to go anyway. We had walked around the harbor area a few rounds already. So after breakfast, we went back to the hotel room and got everything packed. Then we sat down, rested, and watched whatever TV program that we could understand - they turned out to have a lot of American movies. But nothing that exciting.

We checked out of the room around 12:30. After storing the luggage with the front desk, we decided to go out and see the castle/fortress which was very close to the hotel. At this time, the rain had eased up a bit. The fortress/castle was called the Rosenkrantz Tower. A very nice looking old stone building. We navigated through the narrow spiral stone steps, through many floors, and went all the way to the top. The view at the top was very nice! We were able to enjoy it for a little bit, before the rain started again.

After coming out of the tower, we attempted a little walk down the street of Bryggen which we had walked at least 10 times in the last day and half. We then came back to the hotel, sat in the comfortable sofa at the lobby for 2+ hours. At 3pm, the hotel provided afternoon snack, which was pancakes that you make for yourself, and jams. We were not hungry after breakfast so we did not have lunch. We each had a pancake. At 4pm, we got on the Hurtigruten bus which picked up people from the various hotels and brought us to the ship terminal.

It turned out that some arrangement should have been made with Hurtigruten to use the shuttle bus that picked up the passengers from the various hotels. But Hurtigruten never told us, nor did our cruse agent who obvious did not know much about Norway or Hurtigruten at all. We were lucky the hotel told us about the shuttle bus. The driver was very nice and did not insist that we had a voucher. We tipped him well.

The ship terminal was not that far by bus at all (it would have been a hike if we walked, with luggage, cross those cobble stone streets!). We were allowed to board the ship starting 4pm. The checkin line was rather long, very different from the cruise lines we're used to in the States. We all pulled our luggages with us, standing in line. Once we got to the checkin desk, things were quite smooth. We dropped our luggage on the conveyer belt after checkin, then went through a security briefing, which was conducted through a video clip that showed us the emergency siren, the life jacket and thermal suite, the evacuation procedure, etc. Then we boarded the ship. It was about 5:30pm. Even though we were told our rooms would be ready by 6pm, the rooms on the 6th floor were already done, so we were able to get into our room right away. And our luggage arrived just as we got to our door.

We were quite pleased with our room! Quite spacious, with a comfortable sitting area, a nice balcony, plenty of storage space. I unpacked everything. What came as a pleasant surprise was that there was actually wifi in the room! I hope it'll remain this case throughout the cruise!! I quickly emailed Kirsten and Melissa. Very worried about JJ ....

Next was to find the laundry room - needed to do laundry from the past 5 days. It was on deck 3 and it was empty when we got there. 5 or 6 washers and equal number of dryers, free of charge. Nice! But it was a bit of a challenge to figure out how to use these machines which were not the same as what I am used to. Finally found 2 Miele washers which had English display, and everything was automatic. So, 2 loads of laundry done!

Dinner tonight was buffet 6-9pm. Not bad at all. I liked the dish with lamb and cabbage, which was supposed to be Bergen style. Of course there was a lot of fish dishes and appetizers. I had a taste of salmon and shrimp. They were not fishy at all.

The ship set sail at 8pm punctually while we were eating dinner. The rain had stopped, but it was very overcast. Everything was gray. We sailed past a bunch of islands. There were colorful houses on the hills on shore, very picturesque. As we sailed further away from Bergen, there were less and less houses, replaced by just trees and rocky shore.

We listened to the English information talk at 9pm and picked up various booklets and maps related to this cruise. Bob and I wanted to explore the ship a little. We walked outside on deck 5 which had a surrounding walk way. But the wind was quite strong, with rain, which made the walk very unpleasant so we came back in. The ship is not that big and it is very different from all the cruise ships we've been on. Even though we have a spacious nice room, the ship itself is by no means luxurious like the other big cruise ships. Good thing was that it is very casual, none of the dress up stuff. We will be stopping at 35 ports, some for only 15 minutes. It is a ferry ship. But I have not seen the ferry part yet. Will explore more in the next few days.

Geiranger, Western Fjords, Norway; Friday, August 8, 2014

Did not go to bed till around 3:30am last night/this morning. JJ was at Tufts emergency room for an ultrasound per our vet's recommendation, Kirsten and Melissa took him in (bless their heart!!!). I was on the phone and email with them. They kept JJ there and would do the ultrasound and x-rays tomorrow (today). My heart is very very heavy. Really wish we did not make this trip. Now I have very little interest for the fjords, just want to be home ....

We got up shortly after 7am and had breakfast. The breakfast on the ship was very similar to the breakfast we had in both hotels in Oslo and Bergen. The ship had stopped at a few ports during the night. Occasionally we could hear the sound of cargo loading but it really was not bad at all.

The reason we got up early was because we thought we would step out to see Alesund when the ship docked there. We would have about 45 minutes according to the schedule. Unfortunately the ship was late in arriving because it took more time loading/unloading cargo at an earlier port, so it did not dock at Alesund until 9:10. And the ship must sail again at 9:30. No chance of getting on shore. About 200 passengers got on the ship from Alesund. So we stayed in the room.

11:30am we had a light lunch, then we got off the ship at 1:30pm for our Geiranger excursion. The Geiranger fjord is one of the UNESCO listed world sites and it is indeed very impressive! This excursion took about 8 hours. There were probably more than 150 people taking this excursion, 4 big buses - one English, one Norwegian, one German, and one French. Nice Mercedez buses, clean and quite new. Our guide, Peter, was from Hungary, but spoke English quite well. The bus driver was local, but spoke English better than Peter. He just be a very experienced driver, as the big bus had to navigate very narrow mountain roads with hair-pin turns. The scenery was beautiful. We stopped at various places for short photo breaks, took 2 ferry rides (the bus got on the ferry), eventually dropping us off for dinner in a hotel in Molde around 8pm. 

After dropping us off at Geiranger, our ship sailed back along the same route so the people on the ship enjoyed seeing both sides of the fjord. It went back to Alesund around 6pm, the continued on and met us in Molde at around 9:45pm.

It was definitely a worthwhile excursion and we're glad we did it. The weather was decent all the way except at the Trollstigen Pass where it was drizzling and foggy. So foggy that we could not see anything beyond 20 feet. We were probably very high in the clouds. After we came down, the weather was clear again, even though it was mainly overcast.

Tomorrow the ship will arrive at Trondheim around 8:15am. We booked an excursion to see the famous Nidaros cathedral and a music museum. Today the bus driver told me both were very much worth visiting.

Trondheim, Norway; Saturday, August 9, 2014

The ship docked at Trondheim later than the scheduled 8:15am, so our signed up excursion started a bit later as well, around 9:15am. The excursion was to see the famous Nidaros cathedral followed by a visit to the Ringve museum. Again there were 4 nice big buses like yesterday and the cathedral was less than 10 minutes drive away. But we're glad we took this excursion, as the guide explained to us what was what along the way.

Trondheim is actually the 3rd largest city in Norway, and second oldest. It was the capital at one point (so was Bergen, we learned). There was the old part of town, and new areas, and there're many modern buildings. 

The cathedral was the most famous in Scandinavia and it was very beautiful. It took 250 years to build. A lot was destroyed later and the one we saw was reconstructed in many parts. We had a guided tour which was very informational. Learned a little about Roman style vs Gothic style (I want to read a book about it now). Inside of the cathedral was even more impressive than the outside. It seemed that it's one of the few times I liked the inside of a cathedral. And this cathedral is shared by different religious denominations, which I found quite unique.

After the cathedral, the bus took us to the Ringve Museum. It was a musical museum which had musical instruments from different eras. We first went into the "barn" where there was a display of many musical instrument. Then we had a guided tour of the main building, which had many rooms, each was of a different era. Our guide (perhaps all the guides there) was a musician, and he played a few of the different stages of piano for us, very enjoyable. Very pleasant young man. It's one of the few rare times we actually enjoyed a guided tour of a museum.

Our ship was scheduled to set sail at 12pm, and we got back from our tour just in time. I really would have loved to have another hour, to look at the old part of the city, at the colorful houses along the Nidelva river. Unfortunately we did not get the chance. Bob carried my big camera and lens in vain :-(

Back on the ship. Had lunch which was a nice buffet. Then we came back to the room to relax. Tomorrow we have the Svartisen glacier excursion which will be for 6 hours starting from 8:30am. I'm exhausted and could use the rest today.

Slept for probably 2 hours. Did laundry. Attended a 5pm information talk about rest of the voyage which was helpful. So let me reflect on what we've experienced so far on this cruise. What I think we like so far are:

- Our room was spacious and comfortable - would not even think of booking the non-balcony room.

- To see Norway fjords that other cruise ships do not get to (supposedly);

- Get more of a flavor of Norway real life;

- The food is simple and we don't have the urge to overeat;

- There is wifi in the room;

- Good self-service laundry on the ship, and it's free. The washers and dryers are in good condition.

- The excursions we took were good, even though some were quite expensive.

What we don't care much for are:

- Some of the basic service seems to be missing. There is no information about how to book pre/post cruise transportation until you know where to ask (on ship, at the reception). There was very little information about the excursions, especially the ones that go for 6-8 hours, in terms of what we should prepare - shoes, clothes, etc.

- Because this is a unique kind of cruise where the ship serves as a ferry, it is very hard to understand the schedule and logistics of the excursions until they explain to you on the ship. They encourage people to book the excursions ahead of time, but it's impossible to understand when and how the excursions work, to know what combinations can be booked;

- The cabin service is very basic. The maid comes to clean the room once a day, that's it. We're given 2 sets of very thin, old, non-absorbant towels - one small bath towel, one hand towel. That's it. I don't even know where to find the maid to ask if I could get an extra towel.

- The ship feels crowded especially if we get on deck 7 where it's the open deck (where the swimming pool is) and you can look around outside. There are people smoking there which makes it unpleasant in addition to the many people.

- There is no central service - we were assigned late dinner seating (8:30, without ever asking us for our preference) but we really don't want to eat late. We must talk to the dining manager to change it and he/she is only available at dining time. Very odd. We were able to change it, but the only way they seemed to be able to do it was to squeeze us into a 6-people table by adding another chair ....

I was apprehensive about taking this cruise so I did not have high expectations. We were very pleased with how the stateroom turned out! And we are glad to have taken the excursions and saw the places. Aside from the food situation which we have no complaint about, the rest of the cruise experience is definitely not what we're used to. 

We were assigned to late seating for dinner. I did not want to eat that late, so we went over at 6:30, met the dining manager, and she squeezed us in for the early sitting. For tonight, we were at a table with other Americans - an older couple from CA, and a lady from CA whose daughter and grand-daughter were sleeping so they would have late dinner tonight. Chatted with our table mates and had an interesting conversation comparing travel notes.

The ship docked at Rorvik a little later than the scheduled 8:45. We had less than 30 minutes to get on shore before the ship would sail again at 9:15. We had just enough time to get on shore, went into a little 7/11 type of shop, stood in a long line and got a diet coke, for $5 USD. Yuk!

After coming back on the ship, we stayed on our balcony and watched the sunset. It took a long time for the sun to actually go behind the horizon, and it did not go down until after 10:15. It remained light after the sun went down. We hoped to see the green flash, but no luck.

Did not see any fjords today. The ship navigated through a lot of little coastal islands. Tomorrow we have an excursion to see the Svartisen glacier. Need to be up early.

Bodø, Norway; Sunday, August 10, 2014

We woke up to another beautiful sunny day today. I pulled back the curtain and saw some rocky formation really close, so I ran out to the balcony with my camera, before 6:30, and snapped a few pictures. None of them came out that impressive though :-(

At 8:30, those of us who signed up for the Svartisen Glacier excursion got on a small boat/ship from deck 3 and we sailed towards the glacier, while Finnmarken continued on to Ornes then Bodo.

Our small boat moved quite fast. Bob and I stayed on the upper deck in the open, like most others. The wind was very strong. I used my small camera and tried to capture as much as I could - there was no way I would have been able to use my big camera. The scenery along the ride was quite nice. And we started seeing the glacier far away as we sailed closer to where our boat would dock.

About 50 minutes later, our boat docked. Most of us walked the less than 1 kilometer to the bottom of the glacier, even though there was a bus that could take us there. The walk was quite pleasant, not to say giving us some exercise we could really use. There was a lodge at the foot of the glacier, where we could get coffee, cakes, and snacks (part of the excursion). It had tables and a small shop. The owner of the shop actually brought over 3 chunks of ice from the glacier to show us. Now I can say I touched the glacier :-)

Outside the lodge, at the foot of the glacier, was a lake, with beautiful blue water. Some people actually put their feet in to test the water. I think it was pretty cold. 

I don't think this was the first time I saw a glacier, but I cannot remember where else I saw it. The Svartisen glacier was nice, but it did not have as much ice as I imagined. The guide said it was normal. Some years it had more, some less.

We walked back to the dock shortly after 11am, and our boat sailed again at 11:15. It then sailed for 2 hours to Bodo, where we met our ship Finnmarken around 2pm. On the sail back, Bob and I stayed out in the front of the upper deck half of the way, until we got so cold (the wind was very very strong at times). We then went down inside, sitting on the comfortable seats, and played some cards.

Back on the ship, we had a late lunch. then back to the cabin to rest, do emails, read, and watch the scenery  passing by. This could have been one of the most relaxing cruises, as there really was nothing on the ship to do, if there was no fjord scenes to watch or excursions to go to. I am not really enjoying this trip because my mind is preoccupied with our dog's situation ....

Went to the excursions desk to ask the lady who did the information talk yesterday. She talked about the difference between fjord and sound (sound) and I did not catch it. She explained again: fjord is the water way that you cannot sail through, whereas you can sail through a sound. Now I see!

The ship stopped at Svolvaer at 9:15pm (late for its schedule 9pm) and stayed till 10:15pm. An hour! Many people got on shore, some actually reached their destination. There were 2 or 3 museums open, probably just for the Hurtigruten people. Bob and I went on shore and visited the "Magic Ice" museum. The museum had a bunch of ice sculptures in a room that used to be a big refrigerator for the fishing business. Later they no longer used it for fish, so they changed it to a museum for ice sculptures. For $22 per ticket, it really was not worth it. No where close to the quality of the ice sculpture in China's Harbin ice festival. The place was -6 degrees celsius, and we were each given a cape to wear, plus a pair of cotton gloves. None of the pictures I took came out well. Oh well .... We later stepped into a gallery. I do like the art work of a Norwegian lady artist. I took some pictures of her paintings.

Back on the ship. Got a popsicle at the Cafe - oh boy the lady at the cash register was so unfriendly. I am very bored with this cruise trip. Nothing to do on the ship and really do not feel welcome. Service is pretty much nonexistent. Originally we thought this cruise would get us into the small fjords the other larger cruise ships would not. Wrong! The only places this cruise ship has taken us to that others don't are these small towns that have nothing interesting and we don't really get to see much of them! Sigh ....

Oh, forgot to mention that we crossed the Arctic circle around 7:15am today.

Around 11:30pm, the ship came to the Trollsfjorden, a rather famous fjord. Even though it was midnight, there was enough light to see some of the fjord, the tall mountains coming out straight from the ocean and jagged tops. Interestingly Hurtigruten actually sent out its employees to play trolls on short at the foot of the mountains, making all sorts of noises. The ship used spot light to point at them. A nice gesture. I wish we sailed through here during day light! It was quite impressive to watch the ship turn around at the end of the fjord and come out.

Tromsø, Norway; Monday, August 11, 2014

Today there was no rush to get up early to catch anything. We did not arrive Tromso until 2:30pm and our hiking excursion was not until that time. There was nothing to do in the morning and I was very tired, so I took a big nap. At 11:15am, the ship arrived at Finnsnes and stayed for half an hour. Bob and I walked off the ship hoping to take a look at the little town. But there really was nothing to see, so we walked back. 

The ship docked at Tromso on schedule at 2:30. We were among the first ones to get on shore. The excursion buses were there waiting for us. There were only about 20 people on our excursion, most of them Norwegians/Europeans. The bus took us to the cable car place for a short ride up. After we got off the cable car, we started walking towards the top, which was high up there but did not look that bad. We started the climb/hike. Boy it was sure much more difficult walking up than walking on flat land. Bob and I soon become the last two. One of our 2 guides, Richard, a nice 17-year-old Norwegian, stayed with us and chatted with us, making the hike much more pleasant. Originally I said I definitely want to walk to the top, and I am still sure we could have done it. But we had a time limit, and walking down would be more difficult than walking up (I regret that we did not take the walking sticks they offered). So we stopped at the mid point, where there was a hut that's at least 100 years old. It was used by hikers to rest in case of bad weather. We sat at the table outside the hut, had some water that Richard brought, rested for a while, then started walking down. The rest of the group also rested at the mid point after they came down from the top, and we all met down at the cable car station. We could have gone down with the cable car earlier to have some time to wonder around Tromso, but the bus was not there till after 5:30. So we waited at the cable car station up top for quite a while. By the time we got back to the ship pier, it was close to 6pm. The ship was scheduled to sail at 6:30.

The view at the top of the mountain was gorgeous. Unfortunately it was a bit hazy, so the photos were not as crisp as they could be. It was a beautiful sunny day today so we were lucky. There were other mountain ranges nearby. One of them was rated most difficult to climb, another was rated medium difficulty. The one we hiked today was rated easy. Bob and I could definitely handle this hike, if we were not pressed by time. And we would need to get a walking stick to assist for the downward walk.

Dinner was fish. The Norwegians sure know how to cook fish and I quite enjoyed it. It's after 9pm now and the sun is still high up there. Tomorrow will be our last day on this cruise. We have an excursion to do bird safari. Then I will be packing. Can't wait to go back and see JJ!....

Honningsvåg, Finnmark, Norway; Tuesday, August 12, 2014

We did not go to bed till after 1am - it really did not help with sleeping when the sun did not go down till after 10 and the sky was still light at mid-night. Thankfully the ship has room darkening curtains and drapes. We woke up after 8. Rushed down to have breakfast which ended at 9, since our excursion started at 11:30 and we would not have the time to have lunch which started at 11 today.

Honningsvag was an island with 5 fishing villages. It's quite remote. The biggest industry there was fishing, with tourism ranked number 2. Our guide was a young lady who lived in one of the 5 fishing villages. There were 2 excursions. One was to North Cape, which had 7 bus loads of people. The other was our bird watching safari, which had about 20 people - I was so glad! A big bus took our safari group to the fishing village that was about 45 minutes away. We enjoyed beautiful scenery plus reindeer along the way. I learned from our guide that the reindeer here are not wild animals. They were raised by the Sami people who were the native here, just like the Indians in the US. There were two kinds of Sami people. The fishing people, and the reindeer people. Each family had thousands of reindeer. All the reindeer are marked with different marks to distinguish them. It was improper to ask Sami people how many reindeer they own, just like we do not want to ask people how much they earn.

Our guide told us again and again that we're extremely lucky because we had such beautiful sunny weather! When we got to the fishing village, we immediately got on the fishing ship which took us out to the bird islands in the ocean. WOW! So many birds!! I actually brought all my 3 cameras with me, including the Canon with the 70-200mm lens. But I ended up using the Sony NEX 5 because it would be impossible for me to hand hold the Canon for that long. Unfortunately the lens of the NEX 5 was so so and it was very difficult to take any really sharp photos when the boat was always moving. I could not iterate the names of the birds we saw. The few I remember are shags, arctic tern, eagle, and of course puffins. I wanted MOST to get some photos of the puffins and was quite disappointed that I really was not able to capture them. But after I came back and downloaded the photos, I actually caught a few that were interesting! I could see the fish in the puffin's mouth! So cool! It was the FIRST time I actually saw a really puffin!! They were SO beautiful and cute! Their beaks and color were just unbelievable! And I did not know they actually swam! Seeing them diving into the water with their 2 little red feet up was just so cute!!

We had such a wonderful time seeing the birds! The weather was so nice, sunny, with a little wind, just perfect. We did not even have to put on a windbreaker. Just short sleeve T-shirts were comfortable. Unfortunately we did not have that much time to watch the bird more. We must get back to the ship by 2:45. And that's what we did. So did the other 7 buses for the North Cape excursion.

Back on the ship, I started packing and did a final load of laundry - really like the ship's laundry facility. At 5pm, the ship docked at this small town called Kjollefjord and stopped there for one hour. Many of us who had "cabin fever" got off the ship. Bob and I followed the crowd, walking towards somewhere or nowhere - there was really nothing on the pier. I mean nothing. We did not walk too far, took some photos, and came back.

Dinner was at 6 tonight (early seating). Tonight was the good-bye buffet - wow quite a spread! All sorts of seafood - crabs, shrimp, mussels, all sorts of cold cuts, salads, cod fish, smoked halibut, reindeer stew (!!), 2 tableful of desserts, fruits, cheeses, breads, etc, etc. I loved the reindeer stew! Our guide told us that reindeer meat was delicious and healthy, because it had no fat. She was right - very delicious.

Tonight we need to bring our suitcases out by the elevator before mid-night. Tomorrow morning we must get out of the room by 8am, then off the ship by about 9:30am. We booked the airport transportation Our flight to Oslo is around noon.

Back to Oslo; Wednesday, August 13, 2014

It's the beginning of traveling home.

We were up at 6am. Had breakfast at 7am. Cleared out of the room at 8am. Then stayed at the lounge on deck 7 and rested till 9:30, after the ship docked in Kirkenes and announced for those who were leaving the ship to disembark. We left the ship and picked up our luggage which was moved out and waiting for us when we got there. Then we got on the bus and headed to the airport. We were warned that the Kirkenes airport was very very small. But it was actually much bigger than some of the ones we'd been to. I wonder if half of the people on the ship left today. The airport was pretty crowded. Long lines to check in, long lines to go through security. But we finally got in, with more than an hour to spare.

We did not really get the chance to look at much of anything in Kirkenes - the scene around the pier was not too picturesque. On the bus ride we got a glimpse of the surroundings. After we got to the gate at the airport, I found out that I did not have my wallet with me. What followed was frantic searching of all the bags, looking for contact information for Hurtigruten, calling Hurtigruten Finnmarken. And guess what, they found it in our room! It was 11:15 already and our flight was at 12. The nice man told me they would send a taxi to bring the wallet to me immediately and told me to wait for the taxi outside the airport, and inform the airline about this. And that's what I did. At around 11:40, the taxi arrived. The driver checked my passport and gave my wallet to me. I paid the driver. Phew!!! I was very grateful to Hurtigruten and to the taxi driver!!

The flight from Kirkenes to Oslo was about 2 hours and 20 minutes. We flew Norwegian airline. I should stop complaining about the US airlines for being cheap and not giving us food. On the Norwegian airline, one had to pay for water! Gee! ....

We're staying at the Radisson Blu hotel at the Oslo airport. It was literally within walking distance and we could just push our luggage carts with our luggage there. Nice airport hotel. No complaints. After dropping stuff off in the room, we went out to look for food and things to do to kill the afternoon. It was about 3:30. We did not really want to go into Oslo downtown again so we asked the hotel if there was a shopping area where we could get food and do some shopping. They told us to take the bus to Jessheim Storsenter. We book bus 818 and 15 minutes later we were there. It was good to see a shopping mall where locals go to, and it was good to ride the bus and see some neighborhoods. I believe this was suburban. There were even some farm lands, with crops that were golden yellow.

The mall was kind of big, with some of the familiar stores such as H&M (which seems to be quite popular here), Banana Republic etc and some stores unique to Norway. What I was interested most were the stores that were similar to either Crate ad Barrel, or Pottery Barn. They seemed to have quite a lot of such stores here.

The mall had McDonald, Burger King type of eateries which we really did not want to go. Then Bob found a couple of restaurants that looked decent, so we went into one called "Castello" which seemed to be an Italian restaurant. Bob ordered a beef dish which was not quite the kind he liked - kind of well done and I did not think it tasted that great. I ordered a fish dish that the waiter recommended which turned out to be monk fish. It was tasty and i liked it. We also ordered 2 appetizers - a shrimp/seafood thing that was quite good, and a tomato/mozzarella/basil dish that was good. The menu was in Norwegian with no English translation, so the waiter did his best to explain to us. We did OK. This was late lunch/early dinner. We were stuffed.

Took the bus back to the airport then walked back to the hotel. Tomorrow our flight is at 11. Can't wait to go home!! Heart feels heavy worrying about JJ ....

No photos today.

Home; Thursday, August 14, 2014

Up at 7. Had breakfast (very good one, as in all the places we had been to on this trip) and got to the airport before 9. It took a while to go through the security line but we got to our gate with plenty of time to spare. Our UA flight was at 11 something and it took off on schedule. Smooth ride, with even a hot meal and then a warm breakfast. 8 hours later, we landed in Newark.

Newark Customs now had new Kiosks for passport check. That's something new! After scanning your passport, you get a ticket. Mine had a black cross on it, quite scary. It meant I had to go through the human check and that line was very slow. Nobody in that line knew why we were singled out. When it was my turn, I asked the officer. He was very nice. He told me the reason was because my name on my passport had the hyphen whereas my airline ticket does not. Gee!!! I always hated the hyphen in my name, but it was done when I first entered the country so it's hard to change. Sigh ....

By the time we rechecked our luggage and get to the gate of our Boston flight, we still had plenty of time to spare. The UA flight was on schedule, for a change. 1 hour later, we arrived in Boston, shortly past 5. Somehow it took a long time for the luggage to arrive.

We had reserved a taxi from Accent Limo which was waiting for us. It was very nice to get the ride home, especially during rush hour. Accent Limo's drivers were always very nice and courteous, very professional.

Dropped luggage off in the house, greeted Djuna who was excited beyond description. It was very nice to see our healthy girlie and came back to a clean house. We did not stay long and headed out to Tufts to see our other baby.

After waiting for a while, they brought JJ to a room for our visit. Dr. Lohin was with another patient and would join us later. JJ was standing there when we walked in. I called him and hugged him. But he seemed to be out of it. His tail did lift up but did not wag like before. He was just out of it .... He had 3 of his 4 legs shaved, for IV and/or blood tests, I assume ... He slowly walked around in the room, panting heavily, then laid down on the floor, not on the quilt they spread there. I sat there with him, hugging him, stroking him .... Later Dr. Lohin came and chatted with us. JJ had a set back today, after they removed IV and changed all meds to oral. He had a fever, and did not seem to be as comfortable as the last 2 days. We originally wanted to bring him home, but Dr. Lohin recommended that he stayed one more night so they could monitor him. She would call us tomorrow. We left, with a heavy heart .... JJ really broke our hearts and we hated to see him like this!!

Finally home! When I have some time and in the mood to reflect on this trip, maybe I will write a little more about my overall impression of Norway and the Hurtigruten cruise.