Hello from the Norwegian Fjords and Northern Europe

It’s been about three weeks since my last blog from Bar Harbor, and we retraced our steps and recrossed the Arctic Circle, Greenland (which was not green) and Iceland (which had little ice), but stopped at different quaint small ports. I had a chance to purchase much needed warmer clothing and a couple of small souvenirs which will serve as modest Christmas gifts.

This blog documents my impression of the Norwegian Fjords which always fascinated me and a few other items which don’t fit neatly under any specific topic.

Surprisingly, the Norwegian Fjords were essentially stark mountains all around us, and our ship floated in the valley below. Some areas had interesting shaped icebergs, carved by the winds. Very different from the Milford Sound Fjords of New Zealand which had lush green evergreens and waterfalls everywhere. A knowledgeable local pilot guided us through to  ensure safe passage and circumvent a fate like the Titanic’s. I managed to capture just a few of the more interesting shaped icebergs.

As we approached Norway, the fjords changed somewhat and resembled Oregon’s Puget Sound with many small colorful towns visible in the distance. Naturally, sailing though the fjords were considered “sea days”, so we played a lot of bridge or enjoyed other ship-board activities.

Not surprisingly, it’s difficult to keep track of days of the week on a cruise. Holland America solved that problem by printing a day of the week on all elevator carpets and changing them every day. I thought it was weird because I never put two and two together. I didn’t notice they were changing every day nor that they corresponded to the current day. It was almost a month of wondering before someone spelled it out for me….Duh!!

Our first port after the north pole was Oslo. I was impressed with it’s cleanliness, architecture and amount of vegetation and parks. Next came Rotterdam, the largest cargo port in Europe, and it was lined with power-generating windmills. I heard that all new taxis in Norway and Holland must be electric, hence the much needed additional electric capacity.

We took a side trip from Rotterdam to Delft, the birthplace of the blue ceramics factory. The factory was a little out of town so we did not see it, but Delft was  a small charming city with outdoor cafes and canals reminiscent of Amsterdam’s, but much cleaner.

Our next port was Cork in Ireland and I stayed on board to write this blog, but I’m excited to be going to Belfast where I’m meeting a couple of friends from the ill-fated Life-at-Sea 3  year project. They’re planning to sail on the refurbished Odyssey any day now. I certainly hope this project is viable.

After Belfast, we will be heading back to Boston by the same route so I don’t anticipate anything new, hence, I will take a blogging break and return after I board the Cunard Queen Mary 2 in NY at the end of August.