Dear Everyone,

Today we drove our rental Jeep up to Oahu’s North Shore.  The picture above is probably what we could have seen had there been any place to park at any of the eight surfing beaches along the way.  Unfortunately, the entire coastline was packed out with surfers.  The surf is the highest in the winter months, with waves up to 30 feet high.  We did see some surfers out on huge waves as we drove by, so pretend I really took this picture with my iPhone.

It is a beautiful coastline.

Just so you know I’m really here, below is a picture Doug took of me last night at dinner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear All,

Less than twenty four hours here and I already feel as if am being lulled into a ukulele-induced stupor by the traditional Hawaiian music that is playing everywhere in this resort.  We were welcomed yesterday afternoon with an orchid lei for me and a Kuikui nut lei for Doug, and it has been the full-on Hawaiian experience since then.  What a gorgeous place!

When we planned this trip a couple of  years ago, we decided to fly via Hawaii since we were here only once in the early 80’s and thought it would be fun to see it again.  On that trip, we traveled with Janis and Calvin, and did all of touristy things we could think of, complete with going on a “Booze Cruise” at sunset.  The Booze Cruise was a bit of a letdown (perhaps we should have surmised this could be a possibility since it was called a Booze Cruise?).   We each got two watered down Blue Hawaiians, plus a very substandard meal that I mercifully can’t remember.

But I digress.  Our first trip here was fun, the company was stellar and the scenery was lovely, so we wanted to do it again.  And I won’t be buying a turquoise Mumu this time.

 

 

 

Dear Everyone,

This morning at 11:00 AM we flew from Atlanta, Georgia (courtesy of Delta Airlines) nonstop to Honolulu, Hawaii on the first leg of our trip to New Zealand and Australia.  First, four nights in Honolulu and then on to Auckland, New Zealand for a few days before we board our two week Viking Cruise that will take us around New Zealand, on to Tasmania and then finally land us in Sydney,  Australia.  I have done a blog only one other time and the whys and wherefores are not coming to mind.  I think I might be tagging it on to my last blog, but am not sure how to create a new one.  If so, please disregard the last blog and please bear with me as I relearn the art of blogging.

So, today’s happenings in no particular order:

1.  I read an entire book on the 10 hour flight and my eyes feel like sandpaper.

2.  Doug thought he had left our passports and cruise information at home during the entire 10 hour flight because they were not in his carry on (Not so.  He left them in his checked bag and they were still there!). And so he fretted for 10 hours.

3.  When we checked in to our hotel on the beach, we found they were filming an episode of American Idol at the Disney Resort next door. It’s loud, but entertaining.  See below (and above because I have no idea how to put a picture at just the end):

 

 

Dear Readers (If any of you are still reading),Today is the final day of my blog, as we left the ship this morning and flew here to London from Bergen.  Tomorrow, we fly out of Heathrow on a direct flight back to Atlanta.  We arrive there at 6:30 tomorrow evening.  And so our great adventure to Norway and the Arctic Circle ends.  I hope you enjoyed reading my daily travelogue (and I won’t say as much as I enjoyed writing it, because some days it was a struggle).  But I will say that it gave me a different perspective to try to relate what I saw to an audience, albeit a small audience.  I’m always interested in the history of a place, but I rarely take pictures, leaving that up to Doug with his superior camera.  But I found taking pictures was fun, because I look more for details, rather than at the big panoramas, although I did take of few of the larger view.  Which places did I like the best?  Probably London because there is so much to see here and so much history to take in; Edinburgh, because it has a completely different old world charm; Shetland, because of after reading the Shetland mysteries, I knew I would like the countryside and the atmosphere; Honningsvåg, Norway and the gorgeous fishing villages; and finally, Bergen, Norway, a gorgeous seaside town with spectacular views of the Fjords from the surrounding mountains.  See pictures below (the Bergen ? is the sign on the side of a mountain greeting you at the airport—I asked what it meant and no one seemed to know).And one more that I took after we went through security at the Bergen Airport because US airports should try this, especially Atlanta!

 

Today was the perfect day to be in Bergen:  Mid to high sixties, bright and sunny, with just the right amount of breeze.  Our tour was walking in the city and a cruise out in the harbor on a sailboat.  The boat we were on, The Galleon Loyal, is a 140 year old wood ship that was used for shipping cod (what else?).  The Germans confiscated it during WWII, as they did all ships and boats except for the small fishing boats.  But now it is back in Norway where it belongs.  We had an al fresco (apologies for the  term) lunch of open-faced king crab sandwiches, prosecco and strawberries and cream.  It was a fine, soft day for sure.

Bergen is situated between Songefjord on the north and Hardangerfjord on the south.  It’s a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site because a Kontor (kind of like an outpost) of the Hanseatic League was situated here called Bryggen.  I will leave the research to my readers at this point should there be sufficient interest, but basically the Hanseatic League was a confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Northwestern and Central Europe from about the late 1100s to around the 1450s.  Anyway, Bryggen is a group of historic buildings that are nearly all red (see pics).  They brought goods in by sea and stored them in the upper floors of the building, then had a store front on the street level where the goods were sold.  

On the street today at twelve noon they shot cannons from the fort to celebrate the 45th birthday of Haakon, the Crown Prince of Norway.  One of the ladies in our group almost had a heart attack.  The expression “jumping out of your skin” came to mind.  These Norwegians just love their royalty.  

I feel kind of sorry for PeeWee (Ian, the guy who laughs like Peewee Herman).  The airline lost his luggage and he has had to wear pretty much one outfit the entire time, jeans and a T-shirt.  Not sure why he hasn’t bought some new clothes.  I guess he just sends his jeans and T-shirt out to be laundered every night.  

 

 

 

We are anchored at the head of Geirangerfjord today by the little village of Geiranger.  They say it’s a beautiful trip sailing in here, but we would have had to get up at 4:45 AM to see it and that immediately disqualified me.  But we will see it on the way out, so no need for such extreme measures.  

Our tour today was up the side of a mountain with a hairpin turn every half mile (see pictures).  The road was extremely narrow, and only one lane, but with two way traffic.  It was also heavily trafficked with busses, RV’s and cars, so it made for a fairly precarious situation.  In a big big bus sitting up high, it seemed like we were going to either knock other cars or busses off the side of the mountain or our bus might fall off the side.  Not a trip for the faint of heart.  

Last night we went to event out by the pool called, “Dancing Under the Midnight Sun.”  No, we didn’t dance, but it was fun to watch.  They played oldies and everyone sang along.  I can’t believe I’m calling the Beatles, Tina Turner and the Eagles oldies, but there you have it.   While I was watching, I was thinking of what Walker said one day in the car.  We were listening to the radio and a song came on he liked.  He said, “Good, I have moves for this one.”  These people definitely had “moves.”  It’s ironic to watch people who take a half hour to get off the bus doing the frug, the swim and the chicken.  

Today on the twisty, curvy road we were on, an Asian guy was so busy snapping pictures that he stepped out in the road in front of a motorcycle and very nearly got creamed.  Stupid tourists!

Tonight we head to Bergen, which is our final destination in Norway.  No more tour busses, but one more walking and boat tour.  

Plain Ann and Fancy Nancy

 

This was probably our most uneventful day thus far.  There are almost 1,200 fjords and over 50,000 islands in Norway.  Because of all of the islands, there is over 50,000 miles of coastline.  So it’s quite beautiful to sail here, as there is always scenery rather than open sea.  A lot of travel in Norway is done with a coastal boat they call the Hurtigrutin (sounds pretty much like it sounds, with some major throat clearing when pronouncing the U’s).  The Hurtigrutin run all times of the year as the Gulf Stream keeps the sea from freezing.  Because some trips are several days or even a week or longer, this ship has a combination of day passengers as well as overnight passengers.

They supply bathrobes in our room, one sized for women and one sized larger for men.  Yesterday I saw a man in the spa who had on the women’s version.  He was a huge guy, so it was most indecent.  No picture because believe me, you don’t want that image floating around in your head for all time.

Along the Norwegian coast there are many circular structures in the water.  These are salmon farms, usually lined up in groups of three or more.  There are wild salmon here as well, but the rise in salmon as a popular entree has caused more demand than can be met with the wild population.  The main problem is that farmed salmon are subject to sea lice and may weaken or even die if infested.  When wild salmon (as in the Northwest) swim up fresh water to spawn, the sea lice are knocked off.  This, of course, does not happen with farmed fish kept in cages.  So, if you love salmon, even the Norwegian variety may have actually come from a farm where they use fish food and chemicals.  Lovely thought, I know!

I sat by Nancy (aka Gloria Swanson) at the “Polar Plunge” today and felt shamed that I had no makeup on.  I told her I just got up and threw clothes on (at least I wasn’t wearing a bathrobe).   She told me she always dressed before going out.  Of course.  The woman must have six suitcases to hold all of her paraphernalia.  

You are probably asking yourself, “What the heck is a Polar Plunge?”  Well, they throw a bunch of ice in the small pool to bring it to 32 degrees.  Then participants (stark raving idiots, in my book) plunge into the icy water.  After that, they get a stiff drink, a towel and blue paint on their nose that they are supposed to wear all day.  

A passenger on the ship had a major medical issue tonight and they had to airlift him and his wife off the ship onto a helicopter.  The ship never slowed down.  How scary would that be?

No pictures today, but I’m adding a few pictures I took of signs in different countries.

Today we are in Tromso (pronounced Trumsa), Norway, which is still considered Northern Norway.  It certainly isn’t as isolated as where we were the last couple of days, but it would still be a major undertaking to get here from London say, or from most places really.   There are trees on this island because they don’t have the gales the other islands have, so the landscape is largely shades of green rather than shades of gray.  So now we know there really are Norwegian woods!  And, as another major announcement, we actually saw the sun for several hours today.  It has been light out 24/7, but no direct sunlight until today.  

Our tour guide this afternoon was half Norwegian (her father) and half Italian (her mother), so she spoke Norwegian, Italian and the most perfect English possible.   And she was only 22 years old.  We heard a lot more about cod fishing, what a wonderful place Norway is to live, how all Norwegians are concerned with the environment, how they treat their indigenous population, the Samis, with the utmost respect and so on and so forth.  A typical 22 year old viewpoint in many ways, but also quite cheerful, optimistic and just happy to be alive.  I have taught American college kids and they are, for the most part, much more cynial and pessimistic.  It’s refreshing to see such optimism.  

We drove through the most amazing tunnel today.  We went through three roundabouts, in a tunnel, no less!  Tromso has tunnels under the entire city, so it’s idyllic and relatively traffic free on the streets.  

Back to the Samis:  They are the indigenous people here in Northern Norway and have their own language and culture.  And they own all of the reindeer in Norway.  They originally herded them from the south to north and back, but now they do it with GPS tracking.   Modern herding.  

I did learn the name of Gloria Swanson tonight:  Nancy.  I took a clandestine picture.  Lord forgive me.  I am beginning to love her style.  And here she is!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today we were at port in Honningsvåg, which seems as if it may be at the ends of the earth, which I guess it kind of is.   Beautiful country, but it appears to be such an unforgiving place to live.  Honningsvåg has a population of only 3,500 people.  The island has seven fishing camps, so the lion’s share of their income comes from cod fishing.  Their other source of income is tourism—about 150 cruise ships come here each year.  If you want to know how to pronounce Honningsvåg, the first part sounds like you think.  The second part (vag) sounds like someone puking.  On our tour today, we rode around the island and visited fish camps and fjords.  We also saw reindeer, which out number humans three to one.   Our guide said that the reindeer are brought by boats from the mainland to the island for the summer months, and then they swim back to the mainland in September.  It’s about a mile.  Yes, you read that correctly.  They swim a mile.  Who knew?  The reason they don’t swim to the island in the summer is because they are too weak after being underfed in the winter months, as there is usually about eight feet of snow on the ground.   I’m assuming there are reindeer herders.  It’s true.  Search it up. And the cod they catch in the fish camps?  First, they cut their heads off, split them and hang them to dry outside for eight weeks.  Then they take them down and slice them in thin slices or break them up with a hammer.  It’s called salt cod, or if it’s not salted, stock fish.  The pieces are either eaten like chips, or they are rehydrated and used in casseroles or fish cakes.  Yummy! Back to the reindeer.  Our tour guide said we might see some reindeer and we did.  So everyone got super excited when we saw some on a hillside and took a million pictures.  After that, our guide said the reindeer are bred and owned by farmers.  Just like the Shetland ponies!  They aren’t wild either.   So, taking pictures of Shetland ponies and reindeer is exactly like going to America and taking a picture of every cow you spot in a field.  And the cod: