All Aboard!

Saturday, June 27

As I begin to write this blog, it’s Sunday morning and genuinely the first morning I feel like a total and complete human being. Whether it’s the novelty of sailing, the lapse between overseas trips, my advanced age (haha), the fact I’m traveling without my usual travel mate, or a combination of the above, it took me longer than usual to bounce back from jet lag. But here I am fully caffeinated and ready to blog for you.

Back to the matter at hand. Saturday was a very relaxing day. We started off with a visit to the charming town of Arendal — considered the Venice of the Scandinavian countries as it is built on seven islands and indeed recently embarked on a project to eliminate most of the roads and substitute canals to help this town return back to the water. It’s a very wealthy town. In the day, there was a lot of refinery work done here — copper and iron specifically. And a little-known fact: the Statue of Liberty's attire is copper from this region! Anyway, on Saturday morning there was some kind of boat race happening in the main canal with hundreds of 30 and 40 somethings getting ready to sail; there was an exciting vibe going on as we ambled through the town.  

From other Norway / Arenal trivia / history, we picked up Saturday morning, in no specific order:

• This town was a maritime park

• Our guide pointed out a “gossip mirror” alongside several houses. Apparently, the mirror points at the street and when you’re looking at it from inside the house, you can get the full story on everything that’s happening in the neighborhood providing plenty of good gossip to share later; sounds like fun! 

• Some of the oldest slave ships were built here

• Something significant about potatoes — originally they were just used for distilled drinks, but along the way they discovered they could be used as an actual food product

• In the early 1900s there was a mass migration from the Scandinavian countries to the US due to famine 

• Our guide referred to this town as "the Instagram" of days gone by

• It’s a popular place for Germans to retire

• Until 2012, Lutheranism was the official religion of the state here in Norway

• There are 731 religions across Norway, and the government subsidizes all of them according to their number of members

• This town is the hometown for many festivals

• This area is the green belt of Norway, and only 3% of Norway altogether is suitable for farming. The rest is stone.

We ambled for approximately 90 minutes: at the end like in all good Tauck Tours, we received a snack. This time, it was a munker — a traditional Norse pastry—kind of like a scone with an eggy center. Tasty, but nowhere near as good as the pasteis in Portugal.

Here is a sampling of photos from our Saturday morning walk— including a few shots from the chocolate factory at the end including panoramic shots of the town from a very high glass elevator tower that I did not dare ascend.  Thank you, Mona for being our able-bodied group photographer!

Back to the ship and the balance of the day was spent, relaxing— including, but not limited to—checking out the sun deck on the seventh level, having a massage, enjoying macarons at teatime, a quite comprehensive Norwegian tasting buffet (only 30 minutes before dinner!), a lovely dinner with new friends and checking out the Blue Eye underwater bar with port holes to the sea.

Now for some specifics as past readers know, I’ve had massages around the world and each one is very different, including, but not limited to a coffee bean scrub massage in the Dominican Republic, resulting in a highly caffeinated natural relaxed sensibility; a Chinese foot massage in an algae filled tub; very vigorous massages in various contents by tiny masseuses, a massage overlooking the Savannah in South Africa’s Kruger Park (invariably with some live creatures overlooking me)— but never before have I had a massage in front of a clear window facing the North Sea with many pleasure boats selling underneath us! So who knows what kind of view they were enjoying! That aside it was a great massage.

Now to the food! The macaron teatime was lovely. I had a pistachio macaron.

The Norwegian taste testing was incredible. We grabbed a table very close to the set up for easier access! It was really a food stylist’s delight. There were three types of gravlax, shrimp with butter and dill on little toast rounds, beautiful Norwegian flatbread and more. Who eats like this a half hour before dinner? One of the Tauck guides told us that they try to feed us every two hours, but I think it’s more like every 15 minutes. OMG.

Then onto dinner: first up was a warm potato, leek soup and spicy roasted vegetables.

Next, I continued my fish quest with a trout with a curry sauce and shrimp, which by the way was very delicious — looks like salmon; tasted like trout.

One of my new table mates decided she would order reindeer for the table so I felt like I had to taste it. No, it did not taste like chicken and no it did not taste like steak as she proclaimed. It tasted like reindeer, and that was the first and last time it will enter my mouth.

I actually passed on dessert because I was so full from all of the proceeding meals.

The itinerary for Sunday is a historic walking tour of Egersund —a fishing port, and our first stop among the fjords. And in case you’re wondering, a fjord is a long, relatively narrow sea inlet with steep sides or cliffs in a valley created by a former glacier, which has since become inundated with water. Norway has over 1,700 of them!  Wonder how many we will see?

Sign on tomorrow we all report on Egersund and more including the latest fish eating exploits.  

Love, 

wendy

P.S. I am by no means a soccer or World Cup fan (Chicago Cubs 24/7), but as you might imagine, there’s a lot of Norwegian fan frenzy over here— particularly given that they’ve made it to the knockout round.  Some have asked if our crew on board the ship is all aflutter because of the World Cup, but absolutely not. Most members of the crew are either French or something else but definitely not Norwegian.

P.P.S. The weather is turning a tad cooler, but still absolutely gorgeous. Tiny bit of mist today perhaps and a raincoat is good, but definitely not enough for an umbrella. 

P.P.P.S. Some wondering about the conditions on the water (you know who you are). I was certainly forewarned about the North Sea, and how crazy the waves might be. I must say that when I went on my balcony this morning, there was definitely evidence of major splashing overnight on (my cabin is on the fifth level). So far so good. 

Oslo, Goteborg, and the Water

Thursday, June 25

Thursday was a big day as our tour officially began, and we finally got to the ship! But first off, rewinding to Wednesday night:

Our dinner was in the dining room where the annual Nobel Peace Prize winners are feted each December. Interesting Nobel trivia…we learned that the Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo on December 10 each year; all the other Nobel prizes are awarded in Stockholm. Also, we learned that Henrik Ibsen, the famous playwright, would often stop at our hotel for a Bavarian beer. 

On the way to our first stop Thursday morning, we picked up a little bit of background on Oslo. The city was founded around 1040 as Anslo (later spelled Oslo) —it was destroyed in a fire and then rebuilt and renamed by the Danish/Norwegian King Christian IV as Christiana. After Norway became independent from Denmark in 1905, public sentiment began to call for the traditional name to be reinstated. That happened on Jan 1, 1925. We also learned during this initial ride that Norway is a multicultural country. 40% of its inhabitants are from elsewhere. So for anyone who thought this was purely a Nordic place with everyone blonde-haired, blue-eyed and white-skinned, you are wrong.

Our first stop was the Vigeland Park. While I mentioned in my first blog that there are so many statues all around Oslo, this is the only part that totally and completely represents works by one sculptor and one sculptor alone, Gustav Vigeland. There are over 200 of his sculptures! A stonemason from an early age, Vigeland believed that his representations of humans (the only representations in the park) should be nude, representing the circle of life and eternity. Not for the prudish among you! He was very obviously inspired by Rodin. You can see the variety of statues here; it was really quite incredible. 

Lunch was on the waterfront. And in my quest to sample as much fish as possible, I was glad to see that cod was on the menu.

After lunch, we headed to the KonTiki Museum and the Fram Museum — showcasing famous Norwegian explorers Thor Heyerdahl, Roald Amundsen, and more. While it was fascinating to see the crafts in which they sailed to the destinations, particularly in the KonTiki museum and to hear about Heyerdahl’s  discovery of Easter Island (including an Easter island actual monolithic figure).....

...these were not my favorite museums of all time, and they seemed more fillers than anything else. Note to self: if you come back to Oslo, go to the Historical Museum near the center of town where they have the oldest Viking helmet. That would have been fun!

The first night dinner on board the ship was lovely. In my fish quest, I chose the sea bream with a caviar (!) sauce, no kidding, and preceded by a chilled crème de celeriac soup (something like a vichychoise).  So very refreshing.

I capped it off with a simple fruit plate (Jane also had the fruit, and Mona had the creme brulee), and couldn’t help but request an almond financiere because on the French cruise line, you get all the pastries! Ooh La La! And French cuisine not bad!

Friday, June 26

The ship is Le Laperouse— part of the French Ponant line and it is gorgeous.

Some serious technology!

I have relatively little cruising experience: three river boats, and a smaller boat on the Galapagos, so this is really my first time around here. And I am already being quite spoiled; selfishly speaking, I am loving the French. Of course, everyone speaks English and everything is in English, but there’s plenty of French sprinkled around, so it’s a good opportunity for me to practice. Another new experience is that this morning it was quite windy and you can really feel it! I noted it, and one of our new travel friends said, "Toughen up."! Guess we have no choice! We were on the water until early this afternoon when we docked and went on land for our first excursion in Goteborg — Sweden's second largest city. There are multiple choices for excursions each day. The three of us chose a paddan city tour - that is a "paddan" boat, not a paddle boat. We wouldn't be doing anything except enjoying the scenery and the canal breeze.

We started our tour of Goteborg with a scenic overlook and historic overview of the town and Sweden in general.  Our Swedish local guide, Elizabeth, explained that Goteborg, being on the West coast, is much more temperate than Stockholm. She also shared that Sweden, while originally a Roman Catholic country became a Lutheran country after Martin Luther, and indeed, Lutheranism was the state religion until 1999!

 

She told us about the population numbers for other religions across the country, but didn’t say anything about Judaism, which was strange particularly since we saw a synagogue later while on the Paddon boat ride. We were standing right outside a beautiful church and were quite surprised that we didn’t go in! (You can never see too many churches!)

 

The paddon boat ride, on Goteborg’s canals was kitschy and fun. Our guide was a stand-up comic, adorable and very silly, and every time we passed under a bridge (which was frequently) he dramatically stooped down at exactly the right time after making clear that none of our body parts could leave the boat. 

Whereas Amsterdam’s or Venice’s canals run throughout the city, and as I recall, are relatively clean, these canals run in circles and were full of algae (still, we passed a number of fishermen and one even had some success). Our guide told us that at one point at least part of the canals comprised a moat— protecting the city. 

There were lots of sites along the way; here’s a sample.

The Goteborg Synagogue - completed in 1855

Old....and new!

 

Herr Paddan!  Gotta have a mascot.

Before heading back to the ship, we stopped for one of the “expected” Tauck surprises — Large pieces of Swedish cinnamon rolls for everyone. The entire roll is the size of someone’s face, so no one complained when we only received a piece. They were quite delicious.     

We headed back to the ship to prepare for the captain’s welcome dinner. We gathered up three new friends and made our way to the dining room. The amuse bouche was a cold pea soup.  

Next, all of us except Mona ordered the lobster appetizer.  Lobster tail with three dipping sauces: asparagus purée, garlic mayonnaise, and something else green.

Everyone ordered the scallop special! Pureed squash and seaweed butter.

We chose various desserts, including a small chocolate cake, a raspberry macaron with lychee cream, sorbet, and an apricot cream. 

This was a really special meal fitting a welcome dinner and we even befriended the manager of all the restaurants. He seemed very confident and gave us the inside scoop for upcoming fish dishes.

 

The evening ended for us with a 45 minute rhythm show — performed by three-dancers and a solo singer— probably covering 15 different styles of dance and just as many costume changes. 

It was terrific and now we sail to Arendal (not from “Frozen”, the real thing) where we have morning excursions around this (sure to be) charming town.

  

Shabbat Shalom and love,

wendy 

Wendy's Norway Adventure - Welcome to Oslo

 

VELKOMMEN TIL NORGE, 

Welcome back to those of you who have traveled with us before!  And welcome aboard to those of you who haven't. It's been quite some time since our last travel blog (summer of 2024 to be exact).   We've been doing this blog for close to 20 years with close to 300 subscribers.  Certainly, communication has changed significantly since we started and, for many, email is a total pain.  Additionally, we have not had any interaction with many of our subscribers for many years.  So, if you're not interested, you can "unsubscribe" in a flash. No judgment. 

As review (and for new subscribers), our blog enables you to travel to wacky, wild, exotic and/or just plain fascinating parts of the world . Your job, if you choose to accept it, is to read along-- no shots, airline hassles, masks, luggage fees, sea-sickness, jetlag, Montezuma's revenge, or altitude sickness.    

This time, Wendy is off to the fjords (and more) of Norway with two dear friends--Jane and Mona.  Wayne opted out. So, for long time readers, you'll get lots of attitude and photos and extensive food reports--but not quite as much history and/or nature-oriented detail. 

Here's the map--we'll be small ship cruising with Tauck (my 14th trip with them). I arrived in Oslo on Tuesday afternoon, June 23rd and will return to the States via Bergen on July 3 (just in time for the big 250 celebration wrap-up--timing I am pleased about).  Along the way, you see there are multiple stops with varying excursions--I'll blog about them all.  

Tuesday, June 23

Mona and I met up at the Frankfurt airport on Tuesday mid-morning and arrived in Oslo mid-afternoon. To fight jet lag, we immediately went out into the sun and walked for two hours with a little retail therapy thrown in. Even though Europe is suffering a huge heat wave, weather is extraordinary here so far— sunny and in the upper 70s, simply delightful.

Shortly after we checked in, we ran into one of our guides in the lobby. I told him he looked familiar and when he identified himself, I realized it was Larry Abbott from our 2006 Japan trip! OMG! Looks the same but both of our hair colors are a different color. Let’s just say we have evolved.

We then went out to explore the town.

What is something you think of when you hear Norway? Trolls of course!

and of course....donuts! (No eating; just a photo op.)

For dinner we chose Engebret Cafe — established in 1857 but you wouldn’t have known it from the food. Really delicious. Both of us chose fish— so fresh— Norway is known for its fish so more of that to come and I was ravenous as the food on the airplane earlier (business class) was absolutely inedible; shame on you. United Airlines. 

We started with crab bisque. Mona chose turbot and I had red fish with scallops. We topped it off with a blackberry mousse on a chocolate cookie. yum! 

We returned to the hotel to greet Jane and went off for some well-deserved and needed sleep. This may be the land of the midnight sun, but my eyes were closed so not an issue.

Wednesday, June 24

We had a Jewish tour this afternoon, but Mona and I decided to do some morning touring, so we left the hotel around 10:15 and set off for the National Museum (which has had a recent renovation).  Along the way, we marveled at the statues outside City Hall. This city has statues everywhere!

Our mission was to see the Edvard Munch's "The scream".

Just like the actual Mona Lisa at the Louvre, this painting is actually quite small, In the galleries surrounding it, we saw many famous paintings, including a copy of the Mona Lisa , and a Van Gogh self portrait. They have done an extraordinary job with this museum.  

We then went across the plaza to the Nobel Peace Prize Museum. We had been told it wasn’t worth the effort, but it was really quite lovely and refreshing to see Barack Obama in several exhibits. Just to clear the air, when we bought the tickets, I mentioned to the ticket agent that we were American and we hated Donald Trump and he said “I hear that from a lot of Americans and I also hear them make a strong request not to award him the Noble Peace Prize”.

Both the National Museum and the Peace Museum sit right at the dock.

At 1:30 we met up with our guide Rami Kafarov— a Jewish transplant from Azerbaijan— Mona found this five star guide for us and he was fantastic, highly recommended. Over the next 2 1/2 hours, Rami stepped us through the history of the Jewish community in Norway. There are approximately 2,000 Jews in total in the country today and, under the Norwegian constitution in 1825, Jews weren’t even allowed in the country. As in other countries throughout Europe, we saw buildings that had been occupied by Jewish businesses, but perhaps one of the more interesting spots was the Oslo Cathedral, a famous Lutheran Church built in 1697, which Mona and I had visited yesterday. There is a painting of the Last Supper above the altar. Apparently, originally the participants in the Last Supper in this particular painting were depicted with distinctive (stereotypical) hooked noses. The painting was “updated” in 1825 through “plastic surgery“ to give the participants more Nordic noses.

The rationale given for this update was clear in a brochure set outside the sanctuary. Specifically, it mentioned the update happened because of the change to the Constitution (see above). Interestingly, the brochure was available in French and Norwegian (not English!), so I did the best I could to translate it.

Rami shared a number of other stories about the Jewish community. It has historically received less than open arms in Norway. Antisemitism is rampant but because the community is so small, people tend to keep a low profile. He made a particular point of sharing that the government has gone as far as forbidding Israeli manufactured products and that pro-Palestinian protests are quite common. He also said that there have been some instances of anti-Semitic graffiti tied to the war in Gaza.

He also shared that two of the other reasons the Jewish community in Norway is so small (particularly for observant Jews) are: first because of the midnight sun - observing the technical rules of Shabbat become challenging to say the least!! Second, kashrut butchering was outlawed several years ago (though apparently there is ONE Kosher butcher in the Jewish Community Center; not quite sure how that works). 

Unlike in Denmark (where so many Jews were spared transport to the concentration camps), because the Norwegian government did not cede to the Nazis, Jews in Norway were not protected. Of the 1,800 Jews there in 1940, a full 800 were deported and sent to Auschwitz. The remainder, through the resistance movement, were able to escape to Sweden, where they were safe and returned to Norway after the war.

Another highlight was a visit to the synagogue (modern Orthodox). 

The was the first Siddur (prayer book) published in Norwegian.

A full day and that doesn’t even include our stop for ice cream cones after the tour insert picture… or the welcome dinner where our tour officially starts.

 

On Thursday, we tour Oslo. Then all 153 of us (with our 5 tour guides) get on the ship!

love,

wendy