Fjords Glorious Fjords

 Monday, June 29

If you’ve ever hung out with me at all, you know that I’m a Broadway musicals fan from way back and if you’re familiar with the musical Oliver, you probably know about the song “Food Glorious Food” so I struggled with whether to call this post “Food Glorious Food” (they are feeding us non-stop!), or “Fjords Glorious Fjords”. Based on what we’re seeing this morning, “Fjords Glorious Fjords” makes more sense.

And, if you’re on Facebook, a lot of this particular post will be redundant to what my dear friend and travel companion Mona is posting there (with me tagged). I say that because most of this post will be photos that speak for themselves. You don’t need a lot of narrative to appreciate how spectacular the sites are. And the water is much calmer. I spent a lot of time outside this morning in the observation area; there’s quite a pleasant breeze.

A moment of silliness in the fjords—
note our new (necessary) puffy vests.
Still sunny, but a little bit cooler on the water today. 

There are snow capped peaks…

Small hamlets….

 

Unbelievable vistas….

Scenic photos with friends, in particular Larry Abbott our guide from Japan in 2006!!!!!….

Before lunch, we played a state capitals trivia game; we were convinced that our team would take first place.  We got 11 1/2 points, but the winners had 13 points because they were correctly able to identify the capitals of Albania, Madagascar, Kazakhstan, and Croatia (which we could not)! That aside, we did demonstrate our competitive chops. It was really fun.

This afternoon, because we’re at the inner end of the Nordfjord and as a smaller ship we want to avoid the monster ships at all costs, we took the tenders to the port in Loen — a lovely little town of 300 people year-round. Its source of income is tourism. While there were several excursions offered, the three of us chose the "troll cars" and a hike to the Briksdalbreen Glacier — "one of the most visited glacier arms in Norway and part of the largest glacier system in continental Europe." According to my friends at Wikipedia, a glacier is a persistent body of natural ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving under its own weight.

We packed the tender full and found out that are lovely cabin steward, Nikka, was on the boat with us because she had been given the afternoon off.

She is Filipino and is so excited to be going home this coming week after having been on the job on this boat for six months. She is sweet and excellent at what she does and readily agreed to taking a photo with us.

Once we got on the tender, it was literally a 3 minute ride to the dock! We then got on the bus for a 45 minute ride to the glacier. The scenery was spectacular. The glacial lake was a beautiful color of teal. Our guide told us that Lake Louise (in Alberta, Canada) is also a glacial lake and I remembered that—seeing the lake this afternoon. She also told us that she has been asked if the glacier lake water is safe to drink to which she replied only in small amounts because the particulates in the lake (that cause it to take on the teal color) are the equivalent of Pepto-Bismol— so not recommended.  

We saw countless waterfalls

...and there were several instances where the glacier came into view. Just wow.

 

When we arrived at the Briksdalbreen Center (with the obligatory gift shop), there were several troll cars lined up for our ride. 

As if choreographed to create the perfectly authentic Norwegian experience, the rain started coming down the minute we got out of the bus and walked toward the troll cars. And while it wasn’t exactly a downpour, it was steady. Good thing we were prepared. Everyone had their hoods up; otherwise, we would have been absolutely soaked.

We rode on the troll cars for about 15 minutes until we reached the landing space at which point we were sent in the direction of the glacier. It was actually a 15 minute rather rigorous walk, which was good because we’ve been mostly eating. And a little bit of cardio was totally worth it because the glacier up close and personal was stunning.

After the visit to the glacier, we were given the opportunity to walk back to the visitor center, and we jumped at that opportunity. It was a half hour walk— primarily because we had to keep stopping to take pictures.

We all gathered in the cafeteria area of the visitor center for a cake snack. We were told there would be small pieces of many types of cake and that this is a tradition to have with tea or coffee in the late afternoon. The pieces weren’t exactly what I would call small, but the cake was extremely delicious and we all indulged. I sampled the four types of cake. No Judgment, please. Gotta do as the natives do. 

We got back on the bus, got on the tender, went to our rooms and then of course, went down to the dining room for dinner. And what do you know? Tonight was the night of the big cheese spread. I’m not a cheese lover, but I’ve included the photos here because it was truly over the top.

We took out a regular seats in the dining room under the watchful eyes of our favorite waiter, Joe.

And proceeded to order more food. "How do we do it?", you may ask. I have no idea, although I do know that I will be proceeding with a juice diet as soon as I return home. This evening, the amuse bouche was a tiny lentil salad with hummus.

I ordered the crab remoulade which was in an unexpected presentation in a delicate pastry rollup— very delicious.

My next course was Ahi tuna (probably not locally caught, but I couldn’t resist) with pepper, shallot, marmalade, chermoula, carrots, and panisse. I have no idea what that is, but it was very tasty.

All three finished our meal with coconut Pavlova and tropical fruits. Unfortunately, this dessert was extremely delicious, but it was also extremely unnecessary as I truly overdosed on sugar today.

Tomorrow morning we go to Alesund for an art Nouveau architecture tour and Wednesday is our last full day on the ship. Time flies when you’re having fun!

Watch this space.

Love,

wendy

PS: In case there was any question about Norway being "the Land of the Midnight Sun", here is what it looks like through my cabin window at 10:17 pm:

Hello fjords!

 Sunday, June 28

Just cruising along!

It’s Sunday afternoon and as promised here is a write up of our historic walking tour in Egersund— led by the charming and excellent guide Jamie.

In no specific order, here’s we learned and/or saw:

Egersund is a small  city of 19,000 – built amid the fjords on a secluded waterfront. 

Strandgarter is one of the best preserved of all the streets in the country.

Every city across Norway had great fires because traditionally all of the homes were made of wood. Here on strandgarter, they featured empire styled buildings — from the middle of the 19th century. Here are some of the Freda houses — under historical protection.

Herring is important here and until 2007 the city was the largest fishing harbor in Norway—with mackerel, sardines, and cod, all for export. Then there was an issue with over-fishing and the city lost its title. But still, Norway, with its strong salmon industry (both wild and farm raised, including sushi grade!) is Europe’s biggest exporter. Jamie shared that the waters are warmer and because they’re more gentle, they are perfect for aqua-farming.

Cod liver oil is big in production here! Jamie jokingly proclaimed that’s why Norwegians are so fit. Barley is a big crop and supports the sheep and dairy industries.

Jamie said we should be careful of the seagulls. “They are vicious” — particularly the European herring gulls who are very large. Longtime readers of our posts may remember the near miss Wayne and I had in India with a baboon, so I was sure to heed her advice! In the end, there were no comparable close gull encounters here.

After the first hour strolling around, we found ourselves at the Ludwig Feyling (Lutheran) church. The church is now 380 years old. It was redesigned by Feyling after the fires. Its cross-styled shape represents history.  The ship hanging in the sanctuary is quite common in Norwegian churches, and it was provided historically by a religious leader or a monarch. This particular ship predates Norway getting its independence.  

We wandered in, and Jamie encouraged us to take a seat in the pews. At which point we expected the local guide to give us more context in the history of the church. Instead, a wonderful surprise awaited us. The guy was really the church's organist and proceeded to play perhaps 10 glorious pieces; we had our own recital!  Here’s a sampling.

 

We’ve heard a lot in all of our touring about the immigration of Norwegians to the US. Jamie added some local color. He shared that last year was the 200th anniversary of a major immigration to the US. The first ship was called the Restoration and left from Stavenger— it took 2 1/2 months across the Atlantic to New York. The context was that with the independence from Denmark, people had the freedom to move around; that was one of the major sources of impetus for the immigration. Over 200,000 Norwegians left Norway over the subsequent 50 years, yet in the last 50 years Norway has had more people coming in than going out! This ties to what we learned yesterday about 40% of the total population being multicultural.

The tour continued with a visit to a pottery museum. We made one retail therapy stop (it being Sunday most stores being closed) and we headed back to the ship to get ready for lunch (OMG it had been four hours since we ate!).

According to the translation, this unique piece of art is
really a weathervane when the sticks go up, it means high pressure.
To which I add: no comment.

We ate on the deck, which was really lovely and I added to my fish count with a few bites of fish and chips for the table. There was also this to be feasted on:

All the food is good here.

The rest of Sunday was a total chill day with a talk about the history of Norway— along with some geopolitical insights including the prospect of the Arctic ice cap completely melting as early as 2030 yikes. Yikes! We also had the opportunity for a salsa lesson, Celtic dance, meditation time, pavlova tea time, and bingo - all before dinner.

Pre-dinner mocktail with Jane

I started tonight's extravaganza with chilled zucchini cilantro soup with almonds; quite delicious.

In my continuing quest to eat fish every night, I had the salmon (from the "available every day" side of the menu!)

...topped off by a lime flower honey ice cream accompanied by cookies. Mona chose the apple crostata, which was truly a work of art.

As I write this Sunday evening, we are rocking and rolling up toward what promises to be some extraordinary fjords.

Norway has over 200 lighthouses!

In fact, we’re on the ship all morning Monday to catch some incredible views. Then we hop aboard smaller tenders in the afternoon for some up close and personal glacier sighting.  So watch this space as we continue to explore the fjords tomorrow, as well as eat more fish. This cruising is everything they say it is. Good thing I have elastic pants! But there will be extra weightlifting and cardio when I get home!

Love,

wendy

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.