Art Nouveau and Crowds

 Tuesday, June 30

Last night we were truly rocking and rolling. Even my cruise-experienced travel mates remarked it was rather severe. However, our breakfast buddy Mike from Atlanta made clear that this was nothing for the North Sea. So I suppose we should consider ourselves lucky.

We are now docked in Alesund, the 9th largest town in Norway though the population is 55,000! We had an Art Nouveau architectural walking tour this morning and will be asea (always wanted to use that word) for the next 24+ hours.

We debarked at 9:15— there were several excursions that left before us, including a more vigorous walk up 415 steps, and a bus tour, presumably through the Norwegian winding roads (we found out afterwards they were not really particularly winding). There were approximately 40 of us who had chosen the architectural walking tour and we were split into two groups. As soon as we started walking, we noticed that there was at least one of those "monster ships" (a British ship) already docked. Interaction with other human beings is fine. I’ve never had a problem with it, but once we started getting into town and particularly once we ended up on beautiful cobblestone shopping streets, there must’ve been hundreds of travelers from those monster ships. So today the population might be up to 60,000! We have truly been spoiled up until now because there haven’t been crowds at all.

I imagine one of the reasons why Alesund is so popular is that it is very picturesque (like many other Norwegian towns). There was a major fire in 1904, and after that there was a major rebuilding effort. This resulted in many Art Nouveau buildings which are really quite beautiful. One travel guide writes: "Ålesund's Art Nouveau style is distinctive and captivating. It features elaborate turrets, spires, and ornamental facades. Natural motifs like flowers and mythical creatures are common. These details are intricately carved into stone and plaster. Many buildings incorporate elements from Norwegian folklore. This blend creates a unique regional interpretation of Art Nouveau."

Here is a sampling.

No need to share all the stories as many of them were pick-ups from what we had heard before, but one new bit of Norwegian trivia we learned was that the Norwegian alphabet has three additional vowels from the English alphabet:

Æ sounds like a in “ache”.
Ø resembles the vowel in English “weird”. 
Å sounds like o in “old”. 

If only English were so logical!

We came back for lunch and ate in the outside dining area, which has become a favorite spot for us. Instead of indulging in the buffet, all three of us ordered from the menu. I ordered the softshell crab sandwich, which I thought would be delicious. It will certainly count toward my fish consumption, but it ended up being more bread than fish so then I also ordered a burger without bread to supplement my protein intake! LOL!!— really who am I kidding?

The programming for the rest of the day was jam packed, including, but not limited too: origami lesson , trivia game with airport codes, lecture about the Vikings, Scandinavian teatime, Captain's farewell dinner, and then some robust entertainment afterwards. We are having our farewell dinner tonight, though it is not farewell. We have afternoon excursions tomorrow so they orchestrated the farewell dinner tonight to allow folks more time for packing and chilling out after they return to the ship late in the day.

Even so, it will be no surprise to anyone who knows about my packing techniques that I have already packed and I’m ready to rock ‘n’ roll for my Friday morning departure from the hotel at 4 AM.

The farewell gala dinner, and trivia games were over the top. For dinner we had:

Cream of celeriac soup with basil oil and gougeres (French mini popovers)

Roasted shrimp Nicoise with eggplant

 John  Dory fish with spicy chickpeas and hummus (I think I’m growing scales from all the fish!)

Dessert was another fruit plate 

Wednesday is our last full day on the ship— visiting Eidfjord. We have a fun RIB safari planned. Don't know what that is? You'll find out in the next post!

Until then …..

Love,

wendy

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