Category: England & Norway 2018

Way back when, I posted about a midnight concert that I went to in Tromso.  Well, today I finally found the Program for the concert! Continue reading “This ties to Trip Summary – Feb 10 (part 1)”

I got back to England, spent 5 more nice days going for nice walks, and eating good food, ending my stay with Anthea’s 5-course catered dinner birthday party.  Delicious!  Dinner was followed up by drunken Charades (pronounced ‘sher-rahds’ in England, of course). Continue reading “Trip Summary – the End”

Our boat arrived in Bergen the afternoon of Feb 13 and it was time to leave the Nordnorge.  The previous day we had been instructed to be out of our rooms by 10am so the cleaning staff could ready the boat for the next group of people getting on.  So, we spent a lot more time in the public areas than we had all trip. Continue reading “Last Days in Norway”

OK, here we go.  Didn’t want to overwhelm you with too many photos at once.

So, as I said before, we landed in Kristiansund and then boarded a bus on our way to the marble mine.  It was snowing pretty hard which made the trip a bit more, uh, exciting.  And windy roads up the mountain to the mine.  But anyway, here are some photos: Continue reading “Trip Summary – Feb 12 (Part 2 with Atlantic Road and Bergtatt)”

So, first up, we landed in Trondheim at 630am.  We didn’t immediately debark from the ship, but got up fairly early, had a quick breakfast, and then headed out.  By then, we had about two hours.  And our main goal was getting to the Nidaros Cathedral.  Here are some shots on the way there: Continue reading “Trip Summary – Feb 12 (Part I)”

OK, I need to wrap up the blog about this trip, don’t I?

I’ll see how quickly I can do that…

So, Feb 11 was kind of a big day.  We passed the Arctic Circle (we had been north of the Arctic Circle the entire time up to this point).  The Arctic Circle marks the southernmost point at which the sun shines 24 hours a day on Midsummer’s Night Eve, and circles the Earth at 66o 33′ north. Continue reading “Trip Summary – Feb 11”

This post will probably be not so many words, but a lot of photos.  Most of Feb 10 we spent on the boat, but a lot of beautiful landscape. Continue reading “Trip Summary – Feb 10 (Part Deux)”

February 10 was a big day, with two excursions on our agenda.  The first one wasn’t physically demanding other than having to stay up late.  The second one, well, you’ll see … Continue reading “Trip Summary – Feb 10”

So, on February 9 we had 2 hours in Hammerfest in the morning.  Hammerfest claims to be the northernmost town in the world – even though there are plenty of villages further north, Hammerfest is bigger, with a population of around 10,500 people.  Kirkenes, by comparison, has about 3,400 people.

Our first stop off the boat was at the Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society, located right at the pier.  This society is not particularly old, having been founded in 1963.  But you can only join IN PERSON.  So, I joined so I can officially claim to have been in Hammerfest.  It was about $8. Continue reading “Trip Summary – Feb 9”

Woke up to a sunny morning in Kirkenes and after some breakfast Louise and I walked around town.

Here are some scenes: Continue reading “Trip Summary – February 8”

OK, I just read through my past posts, trying to figure out how to proceed with my trip summary.  I’m going to start with Feb 7th.  I’m not sure how many days I will include in each summary since there are a ton of photos, so, we’ll see how I break it out.  [Now that I have written the entire post, I may do a day by day breakdown, depending on how much happened on a given day.  Feb 7 had a lot in it, so that’s all I’m writing about in this particular post.  I don’t know why I’m telling you all of this!  Ha!]

So, Feb 7.  We flew from Oslo to Kirkenes. Continue reading “Trip Summary – February 7th”

I made it back to the USA on Feb 19, no problems.  Really foggy out but not cold.  Caught the Delaware Express Shuttle so I didn’t have to drive, which was nice.  Just realized I haven’t driven in almost a month!  Hope I’m not out of practice! Continue reading “Trip Summary – Part 1”

Got back into the UK on Wednesday.  Flew from Bergen to Oslo, then Oslo to London Heathrow.  Bergen weather was interesting – lightning and thunder, sleet, snow, and rain.  Caught the bus to the airport and had to walk thru about 1-2″ deep of icy snow water, pulling my suitcase behind me.  Good workout!  The bus driver got a heads up at one of our stops that the road she would normally have taken to the airport was closed due to flooding, so we took an alternate route.  Got to the airport no problem.  And it’s a small airport so that was easy also.  I’ve gotten very good at self check-in, tagging my bag, putting it on the conveyor belt, and getting myself through Security. Continue reading “Back in the USSR … um, I mean UK”

I realize I haven’t posted in quite a few days.  I have taken so many photos!  I was trying to edit through them and decide which ones to add, but there are just too many.  But I didn’t want to leave you all hanging so I decided to write now and add photos later.

So, we boarded the Nordnorge (pronounced Nord norga) on February 8, in Kirkenes (For reference today is February 13). Caught a bus from our hotel – the port was just a few minutes away.  We checked in and they brought our bags to our suite.  The suite is amazing! Continue reading “Been a while …”

I made it into Norway on Tuesday (if it’s Tuesday it must be Oslo).  Uneventful flight from LHR to OSL.  I flew on SAS.  For some reason (I have American Airlines miles, I think they may be part of Star Alliance) I was given an Exit Row seat.  I didn’t ask for it.  In fact, when I sat down I remember thinking ‘wow there’s a lot of leg room even though the seats aren’t very wide!’)  The flight was less than 2 hours so the time went by fast. Continue reading “A Norwegian Way of Life”