Last Day!

Well, I said I wouldn't be back to blog unless something exciting happened or we had a win at bingo. Here it is folks - wait for it - Holly won the jackpot of $2200 in the last game of bingo today. Unfortunately she had to share it with 2 other people who also won. She came away with $733. It was exciting to win the jackpot even if it meant sharing. Also, Larry won a piece of art at the last art auction. It's a print but can't remember who it's by.

Something else exciting that happened was we were in another gale force storm this morning. The winds were blowing very strong from the northwest (we were traveling southwest). We were listing to the port side a lot. The captain came on the loud speaker to explain what was going on. He kept saying they were trying to get the ship upright and it would help if everyone would move to the starboard side. He was joking. I said a little prayer and about 2 hrs later, the ship finally uprighted itself. Seas were pretty rough but we didn't feel it much.

We went to Explorer's Lounge tonight to hear Indigo for the last time. They are a great band, not well known yet. 4 Bulgarian men and a beautiful Irish girl as the lead singer. Holly was able to get one of the band members to sell her a CD, even though they are not allowed to sell them on board yet.

At dinner tonight we were reminiscing about our trip and we all agreed we had a great time, even though there were a couple of disappointments. Talking about doing an Asian cruise next.

BOR-R-R-R-R-ING!

That's what I have to say about our excursion in Bergen. I"m all about nature and beautiful scenery; not about tours around a busy city looking at and hearing about businesses, universities, hospitals, industry, etc. The only decent part about the day was the ride in the funicular to the top of a mountain to look at this busy city from way up high. I'm just glad that the tour was only 3 hrs long. We got back to the ship at lunch time, ate our requisite hamburger and started packing to go home. This afternoon and all day tomorrow we will be at sea. Three more chances to win at bingo! We will have a VERY early morning on Sunday so we can travel 2 hrs by bus to London to catch the plane at 12:55. So if you don't hear from me again, that means we didn't win at bingo and nothing significant happened at sea. (I hear we are in for more rough seas crossing over back to England! Yikes!

Flaam, Norway

God really did an amazing job creating the country of Norway! We had a 7 hr excursion today that covered just about 20 or 30 miles of some of the most beautiful scenery we've scene. I can't decide which port is my favorite, Geiranger or Flaam. We left on a bus this morning towards Voss and made a couple of photo stops to take pictures of these beautiful mountains and waterfalls. We also stopped for coffee and pastry at a hotel along the way. When we left the hotel, we travelled down some of the most curvy, tight hairpin turns on a road to get off the mountain top. But we were being mesmerized by the waterfalls at each turn that we didn't have time to worry about the overhangs. When we got to Voss, we had lunch at another hotel. It was a typical Norweigan lunch buffet with lots of fish, chicken and meat. Following lunch we had an opportunity to walk around the town for a little bit until it started raining - and I mean a lot. We had managed to make it to the railway station before the rain started. We boarded a train to Myrdal, about half way down the mountain. We were able to take a little snooze before we had to transfer to the Flaamsbana train that would take us back to Flaam. Now this was a scenic ride! Part way down we had a photo stop at probably the biggest waterfall we've seen yet. It was a 5 minute stop (really you couldn't take much more than that b/c we were so close to the falls we were getting very wet. While there, music started playing and fairy maidens would appear on the rocks in the waterfall to dance. It was a neat site. One of the pictures Larry took, when you zoom it in you can tell it's a guy dressed up in a girls costume. We got back to the ship at 4pm and we are exhausted. We're having our coke and cookie break before we get ready for dinner at 6. Tomorrow is our last port of call - Bergen. Then we will head for South Hampton.

Tromso and day at sea

Yesterday we were in Tromso. We had a beautiful day of sunshine with the temp in the mid 60's. Our excursion was in the afternoon in which we took a tour of the city, went up to the top of the mountain on a cable car, visited the Arctic Cathedral and the Tromso museum. Over all, it was not a great excursion. The cable car ride line was very long and from beginning to end it took a couple of hours. The cable car ride was only 4 minutes up and 4 min. down. It was a beautiful view, though. I can't describe how beautiful this country is with all its fjords and mountains and waterfalls. Since it took so long to go up the mountain, we only had about 15 minutes for the cathedral; but once we got to the door, a sign indicated it was closed for a concert which would end in 10 minutes. We only had 5 minutes to look at the church then back on the bus. We also had to cut our stay at the museum short. We did get to see the exhibit on the Sami people (Lapplanders). That was interesting. We were a little late getting back to the ship and thought we were going to be setting sail about 10 minutes after we got there. But once we were on our balcony waiting for sailaway, we noticed an ambulance pulling up to the ship. They had to disembark a lady who was sick and her daughter. They took her to the hospital. Fortunately, Princess has agents on shore at each port to help with this sort of thing. I'm confident that these two ladies were well taken care of.

On the ship there's a very good band that plays in the clubs and lounges. We have enjoyed listening to them and do so every night.

Today was a day at sea. We played bingo twice and came very close, but did not win. We're waiting for the last day at sea where we will win all the big bucks! Larry and Stan went to another art auction while Holly and Lana went to an English country song seminar where we learned two little English ditties. If we had gone to the first seminar then we could be in the "performance" on the last day. I told Lana we could go and just sort of lip sync the songs we didn't know.

I spent a little time before the art auction watching Michael Goddard demonstrate his painting. I think I have found a new artist that I like. He's know as the Rock Star of the Art World. He looks like a hard looking individual but has a great personality and is very funny.

Tonight was formal night again and the Captain's Circle Member reception. We went to that then to dinner. Later we listened to and English quartet play the flute, cello, violin, guitar, drums and cymbals. They were very good.

Tomorrow we will be in Flaam and are looking forward to a wonderful excursion on the railway and by bus to see more waterfalls and having a Norweigan lunch in Voss (the city where Knute Rockney is from).

Will update you after Flaam.

Who'da thunk!

That being in the Arctic Ocean, not far from the North Pole, it would be the warmest day of our trip! Even the locals said this day was quite unusual. We tendered into Honningsvag this morning for a 3 hr tour around the island seeing lot's of neat sites and fishing villages. In one of them we saw a herd of reindeer. That was a pleasant site. However, I will say that this was the most disappointing stop so far. The Christmas store that Lana and I were looking so forward to seeing was a tiny little building with lots of ordinary Christmas things. I decided to buy an ornament and their antiquated credit card gadget would not emboss my credit card and I had no Norweigan cash. Then when we returned to the pier, I found another souvenier store and tried to purchase something for our yet to be born grandchild. Their more modern credit card machine rejected my one and only credit card that they would accept. Again, no cash! We stood in line, in the bright sun and heat for a long time to get back on the tender boats to go to the ship. For some stupid reason, these tender boats would bring passengers from the ship to shore, then leave, EMPTY, and return to the ship. They did this 3 times before they finally took us "home". We ate lunch, Lana and I did laundry, then rested. Back when we bought the pieces of art by Beheren, we were given a complimentary bottle of champagne. This morning I ordered hors dourves and we just had a pleasant sailaway on our balconies. We are waiting to pass the North Cape to take pictures before we go to dinner. Oh, last night, we were up most of the night b/c of the midnight sun. It actually did not set at all. Larry got some neat pictures of it. However, 5:30, gettin' up time, came awfully quick.
Well, we are nearly upon the Cape, so let me go take some pictures. Hope all is well at home with the cats, dogs, grandchickens, kids and grandkids!

Land of the Midnight Sun!

We have had 2 very good days. Today was at sea. Very calm seas and actually a little warmer than the other days. Amazing since we are in the Arctic Ocean! We are expecting to be in Honningsvag tomorrow in the area of the North Cape which is the northern most point in Europe. The sun will not set while we are up here. Amazing. We've actually only had about 2 to 3 hrs of darkness at night in the last few days. Today we kept busy with information on the North Cape, bingo, lunch, art auction, bingo, dinner and the theater. Tomorrow we will go to a Christmas store, tour the area, hopefully see some reindeer. Then we head back south. It was good to read Stephanies's blog about Major. Glad he's doing well. Hopefully the biopsy results will be good.

Gotta go see how dark I can make this room. It's 9:48 and it looks like about 2:48pm!

Bingo!

Well, we had two winners at Bingo tonight. Stan won $100 and Larry won $400! Woo Hoo! Lana and Holly are shopping til we drop tomorrow!

Trondheim, Norway

The Captain welcomed us to Trondheim this a.m. by announcing it was a very dreary, dismal day to be had! As he pulled up along the pier, he announced, " Sorry it's taking so long to pull up to this rinky dinky pier with it's rinky dinky gangplank"! He's rather humorous at times. We spent 3 hrs this morning touring the city on a bus, visiting a Cathedral where St. Olav is buried (he brought Christianity to Norway), and visiting an open air folk museum (a small village back in the day as Rachel Rae would say). We got drizzled upon most of the time, but the clouds cleared out by the time we got back to the ship at 12:30. We've just been lazy this afternoon. Resting up for bingo at 9:30pm! Tomorrow is our second day at sea. WE'll probably play bingo twice tomorrow.

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

But before I blog about how cold it is, let me go back to yesterday. Larry and I received an invitation to go to the Art Gallery to meet Howard Beheren's, the artist of the painting we bought. We went after dinner and me him, his wife, son and daughter. We were asked to have dinner with him and several other well know artists that are on board this cruise. We had to decline b/c we had just eaten dinner. Anyway, we got a picture made with the artist and the painting we bought. We will hopefully get it autographed. Rob, do you like anything by Michael Goddard? Look him up. Every time we see his work on board, we think you would like his stuff. He's on board as well.

Back to today. It really was a cold day, but a beautiful, cloudy, misty, rainy day. I say beautiful, b/c this are is just gorgeous. Even clouds and rain can't mess this up. We arrived at Hellesylt this morning at about 8 and let off a few passengers who were go on a tour and would meet us in Geiranger later in the day. Then we slowly cruised through the Geiranger Fjord and saw many, many beautiful waterfalls and mountains. Our excursion was up the mountain, hairpin curves, stopping along the way to take pictures of the village, fjord and our ship. After 3000 ft up, we stopped for dessert and coffee. Then on up 2000 more ft., twisty turny curves. I guess - b/c it was so foggy that only the bus driver knew where the road was. Maybe it was a good thing that we couldn't see the cliffs on the side of the bus. All in all, it was a wonderful day. And very educational! WE learned that Norway has only 2 seasons. White winter and green winter. That's very true. It was very cold today. We learned that the kindergarten has 13 students and the rest of the school has 35. We learned that the nursing center has 2 inhabitants - a 96 yr old man and an 82 yr old man. It has 2 employees - a 75 yr old woman and a 62 yr old woman. Supposedly all they do all day is make biscuits and give them away. Yeah, right!! We learned that snow skiing is done in the summer months only b/c it's impossible to get to the slopes the rest of the year. AND, there are no ski lifts. It's a 2 to 2 1/2 hr hike up the mountain and a 5 minute ski down. Do this twice and the day is spent! WE learned that the population of Geiranger is 420, but when one cruise ship is in port, it's about 3420. Sometimes there are 5 cruise ships in port at once!

We watched our return trip out of the fjords - waterfalls are beautiful here - then we went to dinner. Turning in early tonight - 10pm so we can be up and out of here for a visit to Trondheim tomorrow.

Hope all is well at home!

We're here, We're safe, We're having fun!

Made it to London safely. Stan & Lana made it on the plane in Dallas by the skin of their teeth. I believe we started backing out from the gate by the time they got buckled in!
Arrived at Heathrow a little early. Got our luggage and made it to the bus for transport in good time. 2 hr ride to South Hampton, in the rain.) Got checked in quickly and was on the ship in time to run up to Horizon for some lunch. Yesterday was a day at sea - and a very rough day it was. Stan was sure my dream of a Tsunami was going to come true! It was actually the roughest day I've ever been at sea. No one got sick, though. Went to an art auction. Larry and I bought an original Beheren and an embellished lithograph by Beheren. He is abt 75 yrs old. When he passes on, his status will be compared to Monet in the art world. Very good artist. We are now Beheren collectors!

Arrived at Stavanger this a.m. Nice calm waters. Took a boat excursion to the fjords. What a beautiful place the Lord has made! Looking forward to the rest of the cruise if it's anything like today. In rained most of the morning on us, but we were in the inside of the cruise boat. Temperature in the low 60's. Very nice!

Will post again tomorrow, maybe.