We awoke to Elaine’s birthday. While we were out and about, Viking delivered a birthday cake and a bottle of sparkling wine to the room. Nice touch. I didn’t order or request it. Viking, of course, knows the birthdays of passengers because they have passport information. I’m impressed they took the initiative to deliver a surprise.

We had breakfast in the World Cafe, the Saturn’s casual cafeteria-style venue. They have everything you could want. There is also a picture of the long corridor to our stateroom.

At 8:30 we left the ship to take Viking’s complementary “Panoramic Bergen” tour. It was 2 hours, by bus, and made three stops. We saw some interesting graffiti (note especially the one of a seagull shitting on Putin’s head), some ruins, a Lutheran church, the National Theater, beautiful flowers, and some other stuff. Can you spot Elaine amongst the tour group participants? Actually, you need to spot her twice. We departed the tour at Bryggen (Old Town) as we had already strolled that. From there it’s but a 10 minute walk back to Saturn.

Back on board we had lunch at the Pool Grill – burger for me, hot dog for Elaine, both accompanied by Norwegian amber ale. We sat with some people we met at dinner last night. I was talking about my time in the Army when the guy at the next table heard me mention Schwetzingen, Germany. It turns out he was stationed at Tompkins Barracks in Schwetzingen too, and our times overlapped by a few months. That was 57 years ago! Small world. After lunch we did more of a ship walkabout and played a 9-hole round of miniature golf on the sports deck. I won by a stroke.

Then nap time before sailing at 5:30 pm. We left on time. Very smooth sailing. The Norwegian Sea on day one was like a lake. Drinks in the Living Room. Dinner in the Restaurant. After dinner drinks in the Explorer Lounge. All good. We had a nice conversation with a Norwegian couple at dinner. So far, all EXCELLENT.

Tomorrow is Constitution Day in Norway, a national holiday. We will be in port in Geiranger. More on all that tomorrow.

Good night.

We awoke to yet another perfect weather day in a city (Bergen) where it rains 220 days a year. We had the morning free so we walked through the old town (Bryggen) to the Funicular up the mountain. We got the first car going up. The views from atop are spectacular.

And a panorama (click to enlarge):

Then it was time to check out and board our ship. Yay!

After lunch on board and unpacking in the room, we got off and did a walkabout at the Bergenhouse Fortress just across the road. The link tells you all that you need to know. There is a temporary mini amusement park set up right in the area too.

More ship pictures on an onboard walkabout.

We stay overnight in Bergen and do a tour tomorrow. We sail tomorrow night. Later.

I’ll be short on words and heavy on pictures today. The weather continues to be unbelievably good. This morning we had our last breakfast at the fabulous buffet, checked out, and headed for the railroad station with just our carry-ons. Our suitcases are being transported from the hotel in Oslo to our hotel in Bergen by a company called Porter Service. That sure beats schlepping with our heavy bags to the train and then to the new hotel (about $27 per bag).

As usual, Click on the galleries below to bring up scrollable windows with full size pictures – the gallery previews may show just thumbnails of the pictures.

The train ride from Oslo (at sea level) rises to over 4,000 feet before falling back to sea level at Bergen six and a half hours later. It is the highest elevation train ride in Europe. The views are stunning. We enjoyed sandwiches and chips on the ride. The first class seats were comfortable and roomy. Pictures (and more pictures, some with odd reflections as all the pictures are through the train window at our seats):

On arrival in Bergen, we took a taxi to the Thon Hotel Orion. It will be interesting tomorrow morning to see how their buffet compares to the one at the Thon Hotel Opera in Oslo. (Oddly enough, we took one taxi while in Oslo where our drive was from Eritrea. Our driver here was also from Eritrea.) We checked into our normal sized room and then went for a walk. Our suitcases arrived a short time later.

We stopped for a couple of pints of French 1664 beer near the harbor and in Bryggen, the UNESCO protected old wharf area of Bergen. There we met Bob and Lindsey who we chatted up and found they will be on our cruise with us, so we have our first friends on the ship.

Then we meandered down the wharf area and chose Olivia Zachariasbryggen for dinner. Elaine started with an Aperol Spritz while I sipped on a pink gin and tonic. We shared calamari fritters (good, but not great) and then each had a very good pizza (Margherita for Elaine, Prosciutto di Parma for me). They are shown half eaten in the pictures.

Pictures from the walk around Bryggen (including one of a firefighter motorcycle jacket for my friend Bob):

Then it was home to bed. Tomorrow we transfer to the Viking Ocean Liner Saturn (which is already in port). Stay tuned.

Aside: once sailing, internet access will be spotty at best. I’m not sure how often or how many pictures I’ll be able to upload. We’ll see how it goes.

Our last full day in Oslo. Weather: sunny and warm. It reached 75º today. It’s quite cool in the mornings but warm by noon. Normal in Oslo at this time is mid-60’s. Do not doubt climate change.

After another scrumptious breakfast, we took the tram down to the harbor area and visited Oslo City Hall. If you come to Oslo, don’t miss it! It’s normally a beautiful two-towered building from the outside, but one tower is encased to plastic and scaffold for restoration work. But the real beauty is inside. We walked around and took (too) many pictures of the beautifully muraled rooms.

Then we walked the short distance to visit the Akershus Fortress located right on the water. Great views. A statue of FDR. We saw some police riding horses at what appeared to be a training area for police. The highlight (for us as we didn’t walk the whole huge fortress) was the Norwegian Resistance Museum. It’s very well done although it doesn’t translate well in photos.

Then we walked back down the promontory to the harbor and had lunch at the Salmon where we ate on Saturday. We both draft Hansa Beer and Skagan Toast. Yummy good. After that we both had gelato cones and watched the action on the harbor walk. We saw lots of police and Army officers at one point, and I chatted one officer up. It seems the King and Queen of Denmark are sailing into Oslo tomorrow, and today the police are practicing security procedures. The damn royals could have come while we were here. We’ll be gone in the morning.

Oslo Harbor Panorama (click to enlarge)

Then it was home to nap, rest, read, and pack. We have to have our bags in the lobby tonight as a porter service is picking them up to deliver to our hotel in Bergen. That way we don’t have to schlep the big bags onto the train for Bergen which leaves at 8:30 tomorrow morning. Cocktails were on the balcony as were our dinner of sandwiches. Our MO in Oslo was big breakfast, nice lunch out, and sandwiches in the suite for dinner. We’re looking forward to tomorrow’s train ride. More about that in the next post.

Cheers!

Ok, weather continues to be perfect. Couldn’t ask for more. Breakfast. Here are some quick snaps of the Thon Hotel Opera breakfast buffet. Breakfast has become our main meal of the day in Oslo.

After breakfast it was off to the nearby Munch Museum. It is 12 stories of Munch works. Edvard Munch was Norway’s pre-eminent painter. He was prolific and he did everything — portraits, self-portraits, landscapes (at the beach, in the forest, etc.), themed works (love, hate, sickness), wood blocks, sculptures, etc. Yup, even he did penises. He is most famous for The Scream. We visited all twelve floors. Great views from the top. His work is interesting and worth seeing. Here’s a big sample.

As I said, great views from atop. Also here are some shots from the area nearby. Note the first picture below. That area is known as the Barcode Area because the buildings resemble a computer bar code. Do you see it? That’s the Opera House next door.

Then it was onto the Metro for a ride to Holmenkollbakken, the Oslo ski jump. Once off the Metro, it’s a steep twenty-minute walk up to the ski jump and ski museum. We sure got our walking in today between the ski jump and 12 floors of Munch. We had a great lunch at the Holmenkollen Restaurant (salmon and potatoes for Elaine; veal carpaccio with asparagus for me). The views were fantastic and it was a fun thing to do. (We could have zip-lined down from the top, but we both wisely demurred.)

We finished the day with drinks in the hotel bar at 5:30. We sat outside in the beautiful weather. I had a beer followed by a gin and tonic. Elaine sipped glasses of rosé wine. After cocktails we had sandwiches in our room that we bought at the train station on the way home. Tired after a long day with lots of walking, we retired early. We’ll be back at it tomorrow. Later!

Weather forecast: cloudy, chance of showers. Actual weather: spectacularly sunny.

Long Post. Not proofread. Excuse any errors.

Breakfast was great again. I forgot to take pictures of the buffet area, but I did get pictures of our plates from the buffet.

Then we went for a walk, seeing the Opera House and the Munch Museum.

Neither the Munch or the Opera House opened until 10 AM, so we continued to walk and tram down to the harbor where we watched people sauna/swimming (brrrr! – it wasn’t warm at 10 AM), and we watched the 2,900 passenger Celebrity Cruise Lines Silhouette dock.

At 11 AM the Ashtrop Fearnley Museum of Modern Art opened, and we visited. One building had a exhibition of the recently deceased Leonard Rickhard and the other building had their permanent collection. If you see anything you like, please send compliments to the museum. I found the whole pretty much a bore.

First, the Rickhard collection. The best I saw was the nice view from the second floor balcony.

Second, the permanent collection. The Michael Jackson item is made from porcelain, which is interesting. Otherwise, the horse in the blue room was the highlight.

Then we had a great lunch harborside. Salmon sandwich for Elaine; peel-your-own shrimp for me. I ordered sangria for Elaine while I got a beer. Elaine’s sangria wasn’t a glass, but a pitcher. So we sat around in the beautiful weather and shared it.

The we walked around some more in the harbor area. Note the Beer Pong competition where you paid to play. It was packed.

Then we took a 2-hour plus river cruise on an electric boat that was great fun.

A panorama:

A few final pictures on the way home to sandwiches for dinner and bed. (Vigeland is everywhere.)

I should mention that the weather has been very good. Close to 70º in London. A bit cooler in Oslo, but mostly sunny. We haven’t seen the dreaded rain yet. eventually we will.

Friday started out with the fantastic breakfast buffet at the Thon Hotel Opera. It had everything you could want, and it was all delicious. I’ll have to try and remember to snap some photos of the buffet tomorrow or the next day.

After breakfast we headed to the Oslo Tourist Information Office in the Railroad Station (which is right next to our hotel. There we bought two senior Oslo Passes good for three days. Free admission to most museums and free use of all Oslo’s busses, trams, and metro systems. Outside the train station there is a statue of a tiger. Oslo is known the Tiger City. Why? It’s all explained here.

So, there is an exhibit in Oslo right now of Banksy’s art work. We took the T-Bann (Metro) to see it. It was high on Elaine’s “want-to-do” list, and she loved it. He is, of course, the world’s best known and most successful graffiti artist or tagger. If you haven’t heard of him, read here. This exhibit is not included in the Oslo Pass, but I had pre-purchased tickets months ago on-line. Seems like pre-purchase wasn’t really necessary as we had the huge exhibit almost to ourselves. Photographs were encouraged (“Copyright is for losers”). Anyway, Banksy could be described as pro-Palestinian, pro-depressed people, anti-police, anti-establishment, and anti-capitalist. “You can win the rat race, but you’ll still be a rat.” So if you’re interested in seeing Banksy’s art, all of it quite interesting, here is a whole bunch:

We took the T-Bann (Metro) back to the center of town. Then we switched over to the tram system (light rail) for a ride around Oslo. We decided to get off at Vigeland Sculpture Park which Elaine adored the last time we were here. We had a light lunch (sandwiches and coke/water) and walked the park. Clearly this park has the most exposed penis statues in the world. All the sculptures depict naked people. It was crowded, but not overwhelming so.

Then we trammed back to the center of town, bought some wine (available only at a state run monopoly) and some cheese and crackers for dinner. We enjoyed wine on the balcony and then the cheese and crackers indoors as it cooled off.

Long day. Tired. Back to the tourist grind in the morning. See you tomorrow.

Thursday Morning

Not much to report today, so I’ll just blather on about a few things. Not much to report because today is all about getting from London to Oslo. We are flying on British Air. Whenever we fly British Air, (BA) something annoyingly unexpected happens. Bad seats, lost luggage, etc. Hopefully today’s annoyance has already happened and been dealt with. We had a nice 1 PM flight for the 2-hour flight. And then a few weeks ago BA cancelled that flight and we had to reschedule to a 4:45 PM flight that doesn’t get to Oslo to about 7:45 (there is an hour time difference). So we have to kill the morning and afternoon at the hotel and the airport. At least we get access to BA’s lounge at Heathrow since we are flying business class. Alas, business class on intra-European flights on BA is really just economy class with the middle seat blocked (unoccupied). No extra leg room.

I’m writing this after a nice breakfast in the Marriott Executive Lounge. Very good scrambled eggs to which I added Tobasco sauce and (to elaine’s utter disgust) some anchovies. Yum. And delicious American-style bacon on the side along with toast and good orange juice.

The Upcoming Trip in Review

We arrive in Oslo tonight and will stay five nights at the Thon Hotel Opera. There is lots to do and see in Oslo. We have been there before, but only for a day at a time on previous cruise stops. This time will see more of the many things we missed on previous trips.

Next Tuesday we leave Oslo and take the 8-hour train ride from Oslo to Bergen. It’s the highest train journey that you can take in Europe. It’s supposedly very scenic. We’re looking forward to the ride.

In Bergen, where we have also been before for one-day cruise stops, we’ll spend just one night at the Thon Hotel Orion. On Wednesday we will board the Saturn, a Viking Ocean cruise ship. The ship will spend another night in Bergen before sailing up the west coast of Norway to the North Cape above the Artic Circle (where at this time of year, the sun never sets). There are four port stops and one day at sea. Then the ship will turn left and head across the Bering Sea where after two days at sea we will visits ports on the Shetland Islands, the Orkney Islands, Edinburgh, and finally sail right up the Thames River to dock at our final stop at Greenwich just outside London.

After disembarking in Greenwich, it will back to the Heathrow Marriott for one night before flying home non-stop on American Airlines.

Here’s a map of the cruise.

Thursday Evening

So, we made it to Oslo. We hung around all morning in the Marriott at Heathrow. Then we hung around all afternoon in the British Airways Club Europe Lounge. The flight from Heathrow to Oslo was uneventful. Business class within Europe sucks. It’s just economy class with the middle seat blocked, No leg room. You do get food and drinks. Bottom line: we made it to Oslo on time. Our reserved limo driver to the hotel was waiting for the 30 or so mile drive into town from the airport. We are staying in a way-too-big suite at the Thon Hotel Opera in downtown Oslo. Anyway, here are some photos from the plane approaching Oslo followed by pictures of our hotel suite. That balcony is all ours. And there is a separate smaller balcony off the bedroom.

Tomorrow we’ll hit the town and see the best Oslo has to offer. Stay tuned to this station for further developments.

. . . to a new year of adventures. No boring repeats of Dingle and Depoe Bay coming this year. Yesterday we flew (non-stop) from Phoenix to London Heathrow on American Airlines #194. Business class was very nice. Good seats convertible to lay-flat sleepers. We both got some sleep. Dinner was mediocre at best (we both had chicken). Breakfast kind of sucked, but, oh, well. We left on time and arrived just moments late. Immigration at Heathrow used to be a disaster with long lines and waits up to two hours. Today it was a breeze – scan your passport and you’re done. No line. It took two minutes tops. After a short wait for the luggage, we were off to the Heathrow Marriott.

So, hotels are not allowed to offer pick up services at Heathrow. Heathrow runs a series of “Hotel Hoppa” bus routes that run on schedule to take people to the hotels around the airport. It costs about £7 per person. The hotel also pays Heathrow for the service. Well, Marriott has opted out, so we planned on taking the Hotel Hoppa to the Sheraton Skyline next door to the Marriott. We just missed a scheduled departure on that route and there wasn’t another one for an hour. A driver on a different route told us they now no longer stop at the Sheraton Skyline. Sheraton is owned by Marriott. It seems Marriott is instead offering a different (more expensive to guests) private car service (a la Uber). Boo to Marriott. Anyway, the driver on this other route said “Hop aboard and I’ll drop you outside the Marriott”). Kudos to him. He earned a nice tip. And voila, we were at the Marriott at 1:00. And the room was ready that early.

Photos on Board the Aircraft

We have Marriott Club access. Yay! Happy hour at 5:30. Free food and drinks. Nice layout. You could just pig out here and skip dinner. We didn’t.

So then it was dinner at Carluccio’s, the restaurant at the Marriott. It’s a chain that is quite popular in the UK. We didn’t eat much. Elaine had some arancini while I had a prosciutto pizza.

Then it was off to bed. Long travel day. Jet lag. And more travel tomorrow (Thursday) with a flight to Oslo.

Later!