Bergan:
Bergan was our first experience of Norway. It was really interesting to see what sort of things they had on shore and I was not sure what to expect in terms of a language barrier, but I quickly learned that everyone I spoke to was able to converse in English better than many folks back home could. This was very helpful. I also discovered that everywhere takes touchless Apple Pay, so while I am able to buy things without a foreign transaction fee, which is very helpful.
The attraction of the day was the funicular. The kids were able to sit in the front area with the operator, so we got a front row view of going up the mountain.
At the top of the hill, there were our first introduction to the many, many troll statues and troll themed ‘stuff’ – Norway really loves souvenir trolls. We found a normal sized playground where the kids had a good time. The kids got ice cream, and we eventually found a really, really cool playground complete with a zip line – Miranda did a great job with that. Henry was unsure of his ability to do it, and I’m pretty okay with that because I thought there was a reasonable chance he’d crack his head open. Henry did climb to the very top of the structure through a wire tube – it looked pretty precarious and I’m glad he was able to muster up the courage to come down because I’m not sure anybody could have gotten him if it came to that.
On the way down, we were placed in the same area so we could look out the rear view window. We walked through a fish market on the way back to the ship, a very interesting look into the local population and how they would get fresh seafood.
Molde:
We went to an open air museum in Molde. It was very interesting to see what old timey Norwegians lived like, and there were two houses. One of them had a large room that they only used when the missionaries came to stay with them, and another one didn’t have a floor. Everyone had grass on their roof though, because that keeps the rain out I suppose. Miranda did a good job of taking the GoPro around, I think this is going to be a reoccurring theme. I’m hoping that the video she takes is usable. The kids are often less guarded when there isn’t an adult in the immediate vicinity.
Trondhiem:
At the end of this day I was ready for a sea day – we spend three solid days doing a lot of walking so I was tuckered out. In Trondheim we visited a wonderful cathedral that was 1,000 years old. I don’t think I’ve been in a proper building that old before. I know I’ve been in Mexican ruins when I was a kid, but those aren’t functioning today. The cathedral was renovated several times over the course of the century, which would be expected. It was built as a catholic church but was converted to a Lutheran at some point.
After the cathedral, we went to the local fort that was designed to defend against the Swedish. I mapped it and discovered it was half a mile, and I didn’t feel like I could get a taxi cab to go half a mile. Henry wanted to go in the cab because this is a new experience for him, thankfully.
It was only half a mile, but it was half a mile uphill which made it much harder than if it was flat. I’m glad that my stubbornness around cabs did not rub off on grandpa, because that would have been a harder walk for the elderly.
Honningsvag:
The morning started off with getting a ‘arctic circle certification’ under the door, which was fun and I think Henry will appreciate it more as he gets older and learns how rare this really is.
This was the first proper excursion we had, and there was a large gift shop right off the boat so I thought both of those things were great. Trondiem had some really good shopping for normal stuff but if you wanted something that said ‘Norway’ on it, Honningsvag is the best place we’ve seen so far.
We went to the north cape, the most northern part of Europe. It was pretty cool to be there, and it was good to have some ‘google maps’ evidence of being so high in the world.
Tromso:
I didn’t know what to expect at any of these locations, but Tromso I think was my biggest letdown…so far. We took a princess tour and our tour guide had a habit of making a ‘hmmm’ after each sentence, which got very old very quickly. The weather wasn’t helping and was very foggy. We took a cable car to the top of the mountain, which was straight out of a horror movie. I remember at one point the children were asking if they could run down the path a little bit – there was a resounding ‘no’ from the adults because we could not see more than 30 feet and letting them into the mist was not happening.
Tromso was unfortunate because we were hoping to have some great views out of the cable car and some great views at the top – neither happened, unfortunately. The cable car seemed much safer than others we saw later on the trip, this seemed downright reasonable.
We also saw an arctic cathedral here, which was a bit of a letdown and seemed like a pretty regular church and the just added arctic on the front to fleece tourists out of money.
Andalsnes:
We took an excursion into town to see the ‘Troll Wall’ – Norway really likes their trolls. This tour was fine, but mostly ridden in a bus. “time to get off for a quick photo op” was the phrase of the day, and we only got enough time off the bus to check the gift shop and to use the bathroom. Other than that, there was hardly any time for anything. At one of the stops I might have enjoyed an hour, and we were given 15 minutes – not nearly enough time. There was some wonderfully beautiful water that was the most amazing white-blue water I had ever seen.
Alesund:
In Alesund we decided to sit on a bus stop for nearly an hour. Because I foolishly did not prepare for this, I did not bring a jacket and so I was not warm. After our bus finally came, we learned it was three quarters of a mile to get to the aquarium from where the boss dropped off. Because I did not have a coat, I was cold on this walk but I did survive. None of the Norwegian towns we visited were great at public infrastructure, but not having a bus going to “Northern Europe’s largest and most unique saltwater aquarium” seemed like an oversight. Perhaps there isn’t the demand. There was a hop on, hop off bus that we could have taken instead but that would have been $40 a person. We called an uber for the way back.
The aquarium was interesting. There was a huge outdoor demonstration of how dams work, so that kids can see what the real world implications of changing the flow of water is. I don’t know if they knew this or not – I prefer when children don’t know they’re learning. They had a lot of fun damming and flooding the areas below.
Olden:
In Olden we took an excursion to see the Briksdal glacier. This was probably the most spectacular views I’ve seen on this trip. I was able to take some pretty good photos out of the bus window, and I think I was able to get some great video during the ‘troll car’ ride. The green water from the melted glacier is truly beautiful and does a great job of reflecting the fjords around the canyon. During the troll car ride, I had stared off by thinking that I could do the hike up without the car. Then some time later, I was thinking that I was happy we were taking it up but I might walk down. Eventually, I decided I was happy to take the troll car up and down.
The running theme with the excursions is there’s not enough time. Olden was not an exception, I could probably spend hours here, but that’s impossible with the format of a cruise ship. You get 8 hours in port, and tour operators are always hoping to have two different times, which means they rush you through things.
Brussels:
We took a transfer from the cruise port to the town of brunges. This started off chaotic because there was not much in the way of signage for the transfer. When we came up to the bus, it was pulling away so we got to wait for the next bus. This came within about half an hour, but the reoccurring theme of waiting for buses on the trip is perhaps one of the worst aspects of traveling.
The cruise transfer said it would let off in the middle of town, but instead it dropped off a mile from town. I might have mentioned on another day that these small towns don’t have great transportation, and do not have a lot of uber drivers. We ended up walking over a mile to get into the town for the chocolate factory, which went waaaaaay deeper into the history of chocolate than I think anybody needs to know. They did have unlimited included chocolate, that was pretty good. Except there was no water for free or for purchase, so we were all pretty thirsty.
Next we went to the ‘french fry museum’ – and this went deeper into the history of the French fry than anybody would ever want to know, except they did not offer free unlimited French fries. They did have fries for purchase, but at that point it seemed pretty bad.
We finally found a small place to get a Belgium waffle, and then waited a long time for an uber before getting back on the 3rd to last bus.
London:
I’m glad that I’ve gotten to see London – I’m not sure if I need to get back here. I have an interesting relationship with large cities. I feel like because I am close to Chicago, I get to experience a world class city and with few exceptions, I don’t see what London would have that Chicago does not. We were not in London long enough to fall in love with the city or anything like that of course, and this was the last stop on a long trip so we were all ready to come home I think.