Well today we were in Bergen and the weather was supposed to clear up but it was cloudy most of the day with a few sprinkles but no real showers. Dennis and I took the 8 hr Queen of the Fjords tour which we both enjoyed as we had a fantastic guide. It started with a tour around Bergen which has a lot of historical houses and buildings. We then headed out to the country including a ferry crossing, stop at an old church, and on to Hardinger Fjord where we stopped at a hotel for a very nice buffet lunch. We’d all be a bit concerned since it was supposed to be a traditional lunch but there was plenty of variety and it was all very good. We then headed over to a waterfall and ... read more

Today we were in Oslo our first stop in Norway. Mom and I had been here in 2001 on the Baltic trip but it was a new port for Erin and Dennis. Last trip Mom, Dad, Jim, and I went to the Olympic Ski Jump (the one featured in the old Wide World Of Sports where the skier falls from it), the Norske Outdoor Folke Museum (where they have old houses and buildings from all over Norway), and the Resistance Museum. This trip we had scheduled the Hadeland Glass Factory and Viking Boat Museum. So we had an early breakfast in the Lido then headed to the Queen’s Lounge just before 9 to get our blue stickers. There was only one bus for this tour and it wasn’t quite full. Our guide’s name was Jane and ... read more

Well finally live from the Prinsendam. Both Mom and I got a few hours sleep then were wide awake at midnight for a few hours while it was raining quite hard with some thunder. Even tried playing Rhythm Heaven but scores on that a 1 am were not good. We finally got back to sleep and work up just in time for our 6 am wake-up call since we had to have the luggage out by 7. The hotel had a nice breakfast buffet (though seeing a big bowl of baked beans seemed strange to me). We were on the 2nd shuttle to the ship which loaded up about 10 and arrived in Dover about 12:30. Check-in was pretty easy with the only real wait being for the XRay machine. It was very windy when we ... read more

Well it's time to set up my blog for the Top of the World trip since I leave in just a few days. My mother (Shirley) should be at the airport hotel in Portland for her flight to Cincinnati today. I'll be picking her up this evening so she'll have a few days to adjust to part of the time change before we fly to London on Wed night. We'll have Thursday to recover from that before boarding the Prinsendam in Dover on Friday afternoon. We should meet up with my sister Erin and her husband Dennis on the ship since they'll be flying out from Colorado on Thu night. The itinerary for the cruise is below and then we'll spend two more nights in Amsterdam before heading back to Ohio. Hopefully when we get back ... read more

Fri 2/15/08 I can’t believe this trip is all but over. It’s been as good if not better than I expected and though I originally thought it would be a once-in-a-lifetime trip I’m pretty sure I’ll be back if I’m able to in a few years. There’s just so much worth seeing again and lots of things I didn’t have time for in one trip. Antarctica was of course spectacular and my main reason for the trip but South America was much more of a surprise. Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay are not the third world countries most of us expected and in fact have worked their ways to fairly stable economies and most of the areas we visited were safe, friendly, and beautiful. Definitely worth taking a further look at in future trips. Wednesday was another ... read more