Blogs from Norway, Europe - page 12

Today was another random exploration day - there’s a neighbourhood (Toyen) with a lot of street art, so I headed up there to explore. There’s also another large sculpture park on the east side which I walked around a bit, but then the rain hit and I was in my Birks and didn’t want to muddy them up so I retreated to the tram and headed back into town. The little that I did see of Ekebergparken was pretty eclectic - it’s all different artists, so not like Vigeland. (Some were pretty kinky lol) Great view over Oslo too! Anyway, by the time I was back into town, it was only spitting rain so I just kind of roamed around the relatively pedestrian area in the centre - Nationaltheater, Parliament, City Hall, etc that whole bit. ... read more

Dag 20: Kristiansand! donderdag 23 juni 2022 Wat een heerlijk bed zeg! En dan douchen zonder timer en met een deftige zachte handdoek. (We hadden van die handdoeken bij die snel opdrogen, weinig plek innemen en voelen als een zeemvel. Heel handig om te kamperen, maar niets gaat boven een echte stoffen handdoek!) Terwijl wij ons klaar maakten, kroop Nore nog gezellig rond in de kamer. Dan een heerlijk ontbijtbuffet! enorm veel keuze en ook hier was de bruine geitenkaas aanwezig. Samen met pannenkoeken, lekkere yoghurt, bonen in tomatensaus, eitjes, enzovoort! Het water voor morgenvroeg komt me al weer in de mond op het moment van typen :) Met een volle maag trokken we de stad in. Ons hotel ligt op een 30-tal meter van de winkelstraat, dus deden we dit eerst. Ik kocht er nog ... read more

This was turning out to be a long day. We were back on highway E6, in the direction of Oslo. The sun was still up in the sky and didn’t go down until after we reached our destination. Sunset was at 11:14 pm that evening and families with little kids and young adults were out on the street. The birds were still flying in the sky and mothers walking their babies in strollers, restaurants were open for business. It was amazing to see the energy around me, did Mr. Sun really do that?!! It sure did as it energized us too, a microcosm of its floating population! Even though we had had such a long day we put our bags away in the Airbnb and headed out to check out the excitement. Once again we were ... read more

Friday's sea day went smoothly. Some time during the day the cabin steward bought around a Crossed The Arctic Circle certificate for each passenger. Evening Formal Night saw most people partake again. Saturday was Honningsvåg for the North Cape. On arrival we had a 4 hour morning tour with Blue Puffin Tours, organised privately rather than a "ship's tour". A really great tour. Excellent guide, very knowledgeable, very enthusiastic. The tour included the tour guide's fishing village, a king crab fishing village and 1.5 hours at the North Cape, as well as a 'photo view' and a reindeer photo opportunity stop too. On the way back to the boat our tour guide handed out samples of air dried reindeer meat - an 'acquired' taste which Pip decided she didn't wish to acquire. The guide also remarked ... read more

Hello all Excuse the delay. Have been too busy cruising to update ? The generator problems have not caused any other of our stops/itinerary to change at all. Ins & outs to all three stops since starting - Skjolden, Olden, Trondheim - were all to published times of in at 8am, out at 4pm. We pushed off on time on all 3 so I'm guessing we had no latecomers holding up departure. And arrival, after yesterday's at sea day, into Honningsvåg is happening on time at this moment. Breakfast arrived to our cabin on Tuesday as booked, around 6.45am, slap in the middle of the chosen slot. All was fine with it. It was worth getting up early to watch the fjord pass by whilst breakfasting on our balcony. Monday nighy I left my phone on ... read more