Geo: 60.9036, 7.20172We sleep pretty good throughout the night. A slight cough seems to be the only trace left from my sickness. I'll test it today as we will be out from 9-6. We try out the free breakfast at 8am. It's fine for me since I don't eat much for breakfast; cereal, fruit, juice and coffee and I'm good. Karen, being more adventurous, tries the herring, goat cheese, warm rye bread with cranberry jam in addition to her regular favorites. Arriving at the Flam Railroad about 9, we hang out around the gift shop waiting for the train. While we're waiting for the train, here is some info on it. The Flåm Railway is the steepest adhesion railway on standard gauge tracks in the world, with a variation in altitude of 2550'. The line twists ... read more

Geo: 60.3881, 5.33185I awake at the B&B around 8am. Our trip to Bergen from here is 2:15 minutes but we already know how that usually goes. We have a boat trip planned for 2:30pm up the fjords for 3 hours and, you know, Mom likes boats. She will like this leisurely cruise. Here's the description of our boat trip to Mostraumen direct from the Internet: "Experience the fjords, mountains and waterfalls – all year round! The cruise starts from Zachariasbryggen, right next to the well-known Fish Market in Bergen. On the way from Bergen you will have a good view of the famous Bryggen, the old city of Bergen along with the rest of Bergen's harbor basin. Furthermore, we sail under Nordhordalandsbrua and on the Osterfjord. When we approach Mostraumen the fjord gets more narrow and ... read more

Geo: 59.879, 8.59134We're up and ready to go at by 9am. We grab our free breakfast which is, well, free and very good. My plan for today was to take the Oslo sightseeing boat around Oslo harbor and fjords in the morning but, nervous about traveling today, we skip it and head out directly to the parking garage. Everyone tells me I have a problem since I don't have a parking ticket. A customer at the machine says the same. There is no attendant. Noticing a call button, I push. A lady comes on in Danish but quickly switches to English while listening to my story. No worries, she says. It will figure it out as long as you use the same card to check out with. There is no ticket. Oh, the stress. We follow ... read more

Geo: 56.0469, 12.6953I wake up around 4am and, prior to my bathroom visit, I peek out the window shades to monitor our progress. It's zero. We're still sitting in the same place. I thought we were leaving at 2am. Oh well. Back to sleep. The Captain awakens us at 6:30am with an announcement. The weather was still bad at 2am and their next opportunity to leave the port per the harbor pilot was 6am. Leaving that late made it impossible to stop in Helsingborg so we were making way directly to Copenhagen. We had reserved a walking tour of Helsingborg through HAL but, of course, that was done. Today will be another unscheduled sea day. Mom likes that but I would rather see something besides the inside of the ship. Both Helsinki and Helsingborg have been ... read more

Geo: 54.3227, 10.1359Today we have a Holland America tour to the Holstein Switzerland area of Germany including the town of Eutin, a visit to a local schnapps distillery, a German lunch and finishing up with a five lakes boat ride. It all starts at 10am when we board our bus at the pier. We had breakfast earlier and I had tried unsuccessfully once more to send out blogs on the ship's Internet. Now we are in the city of Kiel, Germany. Kiel is a port city in Northern Germany on the Baltic Sea near the end of the Kiel Canal. A large portion of the city was destroyed during WWII. Most tourists arriving here by ferry or cruise ship continue on to Hamburg or Lubeck and few stay in Kiel. The biggest thing in this area ... read more