We only stopped in the 3 ports for about 8 hours a day but it did give a taste and sound of Scotland. The brogue was titillating especially on the hearty bearded Viking males. Shetlandwas the best with the countryside tour: the ponies, the seals, the oyster catchers, and the sheep everywhere you looked. As we passed fields it was hard to distinguish whether the fields were dotted with hundreds of sheep or rocks. Sheep it was. Deb got to visit Jamieson's wool shop and she was greeted with hugs, smiles and photos. She was in wool heaven - must be like my fabric fetish as a quilter. Kirkwall was another stone city - good masonry work available in Scotland. Interesting Earl's Palace and quaint shops on narrow cobbled streets but alas no time to shop. ... read more

Honningsvag Bundled up this morning for our tour to Nordkapp. Technically not the most northern spot in Europe but the little peninsula that sticks out a few metres more does not have the advantage of being up on the windswept plateau. We did pass herds of reindeer on the way and stopped at a Sami village for the souvenir bit and photo op of a really gorgeous guy working there. I think it's on my camera and not the tablet so you may not get to see him. Very cold and looking out to sea I know I would never have been a groupie with any of those polar explorers. The very thought of heading into ice water on a ship to wherever sends chills down my spine. Listening to the guides tell what life is ... read more

Just a wee bit behind in my blogging so I’ll use paragraph headings so I can stay organized. To OLE BULL The flight from Toronto to Copenhagen was fine… I dozed just before landing. Saw a few good movies and watched the airplane tracking program on the screen (thought it would put me to sleep but no I just kept tracking the numbers to destination and so on). Connection to Bergen was quick and Ross and I and our luggage arrived in Bergen at 1:10 pm. Found our hotel after one error (an optical surgeon’s waiting room).Then we went out and got some cereal, milk and fruit (Norway is expensive –wow) since we had a kitchenette. Next a short 5 hour nap which mucked up the time change even more. Dinner across the street and watched ... read more

Cabin seemed small on arrival but good storage. The boat is compact but comfortable with a nice dining room and a great Sundeck. We have visited many villages and temples in several towns such as Kampong Cham, Kampong Trolach, Phnom Penh (3 nights docked here), Tan chau, Sa Dec and Cai Be. All have their charms except Phnom Penh. We had several excursions there but it is probably the only place I would not return to for many years. A real discrepancy between haves and have-nots and no apparent effort by the Cambodian government to improve the situation. So far this trip our transportation methods have included: plane, buses, electric golf cart type vehicles, sampans, rickshaws, cyclos, riverboat, bicycle, kayak, tuk tuk, and some even did elephant. My favourite is tuk tuk. They go anywhere and ... read more

We mastered walking across the streets. Once you see a 3 Metre break among the buses, scooters and bikes you just walk straight ahead in a steady pace. Works best when there's someone bigger and taller than you or an elderly Vietnamese person leading the way. We saw typical tourist spots provided by Viking: Ho chi Minh mausoleum, palace and regular living quarters, the Temple of Learning, and Museum of Vietnamese ethnology (good gift shop). The rest of the time the 4 of us wader ed through the old town and around the lake taking a thousand pictures of people carrying outrageous amounts of things on scooters, people squatting on tiny stools having lunch, interesting items to sell, people welding, sewing, painting, building right on the sidewalk. In fact sidewalks were either scooter parking lots, food ... read more