The Blogette of Dr. D

I’ve always wished to be a more creative  person.  I can think of a hundred ways to adapt an idea, but the idea is nearly always someone else’s brainchild.  It always amazes me what a creative mind can think of, especially when I see art or listen to music.

Today, one of my Facebook friends posted a video of some unique sculptures.  I only check Facebook occasionally, so I suppose it’s making the rounds, but it was new to me.  My favorite of these amazing sculptures was the lady holding onto the world as she blows away from it.

I went online to see what I could find out about the sculptures and quickly found that there are several websites related to the topic.  Each has a few different sculptures in its gallery.  I especially like the “Mustangs” in Texas, . . .

. . . the kids jumping into the river in Singapore, . . .

. . . the “Break Through” people in Philadelphia, . . .

. . . and the tripping man in Brussels.

Last summer, Ted and I saw the “Shoes on the Danube” sculpture in Budapest . . .

. . . and “A Man at Work”  in Bratislava.

We’re surprised we didn’t see the “Unknown Official” in Reykjavik earlier this month.  It’s a small city and we had a pretty extensive two-day tour.  Maybe next time.

Yes, we had adventures from the first day to the last day of our vacation.  We chose to keep a positive attitude and to call the events “adventures” instead of asking “What else can go wrong?”

The first leg of our journey was our flight from St. Louis to Atlanta (June 27).  It’s summer, so afternoon thunderstorms are not unusual.  Tennessee, northern Mississippi, and Alabama were getting hit hard, so we had to fly due south along the Mississippi River until we passed the storms, then turn east to reach Atlanta instead of taking the diagonal.  This added 30-40 minutes to our flight time, but we had no problem catching our connecting flight to London.

Paris was a very “adventurous” city for us.  On Bastille Day (July 14), security was so tight that we needed a police escort to return to our hotel.   Twice we had to wait on the sidewalk before continuing on our sightseeing way.  One time we had the “opportunity” to observe a march for racial equality in Paris; the other time we watched hundreds of Scandinavian bicyclists pass and exchanged conjectures about the riders with other bystanders (July 16).  Then there was the scary cab ride from our hotel to Charles DeGaulle Airport (July 17).  As we were in the process of checking in at the airport, we were informed that we had to evacuate that area of the terminal.  Someone had left untended luggage in the area.  No bombs exploded.

When we arrived in Stockholm (July 17), we went to our pick-up point and discovered our name was not on the transfer list to be taken to the ship.  They took us anyway and said everything could be straightened out after we were onboard.  No problem–our documents proved our name should have been included.  The same thing happened when we were arranging the shuttle pickup from Bergen to Reykjavik.  We showed our documents again and all worked out well.  An adventure, not a calamity, right?

When we were in St. Petersburg, we temporarily lost our tour group in the morning of the first day (July 20).  At the end of the second day (July 21), high winds delayed our hydrofoil boarding and our return to the ship.  The result was a late departure from the port, but the ship waited for all of us.  No big deal, right?

We had another late departure from Berlin (July 25) because the train arrived late and all but eleven passengers from the ship were onboard the train for the various excursions of the day.  The “welcome back” event when we finally arrived at the ship was so heartwarming, it might nullify the “adventure” status of the late arrival.

In Flåm (July 29), we were unable to take our much-anticipated “Norway in a Nutshell” railway excursion because of mud slides from a storm the previous night.  We saw one of the most beautiful fjords in the world instead.

Flying from Bergen to Stavanger (July 31), I had an attack of claustrophobia in my tiny little personal airplane space.  We changed seats.

When it was time to come home (August 2), Ted’s boarding pass printed very nicely, but mine didn’t.  For some reason, “government regulations” required that I print my boarding pass at the airport.  It printed fine at the airport

After only a few hours of sleep, we were up at 4:30 am for the 5:00 am shuttle to catch our 10:30 am flight home (August 3).  Just before boarding, eleven other passengers and I were informed that we were randomly selected for an additional deep security check.  Our flight was already delayed for two hours, and there was another delay waiting for some passengers.  The cabin doors on the plane were being closed before Ted–and about 100 other passengers–got on.  Everyone was onboard before takeoff–at 1:00 pm.

The fuel pump on our car died on our way home from dinner.  We had it replaced with a new one that works fine.

Everything always turned out well, but it seems to be true that you have to be prepared to go with the flow.  I would do it all again and I know Ted would too–even with the “adventures.”

I’m finally caught up with recording our awesome northern European vacation in this blog, but there are still some thoughts and events I want to remember when I look back on these entries.  (Any regular readers?  Maybe you want to scroll backwards to read the formerly missing entries.)  To any grammar nerds reading my posts, I think I’ve corrected all (most?) of the mistakes I made.  If you found one, go back to see if I caught it.  If it bothers you, let me know and I’ll fix it.  After all, I’m a grammar nerd too.  And maybe a little bit of a perfectionist.  Maybe.

Every time I went to the laundry on the ship (two or three times, but three trips each time–load washer, load dryer, empty dryer), there was at least one man ironing.  I never knew so many men ironed their own clothes.  Ted does, because I hate ironing and, many years ago, he got tired of waiting for me to get around to it.

In downtown London, at least one car in five must be a Prius; in Denmark, Teslas were easy to find on the streets.

It was odd to see kids wearing Mickey Mouse ears in Paris until we remembered there’s a Disneyland in Paris.

On our coach trip in Britain, our tour guide told us that by the time we went home, we’d all qualify for a degree in operating plumbing systems.  She was right!  I had no idea there were so many creative ways to turn on a faucet or to direct the bathtub faucet water to the shower head.

It’s not unusual for men and women to share restrooms (toilets or toilettes) in Europe.  This isn’t as personal as it sounds.  Most restrooms have stall-size “rooms” with walls to the ceiling and the floor, so privacy is complete.  There is usually a male or female icon on the door (I assume the difference is the urinal) and you choose the appropriate one.  Then you wash your hands in a general area with multiple sinks.  In practice, it’s fine, but it felt a little weird for both Ted and me to go into the same area together.  It is also not unusual to have to pay anywhere from 20-70 cents/pence/whatever to use a public toilet.  In England, it cost 20 pence.  Our tour guide described it as “20p to pee.”  We always kept change in our jacket pockets.

Good news:  While we were away, we missed six weeks of election phone calls, six weeks of election advertising, and both political conventions!  Yea!

I’ve never worn a jacket for so many consecutive hours!  We wore at least one jacket nearly every day (only four exceptions) and we had them on all day and all evening because we were outside all the time.  At home, when we put on a jacket, we go somewhere, we come home, and we take it off.  Maybe we put it on again later to go somewhere else, but we don’t wear it all day.

I’ve never set an alarm clock for so many early risings in a row.  We had only one day to sleep late–when we were at sea all day between Talinn and Gdansk.  I have always planned at least one day a week to sleep late and/or a day with fewer activities to give myself a break.  We were up early and busy all day every day.  The good part:  We had no trouble falling asleep at night!

In Britain, we never had a wash cloth in our hotel rooms, but the bath towels were huge!  A bathroom safety fact:  Europe does not allow electrical outlets in bathrooms except for electric shavers which have special prongs to fit the outlet.  I always had to dry my hair in the bedroom.

In Stockholm, two young women crossed against the light in front of our bus.  Our tour guide remarked sotto voce, “You are breaking the law and we have the right to kill you, but you are young and beautiful, so you may cross.”  In a face-off between our bus and a van (the bus won), our Berlin tour guide noted that “We are stronger than a van.”  The traffic lights in the cities turn yellow before they turn red and also before they turn green.  Drivers take green lights very seriously and horns will honk at anything that requires a delayed start or the use of a brake pedal.

A double bed in a European hotel means two twin beds pushed together.  The beds are usually made up separately, but sometimes have a shared blanket.

In Scotland, it’s appropriate to “address the haggis” before eating it.  Robert Burns, a Scottish poet, wrote Address to a Haggis.  The poem is read before the haggis is eaten at formal meals.

There are enough hedgerows in England to circle the equator two-and-a-half times.

Hay bales were wrapped in plastic everywhere we went.  Given the frequency of rain showers, my guess is the plastic keeps the bales from rotting.

In Iceland, there are earthquakes every day.  They are small and not usually noticeable, but the ground is always shaking.

The onion-shaped domes on the Russian palaces and churches are onion-shaped for the simple reason that onion shapes don’t collect snow.  The snow slides off, so its weight does not become a structural problem.

English was spoken nearly everywhere we went, but it wasn’t American English.  Sometimes it was easy to know the “translation”; other times, I had to see/hear it repeatedly to figure it out or ask a native.  Here are some words we heard frequently.

Pop in = drop in (pronounced “pope in”)

Way out (signage) = exit

Give way (highway sign) = yield

Bend (highway sign) = curve in the road

Circus = roundabout

Takeaway = carryout

No overtaking (highway sign) = no passing

Dual carriageway (highway sign) = divided highway

Ring road = beltway

Child minder = babysitter

Towel = sanitary napkin

Semi-skimmed milk = 2% milk

Zebra = a white-striped crosswalk (Russia)

Ted and I are really glad we flew home from Reykjavik on Delta last week instead of this week!  We took off only two-and-a-half hours late.

Even after nearly six full weeks of traveling, neither Ted nor I was eager for our vacation to end.  At the same time, when today arrived, we were ready to go home.  I think that’s the best of both worlds:  we’re still having fun, but we look forward to home.  Too bad it wasn’t quite that easy.

Our shuttle to the airport was arranged yesterday.  Three shuttles were going to serve our group, taking us to the airport according to our flight times:  4:30 am, 7:00 am, and 1:00 pm.  Our flight was at 10:30 am.  Guess which shuttle we were assigned to.  In the end, only one couple had a 7:00 am flight, so they were assigned to a cab and the rest of us were given a 30-minute reprieve and didn’t have to report to the shuttle until 5:00 am for the 45-minute drive to the airport.

We went to the hotel business center to print our boarding passes and the next “adventure” began.  Ted’s boarding pass printed just fine, but mine brought up an error message informing me that “government regulations” required that I print my boarding pass at the airport.  Fine, we’d have plenty of time to do that before our 10:30 am flight.  Then, around midnight, we had an email from Delta announcing that our flight would be delayed an hour and fifteen minutes.  At 7:00 am another email arrived to tell us the flight would be delayed an additional hour.  Of course, these were useless communications to us since the shuttles were already set up and we were at the airport by 5:45 am after only a few hours of sleep.

Ok, we’re at the airport, drinking coffee and hot chocolate with a sweet roll (no breakfast at the hotel before 6:00 am) and basically killing time with our new friends, Jim and Jory from North Carolina.  They were on the same flight as Ted and me.  Jory had to print her boarding pass at the airport too, but all was going well.  As we neared our now 12:30 pm departure time, we headed for the gate.  We would have gone sooner, but we couldn’t get near the gate until one hour before our flight.  Security or something.

Fine, we were waiting to go to the rest room for the last time before we boarded when the gatekeeper came on the PA and announced a dozen names of people who were to report to the check-in desk.  Jory’s name and mine were included.  All twelve of us were mystified.  We were told to bring our carry-on luggage and to surrender our passports to the gatekeeper.  Then we were taken through the airport and on an elevator to a secret (to us, at least) room where we saw a sign that explained what was going on.

We are apparently security risks to the U.S. government and the TSA.

In pairs of men or women, we were taken into an adjoining room for an additional pat-down and our luggage, purses, etc. were opened and the contents carefully examined.  When all twelve of us passed inspection, we were taken back upstairs to the gate area and told we could go to the head of the line for boarding.  Our passports were returned and we moved along.

Reykjavik is a small airport and does not have jetways–you have to climb stairs to get into the plane.  The larger international planes, however, are parked farther from the terminal, so we had to take a shuttle to get to the stairway to get on the plane.  I waved at Ted and Jory waved at Jim (they were standing in line as we were leaving to board the plane) and I gave Ted a thumbs-up so he wouldn’t worry (much).  When we tallied things up afterward, Ted had been through five security checks between arriving at the airport and boarding the plane (showing his passport, answering security questions, and getting his luggage scanned) and I had been through six.  I thought TSA in the U.S. was bad, but Reykjavik takes security very seriously.

The first-in-line priority for those of us who were super secure ended when we boarded the shuttle.  At that point, it was everyone for him/herself.  It took us twenty minutes after arriving at the plane to actually get up the stairs and into our seats.  Since the extra security check and the boarding process had taken most of the hour Jory and I had planned to wait in the boarding area, allowing no time for a restroom stop, I used the restroom on the plane.  As I was returning to my seat, I heard an announcement telling the crew to prepare the cabin for takeoff and to lock the cabin doors.  My first thought was “Ted isn’t here!”

I spoke with one of the stewardesses and she used her phone to call another stewardess who had apparently heard the same thing from other passengers.  After a quick check, another announcement told the crew to leave the front cabin door unlocked.  It was probably at least 20-30 minutes before the second shuttle load of passengers (half of the passengers on the flight, including Ted) arrived at the plane.  Ted said they spent at least 15 minutes at the gate waiting for four passengers.  Maybe those passengers were on a delayed flight like ours and it was easier to wait for them to make the connection than to put them on another flight.  Anyway, by the time the passengers from Shuttle No. 2 were finally seated (with only one door open to enter the plane instead of two), the plane was full instead of half-full.  Our 10:30 am flight took off at about 1:00 pm.  Delta:  Don’t Expect to Leave The Airport.

Question:  Don’t you think the crew would know before take-off how many passengers are expected on the flight?  Did they not notice that half the seats on a fully booked flight were still empty when they received the order to prepare for take-off?

As it turned out, our seats were directly behind Jory’s and Jim’s, so we could exchange comments during the flight to Minneapolis and, when we arrived, the four of us went through customs together.  This time we were able to head for the “U.S. Residents” line and I heard my favorite words from the customs officer:  “Welcome home.”

Luckily, we had a three-hour layover in Minneapolis so, even with our delays, we still managed to be on time (just) for our flight to St. Louis.  Kari and Teddy were at the airport to take us home, and the vacation was over.  The adventures, however, were not.

We got home from the airport around 3:30 pm, having been awake since the equivalent of 11:00 pm the previous evening with nothing to eat except the sweet roll at the airport and lunch on the plane hours ago.  We were hungry, so we went out to dinner and were eating pizza (six weeks without pizza!) by 4:30 pm.

Our plan was to go directly home without passing “Go” and go to bed, but that didn’t work out too well.  We got within a half mile of the house and the car died.  We walked home to wait for the tow truck and, two hours later, it arrived.  After that, we went to bed and slept twelve hours.  No early wake-up call in the morning, no sightseeing scheduled.  The vacation was fun, and it’s good to be home.

Many thanks to Kari, who stocked some essentials in the refrigerator so we didn’t need to make an immediate grocery run.

Ed. note:  The fuel pump on the car died.  The new one is working fine.

Our second day of touring in Iceland was a two-part day.  The morning was spent sightseeing in Reykjavik; the afternoon was . . . well, I’ll get to that.

Before I go on, I forgot to mention in yesterday’s post that our guide sounds like he’s from Minnesota.  He has a northern accent in his English and his favorite expression is jajaja, as in “We should stop for lunch.”  “Jajaja.”  Or “That’s an amazing sight.”  “Jajaja.”  Just say ja three times as quickly as you can:  jajaja.  He says it so often that most of us on the tour are saying jajaja to each other and smiling when we do so.  He said he is often critiqued for telling stories that are too long, but we all found them interesting.  Stories about gremlins, trolls, etc. are good for the long winter nights in Iceland (or for amusing passengers on tour buses), so there is an abundance of these tales.  Sometimes he goes off-track a little and uses his second-favorite expression:  “. . . but that’s another story.”

As a Lutheran, the closest I’ve come to Lutheranism as a way of life was growing up in the upper Midwest where the German and Scandinavian populations make Lutheran churches a familiar sight.  In northern Europe, however, the Reformation had a profound impact, and in most of the countries we visited on this trip–including Iceland–Lutheranism is the state religion.  As a result, the Lutheran churches are huge and many are converted (not really a pun) Roman Catholic churches.  In fact, they are often referred to as simply the “Protestant” church with no further denotation, as opposed to the Roman Catholic church.

The largest Lutheran church in Reykjavik.

The sanctuary of the church. At first glance, it appears stark, but there are many beautiful sculptures and designs throughout the building.

The pulpit is in the front; the huge pipe organ is in the back.  The seat backs on the pews can be flipped to allow the congregation to face the altar for worship or the organ for concerts.

Reykjavik made the news in 1986 when President Reagan and Premier Gorbachev met there.  We stopped at the house where the meetings were held.

The Reagan-Gorbachev meetings in this house were the beginning of the end of the Cold War.

As we were driving around the city, we saw this person on a bicycle.

How many bags can a bag lady bike?

We went to the Pearl (so named because of it’s dome-shaped roof) and had the opportunity to see Reykjavik from its highest point.  It’s a very pretty city and we lucked out–it was a sunny day.

One view of the city.  See the Lutheran Church?  You can’t miss it!

We had a chance to see an old restored farm just outside the city.  It was very interesting to go into the buildings.  Many have sod roofs and the main house is attached to the stable with a tunnel-like hallway so that stock can be tended in bad winter weather.  The rooms are very small, and the furnishings are very cozy.  Small also means easier to heat in the winter.

Some of the houses and the attached stable.

The parlor.

The upstairs bedroom for the children.

The farm had a small church, complete with a model ship.  The church’s capacity was about twenty worshippers.  Men sat on the right, women on the left, and criminals (if any) in the front, facing the congregation.  One man from our group asked about the “fence” around the altar.  He must not be Lutheran or he’d know it was the communion rail.  The kneeling space is pretty minimal.

I’m not sure all the parishioners could see the pastor’s face while he was in the pulpit, especially since this guide was quite short and his head is above the crossbeams.

The model ship in the church.

And then it was time for a lunch break and the afternoon treat:  the Blue Lagoon.  I had never heard of the Blue Lagoon, but it is apparently a defining experience of visiting Iceland, as in “Did you swim in the Blue Lagoon while you were there?”  It was about a 45-minute drive from Reykjavik and, on the way, our guide pointed out that we were passing the Swedish embassy:  IKEA.  (Laughter from the group.)

The Blue Lagoon is on a peninsula of Iceland.  Of course the ground is lava, so it is porous.  There is a salty hot spring 300 meters below the surface of the Blue Lagoon and it is believed that regular use of these lagoon waters promotes youth, health, and longevity.  There is even a special line of skin products to enhance your experience.  My enhanced experience included the first “gang” changing room I’ve used since I graduated from high school.  When in Reykjavik, . . .

Ted was skeptical, but took the plunge (literally) and we had about two hours to enjoy the warm (99°-106°) water.  Afterward, Ted agreed that it had been a very good experience and very relaxing.  Not to mention that we both look younger now.  Unfortunately, we couldn’t take pictures in the actual Blue Lagoon because it would be stupid to bring a camera into a swimming area and there was no place to leave it once you exited the locker room.  As a result, I only have a picture of the sign at the entrance.  I can’t really describe the experience–maybe that’s the magic of the special waters–but it was a wonderful afternoon and a highlight of our Iceland visit.

This one is self-explanatory.

Not the actual Blue Lagoon, but a pool just outside the lagoon with water just like that in the lagoon.

My friend, Elaine, took this picture in the Blue Lagoon in November.  It was 30 degrees and windy.  She had a warm hat on her head.

Finally, as we were walking in downtown Reykjavik on the last day of our vacation, I saw a sign at a bus stop that fit our trip.  There is a brand name of sportswear in northern Europe called 66° North (the rounded Arctic Circle latitude).  The company has a variety of advertising posters, but this one perfectly described the cool weather (mostly mid-50s to mid-60s) we experienced as we traveled, wearing one, two, or even three layers of jackets, in countries at approximately the latitude of Anchorage to Fairbanks, Alaska.

Where we spent our vacation.

I’m not sure why our tour today is called the Golden Circle Tour, but it is, so there!  It was an all-day tour and I learned as much about geography today alone as I did in a full semester when I was in college.

To appreciate Iceland, the first thing you have to know is that it is the second newest inhabited land mass on the planet.  Only New Zealand is newer.  Iceland was formed by shield volcanoes.  These are volcanoes that erupted under the “shield” of the Ice Age glaciers during warm periods.  Instead of building a cone, the weight of the glaciers forced the lava to spread out.  The landscape in most places we saw looks like miniature moguls for skiing.

The second thing you need to know about Iceland is that the North American and the Eurasian tectonic plates meet in Iceland.  It is the only place in the world where the Mid-Atlantic Ridge can be seen on land and the effects of two major plates drifting apart can be easily observed.  The North American plate is rising, the Eurasian plate is dropping, and the two are moving apart at a rate of about two centimeters per year.  The area between the plates is called the Rift Zone.  The changes in the land are happening so rapidly, they are easily observed over a period of just a few years.  Iceland must be heaven on earth for geologists!

The rising North American plate is on the left; the dropping Eurasian plate is on the right.  They are moving apart.

The rising North American ridge.

Everywhere we went, there were signs of the tectonic plates moving apart and rising/falling.

I expected Iceland to be similar to Yellowstone.  While there are similarities (both have hot springs and geysers), each is unique.  Iceland’s ground is very hot.  There are places where the dead cannot be buried because the bodies would literally be boiled.  Icelanders heat their homes with hot water.  You don’t have to go very deep to find 300-degree water.  It is carried in pipes above ground, and swimming pools and hot tubs abound–nearly all outdoors.  They are used year-round and provide nice, warm venues for watching the northern lights.  At our lunch on the Golden Circle Tour, we ate at a restaurant in the relatively small geyser area.  Geyser water and geyser bread were on the menu.  The bread is buried in the ground and removed after 24 hours.  It tasted just like regular bread, but it’s hard to imagine the earth being warm enough to bake bread.

Geyser bread baked in the hot ground.

We saw two especially interesting geysers.  One is called the weather forecasting geyser.  On a clear day, the water cannot be seen in this geyser, but when the air pressure drops, the water rises.  If you can see the water, it’s going to rain.  (Based on our experience in Iceland and the other northern countries we’ve visited, you can probably see the water most days.)

The other interesting geyser erupts every 5-7 minutes.  It’s not as big as Old Faithful, but you don’t have to wait long to witness several eruptions.  We were standing right at the ropes for one eruption.  We could tell the geyser was getting ready to erupt because the water in the basin started sloshing back and forth.  When it erupted, a huge bubble rose out of the ground and then burst into the geyser flume.  The bubble lasted only a fraction of a second, but it was amazing to see it rise several feet out of the ground and then explode.  Wow!

You can see the splash of the water from the burst bubble.

A geyser field we walked through.

Don’t stop before you read the last line.  A tourist with a drone sent the drone over the dangerous ground to take pictures.

One of our “comfort stops” was at a small shopping mall.  When they were building the mall, a rift in the earth was discovered.  Instead of changing the site, they built the mall over the rift, strung red lights over the bottom of it, and covered it with glass.  The mall includes a museum-like exhibit all along the rift.  It was very interesting and definitely not like any mall I’ve seen before.

Separating tectonic plates beneath this shopping mall.

Only the birch tree is native to Iceland, so trees have been imported from other northern locales, including Alaska.  Forests have been planted and Iceland expects to be timber self-reliant within thirty years.  Still, trees don’t grow overly tall this far north, so there is a saying that if you’re lost in an Icelandic forest, stand up.

Fishing, especially cod, used to be the main source of revenue for Iceland, but tourism has taken its place and is now Iceland’s greatest source of income.  Another major source of income is the production of aluminum.  The bauxite is imported, but the abundant and inexpensive hydropower and geothermal energy greatly offset the cost of the bauxite.  Aluminum smelting, a growing industry, is a topic of debate in the country among environmentalists and economists.

Most of the landscape we saw looked otherworldly.  Over time, the lava becomes soil and can be farmed, but there is relatively little farmland, so food prices are very high.  Ted and I had dinner at a local restaurant that featured a buffet and we spent over $100 on the meal–far more than an equivalent meal would have cost in the U.S.  On another evening, we went to a local restaurant with two other couples.  A plate of spaghetti with a glass of wine cost $80 for the two of us.  Horses are numerous in Iceland for recreation and for food.  They are the equivalent of cattle in the U.S.  Horse beef and foal are on most menus.  Although we were told horse beef is better than cow beef, we couldn’t bring ourselves to order the roast foal.

This ground is lava and it’s rising, dropping, and moving apart everywhere you look.

Even in this pretty setting, you can see there is very little topsoil and the ground is moving.

It was a bittersweet feeling to leave the ship this morning to fly to Iceland.  We have many new acquaintances whom we’ll probably never see again.  But Iceland calls. . .  We were in Stavanger just three days ago, then Flåm, and then Bergen.  Today we had to fly from Bergen back to Stavanger to go to Iceland.  It seems backward, but that’s how it is.

Norway must hold the world record for tunnels.  Thanks to Alfred Nobel, dynamite simplifies travel through the mountains in Norway.  On the 30-minute drive from the ship to the airport, we passed through five tunnels.  One was quite long–several miles–and even had an exit to another road from inside the tunnel.  There is one tunnel in Norway that is so long, there is a rest stop in it so that drivers can park and blink before they go into a tunnel trance driving such a long distance.  (We weren’t in that tunnel.)  When we arrived at the airport, we couldn’t help smiling at the signage.

When you’ve gotta go . . .

All went well until we got on the plane.  I couldn’t believe the two seats I saw were the ones printed on our tickets.  They were immediately in front of the emergency door (is that legal???), but the stewardess assured me that we should be seated there.  Ok, fine.  It’s not a long flight and we probably won’t need the emergency exit.

I have no idea how anyone is going to get out through the emergency door with these two seats in front of it.

During the forty minutes from Bergen to Stavanger, I became increasingly tense and had to fight tears.  I just wanted to go home!!!!  Ted was seated on the aisle side and I was beside the door.  I couldn’t see anything to my left (Ted is bigger than I am) or to my right (no window in the door) or ahead of me (seat back of the next row).  I couldn’t even see anything between the seats ahead of me.  I was just sitting in a tiny little viewless world.

I finally told Ted I wanted to ask if we could change seats when we landed in Stavanger.  He said he was fine and it was only another hour to Iceland.  At the time, he didn’t realize that I was a long way from fine.  I talked to the stewardess and she said after the additional passengers boarded in Stavanger, she’d see what she could do.  Thank goodness, she found seats across the aisle.  Almost immediately after we took the new seats, I calmed down and Iceland sounded like a better idea than going home.  I’ve never liked caves, but I ride elevators and have had MRIs without incident.  I didn’t know claustrophobia was a problem until I was boxed into that tiny seat space.  Believe me, I’m checking seat assignments a lot more carefully in the future!

I took pictures of Iceland from the air as we approached Reykjavik.  Just like England, it doesn’t look like home.

Iceland from above.

Approaching Reykjavic.

We arrived in Iceland today, the last leg of our vacation.  We are in a hotel with high-speed internet, so I can finally post some blogs again.  I’m going to date the blogs to match the days we were actually in those places, so if I have interested readers, you might want to back up to St. Petersburg, Russia and then move forward as I fill in the blanks.

So far, Iceland looks awesome.  We flew in from Bergen, Norway and didn’t arrive until late afternoon.  The Golden Circle Tour begins tomorrow morning.

The last stop on our 15-day cruise was Bergen, the second largest city in Norway.  Bergen was an important port of the Hanseatic League trading empire.  Because most buildings in the city were built of wood, Bergen has burned 16 times, the last in 1955.  Each time, until 1955, the city chose to rebuild in the old pattern.  The 1955 fire burned nearly the entire city.  Afterward, the city proactively worked to make itself more fireproof by adding open spaces in the city, more space between buildings, wider streets, etc. to avoid such a catastrophic fire in the future.  Sixty-two of the original wooden structures remain today, most on or near the Bryggen Wharf.  The city is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site because these buildings are relics of the wooden building style that used to be common in Northern Europe.

It was a cloudy morning, so we took our umbrellas for our walking tour of the city, but we lucked out.  There was only one ten-minute downpour and our guide was talking to us under an overhang at the time.  She extended her remarks a little bit, the rain stopped, and we moved on.

The Bryggen Wharf–a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

After the guided tour, we spent some time walking around by ourselves and enjoyed the city.  The architectural style is not what we see in St. Peters.  One of the alley shops sold moose leather products.  I couldn’t believe how soft and lightweight moose leather is!  I lusted after an expensive purse and an expensive carry-all.

McDonald’s is in the cream-colored building on the right.  No visible arches.

This is one of the shopping alleys. We were under the overhang on the left during the rain.

These alley buildings are filled with little shops.

A Viking restaurant–complete with giant Viking horns at the door.

Of course, Bergen is on a fjord (it’s Norway!), so there are mountains just behind the shoreline.  We took a funicular to the top of one and had some pretty views of the city.

A city view of Bergen from above.

Lunch time for the goats on the mountaintop.

Just as we found the Finnish version of Schroeder in Helsinki (Schroder), we found a form of Soerens in Bergen.  The ø changes the pronunciation of the oe to the way so many people in Oostburg and Hingham pronounced my name:  Zernz instead of So’-rens.  Maybe there’s a similarity between the Old World Dutch and the Old World Norwegian and they were just using the old form of pronunciation.  Whatever–it was fun to see Sørensen and fun to be in Bergen.

Soerens, Sørensen–probably the same family line.

The storms that rocked our ship last night caused major mudslides in Flåm.  As a result, our train/coach excursion described as the “quintessential Norway experience” was cancelled.  Ted and I were looking forward to this excursion as one of the highlights of our cruise.  The trip is described as one of the most beautiful railway journeys in the world.  The route climbs nearly 3,000 feet and passes through 20 tunnels, with photo stops at two noteworthy waterfalls and an open-air museum before reaching the famous Stalheim Hotel.  We were supposed to have lunch on the hotel veranda, overlooking the Nærøyfjord, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  The return trip takes the mountain descent known as the Stalheimskleiva, one of the steepest roads in Europe with 13 hairpin turns.  It is described as “not a trip for those who fear heights” and can be found on the “dangerous roads” website.

The cruise director did an amazing overnight job of arranging an alternate (complimentary) excursion for those of us who were planning to take the railway/coach trip.  (The price of the rail/coach trip was refunded, of course.)  The alternate excursion was a three-hour cruise into the Nærøyfjord.  It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site because it is one of the most beautiful fjords in the world and is largely unspoiled by human development.  It was a very satisfactory alternative to the rail/coach trip.

Our day began early.  We were told last night that we would enter the fjord at 7:00 am and that it would be well worth getting up early to see the scenery in the fjord along the two-hour approach to Flåm.  We’ve been getting up early every day since June 27, so what’s new?  We did get up early, and it was worth it.  In the early morning, low clouds and fog were hanging over the fjord, creating picturesque views all the way.

Near Flåm on the Nærøyfjord.  There is a road on the other side of the water.

Beautiful, just beautiful!

This is described as one of the most spectacular fjord areas in the world, with steep mountains rising to nearly 6,000 feet above the water.  Some of the farms along the fjord are inaccessible for up to eight months of the year.  You really have to be self-sufficient to survive like that!  To communicate with each other, the population on this fjord has had a postal service since the mid-1600s.

You can’t make up this kind of beauty.

This farm has its own ZIP code.  (Apologies for the window reflection.  There were no outside decks on this boat.)

While I was taking pictures along the fjord, a man sitting nearby told me that if I want beautiful pictures, I can just go to www.fjords.com.  I guess I could do that for just about anything I want to see, but why would I want to collect pictures instead of seeing these things for myself?  I don’t even want to check out that website!

Waterfalls are everywhere along the fjord. This is one of the larger ones.

We’re happy to be here, even though it’s not yet 8:00 am, it’s 47 degrees, and we’re wearing two jackets each in July.

Flåm is a very small town.  That lack of development is part of what makes this fjord special.  Because it has such a small harbor, the larger cruise ships cannot dock here, so the town is not overrun with thousands and thousands of people each day.  It’s definitely a treat to visit a place this beautiful.

This is the entire town of Flåm.  It’s about the size Hingham was when I lived there.

Compare the city map of Flåm on the right to the city map of Stavanger on the left.  Definitely fewer streets in Flåm!

I haven’t written much about our ship.  It’s brand new.  It was christened and launched in March 2016 and it’s beautiful, with Scandinavian décor.  Does “heated bathroom floor” give you an idea of the level of luxury Viking provides?  There is a hot tub, an infinity pool, and another larger pool in the Winter Garden, which is a sunroom with a retractable roof.

The infinity pool and the hot tub.

The “regular” restaurant where we usually eat dinner is at least a three- or four-star restaurant.  No meal is less than three courses and all the food is superb and attractively presented.  The waiter always holds my chair for me and places my napkin in my lap when I’m seated.  The two additional restaurants have to be rated with four or five stars.  They serve five-course meals, including an unnumbered course to cleanse the palate before continuing.  The wines are perfectly paired to the food served.  The dining room provides a buffet for breakfast and lunch.  All of this food is included in the price of the cruise–another part of the luxury.

The buffet dining room for breakfast and lunch.

A piece of cheesecake Ted ordered for dessert one evening.

I don’t remember what this was called but the chocolate mousse filling was to die for.  The green line is chopped pistachio nuts.  It has the recommended serving size of one tablespoon of whipped cream–just enough.

The staff is the closest I’ll ever come to having servants.  Ted and I are always “sir” and “madame” and the staff lives to serve.  I had a chance to talk with one of the staff members on a more personal level and I asked if Viking is a good company to work for.  (I was really asking if they are as happy as they appear to the passengers.)  The answer was that it’s a dream job with wonderful benefits and quicker benefits than other cruise lines.  There is also the opportunity to be promoted from within.  That makes me feel a little less guilty about taking off for a day of sightseeing with good wishes from the people who are staying behind to make our bed, clean our room, and prepare the food for our return.

Our ship is relatively small–only 900 passengers and eight decks, compared to larger cruise ships with 6,000-8,000 passengers and 15-18 decks.  Once we docked beside a huge ship that even had a climbing wall on its topmost deck.  Our ship has a miniature golf course on the topmost deck.  Being small, however, means we can dock in ports with smaller harbors, so Ålborg and Flåm are on our itinerary and do not include the big ship crowds.

We’re the baby ship–second from the left.

Our miniature golf course.  No climbing wall for us!

We have a guest lecturer onboard nearly every afternoon to discuss a topic of interest along our route.  Some of the lecture topics include the economic effect of the North Sea oil fields on Norway, the problems of the European Union, the rise and fall of communism, etc.

We also have onboard entertainers, as well as some who are brought onboard for one or two evenings.  There are two entertainment venues with a show in each most evenings.  Ted and I have attended many of them and especially enjoyed the tributes to the Beatles and ABBA.  (Not cover bands, but really good renditions of the songs.)  One night the staff presented a hilarious play that combined the story styles of James Bond and Maxwell Smart.  At other times, we attended a Parisian cabaret night, an evening with the Rat Pack, and a combination comedian/rock ‘n’ roll singer, which sounds weird but was very entertaining.

ABBA night.  Good music!

One thing I find very amusing is that, in the public restrooms onboard, there are (recorded) birds singing!  I have no idea why I’d want to feel like I’m outdoors listening to birds sing while I do whatever.

Most of the time we are at sea, we can see land in the distance, but not always.  Still, the ride has been very smooth–until we left Stavanger today.  For whatever reason, the sea is rougher tonight.  At the end of the evening performance, we were all lurching against the walls on our way out of the theater.  Granted, nearly all of us drink wine with dinner every evening, but a glass of wine isn’t enough to make us stagger as we were doing.  We laughed and commented that, until this evening, we had hardly given a thought to being on a ship.

Our stateroom is on Deck 5.  With only eight decks, it’s easy for us to use the stairs instead of the elevator.  On each stairway landing, there is a sign like the one in the picture below so that you know if you should go to the left or to the right to reach your stateroom.  It makes me smile every time I see this sign because our stateroom number is 5009.  You’ve got to love cruising!

Yes, we have an odd stateroom.  (P.S.  Check the outdoor temperature in the upper left of the sign.  It’s July up north!)