We arrived in Longyearbyen on August 11th after 2 days at sea.  We left North Cape which was the furthest northern peninsula of land in Europe and then went due North for 2 days to get to the island archipelago of Svalbard which is only a few hundred miles south of the North Pole.  This is the land of the polar bear where there are more polar bears on this group of islands than there are people!  Unfortunately, we did not see a polar bear on this trip although we missed one by two days that had ventured into the city and was scared away with helicopters.  Longyearbyen is the biggest city in Svalbard and is named after an American who started a mining company there over a hundred years ago.  After 10 years of mining in this area John Longyear sold his company to the Norway Mining Company and the land is now part of Norway although there is a significant mixture of nationalities that live there.  Although coal is still mined on the island, many other minerals have been mined there over the years.  Svalbard was used as the starting point for all the North Pole expeditions in the early 1900’s and later it became a land that attracted people who liked adventure and the outdoors.  More recently it has become a tourist stop.
 
We had never been there before and our ship was staying overnight which would give us an opportunity to explore this area a little.  You cannot venture outside the city on your own (a city law) unless you have some type of polar bear protection (such as a rifle).  We had arranged for two independent tours on the first day and the guides on each tour brought their rifles along.  The first tour was in a RIB boat to go out and look for walruses (and hopefully a polar bear).  Unfortunately, we saw no polar bears and only one walrus.  We did see a whale and a few puffins along the way.  The highlight of the trip was some up-close viewing of two glaciers in the area.  The largest was Nansen Glacier and are boat pulled up within a couple hundred yards of the ice cliff of the glacier and we were able to see some significant calving of the glacier (where large chunks of ice fall off into the ocean).  There were chunks of ice floating all around the area along with a few good-sized icebergs.  We were also shown an old abandoned Russian mining town on the shore.  Many nations had attempted to mine the high-quality coal found on the island.  It was a nice tour and gave us a good introduction to Svalbard and the area. 
 
An hour or so after we got back from the boat, we had another independent tour set up to photograph wildlife in the area.  The goal was to see a polar bear or arctic fox during the tour.  Although we still saw no polar bears, we did see 2 arctic foxes (a mother and her pup).  Our guide new right where the family of arctic foxes were because he had been watching their den for many weeks.  We were lucky to catch the mother down by the water and watched her as she scampered up the mountainside downwards her den.  She was not intimidated by us at all and came up to us within 30 feet to check us out.  Our guide would ball up some moss and throw it to her and she would run up and nibble on it.  It was a real treat to see an arctic fox close up in the wild!  We were told that the mother had 3 pups but only one showed themselves from a distance.  In addition to seeing the arctic fox we also had a great viewing of a reindeer.  Although we had seen many reindeer on our trip, this one ventured up to within 20 feet of us and did not seem scared at all. We also saw many different species of birds during our tour.  The first bird we saw was the arctic tern which we were told migrates all the way from Antarctica to Svalbard – this is almost north pole to south pole and is amazing to think they can fly that far.  They are also very aggressive birds when protecting their eggs and young.  We were told that they will even attack a polar bear if their young are in danger.  As we were driving by a bird sanctuary in the area, these arctic terns would attack a camera put outside the window of the vehicle because they felt the vehicle was too close to their nest.  Besides the arctic tern, we were introduced to the predatory gulls.  We thought gulls only ate fish but these predatory gulls attacked in pairs and would grab young birds from their mothers.  It was amazing to see these vicious birds.  We also saw many Barnicle Geese in this area, as they were laying on their eggs, and trying to protect them from the predatory gulls.  It was a great tour, and we learned a lot from our guide.
 
After our second tour we walked into town and just explored a little before heading back to the ship.  On the way back we stopped at the Svalbard Brewery (or Bryggeri as the Norwegians call it).  Greg had a nice cold beer from the furthest northern brewery in the world (eat your heart out James Digby!).
 
The following day we had a Viking tour which was just an introduction to Longyearbyen.  They took us to the local museum which was very nice with some great exhibits of polar bears, arctic foxes, and other wildlife.  The museum explained the history of mining in the area and had a great exhibit on the two most famous fur traders on the island (one who was still alive today and in his 90’s).  After visiting the museum, the bus took us around the area and showed us the World Seed Vault.  The Norwegian government built this vault 40 years ago from an old, abandoned mine.  They allow countries around the world to store crop seeds in this vault to preserve the ability to produce food crops in the future in case of a natural disaster of some sort.  These seeds are always maintained in freezing temperatures without the need for freezers.  Over one and a half million seeds are stored there.  As we left Seed Vault, we were taken to one of the abandoned mines in the area.  It is amazing to see all the remnants of mining equipment around town and the many towers which remain that were once used to support the cables and gondolas that brought coal from the mines to various collection points.  You see signs of this place being a mining city everywhere you look.  Up on the sides of the mountains you can also see the avalanche barriers that have been built to protect the city below from avalanches that constantly happen during the winter months (which is most of the year in Svalbard).  Svalbard is so far North that it doesn’t see ANY daylight (sun) for 4 months out of the year!  During the summer months the sun doesn’t set for 4 months.  It is a different place to live and the people we met were relatively young and love the outdoors.  As our bus passed a small campsite by the airport, we were told that the year before, a polar bear had attacked and killed a camper in his tent.  Since then, the campground has installed an electric fence around it!  We decided we probably wouldn’t be camping in Svalbard!   We left this tour a little early and asked the guide and bus driver to drop us off at the other end of the town so we could walk around and explore the area. 
 
We took a few pictures of the local church and small little cabins behind the church.  We elected to walk through the field behind the church to check out some of the old mining operation, but we were stopped by a bird that landed near us.  It flew away and came back landing a little closer.  It flew like this two more times, and then it became much more agitated and started to dive bomb us.  Evidently it had a nest in the area and did not want us anywhere near us.  Even trying to walk away quickly didn’t seem to satisfy this bird and it hit our head a few times as we quickly walked away.  Note to self – stay away from Arctic Terns!  We passed a cemetery along the way and assumed the graves were miners that had died on the job.  We could see one of the mine entrances as we walked, and we marveled at the towers built to hold the gondolas.  Some of these towers were mounted on the sides of these mountains and would have certainly been difficult to build.  We walked into town and went into their shopping mall which was impressive with the shops available.  As we walked back to the ship, we stopped at the Husky Café so that Sharon could get a little coffee and take a picture with the local huskies in the café (the mother and her pup).  We made it back to the ship and waved goodbye to Svalbard. 
 
We were thinking about whether we would come back and due an expedition trip to try to see polar bears or go to Churchill, Canada where we heard it was easier to observe the polar bears.  After we did some research, we decided we would go to Churchill, Canada in the future where we have found that polar bears actually walk through town in October and November as they migrate.  They have many polar bear expedition trips you can take there, and it sounds like you are guaranteed to see polar bears there.  Besides supposedly, being the Polar Bear capital of the world, it is also known as the Beluga whale capital of the world when 1000’s of Beluga whales converge on this area in Hudson Bay in the summer months.  You are also supposed to be able to see the Northern Lights during most of the year.  Well, we will be setting up a trip to Churchill, Canada in the future (maybe October or November 2024) to see Polar Bears and the Northern Lights!  If you are interested, let us know!
 
Svalbard was great and we really enjoyed our time there.  We are not sure if we will be back, but it is certainly a worthwhile place to visit.

Regards,
Sharon and Greg

On August 15th we arrived in Isafjordur, Iceland.  This blog will encompass the 8 stops we were to make in Iceland although we did miss our stop in Heimaey due to rough seas and the inability of our tender boats to make it safely to shore.
 
At our first stop in Isafjordur we had a private tour to Dynjandi Falls.  This was a spectacular looking falls that we were able to walk up almost half of the way to the top taking some great pictures.  On the way back to the ship we stopped at a local Icelandic farm and learned a little about their operation.  Some of the goats on the farm were great to view and so were the turkeys.  We took an opportunity here to take a group photo of the 6 of us on this cruise.  Two or our group (Linda and Laurie would be heading home tomorrow).
 
The next day we arrived in Reykjavik where we had a Puffin Boat Tour and Linda and Laurie headed to the airport.  We headed out in the morning to Lundey and Akurey Islands just outside the harbor to see some puffins.  We saw them nesting on the island and swimming in the water.  We even saw one with a little fish in its mouth.  After our short puffin tour, we walked around the city visiting the rainbow street and viewing the cathedral.  There are many interesting buildings and restaurants in Reykjavik and it is a nice place to stroll through.  The biggest church though in Reykjavik is a Lutheran church called Hallgrímskirkja.  This is a tall volcano looking church made of concrete.  It has a statue of Lief Erickson out front that was given to Iceland by the US.  We sampled a few pastries from some of the local shops and remembered some of the places we had gone to a few years ago when we spent 2 days here prior to a cruise.  Instead of taking the shuttle back to the ship we took a long scenic walk along the harbor area.
 
The next day we arrived at Heimaey but was not able to see this island because of the rough waters preventing our tendering operation.  It was especially strange since we had missed this exact same stop because of a hurricane 2 years ago. 
 
On August 18th we stopped at Djupivogur which was a very small port on the east side of Iceland.  Only 400 people lived there but it was beautiful country.  This was the first time we had been in this quaint little town and our only new stop we were making while in Iceland.  We took a 6 mile hike up a nearby mountain that was quite a strenuous hike for a Viking tour.  The views from up above were great and the guide was very good.  We even had someone from the ship hiking with us and Sharon asked him halfway through the hike what he did on the ship.  He said he was the Cruise Director which embarrassed Sharon since he was the most well-known person on the ship.  It just goes to show you how many ship events and nightly Viking entertainment shows we go to.  (For the rest of the cruise he would not let Sharon forget she didn’t know who he was.  She knows him now!)  This town was so small that our guide in the morning was the daughter of the mayor and our guide in the afternoon was the brother of the chief of police.  Everyone knew each other in this small town.  The afternoon tour took us through town and showed us the famous Eggs of Merry Bay.  These were 34 granite sculptures of eggs of the 34 species of birds that laid their eggs in the area.  This was a project designed to improve the appearance of the area after a fishing company had built a factory and then left the town shortly after leaving many rusting buildings behind.
 
The following day we arrived at Seydisfjordur.  We took a morning tour with the ship just to walk around the area and learn a little more about it.  This is a small town also that has about 900 people.  It also has a unique looking blue church that has music concerts every Wednesday in the summertime.  It is said that if you think you are a good musician or singer that you must sell out the little blue church to be considered good in Iceland.  We walked around the city after the tour checking out some of the waterfalls that you can see coming down the sides of the fjord.  We had some great views of the city down below.  Only 2 ½ years ago in December of 2020, this city had a massive landslide where it lost a good portion of the town.  They had so much rain that mud and earth just gave way on the fjord mountain side causing many homes just to slide towards the water.  Some homes were demolished with the rocks coming down and others caught fire.  It is a miracle that no one was killed during this landslide.
 
On August 20th, we made it Akureyi where we had a tour set up to visit Godafoss Falls and Lake Myvtan.  Unfortunately, we arrived at a different port than normal, and the bus had left by the time we got to the correct port.  Fortunately, we found another tour to take us to Godafoss Falls and some other places.  It turned out to be a great tour.  Godafoss stands for falls of the gods and it got its name when the Icelandic leaders were forced to denounce their Pagen gods for a Christian god.  They took all their Pagen god statues and through them into Godafoss Falls.  The falls were as spectacular as the last time we had seen them although the Icelandic flies were more annoying and in abundance.  These flies are about a third of the size of US flies and they just swarm at your eyes, mouth and ears.  Keep your mouth closed or you will eat a few!  Our next stop was to visit an Icelandic turf house.  We had seen one last trip, but these are really interesting to go through.  Half of the house is made by the earth with the roof being dirt and grass.  The only thing built out of wood or stone is the front face of the house and the internal walls.  Many of these turf homes include 4 to 8 smaller homes combined together.  Sometimes 20 people or more might live in them.  The one we visited was owned by a church preacher who also farmed the land around him.  Our last stop on this tour was a Christmas House.  It was quite a surprise and a lot of fun to walk around.  They had many displays around the property and some nice pastry to eat.  It you come to this city it is certainly worth stopping at.
 
The final stop in Iceland was back to Isafjordur.  It was our first stop in Iceland on the cruise and the last stop.  Sharon had set up a private riding experience on Icelandic horse for us.  This was one of the best horse-riding experience we even had!  This wasn’t just jumping onto a horse, riding around for a few hours, and then hopping off.  It was the full experience!  When we first walked into the stable, we were told to pick up a saddle and bridle and follow our guide out to the horses.  She put on the bridle, and we took the horses to an indoor riding area to saddle the horses and ride them a little to get familiar with them. Before putting the saddle on we were given a brush to comb down the horse before we rode him.  We were taught the proper way to brush by following the grain of the hair.  We threw the blanket and saddle on the horse and then the guide tightened up the belt for us to make sure it was tight enough. Instead of getting on the horse from a step ladder or some raised platform like most horse tours we have been on, you put your foot in the stirrup and swung your other leg over the horse.  Granted it was a little easier on these horses because Icelandic horses are considerably smaller than most horses.  We then rode the horses around the beautiful countryside for a couple of hours and came back to the stables.  We were offered an opportunity to ride through the beach area with the horses but was also warned that the almost, freeing fjord water got up to the horses belly, which meant you were going to get wet.  Since we already had the “horse on the beach” experience in Jamaica where the water was a whole lot warmer, we elected to pass on a beach ride in Iceland.  When we got back to the stable, we hopped off our horses and unbuckled the saddles.  We carried the saddles and bridles back to where we got them and picked up a bowl of treats for each horse.  Boy did these horses like these nutritious treats!  We thought they were going to eat a hole in the plastic bowl.  We then took the horses outside to the corral with the other horses and it was amazing to see them roll around in the rocks after the ride.  I guess they were a little sweaty from the ride and the rocks were nice and cool to roll around in.  The guide said all the horses did this after a ride.  We stayed around with the horses and petted them and played with them for about a half hour before we left.  These horses were almost like overgrown dogs and just loved the attention of people.  This was a totally spectacular experience and if you ever have an opportunity to do this, this is a MUST!  After the ride the guide dropped us off in town so we could walk around a little before heading back to the ship.
 
We had 8 great days in Iceland and the weather was spectacular!  Just as in Norway it showed rain almost every day but the rain never seemed to materialize.   Now we have one sea day, and we will arrive in Greenland.  Another place we have never been to before.

​Regards,
Sharon and Greg

REYKJAVIK - A great day in Reykjavík as our 1st visit was after COVID, 9/21. Today we were in search of Puffins and walk around the city!

DJUPIVOGUR - Visited an adorable town named Djupivogur with a population of about 400! Too funny - Our morning tour guide was the Mayor’s daughter and in the afternoon our tour guide’s brother was Chief of Police (only officer in the city)!

​Our 2nd visit to Seydisfjordur - the town is named after the Fjord Sveinstekks with a population of about 700. We visited the town and hiked to 2 waterfalls and visited the Tvisongur (sound sculpture).

​A fun day in Isafjordur, Iceland visiting the beautiful Dynjandi Waterfalls, Pingeyri seaside Village and Tungudalur Fishing Village.

Day 2 Isafjordur: ​One of our favorite days in Iceland, riding Icelandic horses! We first brushed and saddled our horses, Blossi and Lokkur in an indoor ring. Bonding time for these gentle and sweet horses before we headed out to the stunning countryside!

We arrived in Honningsvag on August 9th and had never been to this town before.  It is as far north as you can get in mainland Norway.  We had set up a tour to hike to North Cape through Viator at this port stop.  We left with a small group of 6 in a van through the northern countryside of Norway.  It seemed like you could see reindeer on every hill side just wandering around.  Our first stop was Skarsvag which is the northern most fishing village in the world.  Although cod is the primary fish caught in this area it is well known for the king crab fished there.  We were also amazed to see how many reindeer just ambled through the town blocking traffic and just meandering around.  We boarded a zodiac boat here for our trip to where our hike would start.  As we approached our drop off point, we looked up at the large, intimidating cliff in front of us and wondered if we would be able to make it to the top.  We were being dropped off at the same starting point that many kings and queens had take to climb up to North Cape.  We assumed that if they could hike up the steep cliff face in their gowns and formal clothes, we should be able to do it in our shorts and t-shirts.  We had picked a great day for this hike and the weather was warm and the sun was out.  For those of you that don’t know, North Cape is the northern most point of Europe on the mainland.  No other stretch of land in mainland Europe is any further north and it was deemed to be an adventure back in the 1600’s and 1700’s for many of the wealthy people, including kings and queens, to venture to this unique place.  This certainly would have been a very adventurous port stop for a cruise back in those days with those small wooden ships!  As we pulled up to the small dock, we saw 3 reindeer just grazing around the area.  Our guide said this was very unusual for them to come down this far.
 
After a short discussion down at the bottom we began our trek up the mountainside.  Although it was steep, the trail was well made.  At the top there were 21 trail cut backs to make it up the steep grade.  At times rocks were loose and you had to choose your footing carefully.  For those of us who didn’t like heights, we didn’t look down too much and leaned a little closer into the side of the mountain.  We took several stops, and everyone seemed to be doing well.  It wasn’t a long hike in terms of distance, but it was a demanding hike in terms of elevation.  We eventually made it to the top and made a sigh of relief.  The views along the way were very scenic and it was such a beautiful day to just enjoy the sights.  We still had a mile or so walk to North Cape, but it was an easy walk through the moss and lichen covered rocks over reasonably level ground.  When we got to the visitors center our guide bought us a glass of champagne to toast our success and gave us a certificate to acknowledge that we made it up this unique trail in the same tradition of past kings and queens.
 
Outside the visitor’s center is a globe that commemorates the spot as being the most northern piece of land in Europe.  It was a nice place to take a picture to commemorate our success in making it there.  Our guide did tell us that people had later discovered there was a small peninsula that you could see below this point that was a half mile further north than Norh Cape, but no one wanted to talk about that.  Also, outside the visitor’s center there are 7 bronze castings created from drawings of 7 children selected from different countries around the world.  The drawings were meant to depict how children of different cultures can work together.  This project is now called Children of the Earth and awards a substantial amount of money each year to an individual or group who promotes the quality of life of children in today's world.  This is certainly a worthwhile place to visit if you are ever up in this remote area.


Regards,
​Sharon and Greg

We had been to Tromso, Norway 6 months before and it looked very different without snow on the ground.  In fact, it was such a nice day we were shorts on our independent tour to visit a fjord.  Our guide took us to the other side of the island, across the water and then we went down one of the popular fjords in the area.  The scenery throughout the tour was impressive.  Shortly after we started the tour, we saw some local people skiing in skates (long inline skates used with poles).  This evidently is a summer activity to stay in shape when winter approaches and you want to be in good shape for cross country skiing.  We also caught our first view of Norwegian Reindeer early in the tour.  We found 3 reindeer over in a little field off the highway.  Most people got out of the vehicles to take pictures of these reindeer who were just grazing on some of the grass.  We stopped at many scenic stops where we took pictures.  The guide was a professional photographer and took pictures of us along the way which he has recently sent to us.  Along the way we stopped at a beach and was surprised to see people going into the very cold water.  The guide said it was the most people he had ever seen at the beach.  This was a very warm day for Norway!
 
About halfway through the tour we hiked up top to a beautiful scenic overlook on the fjord.  There the guide served us some coffee or tea and gave us a local cake served in the area.  It was a nice little break.  In this area our guide pointed out to us some cloudberries that were growing.  These turn out to be rather expensive berries because they are difficult to pick and collect.  They are sort of orange in color and have a sweet but sour taste to them.  Evidently, they are in high demand.  During our trip we also saw what looked like almost a team of people doing this cross-country skate training.  We also passed a few fish farms in the fjords.  This is a big business in Norway where they have 3 to 5 netted areas floating in the fjord where they “grow” salmon.  These netted areas can be over 100 feet in diameter and 150 feet deep.  The fish start off as small baby salmon and are nurtured to mature salmon ready to be harvested.  This tour was nice to give a different perspective of the area than we had seen 6 months before.
 
After the tour we took a 2 hour walk around the city before our ship sailed away.  We walked up to the main street of town and took a few pictures of the Tromso Cathedral which is a fairly new looking building.  After walking through a few stores, we headed towards the harbor to look at some of the nice ships docked there. It is a very pretty city and very enjoyable to walk around.  Right before we returned to the ship, we looked up and saw what looked like hundreds of seagulls on the tops of the roofs of some of the buildings.  They make a lot of noise and have their nests just nestled into the gutters.  Some buildings put up wire barriers to keep the seagulls away.  It was another enjoyable visit to Tromso and hopefully we might come back again some time.  We had a great sunset as we left Tromso (although the sunset was at 10:30PM).

​Regards,
Sharon and Greg

We arrived in Lofoton, Iceland on August 7th with a boat tour planned for the afternoon.  We headed off the ship in the morning just to see what was around.  At the end of the port was a bike rental place and Sharon was ready to go out exploring the countryside.  The bike rental shop provided us a beach to go see, and set the location into our google maps app on the iPhone.  Off we went and 20 miles later we made it back!  Sharon biked 20 miles and Greg biked only 19 miles, having to walk the bike 1 mile up the hills that the bike rental shop said were not along our route!  It was an extremely picturesque bike ride with mountains in the background and lakes and streams in the foreground.  We biked through fields of fireweed which was a tall beautiful purple flowers abundant in the area.  We saw many quaint farm houses along the way along with people camping all around.  At the beach areas you either found large sites with RV’s parked or campgrounds with tents everywhere.  When we arrived at the beach we were directed to, we walked along the beach and were amazed how many people were running in and out of the frigid water.  There were some large rocks along the beach, and we decided to climb up one to have our picture taken.  Unfortunately, there were barnacles all over the rock and Greg’s knee got cut causing the blood to create a dark red stain on his pants.  As we were walking back to our bikes a camper happened to notice the blood and offered a little first aid.  He had iodine, bandages, and tape.  He patched Greg up and we were off again back to the cruise ship along a different route to see new and different places.  It was a nice bike ride and certainly we got some good exercise! 
 
After arriving back to the ship, it was time for out boat tour excursion.  It was a nice hour-long boat tour along the coast providing some interesting information on the area.  The tour ended at a nice fishing village where we spend a half hour walking around taking pictures and visiting a few shops.  It started raining shortly before we got to the village but fortunately, we had brought along a few umbrellas and many people were envious of our foresight.  The fishing village was enjoyable and then we headed back on buses back to the ship.  We thought we might stop at a few places along the way back, but we just headed back to the ship.  It was a nice tour but a little long for just a short walk around the fishing village.
 
Lofoton was a nice place to visit but we are not sure we would need another trip back there.  

​Regards,
Sharon and Greg

We arrived in Narvik, Norway on August 5th with no specific tour plans.  We decided to just walk into town, although it was Sunday, and we knew there would not be much open.  After walking through the small downtown area, we continued walking to the other side of town and found a small, wooded area with a trail.  We walked up a small hill on this trail and saw a small boat harbor on the other side.  We eventually found our way down to the boat harbor and looked around the area.  There were many nice boats, but the harbor water didn’t look too nice with algae on the water around many of the boats.  At the end of the harbor were 4 small buildings that appeared to be places to sleep.  We assumed these might be for visitors who were passing through the area.  Outside the harbor, the shoreline was area covered with seaweed.  I few hours later along this coast the tide would come in and you could not see any seaweed.  It was amazing how far in the tide came.
 
On another pier near the harbor, there were 4 or 5 fishermen throwing out long lines out to the sea far below.  We have no idea if they caught anything.  At the same pier an old boat was loading up with a crew of divers.  As we walked past the pier, we found another trail that ended up going all the way along the coast providing us some great views of the sealine and mountains on the other side.  It was a beautiful day, and we wish we had had our shorts on.  This hiking trail occasionally would come back into small neighborhoods in the town.  We eventually walked through one of the neighborhoods and walked over to the nearby stadium.  It was a nice stadium with artificial grass and a good-sized grandstand on one side.  A little further into town we came across Narvik Church which was impressive.  As we walked back to the ship some military vehicles passed us with many of the soldiers waving at us.  It turned out they were US Marines on maneuvers with the Norwegian army.
 
In the afternoon after our walk, we had a Viking tour that wasn’t much more than a visit to the War Museum.  Although our guide was extremely difficult to understand with his strong accent, the Museum was clearly marked with many signs in English.  There were a few interesting things we learned about Norway and the war.  It is where the Allies had their first victory against the Germans in World War II.  When Germany invaded Norway and started marching North, Allied troops landed further north and joined the Norwegian army to defeat the Germans and push them further south beyond Narvik.  The citizens of Narvik cheered the Allied soldiers when they marched victoriously through the city after kicking out the German army.  The Germans were ready to surrender when the Allied force decided to pull their troops out of Norway and put them someplace else that they felt was more strategic.  Within a week after the Allied forces left, the King of Norway surrendered to the Germans and allowed the German army to move back north and recapture the land.  Within 2 weeks after the Narvik citizens had cheered the Allied forces, the people saw the Germans move back in a take over their city.  How depressing that must have been to the Norwegian citizens.  There were a few other interesting stories about Norway and the war in the museum.  We eventually went back to the ship and said goodbye to Narvik.

Regards,
Sharon and Greg

After a relaxing sea day, we arrived in Geiranger, Norway.  This is a small town of a few hundred people down a pretty fjord in central Norway.  This type of fjord is what Norway is known for.  These fjords were created thousands of years ago when glaciers slowly moved towards the ocean cutting deep gouges in the earth that became these fjords. 
 
We had booked an optional tour with Viking at this port to do a hiking trip.  This was tender stop where a small boat takes you from our cruise ship to the city.  Typically, you tender because the city doesn’t have dock space but in this case a Celebrity cruise ship beat us to the only available dock, and it was a much larger ship needing the dock more than we did.  When we arrived on land our guides were ready to take us hiking.  Since this was a hike with a lot of elevation the guides decided to take us up to the Geiranger Church to make sure everyone could make it that far before heading up the mountain side to the farm we were going to.  The church was a unique octagonal structure with a cemetery around it with a great view of the harbor.  From the church our small group 12 continued marching up the side of the mountain.  There were many pretty views of the town below and our ship.  We kept climbing up the rocky paths until we got to the top where there was a small farmhouse with an overlook of the town below.  This farm also had some llamas that we could take pictures with.  After a short rest we began our hike back to the town below.  As we walked down, we could see many of the beautiful waterfalls this area is known for.  We stopped at a cultural museum a little over halfway down and said goodbye to our guide.  This allowed us to spend more time walking the rest of the way to the harbor and taking some pictures.  There was a very nice walkway with many steps going down along a beautiful running stream/waterfall.  At one point we found a rock in this fast-flowing stream that almost appeared to have a face carved on the side of it. 
 
At the bottom it was amazing to see all the RV’s and campers in the area.  This was a very popular place for people all throughout Europe to come to and spend some time in the mountains and fjords.  It was such a scenic area.  Many of the houses had grass roofs which we were told provided good insulation for the houses.  We were also told that at times they put goats up on the roof to eat some of the grass before it got too tall.
 
Shortly after getting back down to the bottom where we are started from, it was time for our second tour of the day which was a bus tour.  The bus first stopped at a look out point to see the Seven Sisters Waterfalls.  These were 7 small falls right next to each other, falling hundreds of feet down.  Across the fjord from the Seven Sisters is another larger fall which is supposed to represent the guy who asked each sister to marry him but was rejected by all of them.  The traffic at the overlook was a mess with many buses trying to drop off and pick up people along with cars and RV’s stopping to look.  Too many people for such small area.  From this lookout point the bus took us further up the mountain area to a lake that was very nice but much colder.  We were high enough up that there were many areas that still had snow and ice on the ground.  As we came back down, we made one more scenic stop to overlook the town and fjord far below.  It is a very beautiful area to drive around or hike.

​Sharon and Greg

Well, we are off on another long cruise to visit Norway, Iceland, Greenland, and Canada on the Viking Saturn.  This is a 28-day cruise we are doing with Leo and Jo Sanchez.  Linda Beaubien and Laurie McCullough are joining us on the first 14 days of this cruise.    All 6 of us flew out of Atlanta on August 1st, arriving in Bergen, Norway on August 2nd.  We had been to Bergen exactly 6 months earlier when we did the Northern Lights cruise in February.  Bergen is a great city to just walk around.  It is a beautiful city with many colorful buildings outlining a very scenic harbor area.  On the day we arrived we took a walk around the harbor to keep us awake.  After long transatlantic flights that arrive early in the day, we are firm believers in not taking naps but stay awake until bedtime (although in may be a somewhat earlier bedtime!). The weather was great with temperatures in the low 70’s.  After struggling through the 90’s in Atlanta for the last month, this was a very pleasant change.
 
A short distance from where the Viking Saturn was docked is the Bryggen area.  This is a UNESCO heritage site where German merchants arrived in Bergen back in the 1300’s to make Bergen a significant trading port in the area.  The German merchants created the Hanseatic League and owned a large portion of Bergen which was established in the 1200’s as a major Norwegian port for trade.  The Germans traded cereal for fish stock which was very valuable back in Germany and other European countries.  Bryggen has been damaged by many major fires over the years and its appearance today stems from when it was rebuilt in the 1700’s.  Whenever repairs are required today, they must be made with the same materials and used in the same manner as they were back in the 1700’s.  Repairs go very slow, and it takes years to restore buildings.  Today Bryggen buildings are leased to today’s merchants, and you can buy clothing, souvenirs, bakery goods, food and many other things in these shops.  It is certainly a worthwhile place to visit and check out some of the shops.  Make sure you walk behind the 8 large shops in the front because there are 64 buildings that comprise of Bryggen which are in back of these shops.
 
As you continue around the harbor you will see a Hanseatic Museum that was created for you to learn more about Bryggen.  At the end of the harbor are several fish markets that have turned into restaurants where you can enjoy the fresh catch of the day.  There are many ferries in the harbor that go anywhere from short hauls to some of the nearby island to other ferries that take passengers 5 hours down the fjords to Flam.  There are many tourist boats also that will take you around to see the sights along the coastline.  Also docked in the harbor were a few world class sailboats and a very strange looking boat called the Hydrolicer which delices fish in fish farms (something new to us).  On the far side of the harbor, you can get some great pictures of the beautiful store fronts of Bryggen.  The Radison has built 5 more buildings that resemble the original Bryggen store fronts and use them as part of the hotel which is behind these buildings.