Åndalsnes, Norway

Hello from Åndalsnes, Norway! Today was simply spectacular. 

You know those summer days when the temperature is perfect and you find yourself spending the entire day outside? Those days where you wish the day would never end because you just want more of the same? Today was one of those days.

It started early as we made our way up the Romsdalsfjord to get to Åndalsnes. If anyone tells you Norwegian fjords are stunning, believe them.

Fishing pots I think

Once we arrived in port I was excited to find my cabin facing the town. In the sun. It gave me the opportunity to watch the going ons around the town. And in the water. Sailboats, jet skis, and kayaks made trips back and forth. I even watched kids doing backflips into the chilly water.

I had plenty of time to watch everything because I was waiting for the clouds to clear up on Mt. Nesaksla. I visited there last month (you can read about it here) and I was determined to make another trip today.

Not going yet

After some time the clouds still hadn't cleared out so I decided to head to the grocery store to find some kind of something for me to be able to taste. 

Bacon Gull? I think they're pork rinds

I picked up a "Tex-Mex Taco" (well, Norway's interpretation of it), some cheese doodles, and a chocolate-coconut thingy and headed back to the marina to munch on it across from the ship. I'm not sure what was in the taco but it wasn't what I expected. I couldn't taste it but from the textures it appeared to be some meat with a couple beans, shredded cheese, lettuce, and a big chunk of coleslaw (or lots of mayonnaise or sour cream) inside a flour tortilla. I only made it through part of it and had to give up.

But the chocolate-coconut thing? Oh, my. It had the texture of a cake pop - with cake and frosting mixed together maybe? - and then rolled in coconut. It was small and I ate the whole darn thing. 

I then moseyed through the town and got some pictures of a statue and street sign of course, but also of cool cars and just-as-cool flowers.

By the time I was finishing up a mountain made a bold appearance.

Off to the cable car/gondola! Last time I wound up in the clouds and fog and couldn't hardly see a thing but not today. Simply spectacular.

Even though I had to help him a lot, Scooter and I took every single ramp and made it all the way until they ended. Just look at all those steep ramps. We ROCK.

As far as we can go

View from the gondola on the way back down

I came back to the ship and (lucky me!) the sun was still shining on my balcony. I only stepped inside long enough to get this written up and then I'm heading back out there. I'm going to stretch out this day as long as I possibly can. But I’ll try really hard not to take any more pictures of it!

Tomorrow we're back in Trondheim, Norway. See you then!

Haugesund, Norway

Hello from Haugesund, Norway for my third and final visit of the summer!

Not knowing what my plan was going to be today I snapped a couple photos as we were sailing in, just in case I had nothing else to show for the day.

We're sailing in while the ferry is sailing out

I knew I didn't want to do the Hop On Hop Off Bus again like I did when I was here last month. Been there, done that and you can read about it here. I knew I didn't want to take the shuttle to town again like I did a couple weeks ago. Been there, done that and you can read about that adventure here. I also knew I didn't want to do anything requiring me to scooter up and over the steep Risøy bridge.

So what was left? Since we're docked on an island - and my ship is the Island Princess - I decided to spend the morning riding my Royal Carriage scooter around the island.

I wandered here and there, trying to sneak a peek at the water as much as possible.

Even though the bulk of the area is residential I was able to find some spots where I could see across the water to the places I covered last cruise.

I even found the mall across the water

It did get a little tricky trying to avoid hills so sometimes I had to get off and pull Scooter alongside me.

The pavement was mostly smooth so it wasn't as much of a workout as when I'm dragging him over cobblestones. Although, there were places where the pavement was just...gone.

I saw all kinds of interesting sights and a variety of colors.

A sea of white. Almost.

Combining the yellow paint in the first picture and the orange roof in the second almost reminded me of the Skagen houses from earlier this month in Denmark. 

I found the bluest of skies made for a nice background.

I also had to get the obligatory street sign and statue pictures, of course.

Painted on the pavement near the port

I wasn't gone all that long and didn't cover miles and miles of ground but it was just enough to make me feel like a local, especially when the number of people walking their dogs way outnumbered the cruise ship passengers.

I spent the rest of the afternoon sitting on the balcony in the sun watching boat traffic.

And since it's my wedding anniversary (39 years) I broke my no carb/no cheese streak and ordered a vegetarian pizza for lunch. With the time difference back home, my husband is still sleeping so he won't be none the wiser!

5:36 AM in Boise, but not here

Tomorrow we're back in Åndalsnes, Norway for our second visit of the summer. See you then! 

Southampton Turnaround Day and a New Cruise

Hello again from Southampton! Unfortunately when you look out from the ship you see cars. Lots and lots of cars.

But zoom in enough and you can make out some buildings.

I did a little research on the dome building on the other side of the ship and found out it’s a waste incinerator plant. A very state of the art one in fact.

Also out there today was a container ship being unloaded. If you haven’t ever sat and watched the process of loading or unloading you really should. It’s interesting the things you learn by being near cargo ports.

Before all those pictures were taken I was up at the crack of dawn to see another normal-ish sunrise time.

4:48 AM

I didn’t have any plans today but to hang out on an empty ship. Where last week we had 500+ in transit folks, this week we had a mere 40. That meant as soon as the other 2,000 passengers left those few of us remaining had an empty ship until the new 2,000 passengers boarded a little later. I was more than happy to have the family with the preteens who purposely locked each other out on the balcony and screamed at each other every day to be on their way. The parents were doing their own yelling as well so I was looking forward to a little more quiet at my end of the ship for this next cruise. Unfortunately they have been replaced by another family of screamers - and loud criers. Hopefully it was just the stress of a travel day causing the meltdown or I’ll be having to dig out my earplugs for my balcony time.

So where are we heading this cruise? We’ll be revisiting some of the most beautiful ports in Norway.

We have a sea day tomorrow and on Friday we’ll be back in Haugesund for our third and last visit of the summer. See you then!