Cruise Day 8 - Midnight Sun

Mary and I stayed up to see the Midnight Sun last night.  Princess had a big deck party and I think about half the ship’s passengers attended!  They even blew the ship’s horn at midnight.  I took some pictures on my phone that you can see here:

Midnight Sun Photos

I think we have ons more night of Midnight Sun, then we’ll have sunset and sunrise times again. 

Cruise Day 8 - Honningsvag, Norway

Mary and I took separate excursions today.  I did a King Crab Safari on a fast Zodiac Boat while Mary took a bus to the North Cape. I was issued a flotation suit for my ride on a small rubber boat with twin 300 hp engines.  First they pulled two King Crab from a crab pot before heading to a site where they prepared and cooked the crab.  The crab was very good, but a lot of work to eat. On the way back the boat-driver did some tight turns and wake jumps which was a bit exciting. 

Meanwhile Mary visited the North Cape, at the top Norway.  This is the northernmost place on the entire continent of Europe at over 71 degrees north latitude. Unfortunately it was windy and quite foggy while she was there so visibility was limited.  They had a four season panoramic movie there as well as a chapel and a tribute to the former king of Siam (now Thailand), son of the “King and I” king, who visited years ago.

The Sapphire Princess singers and dancers put on the production show Born to be Wild tonight. It’s a musical tour of the USA in a pink cadilllac!  We had seen it a few times before but enjoyed it just as much this time.

Tromso today!

Cruise Day 7 - Sea Day #2

We had a busy sea day.  We were surprised to see some mountains from our balcony this morning!   My day started with Zumba while Mary went to a talk about our next port, Honningsvag. After lunch I played “quick cricket” (see below) in the basketball court while Mary went to an interview with “Doc” (Bernie Kopell) from the Love Boat TV show.  She said he was very funny and engaging as he talked about the various parts he played in other TV shows like The Doris Day Show, Bewitched, and Get Smart.  

So, you ask, what is Quick Cricket? Well, you’ have a batter, pitcher and fielders, but the scoring is based on your hitting ability - no running. It was quite fun and I came in 3rd behind two people who had played it a lot before.  A man from New Zealand complimented me on how well I played!

Today was the Captain’s Cocktail Party for frequent cruisers, where we met the captain and other officers. After that we headed to dinner, and then to a Beatles Tribute Show where we had a great time.  They sang many of the popular numbers and had the audience on their feet for Twist and Shout. 

Tomorrow we will be at the top of Norway.  Mary is taking excursion to the North Cape (northernmost point) while I’m taking fast zodiac ride to pull some crab pots and enjoy a fresh king crab lunch. 

Note:  The ship reports that Internet connectivity tomorrow is highly unlikely based on the position of the ship at these high latitudes, so my blog post might be delayed. 

Cruise Day 6 - Trondheim Norway

Note:  As we get farther north, internet uploads are getting slower, due, I assume, to distance to the satellite.  So pictures that used to upload at up to 50 kb/sec are now around 10 kb/sec.  So I will be posting fewer pictures for the next few days.  

The Trondheim fjord is one of the largest in Norway, but it does lack the high mountains coming right down to the water. It was still impressive to see as we woke this morning. We did have “night” for 3 1/2 hours last night, We will have a sunset tonight, but that is the last one for a while since "midnight sun" starts tomorrow. 

Our excursion today was to the Gransen Ski Jump with a bus and trolley tour of the city.  The city is fairly modern and we saw quite a bit of it, including the very large Nidaros Lutheran Cathedral, which was quite impressive, with dozens of statues on its facade. (Click the link to see a picture of it).  At the ski-jumping facility we were able to see ski jumpers practicing as we watched, which we really enjoyed.  Mary got some good photos of the jumpers as they jumped, and one even took questions from our group.  

The evening production show, Let Me Entertain You, was brand new production we had not seen before.  It was good, but aimed at a slightly younger audience since we only recognized a few of the songs.

Cruise Day 5 - Geiranger Norway

These photos are what we woke up seeing out of our balcony window this morning.  What a view!  What a great way to start the day.  We then enjoyed more beautiful scenery as we cruised up the fjord to Hellesylt where we dropped off a few passenger who are on a longer excursion, then headed up a side fjord to Geiranger, enjoying sunshine among the scattered clouds.  

The sail in to Geiranger was as beautiful as promised. If I had $1 for every waterfall I’ve seen, this cruise would nearly pay for itself!  This scenery is exactly what Mary and I hoped to see — and it has exceeded our expectations: large rock- or tree-covered mountains going right down to the sea with many waterfalls. The only downside is that while in these fjord, we loose contact with the satellites, which knocks out live TV and the internet.  But that just gives us more time to sit peacefully and enjoy the scenery!

Our excursion today took us to the top of Mt Dalsnibba.  The road there was unbelievable, as it rapidly climbed out of the valley, with switchback after switchback, to gain altitude.  The harbor was visible many times as you can see on the left.  Our ship is the farthest one.  The picture on the right was taken from the top of the mountain (click to enlarge) and also shows the ship, as well as some of the road we took to get there. The road was so narrow that often our bus had to let other vehicles clear a switchbacks since it needed the entire road.  It was quite a ride!  The other picture shows some of the scenery at the top of the mountain. 

After tendering back to the ship we enjoyed a spaghetti carbonara dinner with a chilled coconut soup appetizer. We finished diner in time to get to a concert by a VERY energetic singer who was doing an Elton John concert.  He was great!  

Cruise Day 4 - Flaam Norway

We woke up around dawn (well before the ship arrived in Flaam) and saw this out our window - what a great way to start a day, cruising down a fjord!  Since it was quite early we went back to sleep. 

Our train excursion today did not leave until 12 noon so we enjoyed a relaxing morning of reading,  walking and enjoying a pizza lunch.  Also, I played carpet bowling and won a medal! The port here is absolutely beautiful!  We have no internet service during the day today due to the high mountains blocking the satellite so I doubt the web cam was working, but it it had, you would’ve seen the photo the left.  I could sit and look at these mountains and waterfalls all day.  Below is my attempt at a panorama of the area.

 Our excursion was interesting.  Our train took us up the mountain from the fjord to a hotel where we enjoyed Norwegian waffles with raspberry sauce. It also stopped at a large waterfall. The scenery along the way was beautiful, but it was also very hard to get good pictures, due to the layout of the train. 

Flaam is located at the end of a very long fjord. Here are a couple pictures of the scenery as we sailed out of the fjord toward the sea. .  The captain said it would be over 5 hours until we reached the sea and turn north to Gieranger, our port for tomorrow. 

Cruise Day 3 - Stavanger Norway

We had an early morning boat ride excursion to Lysefjord, reportedly one of the most beautiful fjords in Norway. Both Mary and I took too many pictures, so choosing a couple for my blog was a bit hard to do.  The big attraction in this area is called Pulpit Rock which juts out from the cliffs nearly 2000’ (over 600 meters) above the water.  But the view from the water was not very impressive. The captain did take the boat up a small inlet and later against a waterfall so I chose those photos. One of the crew captured from of the water and handed it out to passengers as we left.  After seeing the sights, they took us to a small restaurant where we had Norwegian waffles with strawberry jam which were delicious!  

After returning to the dock we walked into the town and did some shopping.  I fell in love with a woolen sweater, but when I tried it on the collar was uncomfortable so I passed.  I’m sure we’ll see more in future stops. Back on the ship I came in 3rd in golf putting.  We enjoyed a nice dinner and watched a movie.  

Our days are getting longer as we move north.   Sunset is now after 11pm and sunrise before 4 am as our days get longer by 45 minutes.

Tomorrow in Flaam we have a train ride excursion. In the afternoon when the Sapphire Princess leaves, we have a long passage through a fjord to get back out to sea.