Hi Everyone!
Just a quick update for you on the trip so far. Met up with everyone on Sunday after the lifeboat drill - it's nice to put faces to names. We had dinner with Ngaire, Ken, Penny and Ray. Ngaire was handling the missing luggage event with a great deal more calm that I would have been able to muster.
The ship is in its usual great shape and the crew is friendlier and more professional than ever. The seas were very smooth the first night and day. The sea day was a great way to start the cruise after the marathon journey to arrive in Copenhagen. Sandra Bowen is on board as the enrichment lecturer and is interesting as always.
They have changed the internet policy since the last time I was on board. You now buy an access pack which is good for a certain number of hours. (1 hour/$6 5hr/$25 10 hr/$40 20 hr/$75). The clock starts one minute after you log on and is completely time based. Use of the computers for word processing or for digital photography is still free.
Formal night had about 50% of the guys in tuxes, the rest in dark suits. The ladies looked fabulous as always....everything from evening gowns to cocktail dresses to black pants outfits with dressy tops and jewelry. Most passengers are very experienced cruisers (lots of Song of Flower alumni) and seem very relaxed. The lobster was excellent.
We went to the glacier in Olden - it's a fairly strenuous walk up the side of a mountain. There is a graded path most of the way that the horses and little electric carts travel on, but at the end you have to walk up very slippery rocks and scree to actually reach the glacier. If you do this, you will definitely want to wear shoes that enable you to walk on very uneven and slippery surfaces. It is much faster to walk down of course and they serve some coffee and tea with some sweets at the Briksdalen Inn. The drive to the glacier along the lake is quite scenic. It was a bit misty and their was some light rain during the early part of the walk, but everything cleared up by the time we reached the glacier.
The sail out of the Nordfjory was wonderful - the sun was shining brightly and you could see for miles up into the mountains. On the way out of Olden last night, Captain Dag met up with a local fishing boat and brought fresh salmon on board - they served it last night in Compass Rose and today at lunch in the Veranda. Absolutely delicious!
We ate dinner in Latitudes last night. They have two menus on this cruise, both with an Asian fusion theme. I have to admit that the Compass Rose is my favorite restaurant on board eventhough I've always enjoyed the other venues. The seas picked up a bit once we reached the open ocean - nothing alarming at all but the ship had a pronounced roll and the suite was creaking. We have not noticed any vibration problem, but we are midship in 643 (an excellent centrally located suite).
Today we are in Trondheim. It's an easy walk into town and Radisson also provided a free shuttle bus to the market square. We walked around on our own - it's a very small city. Nidaros Cathedral and the Archbishop's Residence are worth a stop. We walked up to the old fort which has fabulous views over the city and fjord. Then back down the hill through the old section of town. There were many coffee shops and places to have ice cream and waffles. Lots of cute shops too - I'm not quite sure what there is actually to buy here unless you need some of those ugly little trolls or some very expensive Norwegian sweaters - but I'm not much of a shopper so others will probably have better information about this than I can provide.
That's all for now. We're off to the Lofoten Islands this evening and then the North Cape. I'll post more the next time we have a decent connection.
m'ellen
