The Seven Seas Society party was last night on the fourth along with our second formal night. They had over 400 society members on this cruise so it was held in the Constellation Theater. The couple who won the award for most nights travelled had over 500 nights! Don Camp sang "Love Changes Everything" at the party for Janet G. Everyone seemed more dressed up than for the first formal event - the mix of tuxes to suits was still about 50/50 but the ladies were in full evening wear with lots of sparkling jewelry.

The dinner featured Norwegian specialties. Appetizers included whale and gravadlax and fried Camembert with cloudberries and lingonberry sauce. Reindeer was an entree choice. We had dinner with Steve and Arlene from New York. He reported the whale as being similar to carpaccio. Jim tried the reindeer and said it was excellent - the whole idea of Rudolf for dinner just was not appetizing to me......

We had another lovely night with a glowing sunset around midnight. It came right back up again around 1AM so it wasn't really night. Unfortunately, the real Norwegian weather decided to put in an appearance today. It was very foggy with lots of low clouds and periods of mist for most of the day. Temps were in the mid 50s but the damp made it seem colder - our Polartech vests came in really handy.

We sailed up to Hellesyt to drop off the folks who were taking the full day excursion today and then made our way to Gerainger. You simply must be on deck to experience the voyage through this fjord. Even in damp, overcast weather it is truly magnificent. I will post our pictures of the waterfalls and the mountain farms when I return and have access to a high speed connection. Captain Dag turned the ship in the middle of the fjord so that we were perpendicular to the Seven Sisters waterfall. We were probably 30 feet or so away from the wall of the fjord but it felt like it was only inches - he truly has confidence in his ability to maneuver this ship!!! All the passengers who were still on board and a fair percentage of the crew were up on the top decks to see this - it is truly not to be missed.

Fred organized a taxi in Gerainger and Pat, Jim, Ngaire, Ken and I joined him for the trip. The weather was extremely foggy so once we got above the Flydalsjuvet view point there really wasn't much to see except the fog. In my opinion (and it is just my opinion) renting a taxi with a small group of people is preferable to doing the ship's excursions by bus in Gerainger. You can call yourself (the number is 48 14 94 80) or have the concierge call for you. I copied the following information from the taxi stand in Gerainger - the rates are fixed and seem to be a better value than from the ship. Of course, the taxi fair does not include coffee and waffles at the inn at the lake, but it only takes 90 minutes to see everything including the fjord center as opposed to the 3.5 hour bus trip....

The rates are kroner for the various view points - you can even go to the mountain farm. The first number is for four people, the second number is for six people. We paid 1500Kr total for the six of us(including tip)and went to Flydalsjuvet, Dalsnibba, the lake (which I cannot remember how to spell but it's on the way to Dalsnibba) and the Norsk fyordcenter. The trip is not ideal for people with a fear of heights - the road is a series of switchbacks up the mountain - it is two lanes, but narrow and there are NO guard rails!

Dalsnibba 900kr 1350kr
Flydalsjuvet 300kr 400kr
Ornesvingen(Eagle's Turn) 350kr 500kr
Herdalsetra 1500kr 2200kr
Minitour (Flydalsjuvet, Westeras Farm, Norsk fjordcentre) 600kr 800kr
Price pr hour 480kr 700kr

I can highly recommend the Norwegian Fjord Center (Norsk Fjordcentre). It is very well done and provides an excellent overview of life in the fjords and on the fjord farms. The signs are in Norwegian and English. They have a marvelous collection of photographs of life in the fjords in the early part of the 1900s. They also have exhibits on various aspects of fjord life that you can walk into/on/through. The cost is 75kr/person. You could walk there from the ship - it is an uphill walk but it's on the paved road. Not a big deal at all if you feel like walking. Also there are nice views over the fjord on the way up. It would take 15-20 minutes for a person in relatively good shape and it's a nice walk up through the little town. They also have an excellent gift shop with non-tacky Norwegian gifts (no trolls!) including some excellent glass pieces.

Gerainger itself is small and tourist oriented. There were 5 ships in the fjord today - a Norwegian traffic jam? There is a nice art gallery about a 3 minute walk to the right of the pier where the tender docks along with the usual collection of trolls/sweater/postcard shops. There are also some cafes for coffee and ice cream. We noticed a lovely hotel on the way to the Norwegian Fjord Center called the Union Hotel - it seemed to have a very nice place to have tea and drinks with a killer view over the fjord. You could have a nice day with a walk up to the fjord center and a look around inside, a stop at the hotel on the way back down, and a meander through the village.

The weather started to clear around 6PM this evening so we had excellent views coming out of the fjord and into the sea. It is very calm inside the fjords of course and the sea seems calm tonight as well - just a very gentle roll.

They have an excellent pianist on board - her name is Veronica McSwiney and she is from Ireland. She played a lovely concert this evening filled with pieces from Chopin and Grieg. Even if you are not a fan of piano concerts she is well worth hearing - she plays beautifully and takes time to explain the genesis of the pieces she has chosen. Seeing the Norwegian landscape in person makes Grieg's music so much more accessible.

That's all for now. We are doing the marathon seven hour overland tour from Gudvangen to Flam tomorrow.