Category: travels

Happy Fourth of July! Strangely, here in the U.K. they are not celebrating. Maybe because they were the losers?! We don’t mention it deciding to take the higher road. And speaking of who takes the high road and who takes the low and who gets to Scotland before whom, it is we who have arrived in Scotland. The Shetland Isles are part of Scotland but they have not always been. In 1468 the Danish king wanted his daughter, Margaret, to marry King James III of Scotland. But she needed a dowry and the king did not have enough money. He gave the Shetland Isles and Orkney Isles as a dowry to James III. Lots of place names in the islands are still Norse and the people there identify more with Norway (which was a part of Denmark at the time) than with Scotland.

As we approach the main city of Lerwick a little pilot boat draws along side to drop off a pilot for our trip into the harbor.

We are lucky it is a beautiful day. So often Shetland is rainy. It is not a very populated place  with a total population of about 70,000 people and almost half of these live in Lerwick. Our first look of the Shetlands is of a treeless landscape. The climate is so harsh, windy, rainy, cold, and full of salt spray, that trees and most plants have a hard time growing.

Our first stop on our panoramic bus tour of the Mainland Island is overlooking Scalloway Bay and the ruins of Scalloway Castle.

Next are Shetland ponies! This is what everyone has been waiting for. The Shetland ponies come in mini, medium, and large but none can be over 42 inches at the shoulder. They were bred mainly for working in the coal mines of Scotland and Wales. Their short stature and stocky build made them perfect for hauling coal out of the mine shafts. The owner tells us that now a days it is hard to sell them and they can go for as little as 10 or 20 pounds. Everyone enjoys seeing them.

After oohing and aching over the ponies we get back on the bus to learn more things about the Shetlands. We pass a rock pillar called the murder stone. It has been dated to around 2 BC. According to a Scottish tourism site, “it is said that at the time that it was made, the Murder Stone was used to issue justice to murderers. If the offender could run from Law Ting Holm to the Murder Stone unscathed despite the efforts of the victim’s family and friends to stop him, he was pardoned of his crimes.”

Other photos from our bus tour –

We have been up for a long time since we had to go through Customs and Immigration at 6:30 this morning and our tour left early as well. When we finish with the morning’s activities it only 10:30 and not even time for lunch. We have a little rest and then decide that we will take the shuttle into Lerwick to find a fish and chips shop and lift a pint somewhere.

Now it is time to find that pint of beer. We come across a hotel, The Queens, that has a bar entrance and settle in at the bar for a pint of Tennant’s and McEwan’s beer. There is even a TV screen and we ask the barman to put on Wimbledon – pretty perfect.

We wander around Lerwick for a bit and look at the distinctive stone buildings.

When we get back to the harbor, John tells me all about the oil drilling ocean platforms and their escape pods. These enormous structures are getting ready to be towed out to sea.

We are eating dinner at the Chef’s Table again tonight. It is the same menu as last night but worth eating twice. Before we head down to dinner we watch the pilot boat come along side of us and pick up the pilot before we pick up speed and head for the Orkney Islands.

I do not mind these days at sea. It is nice to have a little extra time to do all the boatside stuff. John and I went to two lectures/demonstrations today. One was on the possibility of another Scottish independence vote and the other a cooking demonstration with the head chef making a salmon dish and risotto. Both informational sessions were interesting. We can also get all the port talks and lectures on our TV so if we don’t feel like getting dressed we can watch from our room.

Here are some pictures from around the boat –

Tonight at the Chef’s Table there is a new menu with a sweet and salty theme. It is really delicious.

So this is a really tasty dinner and we are having it again tomorrow night. The chef is going to do a little something different with the spices on the veal and Paul promises some interesting new pairings. It should be fun and delicious.

 

Today we are docking at the northernmost stop in our journey, North Cape or Nordkapp in Norwegian. It is also the northernmost point in Europe and I am looking forward to it. We went to the southernmost point at the tip of the heel of Italy a few years ago.

The town is pretty weather-beaten. It looks like the people up here make a living throug extraction industries and fishing plus tourism.

The landscape is pretty stark. There are still patches of snow and there are no trees. The hills are covered with grasses and bryophytes which make for good reindeer munching.

We make a sad stop where a Sammi, from the aboriginals of northern Norway, stands forlornly holding on to a reindeer and garbed in traditional gear. Bus loads of tourists take a moment to snap a picture and drop a few coins. I imagine it is worth it to him for the money.

We reach the North Cape and luckily the sky is clear here at more than 70 degrees latitude. There is a large informational building with a short movie, gift shop, restaurant, and other displays relating to the North Cape.

After looking around the building we take a walk outside where the wind is howling and it is quite cold. We view the northernmost monument and walk over to the edge of Europe. Then we hurry back inside and out of the cold.

The trip back to the ship is much like the way out except that the view is from the other side. I take some pictures out of the window.

Later in the afternoon we listen to a talk about power struggles in the Arctic Zone. It is interesting to hear how maritime law has evolved. Russia is now making a play to gain economic interest over half of the Arctic. The U.S. has no standing in this because we have bull-headedly refused to join the other nations with a coastal presence in the Arctic and sign a treaty which governs its use.

Dinner is supposed to be at the Italian restaurant, Manfredi’s. I am in my comfy clothes and really have no desire to get dressed and go out and interact. So we have room service which is more than adequate.

 

We dock this morning at Tromso. We disembark and go to our bus. The whole bus routine is getting old. When we were on the river cruise at least they let us walk around with a guide. Here we get on the bus and are told things by the guide and have a couple of photo ops. Tromso is not terribly scenic. It is, however, home to some 70000 inhabitants. It has a university which is the main employer of the town. Our guide is recently graduated from high school and tells us about various high school hijinks. She explains about the midnight sun and the northern lights and also about the blue time when the sun is just peeking over the horizon. Tromso has a lot of festivals in both summer and winter. It seems to be quite the party town.

Re-boarding the bus after our first stop we ride through Tromso and pass the memorial to Roald Amundsen, the great Norwegian explorer of the North and South Poles.

Our second stop is behind the maritime school on a hill overlooking Tromso harbor. They have two bridges. One is painted black and is called the black coffin.

After returning back to the ship we hang around for a while waiting for the lunch hordes to dissipate. We are not fans of the lunchtime stampede. We look out the windows some after lunch, I work on my blog, and then take a nap until cocktail time. Room service thoughtfully provides us with chips and wine. From our vantage point at the front of the ship we watch as the boat moves away from the dock and steams north to the top of the world.

Tonight there is a new menu at the Chef’s Table called Venice Carnival. It is mostly pretty tasty and as usual the staff are super nice. Our amuse bouche is a roasted pepper and tomato jelly with goat cheese latte foam. It is served with a Monserrat’s Chiaretto, San Silvestro Piemonte Italy. John says that it is a rose of the Barbera grape. The whole thing is quite delicious.

Next we have a beef carpaccio with a fig and mustard vinaigrette. We decide there is a reason why beef carpaccio is served with shaved parmesan and lemon. It is because it tastes much better that way! This course is served with Villa Bagnolo, Sassetto Sangiovese de Romagna, Emilia Romagna, Italy.

For our palate cleanser we have a Bellini granita that is tasty.

The main course is a cod fillets that is cooked to perfection. It sits on top of a Jerusalem artichoke risotto. There is some foam, a fried fish skin, and a totally superfluous Parmesan tuile. This is served with a Vlacanzjria, Cantina Gulfi Edna, I.G.T. Scilia, Bianco.

Lastly the dessert is what they call Mascarpone Passion. It has a thick jellied outer skin with the mascarpone inside, plus a layer of chocolate over a cake. I can admit that the mascarpone was good.

Tonight we sail north to finish the northward section of our trip with a visit to North Cape, the most northerly point in Europe.

Today is a lazy day and we don’t even have room service deliver our breakfast until 8 AM! Nonetheless I wake up at 5 AM to get ready for the day. Our big plans are to look out the windows, sort our dirty clothes and give them to Von to have laundered, eat lunch, lie around, go to a wine tasting, have snacks, and eat dinner. It’s a tough life.

The cruise activity director is all abristle with myriad things we can do today. One thing is to put on a bathing suit, jump into a cold pool, kiss a fish, and get your nose painted blue. This is a ritual one does when crossing the Arctic Circle. We decline since the activity involves wearing a bathing suit, being with people, kissing a fish, and having our noses painted blue. Otherwise we would be all in!

We also have other exciting things to look forward to. There are some lumpy mountains called the Seven Sister Mountains (like the Seven Sister Waterfalls only mountains) and a mountain with a hole in it.

Here are some pictures of our “at sea” day.

First up is the famous mountain with a hole in it called Torghatten. We are looking out the window at this and there are a bunch of people sitting next to us who are asking all these questions about it to each other. I very helpfully Google it up and explain all about how it  was formed during the ice age and that there is a path up to it and you can walk through. I even throw in the folk lore fable about it. These people are totally unappreciative of my effort.

Here’s the fable – According to legend, the hole was made by the troll Hestmannen while he was chasing the beautiful girl Lekamøya. As the troll realized he would not get the girl, he released an arrow to kill her, but the troll-king of Sømna threw his hat into the arrow’s path to save her. The hat turned into the mountain with a hole in the middle. (Wikipedia)

Other exciting mountains include –

Then I took some pictures of interesting-looking mountains.

Vikesh and his crew have talked us into going to the wine tasting that is being held in the Chef’s Table restaurant at 4 PM. All the nuances of wine tasting are explained. We have heard all this several times before but the head sommelier, Jude, does introduce a few new ideas. Mostly it is too much talk, not enough drink.

We have our pre-dinner snack and discover that they have Downtown Abbey on the TV. We haven’t seen that in a few years so we start from episode 1.  Poor Lady Mary doesn’t realize her life is going to be pretty disastrous at the beginning, but we do.

Then we go down to have our second spice road dinner. Mmmm, even better than the first because my beef tenderloin no longer has weird spices on it. After dinner Vikesh shows us pictures of his cousin’s restaurant in Bangalore. The food and decor look pretty impressive. It is nice to spend a few moments where it is not just about us.

We head off the ship around 9 AM after docking in Molde, Norway. This is the third incarnation of Molde. It was first mentioned in the sagas by Snorri Sturluson as the location of the Battle of Sekken in 1162, where king Håkon the Broad-shouldered was killed fighting the aristocrat Erling Skakke, during the Norwegian civil wars. (Wikipedia) The area’s settlement probably goes back much earlier than that, however. The town grew through the ages due to its temperate climate, an artifact of the nearby Gulf Stream. Then 1/3 of the city burned down in 1916. After rebuilding, the Germans bombed it with incendiary bombs and basically wiped out the city.

So there really is nothing quaint or historic about Molde. It’s a nice little modern town of about 26,000. We are stopping here to see the Romsdal Outdoor Museum. It is kind of a Norwegian Sturbridge village with houses transported from other parts of Norway illustrating life in the 17th, 18th, and 19th century.  We are greeted by children doing folk dances. The little boy is especially earnest in his dancing. Some of the dances are funny with girls vying for boys and making rude gestures at the other girls.

After the dancing we wander around and look at the various houses and exhibits.

Another interesting aspect of these houses are their sod roofs. These are made by first putting down a layer of birch bark to water proof it and then sod. Plants grow on the roof and the goats go up on the roof to graze. Sod roofs last for 20 years before needing to be replaced.

And now our adventure begins.  The local guide on the bus says that it is a 10 minute walk back to the ship and that we can walk back or take the bus. Being intrepid adventurers we, of course, decide to walk back. We try to make sense of the little map we have been given and start out.  We know that as long as we are heading downhill we cannot go too far astray. Over an hour later we reach the ship. The directions on the little map are hard to fathom and so we decide we will just head toward our ship. Unfortunately it turns out that our sister ship, the Viking Star, is also in port docked up in a different location. So first we go to the Viking Star.  Nonetheless, unless you are some kind of Olympic race walker there is no way you are going to walk over a mile in ten minutes!

Finally we run into some other people from our ship. However, it seems that we are all trying to follow each other! Just a case of the blind leading the blind. But it is lunch time and we have promised ourselves a hot dog from the grill so that’s something to look forward to.

A woman with some lettuce leaves on her plate remarks to me, “that’s some hot dog!” I want to say shut up, bitch. But control myself.

We spend the rest of the day idling about. We have the room service team deliver some potato chips and wine and then sit out on our porch as the ship departs Molde, Norway. Goodbye, Molde, maybe now I can get “The Moldau” by Smetana out of my head!

Even though we have reservations at the Chef’s Table for tomorrow night and they will be serving the same thing again, we head to the Chef’s Table because Vikesh has told us we are always welcome. We love the team of servers, sommelier, and manager there. We are probably friendlier with them then anyone else on the boat. Tonight’s dinner is inspired by the spice route. The amuse bouche is a carrot and cardamom cream with an orange and star anise foam. It is very tasty and I am in too much of a hurry to eat it to take a picture. It is served with a Prager, Riesling Federspiel Steinriegl from Austria. I see in John’s notes that we think it is only slightly sweet.

Next we have a tuna tataki which is really good. The little dots are avocado and balsamic sauces, and the line of white stuff is a sesame oil powder made with tapioca.The tuna is coated with Szechuan peppercorns, coriander and sesame oil and served over a tiny brunoise of pickled carrots and cucumber. The wine has asparagus overtones but goes well with the dish.

Time to cleanse our palates with a spectacular ginger and tarragon granita.

The main course is a beef tenderloin with four warm spices served with mashed purple potatoes and mushrooms. We have this with a Brunello di Montalcino from Castello Banfi, Italy. The wine is very good but I am not so keen on the beef. I find the spice rub which is made up of coriander, cumin, cinnamon, and paprika to taste odd. I try to cut around the rub but the flavors permeate the meat. I tell the server and the chef that I was not a fan and they promise to set aside a piece of meat for me tomorrow night that will omit the coriander and the cinnamon. They are so nice.

I am not usually a dessert fan but the apple tarte tatin is really delicious! Especially so when we add some freshly ground salt.  We have this with some Santa Cristina Vin Santo. The apple is spiral sliced and then reconstructed.

I am really looking forward to eating this menu again tomorrow night1

 

Terrible sleeping night with rough seas last night. We are up in the middle of the night and spend some time mid-ship where the swells are not as apparent. Finally I talk John into thinking about the motion of the ship like sine waves and to relax himself and just go with it. We manage to get some sleep and towards morning the ship enters the fjord where everything is much calmer.

The Geiranger fjord is spectacularly beautiful as we head toward the little town of Geiranger with a permanent population of only around 220 people.  There are many more here today with lots of summer visitors and cruise ship denizens descending upon it.

We disembark from the ship using tenders and board buses for a scenic ride through the mountains surrounding Geiranger. The ship looks smaller and smaller as we climb.

The bus driver negotiates the many switchbacks on the road with real know-how but so many busses on these narrow mountain roads are kind of scary. Finally we reach an overlook and stop for some pictures.

Next we negotiate our way back down the road and up another one which takes us behind the town of Geiranger.

Our local guide tells us that this morning when she drove over the hill from her little town to Geiranger that the temperature was -4C and it was snowing hard at the top of the mountain but that the snow plows were taking care to make sure that the roads were clear. As we continue up it is hard to believe that it’s summer! We stop not too far from the top of the mountain at Djupvasshytta.

After returning to Geiranger we do a little shopping with the thousands of other cruise ship folk from the various ships that have called into this port. Our tour guide has assured us that without the tourists that Geiranger would not exist but you have to feel sorry for these poor citizens of Geiranger who must put up with this onslaught on tourists every summer. I know if it were me I would be pining for the when the sun disappeared for six months along with the tourists.

John and I enjoy a glass of wine sitting out on our little porch as our ship departs Geiranger. The beautiful Seven Sisters Waterfall is on our side of the boat now. As we pass  we can hear the roar of the water falling but it mysteriously enters the fjord with nary a splash.

 

Today’s on again, off again rain and clouds have cleared out and we are treated to a lovely ride back out of the fjord. We sit and watch this beautiful corner of the world go by as we have dinner at the Italian restaurant on the ship, Manfredi’s.

The Captain has promised a much calmer night tonight and we are looking forward to a good night’s sleep!

We are not embarking until tonight and so today is our Bergen day. We are lucky to have gotten a head start on many people, by having seen many things in Bergen on Saturday. However, there are things we haven’t seen and so we are signed up to take the Bergen tour.

We have breakfast in our room which is nice because we can stay in our comfy clothes for a while longer. The breakfast arrives mostly cold and we will need to rethink our choices. After breakfast we are off on our assigned bus for a two hour overview of Bergen.

Our local guide informs us that we are quite lucky that it is not raining this morning as it averages five days of rain out of every week in Bergen. He also lets us know that this has been the rainiest June on record. So, yay, after being wet for the last two days we are able to enjoy merely overcast skies. We bus around Bergen seeing old and new things and then are treated to a view from a vantage point from an overlook of Bergen and the fjord on which it sits. We take the obligatory pictures.

We have another stop downtown where we have a good vantage point to take a pictures of our boat and the Hanseatic district. Finally we stop near the Royal Palace where it appears that King Harold and his court are not home since the Norwegian flag is not flying from the top turret.

We get lots of facts about Bergen and Norway in general and are back in time for lunch. We try to choose some healthy things from the buffet but I know that buffet eating is especially difficult and I find myself wanting to check out the pizza and have a bite of cookie at the end.

We have considered going back out but it is spitting rain, windy, and cold plus we have been up since 3 AM. Thanks, jet lag. So we take a nap instead and go down to the theater later in the afternoon for a talk about our next day’s destination, Geiranger. After an embarkation toast we head to the World Cafe for dinner.

Dinner tonight is a pale comparison of the first night’s dinner at the Chef’s Table. First of all it is really noisy. We find out later that the restaurant is really crowded due to its being lobster night. I have a shrimp cocktail and poached salmon and John has foie gras and a pasta with boar ragu. The food is fine but the experience is not great. We will have to figure out what is best for us.

We head to our cabin for another night’s troubled sleep. Seas are very rough and being in the front of the ship exacerbates the motion of the swells. Sleep is hard to come by.