Sailing from Olden

This evening as we sailed in the Nordfjord from Olden we sat on our veranda all the way aft and enjoyed the magnificent scenery. It became a little misty and all of a sudden there was a beautiful rainbow directly off our stern. We could see both ends going down to the water - in fact, you could see the reflection in the blue water. Then the rainbow became a double rainbow with the outer one not quite so intense. We took some pictures and hopefully one will come out well enough that Katie may post it here. It was truly a beautiful sight! I hope the rainbows were an omen of continuing wonderful weather as we have had so far.

Today we took a tour out of Olden, Norway, to Kjenndal Glacier and then on a boat ride down the length of Lovatn Lake. To the left is a picture taken at the Lovatn dock outside the little restaurant where we had tea and waffles; you can see the brilliant blue of the water, colored by stone and soil ground up by the glacier. On our hike up to the face of the glacier, the water bubbling through the rocky streambed looked so clean and pure that I couldn't help drinking some of it.

On the boat ride, our captain was a retired farmer who had lived his whole life by the lake. He told us a bit about what it was like to live in this fairly remote place, and sang a Norwegian folk song extolling the beauty of this region. He pointed out the various peaks surrounding the lake, and said he had been to the top of every one of them, then he said that he loved being up there because "then you feel that the world is only for you."

Tomorrow we are in Geiranger Fjord, and I am taking a hike up some cliffs to a waterfall, so I look forward to perhaps feeling the farmer-captain's sentiment.

I'll leave you with a photo from the small town of Olden itself, of some prettily-painted mailboxes which give you a sense of the Norwegian decorative aesthetic.

Bergen vista

Here's the view from the top of the funicular we took today in Bergen. Just behind and above the rail station was a bench with a sweeping view of the harbor, and that's where I took this. You can see the gorgeous weather here. If it were bigger - our internet connection is too slow to upload full-size pictures - you could see that the central harbor is full of tall ships, which were all here today for a sailing race.

Bergen, Norway

Today we spent most of the morning sailing into the harbor at Bergen, passing through fjords and a rocky, rugged landscape. Shortly before we arrived, the ship sailed under the bridge in the picture to the right; it was quite a sight to see - with only 7m clearance between the top of the ship and the bridge, the enormous ship just barely squeezed through.

In Bergen itself, the highlight of our tour was a short funicular ride to the top of one of the seven mountains surrounding the city. From the top we saw a panoramic vista of the harbor and surrounding city, which sprawls over quite a large area (this is the second-largest city in Norway, with a population of about 250,000). As you can see from the photograph, today was sunny and beautiful, which is quite unusual since it rains here almost 300 days per year.

Sailing to Bergen

Good Morning from near Bergen Norway. We've had a wonderful cruise so far in terms of sea and weather. This morning it's sunny and mild. I have read that it rains all the time here but maybe we'll be lucky. This should be the day for luck ( 8/8/8). We're taking a tour that includes a funicular ride this afternoon. Perhaps we'll get some photos worth trying to post.

Meanwhile, the food has been great and the ship is very nice. We Americans are in the minority onboard. There are lots of British and many people speaking what sound like slavic languages to me. The choices for breakfast foods are reflective of the different mix of passengers. We have baked beans and grilled tomatoes on the breakfast buffet, as well as congee and fried rice and dumplings. It's fun trying something different!

Well,, more later.

The Trip and London

As you can see Katie and I are posting so you'll get a little of both our impressions. We flew on Sunday, August 3 from Dulles on Virgin Atlantic. We were able to use FF miles and fly Upper Class. It has spoiled me forever. The seats are individual pods which make in to flat beds with mattress covers, duvets and feather pillows. They even give you a "sleep suit" if you want it.

After an uneventful flight we arrived in London where we saw so many interesting things as Katie has already described. One thing she didn't mention was the Tube or Underground. It was a wonderful way to get around. It's fast, convenient to mst of the major sights and reasonable. We paid 5.90 ounds each for a one day ticket.

We boarded the ship in Southampton yesterday afternoon and are now cruising through the North Sea. We've passed literally hundreds of oil and natural gas platforms.

More later.

London

For the past two days we have been sightseeing in London, visiting the British Museum, British Library, the King Tut artifacts exhibit, and Westminster Abbey. The picture on the left is a sculpture in the British Museum. As a book nerd, one of my favorite things we did was a tour of the British Library, which included a bunch of interesting facts. For instance, the library is so large that rather than hand-carrying books to the reading room, librarians in the basement stacks fetch the book you want, then place it on an elaborate system of conveyor belts which delivers it to the patron. We also saw the largest book owned by the B.L., which is an absolutely enormous atlas - it takes three men to pick it up.

Yesterday our time in London ended, and we took a bus to Southampton to board the ship. Currently we are at sea, sailing toward Bergen, Norway. I've spent this morning working on planning my course for next semester, while sitting and watching us sail past numerous platforms in the North Sea.