Alesund – A Walk Ashore

At The Top

   

The 418 step

Today we were in the city of Alesund. It is somewhat larger than Flam. For those fans of the Amazing Race, it was one of the cities on this year's race. The city has about 45000. The things to see are limited. We had decided to just wander around and not take a tour at this stop. We were away early today after breakfast in the dining room. Our first destination was Mount Aksla which was the check point on the race. The attraction is the 418 steps to the perfect view point of the city. The vistas of the area and the town centre are quite nice. The weather was overcast again today (usual weather here). We did not find “Phil”. We were sure we had it right! We took a different trail back to the city centre. This trail was sloped with few steps. After the last 2 days of uphill climbs, we did not want to do the steps again which by the the time we started down were quite busy. Besides the Crown

Another Race Venue

Princess there is a Holland America ship in. That make about 5000 extra people in town. We walked through the main mall, then along the small waterway where another part of the race was filmed. Again lots of people. The buildings have a rather unique design. It seems to be a mix of European and Baltic. We walked along the water crossed the bridge and made our way to the Alesund Church. The church itself was not “fancy”. From there we headed back to the ship. We only found one bar but did not go in. It was a hole in the wall where the locals were

gathered. I went in but Judy did not like the looks of the place. We wandered a bit more and returned to the ship.  We are currently farther north than the division between the prairies and the NorthwestTerritories. That places us just “south” of Iceland. Sunrise is

down to about 3:30am and sunset at 11:30 pm. We will be in continuous daylight in a few days. We did go to Afternoon tea today. We found out that is being held but it is not listed as an activity as in the past. It is shown under dining options. As we sailed away there was

Fire Boat Demo

a fire boat demonstration. We have seen others but this was a nice send off.As we left Aseland we spotted where the third part of the race was filmed! Then it was off to see the comic. Neither of us liked him tonight.  Dinner was very good again and we are enjoying the company of our new friends from England and  Australia. We did stop at the entertainment (lead singer of the Hollies) but we left. He never seemed to make a connection with us. Tomorrow will be a long walk around day. The city has just under 200,000 people. 

Flam AndThe Brekkefossen Hike

    We woke this morning docking at the end of a fjord. At least I did – Judy managed to sleep in again. I guess the hike yesterday was a bit much. Flam is probably the smallest town that we have ever been to by ship. It is a busy very little place as the tour buses seemed to be coming and going all day. The main attraction is a train ride through the valley. It stops at a number of small towns. You could take the train and walk back to the ship. We had decided to just explore Flam on our own and not join the hordes that took the train tours.

At The Falls

     I had spent a bit of time learning about Flam and knew that there was a hike to a waterfall not far out of town. The local tourist bureau had a very nice coloured map with the trails clearly marked. We headed for the Brekkefossen – the Brekke waterfall. It is a 2-3 hour hike. Most of the trail is along a flat road but then goes to the knoll next to the falls. The trail itself was not like the rock steps of yesterday but it was straight up. This trail was more typical of what we see in the Banff area. Rocks yes but more dirt and trees. The steady up portion was fine until about half way when water along the trail turned it into a muddy mess and very slick. The steepness of the trail meant that the way down was very slippery. Others on the trail fell but we did not.

The Falls

View Of Flam

The view of the waterfall from the knoll was very 
nice. A good volume of water was flowing over the shear drop near the top. After a bit if a rest we headed back to town. People were jammed in the small “Mall of Norway”. We stopped at the AEgir brew pub. It was crowded as well. This is the local gathering place for all the tourists in town. Of course we had to try the beer. It is a rule that when you are in small foreign town you must try the local brew. I did. It was very refreshing after the hike.

The Fjords

     We decided to watch the sail away for an extended period of time since we are deep into a fjord and this was one of the attractions of this trip. This ship does not have the chart displayed on the TV. We missed being able to follow the track of the ship as we have done in the past. As we move north we are seeing more and more daylight. Sunrise is just before 4 am and sunset is after 11.

The transit out of this fjord took about 5 hours. The views of the sheer cliffs was beautiful. I thought that we were in the main fjord. As we sailed along we could see many more fjords. The main one got wider and wider. We have never seen a fjord like this even in Alaska. It certainly did fulfill the expectation of this cruise.

    The rest of the early evening was spent wandering around until dinner. One thing that we have noticed is that there seems to be less wait staff. In the past there was an assistant for every waiter. Now one seems to roam in the area but not assigned to a specific person. The result is that there is less attention. Plates are not cleared an quickly as they use to be. There does not seem to be true afternoon tea being served. That may be a function of being in port with tours scheduled all day. This is the first time we have encountered a buy on get another for $1 more. We don't recall this promotion on our cruises. Everything else seems to be the same.

    We did see the show tonight. It was the comedian that we saw the first night. I liked him more. He did about an hour show and had some very good jokes. Another walk around day tomorrow.

Stavanger – Pulpit Rock and Another First

    Today we were ashore in Stavanger and had another first ever experience. We were off the ship by 8 am – as soon as it was announced that we had cleared the port authorities. This involved a bus ride to the local ferry dock and then a 40 minute ferry ride across the bay to Tau then another bus ride for the 30 minute ride to the base of the hike to Pulpit Rock.

     

On The Trail

Pulpit rock is a ledge which is at the top of the fjord. The height from the start point is about 1000 feet. The length of the climb is 4 kilometers. Essentially is a straight up climb with a series of downhills in between each level. The entire climb takes about 22 hours. Pulpit Rock is one of the most visited sites in Norway. We did opt for a ship tour for this stop. It is not like hiking in the Rockies. This trail was essentially all rock all the way. The rocks themselves have been arranged roughly in steps but they were not easy to navigate. The climb takes about 2 hours without stopping for any length of time. We collected our lunch and a bottle of water and headed up. Most of the people on this hike were reasonably fit. No bad knees and hips here, just a lot of out of breath people.

    About an hour in we experienced another first. The rocks were very slippery - and got worse as the day wore on and the hundreds of people made their way through the water. Judy stepped and slid down, landing on her back. No problems. However she did stick her arms out and promptly cut and scraped them. We needed a bandage but did not get one until we reached the top of the rock where the guides were. She also needed to fill out an accident report which we did later. Oh, I slid down the same rock and so did the person behind us. My fall was broken by the backpack.

Made It!

Pulpit Rock

    The view from the top was outstanding. Shear drops, a long fjord, rocky outcrops and hundreds of people were all viewed from the top. It was worth the hike. We had our lunch (provided on the bus) as we enjoyed the rain free site. The time down was also around 2 hours but by the time we started down many more tour buses had arrived. The traffic going up the trails was non stop and with that the trail became even more slippery. I did my share of almost going down as we went down.

The Drop

When we were ready to head back to the ship, another first happened! Our bus had backed up in a parking spot, went over the barrier and was stuck! Essentially, it needed a tow truck to get back on the road. We needed to return to catch the ferry to make the sail away time. Fortunately there were 4 buses and the other 3 were not completely full. After much figuring all on our bus were able to find space on the others. We did not need to stand. We arrived at the ship just before it was to sail. The rain had moved in and continued throughout the afternoon. A beer, a slice of pizza and some down time were the order of the day.

After the hard day, we cut the evening short. We did have dinner at the appointed time but decided to skip the entertainer (lead singer of the Hollies). We are looking forward to a walk around shore day tomorrow in Flam. After the strain of the climb today, we can use a more relaxing day.

A Day For Rest – At Sea

    In all the years that we have been cruising, today we did something different. After the long day yesterday – about 36 hours with no sleep we slept in. We did not get out of bed until nearly 11 am. Last night we had a clock advance which was partially responsible but the long day took a toll. We are still a bit draggy today but managed to find things to do all day.

     We did miss zumba and the port lecture in the morning. We did manage a bit if the line dance class and it getting marginally better. He did go over 4 dances while we were there. We missed the first 20 minutes and the electric slide! By noon it was time for breakfast and of course tea at the international cafe. We skipped the champagne art auction in favour of the ballroom dance class. The dance was the Merengue and the instructor taught 5 or 6 moves. Usually they teach 2 or 3 so that was also a pleasant surprise.

After Judy bought her Clinique (enough until the next cruise). We then headed for the Princess Theatre for a talk by Pete Best. He was the original drummer for the Beatles and he talked about the early days in Liverpool and how the band came to be. He is a good story teller. Ringo came in just after they cut the demo for their first album. He was replaced just before recording the final cut. We heard him on the last cruise and he seems to have become a staple on some cruises.

Formal Night

A glass of wine, our canapes and a nap finished the afternoon. We dressed for the first formal night and were on our way to see the comedy and magic show. So the second thing happened that in all our years of cruising has never happened before! We have been locked out of our room because of a faulty key slide. In this case we were locked |IN OUR ROOM. The door would not unlatch no matter what we did. They tried from the outside (after our panic call) and still no response. I started to think that they would be handing down our meals in a bucket. Finally the steward appeared on our balcony. The balconies have doorways that can be opened so you can go from one to another. We escaped through the room next to ours. Fortunately the people had already left! When we returned later in the evening the door handle had been repaired.

Chocolate Dessert

We got in. I hope we can get out in the morning for our tour.

     The Captain's champagne reception waterfall, speeches and a formal photo took place before dinner. Dinner was excellent, followed by a 'new' production show. Gone from this show was all the old style musical show that featured mainly singing and dancing. This one was called Magic To Do which was a simple background story joined by a series of illusion we have seen before. People appearing and disappearing from boxes, etc. It was quite entertaining.

   We packed up for our early tomorrow. We are going on a hike up a fjord. The all day trip is our longest booked tour. The weather is suppose to be cool but no rain! We shall see!

A Long Tiring Day

  We arrived in England early this morning. When we were checking in in Toronto, the kiosk would not print our boarding passes because “something was wrong”. This was the first time that have not been able to do this. Turns out that the problem was that the name on the reservation was not the same as on Judy's passport. The reservation was made with here middle name but her passport does not show it. We need to be sure of this in the future.

   The flight to England was under 7 hours which was about 6 hours to long. We were jammed in as usual but our seats backed on a bulkhead which meant we had about 1 inch of lay back room. The they did not come around with more wine! Flying is getting more uncomfortable all the time. We cleared immigration in an hour. We thought that we would never get out of that airport. The bus had to pick up passengers at 2 other terminals.

The transport from the airport to the ship took 2 hours. We were among the first to arrive and quickly checked it. Princess had an “Elite” lounge set up with drinks and fresh baked goods. The ship started boarding shortly before noon. Having been up all night we were tired but glad we had finally arrived.

   We lunched in the dining room with a couple from Australia and one from England. Both were well traveled cruisers. One had been to the fjords a couple of times and it was good to hear first hand from someone who had already been there. A walk around the sunny deck and a small nap before the life jacket drill followed in quick order. Luggage was in our room by the time we got back. Clothes were put away before the emergency drill. We fought the need to sleep all day! The sailaway party was a bit of a bust!

On Deck

   Our assigned dinner time is 8 pm. We arrived first and immediately asked for a new table. We requested a table of 10 and ended at one with 4. We saw the head waiter and changed to a table of 6. One couple is from Australia and the other is from England.

  There are 1400 British, 900 Americans and 300 Canadians. A good mix! We attended the welcome aboard show with a comedian. He did about 50 minutes and had some good lines. Judy remembers him from a previous cruise. Finally we can get some sleep. Tomorrow is a sea day followed by formal night. We should be able to get our energy back before our first port. A long tiring day comes to an end.

Midnight Sun and Summer Solstice

    Norway here we come. It has been almost a year since our last cruise. We just didn't find something we liked. In any case after the wonderful time in Florida this past winter, we are headed back to the Princess cruise line. The “Midnight Sun And Summer Solstice” cruise heads to Norway, a destination that has been on our list of places for a long time. We have been to Norway before but the ports have all been in the south. This time we are headed along the entire coast right up to the North Cape stopping in many fjords along the way. The writer of the cruise article in the local paper noted that Norway is like Alaska in beauty. We think it will be better because the ports requiring sailing into many fjords. There are 11 stops on the 14 day cruise.

The added bonus on this cruise is that we will be farther north than we have ever been as the map shows. At this time of year we will be getting extended hours of sunlight – hence the “Midnight Sun and summer solstice cruise title. Sunrise will be around 4 am and sunset around 11pm in the southern part of the cruise. As we get near the North Cape we should have 4 days of 24 hours of sunlight. It should be an interesting experience. The map with Greenland and Norway shows just how far north we will be!

    We are sailing on the Crown Princess which is similar to most of the big Princess ships. It will be our 4^th time on the Crown. We are on Aloha deck about mid ships  This is an "upgrade" - part of the package that we booked. The ship does have the International Cafe, the small food bar in the atrium which is where we like to go for daily tea and small meals .

    As the map shows, we sail and return from Southampton England.

Ship Schedule

North Of Iceland!

We have booked four ship tours. After doing the research on all the stops we have a good balance between exploring the ports on our own and the ship's offerings. We have booked hiking to the top of a fjord, going to North Cape at the top of Norway, driving through the Lofoten Islands; going through a fjord to a waterfall. We have also booked a bike tour in one port. The bike tour is only 7 kilometres each way but then we hike to a waterfall. I think we have a nice balance planned if the rain holds.
Being on the west coast next to mountains means that we can expect to use our wet weather gear often!

 We stayed in Toronto last night. We leave early Friday afternoon from Toronto arriving in London at 6:30 am. The overnight time change routine.
    We are ready to enjoy the perks of being “Elite” on Princess.  It means free laundry, on board credits and prepaid gratuities! Anyone that has cruised will appreciate the free laundry luxury. It means that you do not need to pack as many clothes. The mini bar, free internet (basically) and wine tasting are also nice.

        At the bottom of each post is a small icon that looks like an envelop. If you open it, you should be able to send us an email directly to my gmail address from the post. If you have a gmail account I think that you can leave a message on the blog. A simple email will also do it. The “free” internet means that we have time to look at emails. Because of where we are in Europe, we "should" have good internet service. It is always nice to read the comments of people interested in our travels.
    More Later!

Goodbye Caribbean Princess Hello Home

          We arrived in Southampton early this morning apparently on time which was first time this trip that we actually did. Now this CO gets to leave! We were able to have a nice leisurely breakfast before we headed to our assigned departure room. We had a chance to give a hug to Laura and have a talk with Carla one of the Zumba instructors. We made sure we told both of them how they made the cruise so much more fun. We were able to depart the ship find our bus and head to the airport quickly. It was probably the easiest departure from a cruise that we have ever had. We were at the airport and checked in in short order before the 3 hour wait for our plane.

       The flight time was over 8 hours as we were non stop Heathrow to Detroit. We flew Delta/Virgin Air – a very nice international airline. We actually had leg room. The wine was free flowing and the serving portion were generous. The movies were up to date. With the over 8 hour flight we even had time for a nap as there was a 5 hour time difference between London and Detroit.

      No paper work to fill out on the plane as it is all done at a kiosk in Detroit . Customs and Immigration went quickly and after our good friends pick up, we were back in Windsor by 8pm. So another cruise officially ends. That is 20 on Princess! Thanks to all who left messages and emails about our trip. No plans for the next one -yet! So with the 5 hours time difference, bed came early!