Day 5 - At Sea

Last night after dinner at the Italian restaurant we went to the show.  They brought on a renowned Polish conductor, composer, and clarinet soloist, Wojtek Mrozek, to entertain us tonight. He performed his adaptations of pieces by Artie Shaw, Beethoven, Bacarach, and others.  Accompanied by the Regent house band, he turned several sedate pieces into jazz.  It was a very enjoyable show, ending with a great rendition of Benny Goodman's "Sing, Sing, Sing".

After the show we only had to stay up another half hour to see sunset at 11:20 PM.  This was our last sunset for a few days, since we are heading north to where the sun never sets this time of year.  We were fortunate that our room is looking out to the west for the northbound portion of this trip. 



The last few days caught up with us this morning. We slept late and almost missed breakfast.  They stop serving breakfast at 10AM and I just got out of the shower at 9:30AM.   While Ray was in the shower I ran upstairs, had breakfast just before they closed, and brought Ray back some cereal and pastries.  The waiter was kind enough to wrap some cellophane over a glass of milk for me and to carry it to the elevator for me.  When I got to our hall, our butler saw me with my hands full and opened the cabin door for me.  Everyone here is so kind and helpful.  I love this crew.

This afternoon we watched the enrichment lecture we had missed this morning as a replay on TV. The guest lecturer is Terry Bishop.  He spoke the first night on the ship on "The complete history of Norway in 45 minutes."  (We watched that the next day on TV too.)  Today's lecture was "The Real Cold War - The Arctic Convoys 1941-45."  This was a lecture on WWII as it played out on the coast of Norway.  You don't hear much about the events that happened in this area during WWII, so this was very interesting.

Lois and her blue nose, with Captain Daniel Green

 We stopped watching the lecture about half way and picked it up later on the next replay, so we could attend "The Order of the Blue Nose" ceremony.  This is a ceremony marking the crossing of the Arctic Circle.  I'm not sure there is really any history behind it, but it was a fun way to break up a sea day.  The captain read from a script listing all kinds of torture sailors would be put through the first time they crossed into the Arctic Circle, then said, since this is a 4-star cruise and he wanted good ratings from us, our initiation would be that he would dap blue foam on our noses and we would then be offered hot chocolate and pastries.

Ray got his blue nose from the captain next.

Tonight they are showing the World Cup Final match in the theater instead of a show, so we will pass on that.  All the music in the bars is either too early or too late.  We like to have dinner early (6:30PM when the restaurants open) and the bars all schedule live music 6:30-7:45PM. Then the performers take a break and don't start again until 9 or 10PM.  I guess a lot of people like to go have drinks before dinner, then a late dinner, and a show or more drinks afterward.  Even the theater shows all start after 9PM.  Unless it's something we really want to see, like last night, we would rather not stay up that late, especially if we have a tour in the morning.  I'd hate to oversleep again like we did this morning!

Day 4 - Bergen, Norway

We got a better night's sleep last night.  I think we are finally acclimating to the time change.  After breakfast at the buffet we had a little time to watch the docking process from our room.  Our tour meet time was 8:30AM again.  After a short ride through town we got off the bus and headed for the funicular station.

For those who haven't heard of this, a funicular is a tram that climbs a mountain on inclined tracks.  We got lucky and got to stand at the very front of the tram, near the driver.  Ray got this great picture and I think I got some good video of the ride up.

overlooking Bergen from Mt. Floyen

At the top of Mount Floyen the view was fantastic.  It was a warm, clear day and we could see the city of Bergen and the bay with our ship and several others.  Our guide pointed out all the interesting areas and buildings down below.  Bergen was founded in the year 1070 and, although the town suffered from several serious fires over the years, there is a section that still looks as it did several hundred years ago.  Old Bergen has been designated as a UNESCO world heritage site.  At the end of our tour the bus stopped there so we could take pictures and anyone who wanted could stay to shop.

Old Bergen

Our guide also took this opportunity to show us a statue of a troll on Mount Floyen and tell us all about Norwegian trolls.  It seems they are mischievous creatures who only come out at night to steal clothes off the lines.  They come in all sizes, are sensitive to light and turn into rock during the day.  That is why you can see faces sometimes in the shape of rocks on the mountains.

Statue of Edvard Grieg

Concert Hall

After riding the funicular back down the mountain the bus took us to Troldhaugen, the summer home of composer Edvard Grieg.  If you don't remember his name you might know some of his famous work - in particular, the music for Henryk Ibsen's play - Peer Gynt.  The house where he and his wife Nina lived is being renovated outside, but the inside is preserved as it would have been in his lifetime.  A lovely concert hall has been built next to it, with a window behind the stage looking out over the water in the valley below.  It is very appropriate, since it is said that Edvard Grieg was inspired to write his music by the nature around him.

This was a very enjoyable tour. After leaving people off in town, the bus took us back to the ship.  Ray & I were concentrating on lunch and an afternoon of relaxation, so it wasn't until we were in our room that Ray realized he had left his sweater on the bus.  We could see that the bus was still there so I took a chance and ran back down to retrieve it.  The tour guides and drivers were good enough to  have checked for items left behind, and the sweater had already been found and given to an agent who was going to bring it to lost and found.  As Ray looked on from our room, I was able to retrieve the sweater from the agent.  All is well.

Tonight is meet and greet night.  Regent has this tradition, that on one of the first casual nights aboard everyone is asked to take a wine glass from their room and go out into the hall before dinner.  The crew comes around serving champagne and canapes to everyone and we get a chance to meet our neighbors.  The captain, general manager, and cruise director then dash around every deck on the ship trying to say hello to everyone.  It's usually a fun half hour.

Day 3 - Kristiansand

We had to set an alarm this morning and order breakfast in our room in order to meet with our tour on time.  Today's tour took us to 3 interesting sites outside Kristiansand.  The first was the

Vest-Agder Open Air Museum.  This is a cultural heritage museum where they have moved typical old farm buildings and city homes  to show what life was like for Norwegians several centuries ago.  We first toured an area containing about 7 farm buildings, all with sod roofs. A guide dressed in period costume explained the purpose and construction of each building.  

We then went to another section of the museum to see city houses that have been moved here to resemble a city street. We were given some time to go in the houses.  Each one represented a different occupation.  We didn't have a lot of time, so I only went in 2 houses.  There was also a long building with scale miniature buildings set up to look like a full town.  All the buildings were about doll-house size and were beautifully done.

 Our second stop was the resort town of Hollen.  It is on a river, and we were told that all the homes are second homes for people, only used in the summer or on weekends.   There were lots of boats coming in and out of this quaint town.
 

Our final stop was to see an old church in Sogne. This is a small Lutheran church with paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries.  There is also art that reflects it's pagan past.


That was enough for today. There is a Fisherman's Market near the ship and I briefly considered walking over there, but decided against it.  We are both still a little jet-lagged, I didn't sleep well last night, and Ray developed a blister on his foot.  We need to save our energy for the next port tomorrow.

Tonight was formal night.  We skipped the captain's welcome cocktail party but did get dressed up for dinner.  The passengers on a Regent are mostly older than other cruise lines and more couples do get dressed up than on other ships.  Ray donned his tux and I brought a black skirt and a sequined tunic and jacket. Dinner was excellent . Now maybe we can get to sleep early tonight. We have another early tour tomorrow.

Day 2 Oslo and onto the Ship

Lois by fountain in front of Nobel Peace Center

Oslo City Hall

Oslo tram

We set an alarm this morning so we could get to breakfast and have time to get our suitcases packed and out the door by 9AM.   The breakfast buffet was included.  It was crowded and the food not so great, but we did finally find seats next to a nice couple from Wyoming, Bob & Rita.

After breakfast we took a walk around the center of the city.  We got to see some of their classic architecture, including the National Library, the Nobel Peace Museum, and the fairly new city hall.  Much of the area around city hall is under construction, upgrading the roads, so the bus had to detour around yesterday, but the area was easier to walk around this morning.

Tracks are visible on most main streets for the streetcars and they still run regularly here.  We would have like to explore the city more, but we only had a few free hours in the morning.

We were scheduled on the noon bus to go to the ship.  It was a quick ride.  Regent checks passengers in on board in the theater, so we had to wait in line for a little while there.  Since this is a relatively small ship (abt. 700 passengers), the lines are not overly long.

Once checked in we went upstairs for lunch and found the coupe we met at breakfast at a table for four, so we joined them for lunch.  When we were finished eating and just chatting, their daughter and son-in-law arrived, so we relinquished our seats to them and went to find our room.

We have a lovely suite for this trip.   We accepted an upgrade offer a few weeks ago, and are very pleased with the room we wound up with.  Plus, our frequent cruiser status entitles us to free internet. This on top of all the other nice amenities included in a Regent cruise make us very comfortable!

The ship pulled away for the dock at 4pm as scheduled, but confused us a bit by backing up quite a ways before it began to exit the harbor.  We finally figured out that our ship was getting out of the way so 2 ferries could get out.  I think they were on a tighter schedule than we are.

We sat on the veranda until it was time to go to dinner, watching the scenery and the small pleasure boats coming up to give us a send off.  Ray even spotted some people watching us from near cannons on the hill.  At least they weren't shooting at us!

We had a nice dinner in the main restaurant and are now back settled in our room for the night.  We're both surprised at how many of the staff recognize us from our Asia cruise in 2013.  We've been welcomed back by the security guard and 3 of the wait staff already!


 Although it is after 10pm, it is still very light outside.  We are so far north, we will eventually get to the point where the sun will never set this time of year.  It is very disconcerting, especially since our internal clocks are already messed up with the time zone change.

Day 1 - Oslo

Initial view of Norway

Our flight was several hours late, but entry into Norway was easy.  We approached from the north, so my first view of Norway included snow.  This soon changed to green farmland as we got closer to Oslo.  After a quick passport check at immigration we found our luggage and headed for Customs. When we got there we found that you only had to get in line if you had something to declare, so we followed the people just heading towards the exit. The Regent agent was waiting there and we had no problem finding him.  He directed us to a meeting place where another agent directed all the Regent passengers to the bus.

It was a 45 minute drive to Oslo. They let off two couples at the Grand Hotel and took the rest of us to the Skandia KNA.  The setup for greeting us at the hotel was not as good as we experienced in Auckland last year, and the room was no where near as nice as the one in Auckland.  The bed was comfortable enough for us to get a few hours sleep before dinner, but the rest of the room was pretty basic, with no amenities. The only things in the bathroom besides towels and tissue were liquid soap and shampoo in dispensers.  The air conditioning was almost non-existent.

We went down for dinner about 6pm. It was crowded with both our group and another tour group, and only 2 people to wait on tables, so it was almost 9pm before we finished and went back to our room.  All we had were Caesar salads, and it took that long!

We were very tired, but we stayed up until 10:30 so we would be able to sleep through the night and get onto Norway time.  Tomorrow is boarding day.

Start of Our Norway Adventure

The Villages Airport van picked us up about 10:45 this morning for our trip to the airport.  We were the first of 8 passengers.  All were above Rt 466 except 1, so we were out of the Villages by 11:30AM.
Ray had a pleasant surprise because both the driver and one of the passengers were also Vietnam veterans, and the passenger was actually stationed in Chu Lai just like Ray was.  He was a helicopter pilot with the Hornets and arrived in August 1971.  Ray left in September 1971, so their paths almost crossed. They had a lively conversation during the drive to the airport.

About half way to orlando the driver got a report of an accident on the turnpike ahead of us and was told to get off on Rt 50.  The driver was not a local and didn't know where to go from there, and the dispatcher was not very helpful.  The guy in the front seat started to look on his iPhone and I pulled out my iPad to get maps and directions.  I suggested a route, but the driver and front passenger opted for male intuition and turned onto a highway that did not connect back to the turnpike.  Once on that road the driver realized his mistake and took my advice to turn around to get back to a connecting exit.  It wasn't too bad - the detour only cost us 10 minutes and everyone got to the airport on time.

We had a couple of hours before our scheduled takeoff so we had lunch at a Ruby Tuesdays near our departure gate.  The flight from Orlando to Newark was on time and only had a few minor bumps. We approached Newark from the north and got a nice view of the New York City and the Hudson River, with the new World Trade Center and the Statue of Liberty.  We saw all this from the NCL ship a few weeks ago, but it was nice to see from a bird's eye view.  The only problem, as you can see from the photo, is that NYC was covered in haze. Once we got to Newark however, we found our next flight was delayed an hour  because the airplane had hit bad weather coming in.

NYC from final approach to Newark Airport

Once we finally boarded we had another weather delay and sat in the airplane a long time before we got permission to leave the gate.  Then we started to taxi to the crosswind runway, only to be redirected to the main runway when we were almost there.   We had to taxi to the other side of the airpot and get in line again.  It was over 2 hours past our scheduled take-off time when we finally got off the ground.  Then we had to get through and above a thunderstorm during the first hour.  They were trying to serve dinner and the plane was shaking.  I had full glasses of water and wine on my tray and both were spilling over.  Luckily, it calmed down after a few minutes.

The flight was fine after the initial turbulence.  We both managed to get some sleep during the flight.  I watched a movie, "The Budapest Hotel" during dinner but Ray opted to to try to sleep right away.  We had a long day and he hadn't slept well the night before.   I tucked in for the night about midnight so I could get a few hours sleep before landing.

Breakaway Day 7

This was our last full day on board the ship.  The last Park West auction included a variety of artists. Some members of the group requested that pieces which were shown but not sold earlier in the week be brought back out.  In particular, one very large work by Lebo that the auctioneer has been trying to get someone to buy all week finally sold.  I was surprised - it is a very good painting with lots of symbolism,  but it is way to big for most homes.  I think it would look great on the walls of a hotel lobby or the entrance to a corporate office with 20 ft walls!

Anyone who bought anything during the week got an appointment to arrange payment during the afternoon.  The evening cocktail hour was pushed back to 7PM to allow time for all that, and group dinners after that.  We ate at La Cucina again, as expected.

Sunrise view of NYC

After dinner we packed our bags (reserving clothes for the morning of course)  and put them out in the hall.  The ship will arrive back in NYC in the morning.  This has been a very different cruise for us, but still very enjoyable.  Although I have enjoyed going to art auctions on previous cruises, there were never this many and never so many original paintings to see.  The regular auctions are usually mostly on limited edition prints.  We also got to see some artists we hadn't seen before.

 Postscript: It took us 12+ hours from the time we left our cabin until we got home on Sunday.  We got off the ship on schedule but had to wait over an hour for the bus to arrive to take us to the airport.  It did give us a chance to get a great picture of the ship.  If we ever do it again, we'll take a taxi instead.  However, that was just annoying, not critical to us, since our flight wasn't until 2:30PM.  LaGuardia's Delta gates have the most amazing wi-fi setup we have seen anywhere.  The gate area is filled with counters with high chairs and ipads connected to the terminal wi-fi connection.  There are also plugs next to each ipad so you can charge your own devices.  There are only a few non-tech seats along the edges of each gate area.  We were well entertained while we waited for our flight.

The Peter Max art on the bow of the Breakaway

Once we got to Orlando, we found the Villages Airport van quick enough. It was a full van, with 9 passengers and 4 people having to wait for the next one to pull up.  Once we got to the Villages, it took an hour to get to our house because we had to weave through and stop so many times to let people off at their houses.  From now on, I think we will try to use the other Villages Transportation service when we can they don't operate after midnight and don't pick people up at their houses, but having only one pick up and drop off location would probably get us home faster.