Day 10 Geiranger, Norway

Today was our sea kayaking day!! We booked an excursion independently with the Geiranger Kayak Centre. We had to walk two km on flat land around to the put in point. Once there we were provided with life jackets and spray skirts, then briefed on safety steps for sea kayaking. Our guide was named Ott (pronounced oit) and he was excellent. We were two families of four who all set out for the Sisters Waterfall. 

J and I paddled together, as did JG and P.  What a stunning way to experience the Geiranger Fjord!  Three hours of paddling with such enormous soaring rocks rights beside us!!  P said this was his favourite port so far - that when he faced the waterfall directly across from the seven sisters, he felt at one with nature!!

Our family with another from Ohio posing for a picture in front of the Seven Sisters Waterfall!

We returned to the ship and ate a very late lunch at 2:30 pm. J and P left the ship to climb to the top of the waterfall hike- it was about 10 km and 500 metres elevation gain.  JG and I went and did a little shopping!

Supper, then a hot tub on the 17th deck. And we made a point of spending some time on the observation deck as we pulled out of Geiranger at 10 pm. It was still daylight and much beauty to see. 

Exiting Geiranger Fjord at 11 pm at night!!

Returned to the room at 11:15 to get the bones of the blog together and hit the hay! 

Tomorrow we have a hike and bike in Alesund!

Day 9 Bergen, Norway

We were awakened by the Captain this morning at 6 am, not announcing that we were cleared to disembark, rather to scold the passengers who were feeding the birds from their balcony. The Captain said these passengers were to stop feeding the birds immediately and that it what they were doing was illegal. Sheesh!!!  Really?  You need to be told that?

So at 7 am we actually got out up, ate breakfast and disembarked by 8:15 am. Our plan was to walk to the base of the Mount Floyen Funicular. The funicular is kind of like a gondola but operates like a train that goes up the mountain and offers a great view of the city and surrounding area of Bergen. 

Once at the top we enjoyed the vantage point and took pictures of some of the local goats that reside in the area.  You could buy a ticket to descend but we chose to follow the 3 km path on foot to get back to the city centre. 

View of Bergen (and the goats) from the top of the Funicular!

Once back in town, we caught a taxi to the town of Salhus to visit the Textile Museum called Museum Senterer. It was a departure from the typical tourist attractions. JG had found it online - and  we were happy to join one other couple from the Netherlands on the tour. The mill made Salhus an industrial port beginning about 1860. The wool yarn factory continued until about 1989. It is now a textile museum.  JG bought a Norwegian wool sweater as his souvenir of this vacation.

Our guide Helma explaining one of the machines at the Textile Museum!

We then travelled by two buses back to the port of Bergen. The all aboard time was 3:30 pm. We enjoyed dinner up at the Surf side buffet at around 5 pm and saw beautiful views departing from Bergen. 

We had tickets to The Price is Right Live tonight. They did an excellent job recreating the game show on the stage. We had lots of fun cheering and laughing (and no our names were not called). We then enjoyed the comedy movie The Proposal with Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock on the TV. 

Heading to bed at about 10:30 pm and the sky is still very light. Sunset is supposed to be about 11:25 pm tonight with sunrise tomorrow at 3:44 am!!

Day 8 At Sea

Simple opportunities abound with a day at sea!  Today we enjoyed breakfast and lunch in Hudson’s - the 7th floor dining room. And then we enjoyed the Italian restaurant Onda by Scarpetta for dinner. This is a specialty restaurant that normally is an up charge to eat at - but it was complimentary to us. Quite delicious but beyond our wallets to eat at without the price break!  I thought the best dish was the chocolate cake for dessert!!

 JG, P and I all tried the Drop - a 10 story enclosed slide off the side of the ship. It was fun to try, extremely safe and not too fast. And it was free!  (Like mini golf- but some of these extra activities like the speedway racetrack have an extra charge).

Oh and we played two games of trivia. The first one we were getting our feet under us and the second we hit our stride and tied for first with 17 out of 20!!

Tomorrow we are prepared to dock in Bergen, Norway!

Day 7 Amsterdam

We arrived in Amsterdam around 7 am and guests were allowed to disembark by 7:15 am.   We left the ship shortly after 8:30 with plans to meet our friend T at 9 am. After a couple detours getting there we met outside the train station at 9:30 am. 

T guided us down streets to discover some beautiful hidden gems. This included the Beginjhof - where pious Catholic single women who performed good deeds but did not want to live in a convent and did not take vows. 

We made our way to the Vincent Van Gogh 

Art museum. J went to discover the nearby gardens, T had an appointment and JG, P and I went to visit the museum. Clearly it was necessary to prebook our time slots for the museum because the family in front of us got turned away being told they were sold out until the end of the month. We times our walk to arrive at 11:15 am and had 30 minutes to enter but could stay as long as we wanted inside the museum. We stayed our intended 1 hour 45 minutes and appreciated the highlights tour offered with the audio guide to meet that time frame. What a sad story of a brilliant artist. 

We grabbed a sandwich in the park and met up with J and T at 1 pm.  T had arranged a canal boat tour at 1:30 starting from nearby so we hopped aboard and took the outdoor seats at the back of the boat!

Typical buildings we saw on the 75 minute boat ride!

One of many canals in Amsterdam with bikes!!

Sunflowers painted by Vincent Van Gogh museum!

We saw the Norwegian Prima while in our canal boat tour!

Amsterdam Central Station with our personal tour guide T!

We thoroughly enjoyed our day in Amsterdam. And I won’t ever again load pictures before I write text!!  Sorry for the disjointed report!

Day 6 Brugge

We had a time zone adjustment heading further east today. So we set our alarm for 7 am when it felt like 6 am. Breakfast in the surf side cafe was a busy affair.  It was a great selection of breakfast buffet style. Omelettes, eggs Benedict, muesli and lots of fruit made for a satisfying breakfast!

By 8:45 am we were cleared to disembark. We had to take a cruise ship shuttle through the industrial port to the gate. Once at the gate we walked a couple hundred metres and crossed the street to where we found the Cruise express bus. This shuttle would take us from the port of Debrugge to the city centre of Brugge - about a 30 minute ride. 

J had premapped out a walking tour that we followed along the canal to get to Grote Market in the centre of town. We had  lovely weather, with temperatures in the mid 20’s and sunshine!

Once in the downtown market, J went to the beer museum where he spent an hour that included 3 four ounce samples of beer - a light fruitage, a medium chocolate ale and a trappist vanilla caramel herbed beer. John liked them all - what a way to celebrate his 60th birthday!  Three beers he may not see again!

John after his beer museum tour celebrating his 60th birthday!

While J enjoyed the beer museum the three of us headed to the House of Waffles  to enjoy the liege waffles. We t shared the lighter Brussels waffle too - but we really loved the liege waffles. They were smothered in bananas and chocolate and in my case strawberries too!!  Yum’

We then visited numerous chocolate shops to find the just the right chocolate to try!! We found the Club Brugge soccer store - where  Buchanan and Latin from Canada were playing this past year!  But the store was closed! :(

We enjoyed the cobblestone streets and walked back to the Cruise Express pick up point in time to catch the 2/30 shuttle back to the ship. 

Once back at the ship we played Code Names, then enjoyed dinner in  Commodore Room for dinner. We were treated to table 4 right by the window to celebrate J’s birthday. He received a complimentary glass of wine and a piece of birthday cake with singing waiters too!!

We played another round of mini golf tonight and the winds were high and the air was cold!!!  Moving north on the English Channel has some blustery cold winds!!

We then headed up to the Observation Deck to enjoy the views (without the wind) but through glass and see the full expanse of the view!

Day 5 Embarkation on Norwegian Prima

Our Norwegian Prima Itinerary!

I had a great night of sleep last night!  I feel fully adjusted to the time zone change now!  We had breakfast at R’s house and by 9:30 am were loading into the car to begin the drive to Southampton to catch the Norwegian Prima Cruise ship.  R navigated us expertly to gate 10, berth 102 to deliver us to the port for embarkation.  What personalized service!  We have never experienced such customized treatment while getting to a cruise ship!

Our check in time at the pier was 11 am.  JG and I dropped our big bags, J and P chose to carry them.  We then proceeded through security - which is very similar to airport security (we had to remove our laptops) - but I think security is primarily looking for liquor.  We then checked in with passports and a hard copy of our check in documentation where they used a bar code to scan us in.  We then were presented with our key cards that act as room keys, identification and credit cards for the duration of the cruise.  We sat down for about 10 minutes and then were invited to board the ship.  They whole process took about 40 minutes.  It was extremely efficient!  

We entered the ship at deck 6 and our oceanview room is on deck 5 so we immediately descended one floor intending to drop our carry on bags (and big bags for two of us).  We soon learned that all access to staterooms was closed so we had to carry our bags with us.  Up we went to Indulge Food Hall on the 8th floor to eat lunch.  The Indulge Food Hall is kind of like the the Lido Deck where buffet style food is offered.  JG and P went to choose their food and we soon learned that guests use high tech iPads to place food orders at the table and the food is promptly delivered to your table!

After lunch we played a dice game of farkle (with bags safely stowed by us) and by 2:15 pm we were invited to enter our staterooms.  We have an adjoining stateroom and are very happy with the amount of space and storage in it!  We unpacked bags and settled in.

JG and J are off exploring the ship and I am hoping to post this before we pull out of port so that I can use internet available thanks to my SIM card!  Dinner will be at Hudson’s Dining Room at 5:30 pm.

Day 4 London Museums to Haslemere

My boys at Victoria and Albert Museum

We awoke this morning and had a stellar breakfast included with our hotel reservation at The Bailey's Hotel.  Amazing bacon, sausages, chocolate croissants the best I have eaten in my life and on the list went.  Delicious!

We checked out of our hotel but left our small little pieces of luggage with concierge. We had a plan to visit the Victoria and Albert Museum at 10 am as soon as it opened, located 750 metres from our hotel.  We walked there and saw across the street a huge line of people for the Museum of Natural History.  The V & A museum had no line whatsoever and we were unsure where to enter.  In both cases the museum admission was free!  Clearly we entered in a side door to the V & A museum but we had an American staffer/volunteer that cheerfully provided recommendations of what areas we should visit given we had 2 hours to view it.  We went straight to the cast room (JG and I both thought this would be caste - you know first class versus steerage - but no this was cast as in plaster)  Stunning recreations of artifacts from around the world!  Like Michelangelo's David for instance!

We then visited the jewellery exhibit on the second floor - fascinating, then spent timing viewing British Artifacts.  We had a quick snack and drink on the ground floor cafe.

We had time slot tickets for 12 noon across the street at the Museum of Natural History.  This was clearly a big draw for families with children as there were many interactive exhibits.  Tickets were free, but they made it more obvious that they were collecting and would appreciate donations here. (We did donate!)

The most interesting part of this museum was the recreation of an earthquake in Kobe Japan.  You felt the floor shift and saw store shelves collapsing around you. Of course having two engineers and a geologist go through this museum meant the other three in my family all had detailed conversations about topics above my pay grade!

We left the museum and walked back to the hotel and stopped for a delicious meal at Baba Ganouj - across the street from the hotel!  We had mostly cold appetizers and salads that we shared and it hit the spot!

We then collected our luggage and walked across the street to Gloucester Road tube station.  We wisened up and spent £2 on our underground ticket to Waterloo Station (we each had to swipe a credit card at the turnstiles rather than buying tickets in advance like we did yesterday - that forced us to buy  Zones 1 to 6 and cost £15 apiece.  We then transferred to the National Rail line where we purchased tickets to Haselmere where R lives.  Our timing was perfect and we had 10 minutes to get to platform 14 and catch the 4 pm train to Haslemere.  R was waiting for us at the gate when we arrived about one hour later!

Haselmere is located about halfway between London and Southampton, where we will board the ship tomorrow - so it is perfectly situated for us.  R has us bunked each in our own room in his Father's apartment that has recently been vacated and he has a unit right next door.  We enjoyed tea, ice cream, walks on his amazing property a walk into town and a wonderful supper at a pub.

Here we are pictured out for a walk on Ray's beautiful property!

We then returned and played some boardgames.  Tomorrow R will drive us to Southampton to catch the Norwegian Prima! Our family is in heaven for the royal service!

Day 3 Full Day in London

We awoke this morning at Cooper's Hill Retirement Village where we all had a wonderful night of sleep!  JG & P were guests in R's residence and J & I had the pleasure of staying in the one & only guest suite which residents can rent out for visiting friends.  This is a classy retirement village!  It is run by Audley and they have a number of retirement villages throughout the United Kingdom.  Our boys slept through the night (and in P's case until 8:30 am when his brother awoke him!), while J and I awoke briefly at 3 am.  We were able to fall back asleep though!  Pretty great considering we had seven time zones to adjust to.

We had packed our bags to reflect just what we needed for one overnight in London.  R took our big bags with him back to his home where we will meet him later tomorrow.  By 10 am we were on the road driving to London with R at the wheel.  R did so many things to prepare for our visit and make us feel welcome including purchasing SIM cards for P and I to use in our phones without exorbitant data roaming charges!  R had The Bailey's Hotel programmed into his car GPS system so we could drop off our small carry on bags at the hotel so we could explore the city unencumbered by bags!  R then continued to drive us around London to see the major sites, like Buckingham Palace, St. Paul's Cathedral, the Tower Bridge, the London Eye etc.  He was a rock star navigating the traffic and acting as our tour guide while making his way to the Borough Market where he dropped us off around lunch time.

At Borough Market we had a couple of hours to wander around.  JG and J bought mushroom and chicken pies for lunch.  P and I had fish (cod) and chips - all of it was very tasty.  The reason R dropped us off in this location was because we had purchased tickets for a walking (and underground) tour to see parts of London used in the filming of the Harry Potter series.  Our guide Louis (pronounced Lu-ee) was excellent.  One of the ways he made this tour interactive was to sort all of us into the four Hogwarts Houses and ask trivia questions about the book/movie series.  Our family successfully answered a number of questions to help Ravenclaw for the win!

We saw sites used for the filming of the visit to the Ministry of Magic, Gringott's Bank and the Millennium Bridge which collapsed in the third book (this bridge nearly collapsed in real life, in the year 2,000, the day after it was opened to the public and it apparently had significant structural shortcomings, so a two year long $5 million pound update was necessary.)  There are 38 bridges crossing the Thames River in London and the Millennium bridge is the narrowest one, so it was the most economical to recreate in the movie. That bridge collapsing scene was the most expensive filmed in all of the 8 Harry Potter movies.  

This photo is of the South African embassy- and the outside was used to film Gringott's Bank.

After our guided tour was finished, we caught the Underground on the Picadilly line to Gloucester Road to our hotel.  We checked into our lovely hotel (where one of our rooms was courtesy of my sister LC!).  We each also carried beautiful Yeti water bottles with about  one litre of water in them courtesy of LC.  And it was a good thing too -  London was 27 C today and we needed to keep hydrated!  

After a quick clean up we headed out for supper to Nando's.  We were all happy with our meals!  JG had a vegetarian dish and the rest of us had chicken!  When we returned to our rooms, I worked on this blog - then the other 3 went on a walk towards Kensington Garden.  J especially wanted to go shortly after 8 pm as he was trying not to fall asleep!

Day 2 London Arrival & Windsor Castle

Day 2 - Today was exciting to land at London's Heathrow airport and have our friend R pick us up!  What a joy!  We collected our luggage (yay - no lost luggage!) and processed through customs without issue.  As soon as we exited the secured area R was there to greet us.  How wonderful!  We learned that a person pays £15 pounds to park for 45 minutes at Heathrow.  And if you choose to drop somebody off at the airport you will be charged £5 - without ever parking.  Clever way to earn revenue at the airport!

London has beautiful weather this week - we are currently enjoying 27 Celsius.  The drive to our amazing lodging tonight was beautiful and green with so many mature trees.  We have a view of Windsor Castle across the meadow!  Our close proximity to Windsor Castle inspired us to pay a visit.  While the Royal family is not staying at Windsor Castle, the public is allowed to visit (for an admission fee) from Thursday to Monday.  The Castle and gardens are stunning!  Many areas did not allow photos inside, but outside those restrictions did not exist! It is amazing to have watched so many Royal events on TV - weddings and funerals - and now see the premises up close!

Windsor Castle beautiful gardens and buildings!

We then returned to our guest suite for the night and had a wonderful tranquil walk through the gardens.  

A refreshing treat after our walk in the heat this afternoon, was a family swim in the pool

We then enjoyed dinner at the restaurant with R and his father and our family of four.  It was really tasty food and even more wonderful company.  Jet lag is catching up with all of us - we slept two to three hours on the plane and it has been a busy day.  We are getting onto London time zone by going to bed at 10:30 pm.  Pictures can be added tomorrow!

Day 1

So step one complete - JG arrived from out of the province and P arrived home from work about the same time. That allowed for 90 minutes at home to do last minute packing, eat dinner, then catch a cab to the airport. 

We had all kinds of spare time and space to check in our luggage and get through - no lineups whatsoever. We all had our passports and checked in without incident. Once we got through security we had more than two hours to bide our time while awaiting to board our flight.  In the other side of security the international terminal is a bustling place!!  Lots of people and a wee bit challenging to find four seats together!

Good news - our flight is on time and we fly nonstop to London Heathrow!  So we plan to read, watch videos, play Pokémon and try to sleep on the flight!

When we arrive in Heathrow - I will use airport wifi to use WhatsApp to coordinate with our friend R who is picking us up at the airport!

And we’re off!!

Preparation Day for Northern European Vacation

We are preparing for a family vacation!  This is no small feat when your sons are employed full time in the work force and must allocate precious vacation days to make it all happen.  But we have made it a priority and we fly tomorrow, late in the day to arrive at Heathrow airport on Thursday.  We will enjoy a few days in London, England before we board our first Norwegian Cruise Line Ship in Southampton on Sunday.  The packing continues but I do have my passport and currency....