Our friend Alan Berg was the initiator of this adventure. After being turned down by my son Caleb as a travelling companion, because Caleb had too much work (!), he turned to me. Alan and Caleb are pictured here when they both visited us in New Zealand in 2004. I, on the other hand, clearly don't have too much work!
Alan and I arrive in Copenhagen on July 12, where we embark on the M.S. Vandeem, a Holland-American cruiseship pictured on the title page of this blog. We set sail that evening and will be at sea all night and all the following day. Our first port of call is Flåm, where we dock Sunday morning.
I've never been on a cruise before, unless you count the 4 months I worked on a Norwegian tramp steamer (MS Belcargo) before college in 1968-69. I really didn't know what to expect when Alan invited me. Like most people, I suppose, my images of cruising were formed by black and white movies I saw as a child. People in white ties and tails, lounge chairs on the deck, laps covered with robes or blankets, and food....lots of food. More recently I've seen my share of TV advertisements for cruises. But I doubted that Garrison Keilor and his PHC compadres would be hosting either a Disney-esque family style adventure or a Carnival buff singles style cruise. So I had some things I could eliminate. But what to substitute for them? As the weeks have gone by, these questions are being slowly answered by a steady stream of emails from the cruise organizers. Just this week we got a day by day, hour by hour schedule. My God, there isn't enough time in the day! Performances, writing workshops, nature talks and outings, shore excursions, knitting circles, scotch tastings, history seminars, talent shows...there's not a spare minute! And, of course, the ship has a gym and other assorted diversions. I'm exhausted already! :)
The ship's itinerary is along Norway's west coast. We'll be cruising in and out of fjords, and docking in a number of ports like Trondheim, Bergen, Kristianstad, and Oslo. There are many shore excursions available, but Alan and I think we will explore indepedently. In Flåm I have made arrangements to go flyfishing for salmon with a local guide on the river that empties into the fjord, for example.
I've never been on a cruise before, unless you count the 4 months I worked on a Norwegian tramp steamer (MS Belcargo) before college in 1968-69. I really didn't know what to expect when Alan invited me. Like most people, I suppose, my images of cruising were formed by black and white movies I saw as a child. People in white ties and tails, lounge chairs on the deck, laps covered with robes or blankets, and food....lots of food. More recently I've seen my share of TV advertisements for cruises. But I doubted that Garrison Keilor and his PHC compadres would be hosting either a Disney-esque family style adventure or a Carnival buff singles style cruise. So I had some things I could eliminate. But what to substitute for them? As the weeks have gone by, these questions are being slowly answered by a steady stream of emails from the cruise organizers. Just this week we got a day by day, hour by hour schedule. My God, there isn't enough time in the day! Performances, writing workshops, nature talks and outings, shore excursions, knitting circles, scotch tastings, history seminars, talent shows...there's not a spare minute! And, of course, the ship has a gym and other assorted diversions. I'm exhausted already! :)
The ship's itinerary is along Norway's west coast. We'll be cruising in and out of fjords, and docking in a number of ports like Trondheim, Bergen, Kristianstad, and Oslo. There are many shore excursions available, but Alan and I think we will explore indepedently. In Flåm I have made arrangements to go flyfishing for salmon with a local guide on the river that empties into the fjord, for example.
The trip ends in Copenhagen on July 23. Alan and I will fly to Stockholm and stay overnite with an old World Bank friend of his who lives on an island outside of Stockholm. The next day we'll separate as I go down "memory lane" to visit the school I attended in 1972-73. Through Google I've contacted the family with whom I stayed for 2 weeks before starting school, as well as a Swedish friend from that time. My school will be closed when I am there, but I will visit it anyway, and then go on to visit my family a bit further north. I'll finish up visiting Swedish friends we met through our mutual friend Stefan Harvey when they were here some years ago. They also have a summer house on a Stockholm-area island. You gotta love Scandinavia.
I fly home July 28, while Alan will stay till July 30. We leave for Copenhagen next Thursday.
Per directions from the PHC folks, I've been reading Kristin Lavransdatter, by Sigrid Unstedt.
It's a 3-volume saga of life in medieval Norway. Unstedt is a Nobel prize winning author. This recommended reading is meant to put all of us in a "Norwegian frame of mind." I thought it would be a quick read...not! I'll keep updating this as I'm able during the trip.
It's a 3-volume saga of life in medieval Norway. Unstedt is a Nobel prize winning author. This recommended reading is meant to put all of us in a "Norwegian frame of mind." I thought it would be a quick read...not! I'll keep updating this as I'm able during the trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment