Bergen, The Last Port

Bergen, Norway is the second largest city in Norway.  They say it rains 365 days a year and that babies are born with umbrellas. We, however, were blessed with the loveliest day of the trip, sun and  warmer temperatures.
    We docked close to"Byggen" with all the old merchant buildings which they are preserving.  Note how crooked some of the buildings are.

The chief draw was a funicular railroad that took you up to the top of this hill and gave you a fabulous view of Bergen.
 

The modern part of Bergen was also beautiful with flowers, lake and fountains.  The heart of their shopping section of town is all pedestrian and really lovely.

There was a big fish market right by the boat.  We passed it up, especially  the fish head.

Back in Copenhagen today was National Prayer Day and all the stores were closed, except for the bakeries and flower shops.  The joke is that the Danes only pray one day a year...Whatever, the streets were certainly empty.

Olden, Norway

Olden, Norway is at the end of another fjord and besides being post-card amazing from every view, it is a base to visit glaciers.  We took pictures from afar and enjoyed walking through the beautiful little town and country side.

How do you feel about mowing your roof?

To prove we were there.....

Alesund

Alesund was destroyed by a catastrophic fire in 1904.  It left 10,000 people and the whole center of the city  was rebuilt in Art Nouveau - plenty of color and decorative details.  It was a charming city and fun to walk around.  This was the only day we had a little rain, otherwise we were blessed with great weather for this time of year.  It wasn't particularly warm, but very manageable.

I climbed the 418 stairs to the top of this hill and this is one of  the views I had...

Greater Alesund is built on a bunch of islands connected by bridges and underwater tunnels.

I loved this statue of the woman sorting  fish to sell.

Stop Two

Our second port was up Geiranger Fjord , the deepest and the most beautiful.  We anchored at the little town of Geiranger which was the center for a lot of outdoor activities, not just cruises.

Here we just walked around and these are some of the sites. Note the zigzag road behid the boat.

Trolls are Norway's special " inhabitants."  You can buy the everywhere.

 In all the other ports we could dock along the pier, here they brought the pier to us.  It just unfolded, very interesting.
     Back in the real world, we worked putting everything back in order at the temple.  We had a special session tonight and we are good to go tomorrow with another special session for missionaries who have been out a year and are being primed to become the leaders.

Here We Go.....

I took over 500 pictures on our Norwegian Fjord Cruise.  I will try to not choose too many, but enough to give you a good feel for the wonderful time we had.  The scenery was fabulous and the weather wonderful.  We were very blessed.

   A few basic points of information.  The cruise was 8 nights and left out of Copenhagen.  Edith and Ross Brown one of our temple missionary couples went with us as well as Walt and Maureen Hale a missionary couple we meet in England who just added this on to a river cruise in Holland they had just finished.

   Our first formal dinner was Saturday night after cruising all day up the coast of Norway.

  Our first stop was up the longest fjord in Norway to the little town of Flam.  We took our only schedule shore excursion here, a train up the mountain through magnificent scenery and lovely waffles, berries and cream at a quaint little hotel.

And back to Flam

Happy Mother's Day

We are back from our cruise and there will be pictures coming.  But for today, Happy Mother's Day to all the great mothers I know.
  Besides the cruise, this was my Mother's Day Gift

Okay, I didn't really get the Frederiksberg Castle, but I did get a yearly pass.  I have to go five times to make it worth it.  I went with Maureen and Walt Hales today and know of at least four other guests who are coming. So if any of you  are in the neighborhood and need a guide, I'm good to go.

Cruise Packing

   We board our cruise liner tomorrow about noon.    It is great just being able to take a taxi down and not worry about weight of the suitcases.   It's especially nice since I am packing for cold weather as well as life on the boat.  I may or may not be able to figure out the internet  to regularly post.  I'm trying it on my I pad right now. ( However, I've had to come to the computer to get it past the draft stage, so we will see.)

    This is the packing scene.