A Sisters‘ Summer Sailing to Scandinavia - update: After Cruise Day 2: Tivoli

[Flossbolna]

I would love to see this just to say I had.

We did not see a goat on a roof unfortunately... Our guide kept talking about how the animals are on summer vacation at the moment. We never understood what he meant by this (even though people were asking for him to explain). Katharina and I think that they might have a system like in the Alps where during the summer months the animals go up to higher altitude meadows to be fed on the grass there and then return to the valley in the fall.

Woah. So amazingly beautiful.

Yes, this waterfall was definitely a surprise on the excursion and for me the true highlight of the day!

 

[Flossbolna]

I was going to say how "European" your photos looked until I remembered that this was where you were.

Yes, Europe sometimes still looks European!!

Never ever tried one on the ship - they need to be REAL fresh (or freshly microwaved) to be real yummy.

I am not a huge donut fan in the first place. But maybe REAL fresh will make me a convert. I see that I have an invitation from @GoofyFan1515 to further my donut experience in the fall!

Ah, would love to have a cup of tea up there, looking down on the water.

Yes, our original plan was to explore the town and hike up there for some Norwegian waffles.

 

[Flossbolna]

Hello everyone over there in the US and especially Wyoiming (in case we have any readers there), just wanted to say thank you, as we were treated today to a IMAX screening of "America Wild: National Parks Adventure" for FREE, curtesy of Brand USA and Visit Wyoming (both seem to be partially state or federal funden, so some of your taxes have made it over to Berlin). We even got a plush fearsome critter (they obviously roam Wyoming) although we had no kids with us, but I guess my husband has a really convincing sad look. The film was so-so, but ignoring the very constructed unnecessary backstory, there were nice shots of various National Parks and FREE Popcorn!

Hey, I just realized today when I was checking play times for Beauty and the Beast that this movie is showing in Nuremberg as well. Do you think it is worth a visit when paying for it and without free popcorn and plush?

 

[Flossbolna]

I was in Wyoming last summer for work at Grand Teton and Yellowstone. I thought for sure the photos and movies were amped up, but it really is that beautiful and breathtaking in person. Which fearsome creature did you get? Bison? Elk?

I remember the amazing pictures you posted on your trip report!

And I hope that @nodnol posts a picture of the fearsome creature for us!

 

[Flossbolna]

Not the way to start.

No, it kind of was a bit annoying.

Well you took some great pictures so I for one am very happy the window is clean.

Thanks! Actually the one thing that was a bit of a nuisance was the reflection of my camera. When I bought the camera, my BIL had just bought the same model for him and Katharina. They bought it in black. I really liked the camera in white and we were talking about that I intended to buy it in white. He told me that black would be better in case you want to take pictures through a window as that would have less reflection issues. Of course, I still wanted the pretty camera despite his good advise. I think I thought of my BIL more on that bus trip than his wife did... Every time I saw my camera reflected in the picture I just took...

Wow I can see the influence. What a pretty church.

It really was quite amazing. Especially at the end of our time there when most the other busses had departed. It was very crowded when we got there.

Makes me think they could have maybe combined your group with another if needed or necessary? Seems like the way you both describe the guide, he was a last minute sub or just a dud.

Not sure about the guide. But Katharina and I were thinking exactly the same thing: not only a replacement bus, but also a replacement guide...

Very Pretty ladies!!!!

Thanks!

 

[Flossbolna]

So.....toast the bread and slice it up into croutons and still sounds like a salad to me...........

Haha! It sounds like you would fit right in when Michael and Fran bonded over the aversion towards "weeds" in a salad.

Well, you know all those birds can do a lot of aerial bombardment damage.

Especially puffins, I am sure.

Now HOW would I be able to guess THAT???

Well, you have met Michael, you know what a sweetheart he is. Then you know exactly on how to guess THAT!

I don't know, but while you were in Florida I sent you a text assuming you have the same SIM card as you did in December, but got no reply. Guessing possibly you didn't get it for the same reason.

Ahem, no that was me only having data on my SIM card for that particular visit and no texting and thinking I would answer your text with an email and then getting distracted with other things and therefore sending you an email after I got home where I totally forgot to say thanks for the text!

The "o" or the "u"? Just kidding..........

Sounds right up our alley.............

Ok, let me know when you book a cruise and I want to be in the audiences when you get to play!!

Nothing beats a good meal with a view!

Exactly! For me this is one of the selling points of being on the ship: The view of the ocean - or in this case of the port. I don't get the ships where people seem to hang out more in spaces that could be anywhere on land.

"and other things:" That is some useful shorthand I need to remember for future use!

I don't think you need me to figure out that it was bacon and buttered toast and potatoes. And it might have been writers fatigue after a long evening working on the trip report...

Okay, if we DO manage to meet up in October, having a car with us, we need to take you to Krispy Kreme when the Hot Donuts Now light is on!

It's a deal!

Supposed to? Guessing you didn't venture on up to the top..........

Had other, higher things to venture to! It actually was high on the list of things that we wanted to do if we had not taken the excursion.

Okay, now THAT is Disney service you expect!

Yes, I think it was the right thing to do!

A million? Hope you didn't run out of film! You got some great pictures throughout the day for sure!

Michael and I looked at some pictures of his of WDW in the 1980s (wow, how empty it was then and how thin everyone was) and the one thing that we noticed was how bad a lot of the pictures were. I think the ability to take as many pictures as you want with digital really helps to filter out the bad ones and concentrate on the good ones. And in the end you still have more pictures than you ever would have had before digital. I also think it is easier to learn on what makes a good picture because you instantly see the result. Michael definitely takes better pictures now than he did in 1989.

Hope they never run out of gas half way through. On a positive note, you can take one picture of the scenery..... and just save it a million times.

Is that TRUE (authentic) School Bread in the middle?

Yes, this was actually the least attractive one!

 

[Flossbolna]

Whoa that bus was a mess!

I was just glad that it happened before we were on that bus.

The painted church is stunning!

Yes, it was quite a surprise since it was so plain on the outside.

What a strange guide; why would you do that job if you aren't passionate about sharing information?

We kept asking us exactly that.

Love the pic of the two of you on the bridge!

Thanks!

 

[Flossbolna]

Cruise Day 4: Smashed Windows and Trolls in Ålesund - Part 4

From here we started to climb up the mountains on our way to the Trollstigen (or way of the trolls). While it has a very mysterious name, it is mainly just a road over a mountain pass. While on one side the approach is not too bad, the other side is very steep and has many hairpin bends. That part is the Trollstigen. At the top is a viewpoint where you can see the road winding down into the valley. The pass has an elevation of 2,790 feet. And since you start out down in a fjord, you start out on sea level.

The higher we got, the colder it looked outside. There was definitely still quite a bit of snow around. The road is only open during the summer, most years it opens in mid May for the season. You could tell that it had not been open that long when we were there.

(the pictures are a little darker than they would be because of being taken through the bus window).

At the top is a large parking area, the “Trollstigen Senter” with shop, restaurant and facilities. According to the description that I got for the excursion from DCL now, this is where you are supposed to have a 75 minute break and time to get some lunch. There is a small counter service restaurant there. This is where I am not sure if this was already in the description when we booked it. First of all, we definitely did not have 75 minutes there. More like 45 minutes or even less. Also, I am not sure if that small restaurant would be able to deal with the masses of people coming of the DCL busses if all of them wanted a meal there (even if half of the busses were the excursion that included lunch). Also, thanks to our delay, it was definitely getting late for lunch already.

There is a really nice walkway to a view point from the top, so this is where we went.

This river will turn into some very beautiful waterfalls later on:

Looking down into the valley:

Looking up:

Someone had built a snowman:

We did not ask him if he liked warm hugs. But he did look like he was dreaming of summer.

This is the walkway:

And here you can see the Trollstigen:

I tried a vertical panorama shot:

More impressive than the road was all the water coming down the mountain:

Some of those pictures were already taken during the drive down into the valley.

Once we were at the end of the hairpin bends, we soon came to another stop. According to our tour guide, this was where one could purchase lunch. I think we got there around 3pm or so? However, according to the original tour description, the reason we stopped here was the view of the Trollvæggen (troll wall). However, our tour guide did not mention this at all. Since Katharina and I had already eaten, we were just hanging around taking pictures and were a bit bored.

I am pretty sure that we stopped there for longer than we should have as it took the people who were buying food there a long time to actually get the food. I was really not sure where we ought to have gotten food as none of the places where we stopped seemed to have any kind of restaurant that would be able to sell food quickly to multiple bus loads of people.

When we continued we drove through a number of small towns which were quite pretty and had some really nice views of the fjords on that side of the mountains:

It really was a fairly long drive back to the ship. At some point we stopped for another bath room break. It turned out that this was actually an interesting place, where a very old road used to go through and there was an old border stone:

We finally made it back to the ship quite late. I think first dining had already started by then and our new friends were concerned on what to do. They were very happy when I told them that they could always head to Cabana’s for dinner as well.

Katharina and I were quite exhausted and first had to get a snack at the counter service up on the pool deck to tide us over until dinner:

There they had a regional offering as well, a Swedish Meatball Sandwich:

We did not get this, but instead Katharina had a hot dog and I had a burger:

Continued in Part 4

 

[Flossbolna]

Cruise Day 4: Smashed Windows and Trolls in Ålesund - Part 4

While we were up there, Commodore Tom was making his “end of port day” announcement telling us we were going to leave shortly and then proceeded to tell us about the next day. He told us that we were going to enter Geiranger Fjord at 5:45 am the next morning and that he expected everyone to be “up and about by 5:30 am” to enjoy the amazing views of this fjord. The whole speech was delivered in Commodore Tom’s usual tone: absolutely devoid of any emotion. He might be great at steering ships, but he truly cannot deliver the tiniest amount of cheerfulness and enthusiasm that is so Disney. Katharina and I nearly fell over laughing about his suggestion to be up on deck at 5:45 am! We were on vacation! Who wants to get up that early????

We then relocated to O’Gills for the drink of the day – and since they were offering snacks there as well, we also got some more food.

Katharina made good use of the time there to update our trip notes:

I think this was when we discussed all the issues we had with the excursion. We felt that we were happy with what we had seen, but that there had definitely been a lot of things that did not go as well as we would expect from a DCL port adventure. And we felt that we ought to write those down, so that we would remember them and then let DCL know about them.

While we were sitting there, the ship left Ålesund and we got a little farewell show:

We also talked for quite a bit with the server at O’Gills, who was really nice. He was from India and was so excited about seeing snow for the first time ever on the mountains around us.

Before dinner we went out to chase the chocolate that Anna had promised us. There were three clues in the Navigator every day. The clues this day were:
Every evening this is the place to go to catch a film or see the big show
Sing and play – this family lounge is really funky – or dance the night away “like chicken with the face of a monkey.”
This dining place is black and white, and changes color thoughout the night.

They were not too difficult and we quickly found what we were looking for. However, some of the objects we were finding were rather distinctly Arendellish and we were not really sure what they correct English word would be. So a few times we actually asked CMs or other guests that were around about what this thing would be called in English.

We spent a little bit of time watching the landscape as we were entering the fjords. All the way from here to Geiranger was not going to be out in the open seas, but some kind of fjords, the most spectacular of them the Geirangerfjord which we would enter the next morning.

I think watching the landscape there made us think if indeed we should not do as the Commodore told us and be up at 5:30am…

We also saw some characters in Norwegian costumes:

And then encountered a lovely sea turtle in our room.

We had a wonderful stateroom attendant on this cruise. We often chatted with her a bit and she was really lovely. Unfortunately at some point during the cruise, she injured her foot and when we got to Bergen she told us that they had arranged for her to go to the hospital and then we never saw her again. We were very sorry that her injury was so bad that she had to stop working. But I guess as a stateroom attendant you really need to have feet in working order and you cannot continue working if you have an injury that needs rest.

The it was time for dinner. Tonight was the Prince & Princess dinner menu.

Bread and dip to start with:

We both had one of the Regional Inspirations as a starter, the Gravlaks with Sweet Mustard Sauce:

This was definitely one of the more fitting regional dishes.

I think Katharina had the other regional inspired dish, the Green and White Asparagus Spears with a Tomato Béarnaise

And I guess this was my salad, the Coronation of Mixed Leaves, Vine Tomatoes, Blue Cheese, Apples, Candied Walnuts and Aged Red Wine Vinegar:

I think for our entrees Katharina had the turkey: Oven-roasted Tom Turkey Breast with Green Beans, Sweet Mashed Potatoes, Rosemary Stuffing, Giblet Gravy and Cranberry Relish:

I had the Roasted Portobello Mushroom Triangoli Pasta topped with Sour Cream, Pesto Swirl and a Sweet Butternut Squash Sauce:

This is one of my overall favourite dishes on DCL. But then I love pasta, mushrooms and butternut squash. I also love that this is one of the few pasta dishes in the main dining room that does not have seafood in it.

We had a look at the pretty dessert menu:

But then decided to not have dessert and instead head out on deck for an evening walk. This had been a really nice dinner. Some of the other tables did not come for dinner tonight and we had some time to chat with our servers. Not eating dessert also shortened the whole dining process.

The views up on deck were really very pretty:

We noticed that the ship was moving very slowly. As I had said before, the distance was really not very far to Geiranger. Looking at the mountains around us, we also decided that there was no question anymore about getting up at 5:30 am. We definitely wanted to be up on deck for the whole fjord!! So, we went to bed early and set the alarm for 5:30am!

Up Next: Cruise Day 5: Hiking in Geiranger and Dinner with a View.

 

[tiggrbaby]

Oh-my-goodness the view from the top! I would not have wanted to be the driver!

The original border stone was interesting. Thank goodness you were prepared as to what you were seeing since the guide was not.

I like that DCL has little snacks at the lounges before dinner.

The views are stunning; can't wait to see what you woke up for!

 

[dolphingirl47]

Ok, I need to make a mental note that when you come to Nuremberg to visit the lovely jewelry shops that I need to take you through my neighborhood with the impressive Jugendstil facades.

I will take you up on this kind offer. I just need to convince my boss to give me a couple of days off in a row.

While on one side the approach is not too bad, the other side is very steep and has many hairpin bends.

That sounds like my worst nightmare and even looking at those hairpin bends made my stomach turn. However, the scenery is truly stunning.

There they had a regional offering as well, a Swedish Meatball Sandwich:

Oh, I would have loved this.

Katharina and I nearly fell over laughing about his suggestion to be up on deck at 5:45 am! We were on vacation! Who wants to get up that early????

We have been up even earlier for both Panama Canal crossings and the Suez Canal crossing. I am far from a morning person, but sometimes it just has to be done.

I had the Roasted Portobello Mushroom Triangoli Pasta topped with Sour Cream, Pesto Swirl and a Sweet Butternut Squash Sauce:

I love this dish.

Looking at the mountains around us, we also decided that there was no question anymore about getting up at 5:30 am. We definitely wanted to be up on deck for the whole fjord!! So, we went to bed early and set the alarm for 5:30am!

This definitely would have warranted an early wakeup call for me.

Corinna

 

[GoofyFan1515]

Haha! It sounds like you would fit right in when Michael and Fran bonded over the aversion towards "weeds" in a salad.

Actually I eat a lot of salad, I just try not to get confused between salad and a sandwich.

Ahem, no that was me only having data on my SIM card for that particular visit and no texting and thinking I would answer your text with an email and then getting distracted with other things and therefore sending you an email after I got home where I totally forgot to say thanks for the text!

Errr.........what???

Ok, let me know when you book a cruise and I want to be in the audiences when you get to play!!

You really do like to be bored don't you??? And you've spent time with me before too...................

The higher we got, the colder it looked outside. There was definitely still quite a bit of snow around. The road is only open during the summer, most years it opens in mid May for the season. You could tell that it had not been open that long when we were there.

Now that's the sort of view I can see myself camping at.............in a cabin!

(the pictures are a little darker than they would be because of being taken through the bus window).

And all the snow to throw the lighting off..........

 

[nodnol]

Never ever tried one on the ship - they need to be REAL fresh (or freshly microwaved) to be real yummy.

The thing was that since my non-disney-vacation in the US, I know what donuts, especially the warm and fresh ones, can taste like. Somewhere on the Dis I had read that the donuts on the ships are supposed to be good. So I was looking forward to try them.

Okay, if we DO manage to meet up in October, having a car with us, we need to take you to Krispy Kreme when the Hot Donuts Now light is on!

Please do, she doesn't believe me that they are deliciuos...

 

[Flossbolna]

Please do, she doesn't believe me that they are deliciuos...

Well, if my only point of reference are Dunkin Donut donuts, are you surprised? I still think the ones you and I made for New Years Eve a few years back were the best "donuts" I ever had! Oh - and on my recent trip to Florida we had donuts for desert at a restaurant in Miami. Donuts with a maple glaze and bacon. Very good!

 

[rndmr2]

Nice update, Wow that mountain road was crazy! definitely wouldn't want to drive up that road. Beautiful views from the top though. Sorry you had such a stinky tour guide but at least you got a lot of great pictures.

Dinner looked good. Definitely don't blame you for wanting to go to bed early to get up by 5:30am to see the Fjord. I have seen pics of it and I would think it will be worth it. Hopefully you'll have time to take a nap later.

Okay, if we DO manage to meet up in October, having a car with us, we need to take you to Krispy Kreme when the Hot Donuts Now light is on!

Ohh yes, those things are Heavenly!!

 

[linetbo]

Cruise Day 4: Smashed Windows and Trolls in Ålesund - Part 2

We continued the drive, still following along a fjord:

As you see above, we were about to enter a tunnel. Norway has plenty of tunnels, including the longest road tunnel in the world which is over 15 miles long.

We then came to our next stop, Valdall. I am really not sure why we stopped there (the only thing our guide told us about were the public restrooms).

It was a little village at the end of the fjord with nothing really much to see. Katharina and I saw a small supermarket though and decided that now would be a good time to try to find something to eat.

They had some baked goods:

And we ended up with a salad and a pastry.

There were picnic tables at the waterfront and we met up with Terri and Paul there who were eating lunch as well. They had been smart and brought food from the ship. Normally on all my previous DCL cruises there were big signs about how you are not allowed to bring food off the ship into the country you are visiting. I had been wondering about this with regard to Norway. With Norway being a member of EEA (the European Economic Area) it is participating in the European Union’s single market. This means that there is no customs between Denmark (as a EU member state) and Norway as there is free movement of goods between all the EEA member countries. So, if there was no customs official concerned with what came off the ship, why would it be forbidden to bring food off the ship? Anyone travelling from Denmark to Norway can bring food for personal consumption into the country (with the exception of meat that originates outside the EEA). So, bringing food off the ship is possible on the Norway cruise and for this excursion Terri and Paul did the smart thing.

Normally I am not a fan of people who think that a breakfast buffet is also where they can get a free packed lunch. But with the cruise I think it is different. Getting lunch on the ship would actually be included in the price of the cruise fare. So, it is not as if I would get an additional meal that I have not paid for from them.

The view during lunch was quite nice though.

From here we drove on to Gulbrandsjuvet. This was a spectacular waterfall. You visit the top of the waterfall and see how it falls down in many different areas. There is an interesting pedestrian bridge construction from where you have amazing views.

We really enjoyed our break there, this was a highlight for us on that day that we did not expect.

Will be Continued in Part 3

Do you remember how long that stop was? I wantbto have enough time to buy some pastries and see the view, of course and use the restroom.

 

[GoofyFan1515]

Ohh yes, those things are Heavenly!!

Good description! When they're hot, it's like eating a cloud..............

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

It was a bit of a gloomy day.

But the mountains and fjords make up for it!

Well, we did not deem this donut to be wonderful. You could tell it was not fresh

Yeah, that looks like one you'd find in any grocery store. Sorry it was a disappointment.

It was the German Kaiser, Wilhelm II. Yes, the same one who foolishly started the First World War just 10 years later. He used his personal wealth to send 4 ships with goods to help and which could shelter the towns people who had lost their houses. The city was rebuilt with a lot of financial help from around the world, but especially Germany. To make the city safer, it was ordered that there were no more wooden houses to be built. And the city was rebuilt in the current fashion of that time: Art Nouveau – or to be more precise, in the German version of it: Jugendstil. It is quite exceptional in that regard as it is not only a few buildings, but since the whole city was rebuilt in the span of a few years, it is all very concentrated.

That's a fascinating history. Thanks for sharing the story!

We also had the possibility to ask someone we used to travel a lot with and who had been to Ålesund recently, whether he thinks it would be okay to not see Ålesund – our Dad. And if I remember correctly he said it was a nice enough town, but as we have lots of Jugendstil buildings where we live or travel often, he would go for the excursion. That helped me with the decision as well.

Sounds like your Dad is a wise man!

So, we finally got started and soon left Ålesund behind. I had looked up the route for the excursion on a map before our cruise and figured out that the right hand side of the bus ought to be the one with the better views as this was the side that would have water next to it, while the left hand side of the bus would have the mountain next to it. And I was right. So, anyone considering this excursion, make sure to sit on the right hand side of your bus.

I was very happy with my personal trip planner, not only on this occasion!

Obsessive trip planning always pays off!

This is a wooden church that is know for its interior with rosemåling (Norwegian for rose painting), which is a Norwegian floral decorative style. All the flowery decorations and even Elsa’s ice in Frozen are heavily inspired by this.

Wow, it's an amazing amount of detail!

It was in a beautiful valley with a waterfall and lovely views.

I could pretty much quote every photo and comment on how gorgeous the scenery is. So I'll try not to repeat myself and just say I love all of the mountains, fjords, and waterfalls. Just a beautiful area!

Unfortunately our guide turned out to not be the best guide. He often was very superficial with his explanations, there was no real depth to them. For example he only told us that we would stop at a church now, he did not mention what made the church so interesting and what the significance of the decorations were. Often he would not be able to answer questions. He was spouting out random facts on Norway sometimes without any rhyme or reason as to why he was talking about this. Somehow he gave of the impression that he was bored himself and not really interested in the topics he was talking about.

That's disappointing. If you're going to spend all day with someone, you would hope he would be interesting!

Norway has plenty of tunnels, including the longest road tunnel in the world which is over 15 miles long.

Wow, that must have cost a fortune to build!

Normally I am not a fan of people who think that a breakfast buffet is also where they can get a free packed lunch. But with the cruise I think it is different. Getting lunch on the ship would actually be included in the price of the cruise fare. So, it is not as if I would get an additional meal that I have not paid for from them.

I can see that. The food is already paid for...

The higher we got, the colder it looked outside. There was definitely still quite a bit of snow around. The road is only open during the summer, most years it opens in mid May for the season. You could tell that it had not been open that long when we were there.

This reminds me of driving through Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado.

What a view!

And here you can see the Trollstigen:

I bet that's a fun drive. Was it scary in a bus?

He told us that we were going to enter Geiranger Fjord at 5:45 am the next morning and that he expected everyone to be “up and about by 5:30 am” to enjoy the amazing views of this fjord. The whole speech was delivered in Commodore Tom’s usual tone: absolutely devoid of any emotion. He might be great at steering ships, but he truly cannot deliver the tiniest amount of cheerfulness and enthusiasm that is so Disney. Katharina and I nearly fell over laughing about his suggestion to be up on deck at 5:45 am! We were on vacation! Who wants to get up that early????

I mean, if you only get one chance to see amazing scenery, you have to put in the work, right?

We felt that we were happy with what we had seen, but that there had definitely been a lot of things that did not go as well as we would expect from a DCL port adventure. And we felt that we ought to write those down, so that we would remember them and then let DCL know about them.

I'm sorry it didn't work out as well as you'd hoped. Hopefully the suggestions you made have improved it for the future!

I think watching the landscape there made us think if indeed we should not do as the Commodore told us and be up at 5:30am…

You're coming around to my point of view...

We had a wonderful stateroom attendant on this cruise. We often chatted with her a bit and she was really lovely. Unfortunately at some point during the cruise, she injured her foot and when we got to Bergen she told us that they had arranged for her to go to the hospital and then we never saw her again. We were very sorry that her injury was so bad that she had to stop working.

That's a shame.

The views up on deck were really very pretty:

It looks like no one else was up there! I would have loved to spend the evening hanging out on the deck and enjoying the scenery.

Looking at the mountains around us, we also decided that there was no question anymore about getting up at 5:30 am. We definitely wanted to be up on deck for the whole fjord!! So, we went to bed early and set the alarm for 5:30am!

Hooray! I hope it was the right decision!

 

[glennbo123]

Ålesund. The A with the little circle on top is pronounced like the vowel in “thought”.

Thanks, that's good to know! I thought the circle was a halo.

I had some muesli:

Katharina had some egg and other things:

I'd have to go with Katharina's choices here. Sorry Magdalene!

I guess they do not give out 13, so ours was in reality number 13 – and in hindsight that was very fitting.

Uh oh.

However that coach did not look very encouraging at all!

Yikes!

I had looked up the route for the excursion on a map before our cruise and figured out that the right hand side of the bus ought to be the one with the better views as this was the side that would have water next to it, while the left hand side of the bus would have the mountain next to it. And I was right. So, anyone considering this excursion, make sure to sit on the right hand side of your bus.

Great trip planning!!

These designs were really cool! (Just replied to one picture as an example.) This must've been great to see.

Unfortunately our guide turned out to not be the best guide.

That's a shame. The guides can really add so much to a tour; you're there to learn, as well as see. This one didn't even sound competent.

Another great "sisters" picture. The ironwork looks really cool on this bridge also. I like how it doesn't spoil the view of your surroundings.

And here you can see the Trollstigen:

Wow! You should've gone down on a skateboard!

I tried a vertical panorama shot:

I've never seen that attempted...really cool!

This looked like a pretty church. Good job on getting the camera up for a quick shot.

He told us that we were going to enter Geiranger Fjord at 5:45 am the next morning and that he expected everyone to be “up and about by 5:30 am” to enjoy the amazing views of this fjord.

I like his optimism!

The whole speech was delivered in Commodore Tom’s usual tone: absolutely devoid of any emotion.

I'm sure I would've found that as something to make fun of also.

Katharina made good use of the time there to update our trip notes:

With that look on her face I can tell she's writing something critical of the tour guide right now!

Nice couple of chapters ladies!

 

[nodnol]

I was in Wyoming last summer for work at Grand Teton and Yellowstone. I thought for sure the photos and movies were amped up, but it really is that beautiful and breathtaking in person. Which fearsome creature did you get? Bison? Elk?

You'll see the picture in a bit and can decide four yourself, what it is....

Hey, I just realized today when I was checking play times for Beauty and the Beast that this movie is showing in Nuremberg as well. Do you think it is worth a visit when paying for it and without free popcorn and plush?

I already told Magdalene in person, as she was visiting with us this weekend, but for anyone out there who's also interested: NO.

And I hope that @nodnol posts a picture of the fearsome creature for us!

Do you remember how long that stop was? I wantbto have enough time to buy some pastries and see the view, of course and use the restroom.

I can't really remember, how long it was, maybe @Flossbolna does. But for us it was definitely enough time to go to the shop, I think we even lost some time because of me struggling with my card while paying, and have some of the food while enjoying the view.

With that look on her face I can tell she's writing something critical of the tour guide right now!

Or trying to concentrate - the glass of the drink of the day next to me seems empty already....