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

[pooh'smate]

She is very well known here in Germany as an excellent equestrian. The German National anthem has an interesting history. It was written in the mid 19th century when there was no unified Germany, but all kind of principalities and it called for the founding of a unified Germany on democratic principals. However, the text was later converted into meaning something else as it could also be read to mean that Germany is superior to all other countries and it made territorial claims on areas that later ended up not being part of Germany when it was finally unified. Therefore, since it became the national anthem of West Germany in 1949, only the third verse is sung which speaks about unity, justice and freedom. The first and second verse are not sung. This can lead to confusion... So, it being played just in the instrumental version is helpful!

Thank you for the history of your national anthem. She was so fun to watch during the ceremony. You could tell she was really excited to win. She stood in the wrong spot at one point and then when she realized it she started laughing and told the other person he should have kicked her off. I loved the pictures from the deck as you were leaving the fjord. Norway is beautiful country.

 

[dolphingirl47]

There would be three dynamite explosions! This sounded a bit strange, but interesting!

That definitely sounds strange and a little scary.

We got the menu:

That menu looks really nice.

Corinna

 

[franandaj]

I'm glad you didn't get busted for your school bread!

I like the idea of going to Cabanas and hope to try it on an upcoming cruise. I like the idea of a Rib Eye steak cooked to order!

 

[Pinkocto]

Amazing amazing amazing!!!!!

Sorry its taken me so long to get over here. I'm all caught up and soaking in all your awesome photos. Glad you woke up at the ridiculous hour of 5:30 on vacation, well worth it. Too much to comment on but enjoying everything. This is one of my dream cruises.

 

[tiggrbaby]

Glad you were able to get the schoolbread back on the ship to enjoy! The waterfalls were very impressive; I think Goofy is so funny trying to fight the wind! dinner at Cabanas is a very nice alternative to the dining room.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

The hiking had made us hungry!

It does tend to do that! And I know PB&J sandwiches won't keep you satisfied for very long...

Commodore Tom made an announcement about our imminent departure and he told us that it is a tradition in Geiranger to honor departing ships (maybe only on their first visit) with a special salute. There would be three dynamite explosions! This sounded a bit strange, but interesting!

Awesome! Pyrotechnics make everything better.

So, you get to see the same landscape again.

That's ok. It's beautiful.

Also, because it had rained all day the snow up on the hills had definitely started to melt much more than it had done during the cold night. So, all the waterfalls were much fuller now than they had been in the morning.

Even better!

I really like this one.

Goofy decided that he had to admire the view as well!

I didn't know he was such a nature lover.

But upon closer inspection (i.e. my camera’s zoom lense), we saw that it was snow. I guess it must have been some sort of mini avalanche.

Fooled me! I would have thought it was a waterfall as well.

I remember that she really loved that potato and watercress salad. All in all we both really liked our steaks a lot! The steaks in the dining room are good, too, but they never have that really fresh off the grill feeling. These steaks you could tell were made exactly to order and brought directly to the table!

I'll have to remember that! I had no idea Cabanas turned into a sit-down restaurant for dinner.

 

[Steppesister]

You are not allowed to take unpacked food on the ship. The reason is that a ship is a petri dish for any GI illness. So, they want to limit the ways people can get infected as much as possible.

Ok, that makes total sense! I get it, and is actually not a bad policy.

Norway is truly a beautiful country!! I really want to get back there soon!

I hope you get to do this very soon!

Ask me... I know what you are talking about.

So hard to keep up around here! LOL!

When we went through security nobody said anything about our school bread. But Katharina got in trouble for her Swiss Army knife. Maybe that was the perfect distraction that we needed to smuggle the school bread onboard… After she had shown them the knife, they let her keep it and we were off

Nice diversion, Girls!

We had some shawarma

Mmmm! Schwarma!

There would be three dynamite explosions! This sounded a bit strange, but interesting!

Y

YES!!! Explosions!

My favorite of the bunch!

That is quite the view! Nice!

I LOVE this combination!

So pretty! But not as potent as the poolside bar ones. Noted.

we headed to bed feeling quite a bit exhausted.

I can only imagine!

 

[Flossbolna]

Thank you for the history of your national anthem. She was so fun to watch during the ceremony. You could tell she was really excited to win. She stood in the wrong spot at one point and then when she realized it she started laughing and told the other person he should have kicked her off. I loved the pictures from the deck as you were leaving the fjord. Norway is beautiful country.

That's great to hear!

Norway is indeed very beautiful. The combination of water and mountains just somehow is very special.

 

[Flossbolna]

That definitely sounds strange and a little scary.

The dynamite sounded worse than it was I guess. I was surprised how you could see the guy setting off the explosions just running away and hiding behind a bush!

That menu looks really nice.

From what I understand the Cabana menu changes a bit depending on which night you eat there. This was the Captain's Gala menu night and there are some items from that menu available.

 

[Flossbolna]

I'm glad you didn't get busted for your school bread!

Yes! I would not have minded eating it out in the port if it had been sunny. But we really needed to get back onto the warm ship!

I like the idea of going to Cabanas and hope to try it on an upcoming cruise. I like the idea of a Rib Eye steak cooked to order!

We ended up going there on my first Wonder cruise (Beach Blanket Buffet then) and every since I really liked the idea of it. But I never managed to go there on our Fantasy cruises for some reason. I need to make that a priority on my next cruise!

 

[Flossbolna]

Amazing amazing amazing!!!!!

Sorry its taken me so long to get over here. I'm all caught up and soaking in all your awesome photos. Glad you woke up at the ridiculous hour of 5:30 on vacation, well worth it. Too much to comment on but enjoying everything. This is one of my dream cruises.

Pam! I am happy to hear that you enjoy the pictures! I hope you get to go to Norway sometime soon. I saw that in 2018 they are not offering this itinerary and I am a bit sad about that. But hopefully it will come back in the future.

 

[Flossbolna]

Glad you were able to get the schoolbread back on the ship to enjoy! The waterfalls were very impressive; I think Goofy is so funny trying to fight the wind! dinner at Cabanas is a very nice alternative to the dining room.

The waterfalls are really amazing! And Goofy was really an unexpected appearance!

Cabanas is lovely for a relaxed meal and I should make use of it more often on my cruises.

 

[Flossbolna]

It does tend to do that! And I know PB&J sandwiches won't keep you satisfied for very long...

I guess you have experience with that...

Awesome! Pyrotechnics make everything better.

Just like bacon?? So what is your opinion of dynamite with bacon?

That's ok. It's beautiful.

I am happy to hear that!

I really like this one.

Yes, you picked that one as your favorite on the way to Geiranger already. But it was even more impressive in the afternoon. It was my favorite, too.

I didn't know he was such a nature lover.

Aren't there some very funny cartoons about Goofy hiking and fishing??

Fooled me! I would have thought it was a waterfall as well.

Katharina and I had quite a lively debate about it. I think she said it was snow much earlier and it took her some time to convince me.

I'll have to remember that! I had no idea Cabanas turned into a sit-down restaurant for dinner.

It is really not very advertised. I spend too much time on the cruise board, therefore I know stuff like that...

 

[Flossbolna]

Ok, that makes total sense! I get it, and is actually not a bad policy.

We still broke it... My reasoning was that A) it is very unlikely to get food poisoning from the school bread and B) it really does not matter whether we eat it off the ship and then immediately board it to spread our new acquired food poisoning micro organisms, or whether we transport them onto the ship in our food, eat it immediately after boarding and start the spreading. Luckily no micro organisms were traveling in the school bread so the whole reasoning stayed hypothetical.

So hard to keep up around here! LOL!

Ask me!!

Nice diversion, Girls!

It made us look really smart. But poor Katharina was a bit stressed out I think.

Mmmm! Schwarma!

Here we mainly have the Turkish version of it, the Döner Kebab. But close to my work there recently opened a Lebanese lunch place offering shawarma. The first time there I had to try their falafel, but I am already excited to try the shawarma next.

YES!!! Explosions!

You sound like @Captain_Oblivious

My favorite of the bunch!

And you even like the same waterfall the best as him. But I do too. I guess all three of us have great taste in waterfalls!

That is quite the view! Nice!

I was really surprised that not more people took advantage of this especially since it was a ship full of experienced DCL veterans.

I LOVE this combination!

Me too!

So pretty! But not as potent as the poolside bar ones. Noted.

You already know the important stuff about cruising!!

 

[Flossbolna]

Cruise Day 6: Bergen - Old houses, leprosy and Freezing the Night Away - Part 1

Today was our last port day. By now we were getting a bit exhausted from all the sightseeing we had done so far. Getting up so early the day before in Geiranger and our hike in the cold weather contributed to that. But overall we felt that after three days in port we would have preferred a sea day as a rest day. The way Norwegian geography works, this was not to be though.

So, Commodore Tom had mentioned the day before that we ought to be up early again to enjoy the arrival in Bergen where we would be sailing through the archipelago outside of Bergen. Well, we learned our lesson and set our alarm for 6 am. We had an early night the day before and slept very well after all our hiking, so we woke up well rested. A quick look on the TV however told us that the view did not seem to live up to the hype our Commodore had try to create the evening before (yes, talking about Bergen’s archipelago was once again devoid of any emotion). Maybe we are a bit spoiled. I think Sweden just wins the price on beautiful archipelagos. If you have sailed through the one outside of Stockholm, other such island groups pale a bit in comparison. So, if you want to see a typical glacial formed landscape of small islands spilling out into the sea, the approach to Bergen is quite nice.

And we did get up and go up on deck to have a look around. And took some pictures:

We decided that we needed to get some hot drinks to warm us up and tide us over until it would be time for breakfast and as we approached the drinks station we saw that Cabanas (on the Magic and Wonder the drinks station is next to the entrance to Cabanas) was already open. I think it opened at least 15 minutes earlier than the time published in the Navigator. So, we decided to just relocate inside and drink our hot beverages in the warm atmosphere where we could also get a bite to eat to go with our drinks.

We had some pancakes today (and for @GoofyFan1515 : and things):

The strange thing was that even though the buffet had just opened, the food was a bit cold. As if it had been sitting on the buffet for quite some time already. It was definitely less fresh than during later breakfasts. And the pancakes were better than the waffles according to Katharina’s notes.

Sorry for blurry picture! Just wanted to show that we were once again lucky to score a window table!

Coming into Berge we saw this fancy life boat station:

Hiking in Cornwall on many vacations there we had come across many life boat stations along the coast. And a lot of them have high up launch points. I think the speed they gain from such a launch helps them to overcome any strong currents and waves that might be around in bad weather (i.e. the conditions you need a life boat). But this one was quite impressive!

When we got to the port we were done with breakfast and had a look around. We saw another ship that was quite an interesting sighting:

Not only does the ship carry the name of Katharina’s home town Berlin:

It is also one of the ships that once featured as the “Traumschiff” (German for Dream Ship) in the German TV series of that name. That series is loosely based on the “Love Boat”. And for any German of my generation I am sure that the “Traumschiff” is what the “Love Boat” is to Americans.

We were docking now, so Katharina and I watched the experts at work:

and enjoyed the view around the ship:

After a quick stop back in our stateroom to get ready for the day, we were heading out to explore Bergen.

On the way we discovered that the ship was already decorated for the big event of the day: Frozen Night!

We had researched what kind of things we would like to see in Bergen and came up with quite a list. So, we started looking into the Bergen Card which gives you free entry into a number of museums, discounts for some others and also a discount for the tickets to go up to Mount Fløyen. It also gives you unlimited trips with all public transport within the city.

Info for the Bergen Card can be found here: https://en.visitbergen.com/bergen-card

We decided that it would be worth it for us. We ordered it online here to have it sent to us by mail. The website is a bit difficult. If you want to order more than one card, you need to search for the date and group size of your group on the page that I have linked to. Once you click on “book” you will only be able to choose the delivery method, you cannot select the number of tickets then anymore. Most ticket websites I have dealt with you first chose the type of ticket and then the number of tickets you want. This caused a bit of confusion for us.

That’s very nice of you to say, as it was me who ordered the tickets and wasn’t able to order two at once...

The 24 hours Bergen Card is 240 NOK (about 28 US$), postage to any address outside of Norway is 40 NOK (About 4.70 US$) (if you order more than one, you only pay postage once).

The advantage of ordering it by mail was that we could use it as a ticket for the city busses immediately when we got off the ship. Info on busses around Bergen can be found here.

That was actually sort of the main reason, as my researches reveiled that we would have to go into town first to get tickets for the public transport, which we didn’t want to lose time with.

Of the list of things to do, we ended up with three that were a must do for us:

Gamle Bergen Museum (or in English: Old Bergen Museum). http://www.bymuseet.no/en/museums/old-bergen-museum/ This is an open air museum collecting old town houses (all built out of wood) from Bergen.

The Leprosy Museum - St. Jørgen Hospital http://www.bymuseet.no/en/museums/the-leprosy-museum-st-joergen-hospital/ Yes, this sounds a bit strange. But it is a very unique sight and a Unesco World Heritage Sight. Norway was unique in Europe as it had a lot of leprosy still in the 19th century and it became the forefront of leprosy research and the leprosy bacillus was discovered in Bergen in 1873.

Fløibanen http://floyen.no/en/floibanen/ This is the funicular that goes up on Mount Fløyen.

And we definitely wanted to visit one of the Bergen branches of that bakery that we visited in Stavanger: Godt Brød http://www.godtbrod.no/Bakeverksted/Korskirken

Other sights we thought might be interesting, but it would depend on our energy level
and the crowds if we would get to them were:

Bryggens Museum http://www.bymuseet.no/en/museums/bryggens-museum/ which is about archeological discoveries about medieval Bergen.

The Hanseatic Museum and Schøtstuene http://hanseatiskemuseum.museumvest.no which is about the sea trade in Bergen.

Ulriken http://ulriken643.no/en/ulriksbanen/ which is another mountain in Bergen and you can ride a cable car to the top

We also considered a fjord cruise at some point in time: http://www.rodne.no/news/fjord-cruise-to-mostraumen/

And since I am listing resources here, this was a useful easy map of Bergen to have as a starting point: http://www.mappery.com/map-of/Bergen-Tourist-Map

So, with our Bergen Card we headed off the ship in search of our bus stop. First we came across this little train:

I think it was transporting people from the ship to the port exit, but it was not far and we were fine walking. The amusing thing was that this was a German train – from a small town very close to where I live:

Tschuu-Tschuu is German for Choo Choo.

The bus stop was easy to find, it was just outside the port exit. When we were there, the Disney Magic was at the Bontelabo. This is a bit away from the main market square. If you look at the map that I linked to, Number 11 is the Fishing Museum and that is at the Bontelabo. Gamle Bergen was going to be our first destination and it was further outside the city and we would have to take a bus there. We had checked the possibilities and knew that from the bus stop just outside the port exit we had to take bus 3, 4, 5, or 6 going outwards. So there were plenty of busses and we got onto one quickly. The bus ride was only 5 minutes. And then we had to walk a little and got there a little after 9am.

Originally we had thought about going up to Mount Fløyen first to beat the crowds, but it was quite overcast and foggy and we hoped the day would clear up a little so that we would have a better view later on.

Walking to Gamle Bergen we saw this:

The sign on the lamp post read: “Drive carfully, active kids are playing”. We were very impressed how active Norwegian kids were with their sand box games!

The way to Gamle Bergen was signposted with very stylish signs:

And then we got to the entrance:

They even had a very stylish sign to tell you where to park your bike:

Sykkel is Norwegian for bike (both words come from the same root, just the different languages chose different parts of the word for the abbreviation).

This is an overview of the museum:

We went to explore and there were many really pretty houses. A lot of them were open to visitors and done up in the style as they would have been in the 19th century. They also had a number of people working there who were in old costumes and explaining things. However, this started only at 10 am and since we were there so early, we missed out on that.

The phone box was interesting:

Everything was nicely arranged into different streets that gave you the impression of being in a small town and it was fun to explore:

We were pretty close to the water and once we had turned around a corner, we could see the Magic in port:

In this picture above, you can see the fog that prevented us from going up to Mount Fløyen first.

The inside of one of the houses:

Next there was a shop:

Continued in Part 2

 

[Flossbolna]

Cruise Day 6: Bergen - Old houses, leprosy and Freezing the Night Away - Part 2

And the newspaper:

Quite a few of the houses were owned by business owners and such. I guess the larger more elaborate houses were in better shape and more “deserving” of being transported to the museum. This living room does look quite elaborate:

This little house was some kind of nursery or so and it was also a place where kids could play with old fashioned toys:

Next there were a number of shops, starting with an umbrella shop:

A doctor’s office:

A dentist’s office:

A barber’s shop:

And a beauty salon:

Some more living rooms:

The next room was interesting as it was a typical sailor’s family home. Very tiny, just one room. But the most important thing in the rooms was the side board where all the souvenirs from around the world would be on show:

Norway is a seafaring nation. A lot of Norwegians work on ships – also on cruise ships like Commodore Tom. And they always have. So, many families in Bergen would have had a father that only was at home very irregularly.

More views of the Disney Magic:

A school:

We used the bathroom (the modern one, for museum guests) there and were intrigued by the interesting faucet they had there:

We had never seen one where there were plastic levers to get hot and cold water. I find it fascinating how every country seems to have its own system for the same purpose, be it light switches, door knobs, faucets or toilets.

We came across a very athletic snail:

Continued in Part 3

 

[Flossbolna]

Cruise Day 6: Bergen - Old houses, leprosy and Freezing the Night Away - Part 3

And then we got to the end of the museum:

And look, the fog has lifted:

By 9:30 am other tourists started to arrive, quite a few tour groups from various cruise ships. I think when we were there, there were 6 ships in total in port and I had read in a local newspaper (that was available online) that this was the new record for cruise ship passengers in town.

The topic of newspapers is a good one to talk about another fun fact about Norway. Norway is a country with two “languages”. Or, better, there are two versions of written Norwegian. Both are equally valid. One is called Bokmål (book language) and the other one is called Nynorsk (new Norwegian). Bokmål is derived from the Danish language. Norway used to be governed by Denmark until 1814 and during that time Danish was used for official purposes. This had a lot of influence on the Norwegian language and in writing mainly the Danish way of writing was used. However, after the end of Danish government in the 19th century, there was a movement for a true Norwegian language again and a Norwegian poet and linguist developed a new written Norwegian that was based on the rural dialects. This became Nynorsk. Today, both are considered to be equally valid for use in any form.

Since I speak Danish, I able to read about 95% of Bokmål. Nynorsk is more difficult for me to read. Sometimes I would have to say a word out loud to realise what it is because it just looks different at the first look. It was interesting to see where signposts and such used Nynorsk and where Bokmål. Bergen was Bokmål, in Ålesund it was Nynorsk.

Back to Bergen!

By the time we had looked around the museum it was about 10:30am and it was definitely getting busy there. We were thinking about a break at the little restaurant they had there which looked very nice, but they only opened at 11:30am. So, we went back to the bus stop and caught one of the busses (same lines) all the way to the main market square (Torget). There is a daily fish market where you can buy all kind of things to eat (fishy ones mainly). You can also buy whale meat there. Norway is one of the countries that still hunt whale. We were not particularly interested. But supposedly if you want to do that, the fish market in Bergen is the place to be. They had other interesting looking fish there, too. But everything was very pricey and we were not really hungry yet and not in the mood for fish either.

I think this house is one of the museums we thought about, but did not get to:

We walked up the street towards where you get onto the Fløjbanen (the funicular), but far too many people were lining up for this for us to get into line.

So, we decided to get a coffee break first and searched for one of the locations of God Brød and found it quite quickly. There is actually one just next to the entrance to the funicular, but that was very busy.

Bergen has really cute little streets:

And then we found my street!

Here is our bakery:

And our treats:

The baked goods were as good as they were in Stavanger and we really enjoyed our break. They had free wifi and we used the time to get in touch with the people back home. At some point sitting outside got rather cold (I think they had blankets, but those only helped for a little while), so we ventured on. Our next stop was the Leprosy Museum and we walked through the town to get there.

Interesting street art:

A church:

And then we got to our destination:

This was the location of an old leprosy hospital and it was part of the more modern facility where a very dedicated doctor did a lot of research that helped with the treatment of leprosy that we have now.

We learned a lot about leprosy. For example that it is not very contagious and it mainly shows up in poor people. It used to be very wide spread in Europe, but with TBC coming around, it disappeared. Mainly because the poor who would be prone to get leprosy due to being malnourished and unhealthy were killed by tuberculosis before they could get any symptoms from leprosy. People used to think it was a hereditary disease, because it seemed to affect whole families (yes, they were sharing the bad living conditions). But the Norwegian doctor Hansen was able to prove that it was caused by a bacterium. It was even the first bacterium that was prove to cause disease in humans.

The old hospital had very nice grounds:

Overall, the museum was interesting and did not take a lot of time to look at. We really enjoyed it, but we also like the more odd and peculiar attractions. We are not people who have to do all the Must Dos where we go.

I was really glad we went there. I learnt a lot about leprosy but also about hospitals and treating sick people in the past. Leprosy was always something out of the bible or something happening in India, I didn’t know that it was so prominent in Europe and for such a long time in Norway especially.

Up Next: The rest of Bergen Day

 

[tiggrbaby]

Both museums look very interesting!

 

[Pinkocto]

Pam! I am happy to hear that you enjoy the pictures! I hope you get to go to Norway sometime soon. I saw that in 2018 they are not offering this itinerary and I am a bit sad about that. But hopefully it will come back in the future.

I hope they bring them back, I must get there some day and a cruise would be perfect. My grandma went on a cruise to Norway and it is one of the favorite trips of her life.



How bizarre the breakfast wasn't super fresh that morning.

The tour of Bergen is fantastic! I think I'd like to do exactly what you did on this day. The museums are fascinating. Great idea about buying the passes before going. The beauty salon had some strange contraptions!

The athletic slug is quite cute.

The telephone booth looks a little worse for wear.

 

[franandaj]

You ladies are quite adept at getting up early! I think I know what happened with the food being tepid at the opening time of the buffet. They put everything out all at once and since the cooks can't make everything all at once, some of the things will be fresher and hotter than others. I was up at Cabanas when they were preparing to open the buffet one morning and they had all the trays of food sitting out covered in plastic wrap just waiting for opening time. You're more likely to get hotter food when they are mid buffet and you see someone switching out an old plate for a new hot one.

Good job on ordering your city passes in advance. I never would have thought of that. That worked out well for you to get to the first museum right at opening. The leprosy museum sounds very interesting, whenever I visit anything related to historic medical procedures, I am always amazed at the barbaric processes they used to use!

Your snack looked tasty!