We finished the first part of our journey with a day at sea sailing from Stavanger to Hamburg, Germany. The seas were perfectly calm and we even had some sunshine.
We exercised and found some bridge players and spent part of the afternoon playing.
Some final thoughts on Norway. It is an exceedingly beautiful country. The weather was fairly constant – cold, cloudy and misty rain. As the Norwegians say, there is no bad weather just bad clothes. We had bad clothes, not being well prepared for the degree of coldness we encountered. We however were able to layer up and mostly be warm. One pair of gloves was purchased by Bette.
The Norwegian guides, who were mostly not from Norway, spoke so proudly of the country. We did not have many chances to meet people but from what we were told they are happy and content. We never saw any homelessness and the streets were clean with very little graffiti. The Norwegians are very outdoor oriented going out to nature every chance they get. Most have cabins (very bare minimum shelters) outside of their towns and spend their weekends with family and friends being active. Babies nap outside all year round.
It was a very interesting trip so far. More adventures to follow.
Bette and Bob See the World 
Bette, your blog entries are outstanding! I’m enjoying it along with you and Bob, and making notes for our upcoming cruise mid-month with some of the same ports. We generally don’t book many organized excursions, preferring to do research and then set out on our own. Keep sharing your journey, we’re learning a lot!
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Hello. We usually do as you do, research and then get our own guide. However, this cruise came with excursions in each port. They mostly sounded interesting so we went with them. So far mostly good. Even when we hire our own guide we always don’t get great. They usually sound great…If you are going to be in Hamburg, definitely go to Luneburg. Funny mark over the “u”. Lovely medieval city, very well preserved and interesting.
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