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We were able to sleep in a little this morning. Bob did his walk on the treadmill and then we went out to walk in the nearby area. We walked to the Opera House which was opened in 2010. It is an amazing looking building. We got a peak inside and then climbed up one of the outside ramps to the roof for a view of the harbor and some of Oslo.

We then returned to the ship for lunch and to pick up our rain gear. We had an afternoon tour and although the morning was cloudy it had been dry. The afternoon not so much. It was drizzling as we got to the bus, and then the rain really started.

We were on our way to the Bygdoy (pronounced Bigbay) to see the Folk History Museum. This is an outdoor museum, with houses and buildings from all over Norway. It is there to show how people lived in this country for almost 1,000 years. There were farm buildings and houses with turf roofs. The best was an actual Stave church from 1,200. We were lucky that the church was open so we were able to go inside and see it. It was originally a Catholic Church, but now is a Lutheran church. Our guide said that it was available for weddings but you had to reserve it well in advance.

Our next stop was the ski lift that was used in the Olympics in the 1950’s. It was massive and quite impressive to see.

Our final stop, and the highlight of the day was the Vigeland Sculpture Park. All of the sculptures in the park were by Gustav Vigeland. He was supported by the city of Oslo and donated all of his work to the city. All the figures were nudes. They were amazing to see. His theme was the circle of life. There was a tower that had over 120 bodies working their way up from the bottom to the top. All the sculptures were busy doing things like dancing or talking or hugging. The one I liked the best was an older man holding the hand of a young boy with the boy looking up at him.

It was a great day and fortunately the rain did not slow us down even though all of the sites we visited were outdoors.

We sailed at 6. Tomorrow we are in Kristiansand.

Not great internet so no pictures. Have been trying to upload our first day in Oslo all day today.

On May 21, we left Fort Myers around 12:30 to go to Miami. We had a nice driver, Joe, the new owner of Royal Floridian car service. Of course we got to the airport early, but we were able to check in for our flight.

Unfortunately, the TSA was understaffed and it took us over 1 hour to get through security screening, even with our TSA pre-check. We had to let any number of people pass us, because they had a short time to get to their flights.

We were able to spend our time in the Turkish Airlines priority lounge before boarding our Swiss Air flight to Zurich. We had a short connection in Zurich and were concerned when we left Miami almost 45 minutes late. We arrived in Zurich, only 25 minutes late. We flew through passport control (yeah). Then we had a long walk to the train to get to the correct terminal. Of course our gate there was almost to the end. With great speed (and fortunately no secondary security screening) we got to our gate with about 10 minutes to spare. Now our only concern was that our luggage also made this transfer.

A short flight from Zurich to Copenhagen passed quickly. The Copenhagen airport is huge. We walked almost 1.5 miles from our gate to baggage claim. Miraculously our luggage was on the carousel. Now we had to meet up with our cruise line transfer to the ship. This was the biggest snafu of the whole day. We had to stand and wait over an hour for a bus to take us to the ship. The transfer people kept telling us the bus was almost there, but it wasn’t.

Although we had landed in Copenhagen at 2 PM, we did not get to the ship until almost 4. Check in was easy and then we were in our suite. After our muster drill, we had a welcome aboard drink and met another couple in the lounge who had a similar transfer experience.

After dinner, we were able to unpack, clean up and get to bed. Now we are ready to relax and enjoy our cruise.

Well worth the time outside in about 3 F. Amazing night.

Friday we were sailing from Tromso to Bodo. Around noon the captain came on the ship’s intercom and announced that we would not be going to Bodo. Apparently the wind and waves were going to be too extreme to get into port. In addition he was having to cancel our last port of Lerwick, in the Shetland islands because of the storms we would be encountering.

We had a little rough water late on Friday. Most of Saturday we have been sailing in and out of fjords to avoid the rough seas. We are working our way south and should pass Bergen around midnight.

Currently the waves are around 25 to 30 feet and according to the last announcement by the captain the head winds are from 50 to 70 MPH. We are rocking and rolling, but we are warm and secure on the ship. Bob and I are staying in our cabin for the time being. They think we will be in open water like this until midnight and then hopefully will be able to get into more sheltered areas then.

Have tried to photograph the seas but I can’t go on our balcony for fear of being tossed around and hurt. Believe me it is wild out there.

Scandinavia’s largest city within the Arctic circle is Tromso. It has been called the Paris of the North. It has a population of approximately 70,000. The city of Tromso is situated on an island, with a suburb across the water. Tromso is one of the oldest towns in Norway, established in 1794. The city was not harmed badly in WWII. The Germans when they left did not burn the city to the ground as they did in other places in Norway.

We did a scenic tour in the early afternoon. We saw various parts of the island, stopping to take some photos of Whale Island. We also drove by the Arctic Cathedral, whose design is compared to the Sydney Opera House. It was closed to the public, so we could only see the outside. The city also is home to the northernmost botanical garden in the world.

Our big tour for the day was in the evening to again search for the Northern Lights. It was pretty cold again, around 4 F. We went to several places but the skies were too cloudy to see anything. Our guide did make a fire at one place to help us keep warm. He even took a photo of us in front of the fire. One with the lights behind us would have been better. When we got back to the ship after midnight there were sandwiches and a bottle of wine waiting for us in our room.

After overnighting we had a “shopping excursion”. The ship has been very strict about Covid protocols. We have our temperature taken daily, have to answer a health survey daily and have to be tested daily for Covid. To enable us to shop, 2 stores right next to each other in the town center, we’re closed to all others except for our group of 20. We were not able to go anywhere else during the 1 hour we had in town. Our guide said that she could lose her job if anyone wandered off. It was nice to get to do something that felt normal. Our group was mostly the only ones masked. Norway had dropped their Covid rules about 5 days before we started our trip.