Random Notes, Explorer, Copenhagen-Oslo, June 24-July 6, 2018--LIVE!

>>swan song<< LOL

Our Copenhagen cruise terminal was/is a tent!

We were ushered in at 11:35 a.m. to do the health form and security check and were on the ship 10 minutes later. We breezed through check-in in the theater, took the elevator up to 11, and were the first passengers to stroll into La Veranda at just past noon. This is a new Mr. and Mrs. Rumor embarkation best!

Along the way we were greeted by many familiar faces, Gina in security, GM Davor, entertainers Victoria and Aidan, head waiter Abraham. . . I had wondered to Ginny as we waited on the sidewalk across from the pier for the all-clear from the ship agent personnel to board how long it would take for a crew member to ask about our daughter Shauna (Shauna, who has Down syndrome, steals Regent crew/passenger hearts whenever she cruises with us). The answer: five seconds after boarding when Gina asked, "Where's your daughter?" (The answer, by the way: back at home with a dear friend and having a wonderful time; we'll be taking Shauna on a Caribbean cruise in November). By the time we made it to La Veranda a handful of others had asked about Shauna, with Victoria and Aidan reminiscing about the entire production staff's photo shoot with our daughter onstage after the "Blazing Boots" production on the Mariner in 2017.

I've gone into detail on our first minutes aboard the Explorer because the warm and personal Regent welcome is one of the reasons we continue to love cruising with this line.

It's 12:52 now, and other passengers are finally beginning to stream in. We have a nice window table for two in the back, a great spot to watch the La Veranda scene unfold. Life feels very good at the moment.

Now if only we could work up an appetite!

Rich

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Rich,

Somehow I got the idea that Davor was retiring after the world cruise. Guess not. If you get a chance, ask him if he will be onboard in September.

Thanks,

John

Rich:

As always, your prose and pics are superb. Looking forward to the next chapter of your adventure.

Z and TB

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John, I’ll give Davor your regards and ask for an update. Z, I thought of your embarkation day dining tradition when I spied the most gorgeous hunk of prime rib at the La Veranda carving station. I was tempted but then decided to wuss out with a salad.

We’re off!

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LOVE Davor. He was the GM on our 2017 cruise from SD to Aukland. What a gentleman! He was especially helpful when one of our best friends took suddenly sick on the morning of debarkation in Aukland. We were able to stay on the ship until her IV antibiotics kicked in and he personally went to the pier to meet our rental car person since she wasn’t answering her phone. He made a very stressful situation much easier. I was also blogging that trip and he was reading CC. He finally recognized me when I posted our smiling muddy faces after the Fijian mud baths!

Well Mr Rumor it sounds like your going to have a another great cruise and I looking forward to reading more. Wish I could write like you, enjoy the cruise..............Rick

Please give my best to Davor - a gentleman and excellent at his job.

Lucky you!

Peggy

Agree - Davor is charming and very effective doing his job. If he is retiring, he will definitely be missed (and he looks too young to retire).

Thanks, Rick. Jennifer, I recall and love your Davor story. Peggy and Jackie, I’ll be sure to pass on your regards as well when I check in with Davor.

By the way, Davor amazed me today when he came over to our table at La Veranda and pointed to a spot in the serving area a few feet away and announced that is where we last met, during the maiden voyage. He was right! On vacation at that time, he had come to visit the Explorer in, I think, Split, and wanted to say hi and introduce his wife and son to me. He strongly resembles an old paisano of mine--he and Bob each have that little twinkle in their eye.

It feels really nice to be back on the Explorer. I don't know if it will ever be my favorite Regent ship--I really miss not having a forward outdoor viewing area, for example--but there is so much we like. Two of our "Likes" were reaffirmed today: the beautiful design of La Veranda, especially the expansive serving area; and the design of our concierge suite, with the bed facing the sea instead of the wall, the oodles of storage space and the bathroom layout (great shower for me; nice tub for DW).

We always do a two-top in Compass Rose on the first night. Not sure in whose station we wanted to sit, we asked for recommendations. We went with the first name that came up: Hendra. Hendra doesn't have any window tables in his section, but, still, I think we'll be back because he's good as well as fun and playful--a winning combo for us. Hendro mentioned that he is on his ninth Regent contract and that he is one of only two Indonesian crew from the island of Sulawesi.

Vegetarian DW, who never wants for choices on a Compass Rose menu, loved her Warm White and Green Asparagus with sautéed mushrooms potatoes and sherry vinegar dressing, while I was very pleased with the fresh-fish offering, branzino, with chorizo tomato chutney and pesto mashed potatoes.

Well, my iPad just had a spasm of some sort, and I lost a little copy—my cue to call it a night after a really good day. Tomorrow, our first port: Kristiansand.

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Bar staffers and a.m. deck chair set-up team members Andrew (left, Philippines, seventh Regent contract) and Dumart (Philippines, second contract) bid you good morning from Kristiansand! It’s a picture-perfect day with a predicted high of 74.

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Just in loving your report and photo's. and you have certainly pique'd my interest in visiting Copenhagen .

Happy for that, Boatmans Lady, and thanks for the kind words.

Here are some glimpses of our very pleasant--the weather was spectacular!--three-hour Hollen, Sogne & the Vest Anderson Open Air Museum excursion today.

White was the most expensive paint color in olden Kristiansand days, due to a key ingredient, zinc, being in short supply. So people of modest means could only afford to paint the front of their homes white, using more reasonably priced paints for the sides. (The cheapest color was yellow, made from a certain everyday product.)

Vintage storage house at the open air museum.

Figurehead of an unknown ship, circa late 1800s (open air museum).

Seventeenth Century thinking?: Men once got the window seats at The Old Church (circa 1630) in nearby Sogne, while women were relegated to the other side of the aisle. "The belief was that women would be easily distracted sitting near the windows," according to our museum guide, Julia.

Altar at The Old Church.

In the town of Hollen we walked "Skippers' Street," once populated by ship captains, traders and other wealthy types and regarded as the toniest address in town. We saw several front porches like this one, with his and hear facing seats.

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Ah, the Kristiansand Volunteer Sailaway Escort Service!

As we left the jet skiers frolicking in our wake we passed this lighthouse:

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I am very late to this but love to follow your threads. Special thanks for naming restaurants in Copenhagen as we board Explorer from Copenhagen to Stockholm (we're so excited as St. Petersburg has long been on our bucket list) on Aug. 14 but arrive in Copenhagen on the 9th. This will be our 6th Explorer Cruise I think and we love it!

Great report, beautiful pics. Thanks for posting, we are enjoying it very much.

Bob

Linda, I have another Copenhagen restaurant possibility for you: Olive Kitchen and Bar. We wanted to eat there our first night in the city but it was fully booked. Liked the ambiance and the menu. You can easily Google it.

Bob, thanks for the check in. I think we flew out at about the same time you began your Venice to Venice blog. What I’ve managed to read is delightful and your photos are great. Please continue to blog—we need you on this board!

I should be sawing wood by now, as we have a 7.5 hour excursion in Bergen tomorrow. But I can’t turn in without lavishing a few words of praise for the Regent Production Team’s “World Beat,” a celebration of dance and music from around the world. It’s simply the best post Jean Ann Ryan production we’ve had the pleasure to feast our eyes and ears on. It’s an extremely demanding production, but this first rate cast never faltered.

We were so jazzed by “Big Beat” that we decided to continue the evening with a go at Music Trivia with Ross and Tammy in the Observation Lounge. We tied for first and made new friends in our teammates Linda and Ralph.

I just realized why I have more pep than usual tonight—dessert! Not just any dessert. . . the Iced Cappuccino Parfait with Caramel and Chocolate Sauce. It appears on the CR menu usually no more than once a cruise, and when I see it, I pounce!

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World Beat is fabulous! Probably the best show I've seen . . .

Peggy

No intention of distracting from your great thread, Mr Rumor, but I had to share another great Copenhagen restaurant whilst I am here: Host is a small but terrific (and reasonably priced) restaurant serving contemporary Scandinavian food. We loved it!

I am really enjoying your posts but need to catch up as we are on the road right now, driving the Oregon Trail ;-) Have a great cruise and thanks for taking us along.

If that was a distraction, Gilly, please continue to distract away! Thanks for the check-in and happy/safe travels.

We’re sailing into Bergen and what do I see? Blue sky! Jess had cautioned us that, like Ketchikan, rain is measured in feet in Bergen—14 last year—so weather wise, we’re off to a promising start. It definitely feels chillier!

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Docked—blue sky, come back! (Packed our rain-proof jackets and umbrellas just in case.)

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WOW Rich that Iced Cappuccino looks amazing.

I am sure you will love Bergen and we will love your photos of it! Keep them coming, please...

Gerry

Finally caught up to this blog - great job and I love your pictures. When my husband and were in Bergen, we had a great day, blue sky, shopping, and eating a big platter of fish. At 2:30 as we step on the bus back to the ship, the big black clouds did their thing - thankfully our timing was excellent. May your day be like that!

We adore Bergen. On of my most favorite places in the world!

Enjoying "our" voyage so far! Having a great time....wishe we were REALLY there!

L&J

Gerry, iriswitchy and Linda and John, I loved our view of Bergen from our passing bus this morning and hope that Ginny and I will have the chance to stroll those charming streets "next time." We opted instead for an all-day tour, "Hardanger: Queen of the Fjords," after Jess read the description of this Regent Choice Excursion ($159 upcharge) and gave us his seal of approval. We were joined by 84 others and we occupied three buses, with plenty of room to stretch.

We traveled a 125-mile loop that included a 10-minute ferry ride (Hatvik-Venjaneset), a visit to an historic church in the village of Holdhus that's owned by the Norwegian National Trust, a walk up to--and behind--the Steinsdalfossen waterfall in Norheimsund, and a buffet lunch of Norwegian favorites at the 19th Century Hotel Sandven, also in Norheimsund.

As for "the Queen," we had one picture postcard view after another as we cruised along highway 48 on what turned out to be a sunny, lovely day! Alas, the only opportunity we had to photograph the fjord from outside our passing bus was on the hotel grounds. I'm not blaming Regent's tour operator for the lack of photo ops, as I didn't see any turn-outs for buses along this route. Luckily I got a few shots that I'm happy with.

We didn't return to the ship until about a half hour before we were due to set sail, and I felt grateful it wasn't later after viewing more than a mile's worth of parked cars on the other side of the highway as we returned to Bergen on highway 7. There had obviously been some type of event, I’m guessing a bad accident.

The Holdhus Church in Holdhus dates back to 1306. When the original building, a Stave, was torn down in 1726 it was replaced with this timber-framed one.

Toril, our church guide, stands beneath the church’s most valuable possession, a sculpture of Mary and the Christ Child that is Norway’s only painted stone sculpture from the Middle Ages.

View of Hardangerfjorden from a passing bus.

Another view of the Queen from the grounds of Hotel Sandven. The band of white in the distance is the Folgefonna glacier.

At the Steinsdalfossen waterfall, Norway’s most popular. . .

. . . because it’s fun to be able to walk behind a roaring waterfall, not get wet, and be able to take some fun pics!

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