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

[Mr Rumor]

Good morning—and, hooray, the internet was down starting at about 11 last night, but it’s back up now!

 

Jackie, Peggy, Jan and Dave, and Gilly, thanks for the congrats on the "million-dollar" win at Trivia--I had a little spring in my step into the evening yesterday. (Gilly, I hope that someday you and your hero and my heroine and I will have the chance to vie for a million Andy bucks together!)

 

Jan and Dave, will be happy to say hi to Andy and Tammy for you. As you know, each is super approachable.

 

Wes, you're so welcome. And thank you for thinking to let Craig know about the blog--I don't know why I didn't think to tell him!

 

Thanks, Got2Cruise. Trust me, you will not be disappointed by the Iced Cappuccino Parfait. Take care with the dark chocolate cup itself as it is a little sturdier than you might think. You don't want to exert too much pressure and accidentally send a delicious shard flying across the table--you might not get it back!

 

Crisy, I sprung your photo on Hendra at dinner tonight, and he was surprised and delighted to see it! He sends you and your husband his best regards.

 

The five-hour "Trastad Collections and the Rokenes Farm" excursion carries a $89 Regent Choice upcharge, and was worth every extra penny. The itinerary was varied, the weather was great (some glorious sun!), and we had in Merethe, retired head of the physiotherapy department at Harstad's general hospital, one terrific guide. I loved her enthusiasm for sharing her beloved island with us.

 

We started with a drive along the Kraefjord.

 

Our visit to the site of an institution for people with disabilities that operated from 1954-1991 was sobering because of the sparseness of the accommodations and the lack of attention residents received (the pavilion we toured employed two daytime and one nighttime aide to tend to the 90 residents). The day room:

 

But the visit was also inspiring. It was eventually discovered that special-needs people had potential that could be developed. Staffing was dramatically increased, and teachers were brought in. One 40-year resident, Herleik Kristiansand, was even fated to became famed throughout Norway for his art, especially his linocuts:

 

We took a deeper dive into the history of the area when we visited the picturesque Hemmestad Brugge, a combination trading post and fisherman gathering spot dating back to the mid-1800s.

 

The building now contains a small museum. I was interested in the display of old fishing nets.

 

We also visited Nupen, a spot favored by visitors from around the world for Midnight Sun viewing. Then it was on to Rokenes Gard, a onetime family farm turned cafe and conference center and owned by the same family for ten generations. The Norwegian cakes were delicious but I was even more taken by what the Kulseng family did with its former farmland: Turn it into what it bills as the northernmost golf course in the world. The sixth green:

 

 

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Edited June 29, 2018 by Mr Rumor

[Mr Rumor]

Midnight on the Pool Deck:

 

 

 

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[Mr Rumor]

We’re docked in Bodo. Strolling Deck 12 just now, I was reminded that there is temporarily a second “northernmost” golf course: the Explorer’s!

 

 

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[Mudhen]

Loving the photos! They're from post cards, right?....haha! They're lovely enough that they could be!

As a retired art teacher, I especially loved the lino cut....how beautiful!

Carry on!

[Gilly]

Mr (and Mrs!) Rumor, it would be a delight to join you fellow millionaires in a Trivia team someday - the more so if Jan and Dave were there too, I think :cool: What fun, eh?

 

Your photos are stunning and make me want to do that itinerary all the more (my hero isn't so fussed about it, sadly, but I'm working on him ;p ) As we have our Regent bookings in place till 2020, I guess I have time...

 

(Mudhen, I too found those prints particularly interesting for the same reason as you...)

[Travelcat2]

Great photo of the pool deck at midnight. When we sailed to that part of the world on the Voyager, we found that if we went to the Observation Lounge after dinner that the light caused us to wake up again. You are sailing in one of our favorite areas of the world - one that we may visit again. However, living there with daytime (or nighttime) being 24 hours would be a bit much to take.

[Mr Rumor]

Thanks, Linda, Gilly and Jackie; my iPhone and Tapatalk make taking and posting photos a pleasure. Tell, and show, is where it’s at for me these days!

 

Linda and Gilly, here is another linocut from Mr. Kristiansand, who is still active and regularly spotted out and about in Harstad:

 

 

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[Mr Rumor]

Ginny and I are sharing the Explorer with 690 fellow cruisers, spanning 28 countries. Female passengers have a slight edge, 349-343.

 

I have heard a lot of different accents around the ship and on tour, so I was surprised that there are so many more Americans on this cruise than on our Voyager Singapore-Sydney cruise earlier this year, 493 to be exact compared to 318 for Singapore-Sydney. There are significantly fewer Brits, 57 (compared to 153 in February on the Voyager) but more Aussies (45 compared to 20). Our Aussie friends do love to globe trot!

 

Here is the complete Passenger Nationality Breakdown:

 

United States, 493

United Kingdom, 57

Australia, 45

Canada, 25

Germany, 12

Belgium, 6

Switzerland, 6

South Africa, 5

China, 4

Spain, 4

Italy, 4

New Zealand, 4

Venezuela, 4

Mexico, 3

Brazil, 2

France, 2

St. Kitts and Nevis, 2

Netherlands, 2

Russia, 2

Taiwan, 2

Ireland, 1

Kenya, 1

Sri Lanka, 1

Norway, 1

Portugal, 1

Romania, 1

Sweden, 1

Ukraine, 1

 

 

 

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[crusin7]

Hi Rich. Thanks for sending Hendra our best wishes. Looking back on our 19 Regent cruises, our Viking Odyssey on Voyager was our favorite by a landslide. Our 20 day cruise was perfection. I could easily move to Norway!

I loved all your photos...especially the fishing nets.

[Mr Rumor]

Crisy, we’ve already broached the idea to Jess of a third visit. I can’t get Norway off my Bucket List!

 

In the midnight hour. . .

 

 

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[Mudhen]

Thanks, Linda, Gilly and Jackie; my iPhone and Tapatalk make taking and posting photos a pleasure. Tell, and show, is where it’s at for me these days!

 

Linda and Gilly, here is another linocut from Mr. Kristiansand, who is still active and regularly spotted out and about in Harstad:

 

 

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Beautiful, just beautiful!

[Mr Rumor]

And in the midnight hour we have an unstable internet. But I’m going to let it all hang out and try to post several shots from our jam packed six-hour tour on Friday, “Nordland Highlights by Rail & Road.”

 

At Saltstraumen, boasting the strongest tidal current in the world:

 

Never thought a vehicle I was riding in would have to brake for goats! These critters and a hundred or so of their friends decided to meander in our path near the village of Tofte.

 

Photo from a passing bus. . . Skaerstadfjord.

 

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[Mr Rumor]

Good morning! It’s our second and final sea day, and the day is off to a great start with a 75-minute workout and now, for breakfast, my favorite blended drink—low-fat milk, banana, carrot and cantaloupe—prepared by Daciana (fourth Regent contract, Romania) from the restaurant team. Daciana wishes you good morning, too!

 

 

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[Mr Rumor]

A Regent first for us: Our terrific enrichment lecturer, Adam Tanner, capping his fascinating talk on "How India Influenced the Beatles and Pop Music in the 1960s" this morning with a mini-performance on his travel sitar. The former Reuters correspondent, author, and fellow at Harvard's Institute for Quantitative Social Science, also happens to be a musician who studied with Ali Akbar Khan, a sarod maestro who played with Ravi Shankar.

 

After the talk, a group of Adam fans—his earlier talks on the exploration of the Arctic and why Scandinavians perennially rank so high on the happiness meter packed the downstairs section of the Constellation Theater and created a bit of a passenger buzz about Adam—gathered to get a closer look at the sitar and chat with Adam:

 

Adam played excerpts of a handful of Beatles recordings that feature the sitar or other Indian influences, including:

 

"Norwegian Wood." We heard an earlier version, in which George's sitar is more prominent.

 

Harrison's "Within You, Without You," the only non-Lennon-McCartney song on "Sgt. Pepper." George on sitar.

 

"Here Comes the Sun." The bridge "Sun, sun sun, here it comes" features an Indian rhythm.

 

"My Sweet Lord." You can hear "Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna" being sung in the background.

 

Adam showed how impactful George's sitar explorations were by playing recorded snippets of sitar/enhanced hits by other artists. . . "Paint it Black" by the Rolling Stones, "Signed, Sealed and Delivered" by Stevie Wonder, "Do It Again" by Steely Dan."

 

Adam's conclusion: Thanks to the Beatles, Indian music was fated to become a piece of the soundtrack of the '60s.

 

 

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[Mudhen]

aw.....what a cutie! oh, and you're not too bad yourself, Rich! haha! Enjoying "our" cruise. Thanks again for taking us!

[WesW]

Rich, we enjoyed Adam's lectures and his sitar performances, during this year's Mariner South American cruise. As you might have observed he also puts his time in the Fitness room too and he also enjoys taking the Mariner indoor spin classes.

[Hambagahle]

Just caught up with this wonderful blog - again, thanks Rich! - I am now starving for lobster tempura! Not many lobsters in Switzerland though so I shall have to wait. Can't say I liked the 6th green on that course but I suppose at that latitude it is a miracle that there IS a course at all!

 

And well done Rich and Ginny on your million dollar win! A perfect score is hard to get!

 

Where are you off to next?

Gerry

[Mr Rumor]

Linda and John, glad you're still armchair cruising with me--got some great ports coming up, including Alesund in the a.m.

 

Wes, Adam Tanner continues to impress. He spoke again this afternoon on a completely different subject, one that he has written a book on: "The Hidden Multi-Billion Dollar Trade in Medical Data." As for Adam gym sightings, I think I might have seen him last Monday, but not sure as I hadn't heard him speak yet. By the way, the gym has been on the quiet side most mornings. I'm used to more early a.m action.

 

Gerry, I wish I had had time to have hiked down from the Rokenes Farmhouse Cafe to get a shot of more of the golf course. It is steep enough for one of the tour drivers to crack, "It's made for mountain goats!" So probably the best thing it has going is its novelty. As for what's next for us, we don't want 2018 to pass without giving our daughter Shauna another cruise experience (she lives to ride those tour buses!), so we've booked a ten-day Caribbean cruise on the Voyager in November. Will be reunited with GM Davor at that time.

 

Our trivia team was back to full strength today. I won't go into detail about how we fared. Let's just say it's a riches to rags tale. Looking to rebound tomorrow.

 

At the Seven Seas Society Cocktail Party tonight, Captain Rosario Giovanni Vasta said a few words (a crew member swears that if I were to don one of the captain's uniforms I'd be a dead ringer for him--I say, "Nahhhh!"):

 

Then during her remarks, Cruise Consultant Gudrun shared the number of passengers in each Regent tier level:

 

Commodore and Diamond, 0

Titanium, 4

Platinum, 29

Gold, 113

Silver, 230

Bronze, 50

 

Ten of the Platinums are newbies. They filled the stage as they gathered to collect their pins and be toasted:

 

 

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[Mr Rumor]

After midnight, en route Alesund

 

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[Mr Rumor]

Nightcap Edition of Eilfeldig Notaters (Random Notes) from Jess:

 

Trees are the biggest issue in Norway. People go to court over trees all the time—even to the high court. This has to do with height and shade and sun. People want their sun.

 

Norway has the highest rate of skin cancer in the world.

 

 

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[Travelcat2]

Nightcap Edition of Eilfeldig Notaters (Random Notes) from Jess:

 

Trees are the biggest issue in Norway. People go to court over trees all the time—even to the high court. This has to do with height and shade and sun. People want their sun.

 

Norway has the highest rate of skin cancer in the world.

 

 

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Interesting fact but not surprising. We thought that too many crabs were the biggest issue in Norway. They are out of control and are eating the fish. Guess they are both fairly serious issues.

[WesW]

Rich, Ginny and you will love Alesund. One of our top three Norwegian ports to visit. There is a viewpoint about (3Km) from the pier which will give u terrific views of the dock & explorer if u have time to climb/walk to the top. Enjoy.

 

Ps....Craig is loving your blog...he expects a face to face review back in NM.

 

 

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Edited June 30, 2018 by WesW

[Mr Rumor]

Sailing into Alesund. . .

 

Docking (the view from our “bump” balcony). . .

 

I see the viewpoint, Wes! Even though we have morning and afternoon tours today, we don’t sail out until 11, so I’m hoping to do the climb!

 

Jackie, the Norway crab-eating-the-fish issue you mentioned sounds vaguely familiar. Will ask Jess about this when we see him again at the end of the cruise. By the way, I saw Staff Captain Abhi at the SSS reception last night and he asked me to say hi. Such a nice guy.

 

 

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[Hambagahle]

My heavens!! BLUE skies in Norway. What happened Rich??

[Mr Rumor]

Well, Gerry, some fog did roll in this morning, but it made for this special photo. The old lighthouse today serves as a nearby hotel’s bridal suite!

 

 

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