Life in Norway

“As the unsullied and clean-tasting breeze passes through my hair, I look out over the bow of the ship to see the high Norwegian snow-capped mountains accompanied by the crystal white waterfalls cascading down the thunderous cliffs which drop into the deep green and blue waters of the Geirangerfjord.”

(more pics to come!)


Hello all,

I felt as thought if I should write a book about my experiences along the Norwegian coastline that would be the sentence on the back cover. A truly remarkable place, Norway is one breath-taking scenic view after another. I said this morning to a guest, “I think after a while, all my pictures start to look the same. Implausibly beautiful but how many water falls can one see in the span of ten minutes!?” Considering that one fall is called The Seven Sisters and is composed of seven different falls in one place, quite a lot I would imagine. Traveling all over Norway is amazing, however, this country is a lot of scenery and not a lot of city. I have yet to visit Oslo, which is Norway’s capital and cultural Mecca, but each town we do visit, has one main street and that is it folks. An amazing place to be for a few days, maybe a long vacation, but only one for those who want to get away from everything. I mean everything. Gemma, our new HR (human resources) manager, asked me as we were walking through the little town of Leknes, “What would you do if you lived here?” To which I responded, “Go on another hike? Uh, read another book? Take another nap?” So as you can imagine there isn’t too much to say about Norway… I don’t really know what I was expecting to say, but it is really summed up as: Norway is a place you have to visit and see to believe. I could keep saying it is gorgeous, but, it would get boring and my thesaurus would become tired. Of course, as far as town life goes: there is a lot of camping, and some great knitwear stores. Its also extraordinarily expensive here. Perhaps more exciting adventures will come when we hit the North cape. So far I’ve hiked to a few waterfalls, and oh yeah, how could I forget…

The most thrilling thing I have done so far on my adventures across the high seas, it wasn’t a long tour, nor did I go to an incredibly amazing man made landmark. Simply, I jumped into The Hellesylt Fjord. That’s right. I put my swimsuit on and jumped in. I don’t quite know how to describe it. Its something you have to do in your lifetime. The water is so clear and fresh. It felt as though pushpins were attacking me from every direction. Forget the feeling before I jumped, which was fear and elated excitement, after encroaching upon the water, for a split second, I did not know which way was up. I could only think that every tiny piece of skin on my body was being burnt in a warm fire. But it didn’t hurt; it was shocking. Then after the thrill it was cold. We (Vicki, Oli, Kelly and I) climbed up onto the pier and the surrounding air outside felt like a hot summer day. It was so warm and took us by surprise as it was not a brilliantly sunny or warm day. All I can say is if you are ever in a Norwegian Fjord…jump in.

I also don’t want to forget that before we left for Norway, we had a debark / embark day in Copenhagen, and it was awesome. Nina and I woke up at 6.45 and left to go out into the almost deserted city, save a few drunk and naked men who were climbing out of the harbor from a swim after their very long night. We went to The Little Mermaid statue, which no one was at as it was seven in the morning. Funny enough after our walk through town, visiting the royal palace square and other incredible sights along the harbor, when we came back to the statue (which was near the ship) around 9.30 there were hoards of people taking photos and clobbering all over each other to stand near it.

I’ll be in Norway for about the next week and a half, so I’ll keep you posted on what happens. Were headed up to Archangel, Russia before we turn around on our way back down to Copenhagen!

Always love,
Rhett