This Post Ought to be Called Part 3.5!

This is out of chronological sequence—I should have written this before the post on Murmansk and Hammerfest. Thanks to having a camera which catalogs all my pictures by date, and thanks to examining the pictures carefully to refresh my memory, I realized this afternoon that I had omitted this most exciting segment of our cruise to the Lands of the Midnight Sun.

On July 28th we crossed the Arctic Circle. Once in this vicinity, and until we turned back South on August 5th, the sun didn’t set. More about this when I get to the Spitzbergen, Magdalen Bay, and the Polar Ice Barrier section of this condensed journal.

Some of the most dramatic scenery we saw on the cruise was that on the North Cape. We didn’t go on any of the North Cape excursions, but nevertheless, what we saw from the ship was breathtaking. It was cold and misty, so the pictures don’t really capture the beauty.

After cruising around the North Cape, we came to the little village of Honningsvaag. We got off the ship briefly, and I was struck by how much the brightly painted wooden houses reminded me of those in Greenland, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands, seen on our last cruise.

In the picture above, Bairds and Cannons are enjoying champagne on July 28, the day we crossed the Arctic Circle. This event is celebrated on North-bound ships, just as crossing the Equator do.

Now here are some of the dramatic North Cape photos, followed by one of Honningsvaag:

where we were--see how far North?

Honningsvaag and the brightly-painted houses

Part Four--Murmansk, Russia, and Hammerfest, Norway

Two ports we visited back to back offer an amazing contrast. Murmansk, the only Russian town we visited, was almost completely destroyed during WWII. So was Hammerfest, the Norwegian port we visited the next day. The Russian town was filled with bleak, run-down, gray concrete block apartment buildings. Hammerfest, on the other hand, was bright, clean, pristine, and colorful.

In both towns we visited cemeteries. In Murmansk our guide took us to a cemetery dedicated to the Allied soldiers who fought and died in the area. While there was a lovely memorial wall (reminiscent of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, DC), the graves themselves, marked with stones set flat on the ground, were knee-high in weeds. In Hammerfest the cemetery was obviously just mowed, the gravestones (many ancient ones) had been re-set. The chapel next to this cemetery was the only building in Hammerfest not destroyed in the war.

Statue in Murmansk honoring fallen Russian soldiers in WWII

In Murmansk our guide took us by a gigantic statue that is dedicated to the fallen Russian soldiers--admittedly, very dramatic and impressive, if overpowering--and also a Russian Orthodox church. Contrasting with the traditional Russian church was a Lutheran church in Hammerfest, which had an unusual and quite contemporary triangular shape. This church was designed in 1961, but has had many different styles through the years. I was particularly struck by a series of paintings depicting the church as it looked through the years.

Also while in Hammerfest we went to an excellent museum called the Museum of Post-War Reconstruction. It recounts the residents’ struggle to rebuild their lives after the entire area had been burned to the ground as a part of a scorched-earth policy by the Nazi regime.

And now, a few pictures:

Apartment building in Hammerfest

Apartment building in Murmansk

Hammerfest cemetery

Overgrown cemetery in Murmansk

Hammerfest, Norway

Russian Orthodox Church in
Murmansk

Lutheran Church in Hammerfest

Taking a Break from the Cruise Posts!

To take a break from the tedium of organizing my travel pictures, I've done a bit of crafting and quilting in the last few days.  On Tuesday I drove out to friend Patty's farm for lunch and so that she could show me a new method of paper piecing.  She learned this technique at a recent workshop sponsored by our quilt guild, one that took place while I was cruising in Norway.

This method uses freezer paper for the paper piecing block pattern.  Rather than sewing directly onto the paper as you normally do, you sew just outside all the seam lines, which means no tedious ripping off of paper patterns when you're done.

Above is the block I made.  It is very tiny--about 3".  One of the huge advantages of paper piecing is that one can make small blocks that are precise and accurate.  I plan to make 11 other of these tiny blocks, using this color scheme (the same color scheme of a king sized bed quilt that I am working on).  I plan to use for this wall hanging scraps from the Anniversary Quilt that Patty and I made last fall, as well as some of the same fabrics that are going into the bed quilt. 

Another project:  A couple of days ago I made two fabric postcards, to send to a dear friend as a belated birthday greeting.   I now have a postcard stamp for the address and message side of the postcard; I love it!  I just heard from my friend to whom these cards were addressed.  Friend, you mentioned receiving ONE.  You ought to have gotten two; let me know!

Lands of the Midnight Sun--Part Three--Geiranger Fjord and Geiranger Village

The Geirangerfjorden

Below, the Seven Sisters Waterfall

Since 2005 Geirangerfjorden has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  We cruised up the fjord, seeing a number of dramatic waterfalls, including the one called The Seven Sisters.  We sailed up to the head of the fjord to a little hamlet, also called Geiranger. The town is visited by several hundred thousand people every summer, and tourism is the main business for the 250 people who live there permanently.  Some 140-180 cruise ships visit this port each summer.  We and our travel companions Ray and Jo soon dubbed this village the “Norwegian Gatlinburg” because of all the souvenir shops, campgrounds, RV parks, the five hotels, etc. 

What the little town did have, though, that was definitely worth our taking the tender from the ship to the dock was another magnificent waterfall.  This one originated far up the mountain but that then cascaded down through the town. We took a walk up an easy path to see the rapids from several different vantage points. 

That evening we had a lovely dinner in the grand dining room with Baylor friends Bob and I had met on our 2008 Danube River cruise. Jo had met Nancy, one of two sisters, even earlier when she took an Oceania cruise around the British Isles and actually roomed with her. Another connection—Nancy was my sister Martha’s friend in Baylor and pledged the same club she was in! Still another connection: Nancy’s mother and mine were friends in Baylor. AND yet another:   her uncle, her mother’s much-older brother, was a colleague of my father’s in BU’s journalism department.

Below are a few more of my favorite pictures.  Remember to click on them to enjoy them larger!

 

the waterfall in town

Nancy at the right and her sister Suzanne at the left
Below, Bob and Alice in town at the waterfall

Lands of the Midnight Sun Cruise--Part Two--Stavanger, July 26th

From Oslo we sailed on toward Stavanger, another town we’d visited in our ’07 cruise to Norway. Unfortunately, this was a town I slept through! I took more of the seasickness medication—Jo said I should have taken one tablet at a time rather than the two the doctor recommended—and was just too sleepy to do anything but nap! Bob went with Jo and Ray, though, to the Petroleum Museum, which he said was fascinating.


Timely, too, because of the oil spill this year. Stavanger has been booming since the 1960s when oil was discovered off its coast. Today, it is the 3rd or 4th largest city in Norway, with a population of around 100,000. It’s hard to be precise because the information given out by the ship and that in my guidebook differ.

When Bob returned to the ship, I sleepily requested that he take my camera back out with him and get some pictures of Stavanger. He did a nice job! The city centre is small and intimate, with narrow streets and open spaces protected from car traffic. The open-air market is one of the few in Norway where you can buy produce directly from local farmers every working day throughout the year.

On our cruise in 2007 we sailed up the fjord that is most associated with Stavanger. I remember this as one of the most memorable days of that cruise three years ago. We didn’t see Lyesfjorden this time.  Perhaps the most dramatic sight in Lyesfjorden is Prekestolen (Pulpit Rock), an overhanging platform above a drop of 1,959 feet to the fjord. 

Meanwhile, I snoozed on until 4:30 or so. I got up, skipped the Team Trivia game, showered, and then we met new friends Rachel and Tim—both doctors from Sioux Falls, SD—for drinks and dinner. They are a delightful couple whom we met before boarding the ship and have shared other meals with them in the buffet restaurant; they, too, are on our Team Trivia team. (This time the team did a bit better and were NOT the low scorers, thankfully!) After dinner, we went back to our cabin. I was able to get some lovely sunset pictures from our veranda. We wouldn’t see many more sunsets as we headed north toward the lands of the midnight sun.  As you'll see documented by the clock picture, sunset on this night was at 10:30.  Below you can also see a picture of our ship.

Bob, Alice, Tim, Rachel, Jo, and Ray--in the Horizons Lounge

Lands of the Midnight Sun Cruise--Part One--Dover and Oslo, July 23--26

I started a cruise journal on our recent cruise and have been working at home to complete it. Eighteen days is a long time to be on board and thus much to cover. Therefore, rather than sharing the completed journal—even in sections—I’ve decided to write greatly condensed versions of the journal and post them on my blog.

Our flight from DFW to Chicago and then on to London was as unpleasant as flying in the coach section always is! No reason to dwell on details. After landing in London, we were bused to Dover. Once on Oceania’s Insignia, we settled in and the first picture included below is of our friends Jo and Ray with us with the white cliffs of Dover in the background. We don’t look as tired as we were, fortunately!

Our first full day on board was a sea day, sailing from Dover to Oslo. The ocean was choppy—typical, I understand, for the North Sea. For the first time ever I suffered mild seasickness, but the medication provided by the ship’s doctor was helpful.  

We docked at Oslo around 8:00 AM on Sunday the 25th. It is a beautiful city, the capital and largest city in Norway. Its population is about half a million in the city itself, but its metropolitan area contains probably around a million and covers some 175 square miles. Its city center, though, is quite compact, and so that morning our friends, Bob, and I decided to explore on our own rather than to take one of the cruise’s excursions.

We walked by the Nobel Peace Center, within view of our ship. We had hoped also to visit both the Ibsen museum and the National Art Gallery, but the former was not yet open when we arrived. With just a morning to spend, we walked on to the art gallery. We passed both the Presidential Palace, the national theater and the opera house, as well plazas with fountains, sculpture (many by Vigeland, whose wonderful sculpture park we saw in 2007), and lovely gardens. Everywhere we went in Norway we saw beautiful flowers, and I took many flower pictures everywhere. (Perhaps I’ll do a blog post focusing just on flower pictures!)

Once at the art gallery, which appeared quite large from the outside but proved to not overwhelming in size once we got inside. We chiefly focused on the Edvard Munch room in the museum, home to the famous “Scream” painting, but we didn’t go to Munch Museum itself.  I particularly liked his "Dance of Life" painting.

From there we strolled back to the ship, stopping for a quick walk-through of the City Hall. Built in 1950, this building is somewhat controversial and unpopular with the Norwegians, many of whom don’t care for its Modernist style. I was impressed, however, especially by the gigantic (largest in Europe) mural on the back wall of the Great Hall, a work by artist Henrik Sorenson. In this huge room the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded. Along the sides are frescoes by Axel Revoldt depicting the agricultural and consumer society of the 1950s. Once outside the building I took pictures of some of the lovely woodwork on the doorways and by the frescoes based on Norwegian folk tales.

We sailed from Oslo that afternoon. We settled into a typical routine of playing Team Trivia in the late afternoon, then having drinks with Jo and Ray in the Horizons lounge at the front of the ship, and then having dinner between 6:30 and 7:00. Open seating on Oceania cruises—so usually it was just the four of us, though we twice ate with new friends Tim and Rachel from South Dakota or friends we’d met in 2005 on the Baltic cruise—one of whom was in school with my sister Martha!

The pictures below are a select few from our first days on the cruise.  Remember, to see enlarged, just click on them.

The Nobel Peace Center

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sculpture probably by Vigeland

Presidential Palace

The National Theater, with another sculture of Ibsen

"The Kiss" by Vigeland, in front of the
National Gallery

doorway at the City Hall

Mural inside the City Hall by Sorensen

one of the folk tale pieces

The City Hall

Lia at Camp

We joined the rest of the family in taking granddaughter Lia to camp for her first extended camping experience on Sunday afternoon.  The camp is charming!  It looked like a Old West hamlet in an old fashioned Western movie.  Before she left, Lia was outfitted with a cowgirl hat and boots.  She's looking forward to the horseback riding and animal care. The camp has not only horses but goats, cows, pigs, as well as some more exotic varieties.  Lia was accompanied by three of her good friends, and the girls were all assigned to the same bunkhouse, which is a replica of a chuck wagon.  On Sunday night after we got back home, all of us said we'd love to be flies on the wall to see those girls on their first night at sleep-away camp!

"Sunny" California Swim Meet

"June Gloom" was lasting into July in California when we were there, to bring grandson Locke home from Texas and to watch him and his sister Lia compete in a swim meet.  Above, Lia and friend are ready to swim, despite what felt like cold weather to us!  In the next picture, Lia is poised on the diving platform, ready for a heat.  After each event, the tradition is for the children to get a treat, and so above Lia wrapped up in a yellow towel is clutching the money Mom has just given her for hers. 

Below, Locke is about to swim in his first relay.

And here, Locke and his friend are enjoying a sweet treat after their heat. 

At right, Locke has just earned a blue ribbon for his winning his heat with his favored and best stroke, the breast stroke.  Below, a proud Dad congratulates Locke!