Norway

Alesund

9/3/2003
Dominick A. Miserandino
The Venice of Norway, if such a thing exists, the beautiful canals and shops make this a landmark destination.

Today we arrived in Alesund. As this was the first port, we thought we'd do the right thing and take the tour with the ship. Doing so is usually the safest route, and as we've never really set foot in Norway I was easing on the side of caution. Vikings could be lurking anywhere.

The tour drove through Alesund for a little bit, which is all that it can do as Alesund is a small village, but then again it's the fourth largest town in Norway. Most of Norway seems to be like that.

Geiranger

9/3/2003
Dominick A. Miserandino
The one place in the world to come to learn what really is a Fjord.

I hate tenders. They're not necessarily tender things. If you're not aware of what a tender is, they're little boats (like glorified life boats) that sail you to the dock. Fortunately, this ship doesn't need to tender much, but in this case it did.

It's not that I'm scared of the water or anything. The tender was pretty big so there was nothing to be scared of. It's the waiting. You see the dock. You see the place you're going, but the tender is small and slow, and you feel as if you're watching the longest movie preview every made.

We were arriving in Geiranger.

Trondheim

9/3/2003
Dominick A. Miserandino
Medievel, Gothic and beautiful, Trondheim is the mix of old and new.

Trondheim is a city that when you visit it, you think, I could live here. It's the country's third largest city, and has a rather large university giving it a bit of an art/culture kick.

Once we docked. the first thing we did was run to Nidaros Cathedral. The Cathedral looks a bit like one would expect a medieval cathedral to look like, which in this case is a good thing. It looks just like you'd expect it to look a few hundred years ago- Gothic, dark, ornate and medieval.

Inside it follows the same theme of dark and ornate. However, also inside is the burial tomb of St.

The North Cape

9/3/2003
Dominick A. Miserandino
The toppermost of the northernmost of the highest place in Norway.

As I mentioned in yesterday's story, the Fjords are beautiful. Magnificent. However, we were now on the boat for two days and we've seen more Fjords than you can ever see in Detroit. Corny joke. Nobody else liked it either.

The beginning of the day was okay, but it was the afternoon when it got exciting.

We were arriving at Nordkapp- The North Cape or the Northernmost point in Europe.

Hammerfest

9/3/2003
Dominick A. Miserandino
The northernmost shopping destination that we've ever been to.

We woke up late today. What did you expect when we were up at midnight looking at the fog on the cape? We've already reached the summit, we already reached the top. Anything from this point forward felt like it would simply be anti-climactic.

The town of Hammerfest is the only town in Norway where we met somebody who didn't speak English. When we were in the larger cities of the south end of the country, they quoted the north as being a bit like in the country.

Bergen

9/3/2003
Dominick A. Miserandino
The most beautiful city in Norway with a mix of history and culture that can't be beat.

Bergen I love you. Not Ingrid the famous actress, because that is spelled differently, but the town of Bergen.

We arrived off the docks, which are where cruise ships usually stop, and began our tour with a local guide. Our first stop was to walk by the Medieval banquet hall, H?konshallen. While in Norway you'll find most of the places have names, which are not easily pronounceable, so you learn to nod your head knowingly and smile.

Gudvagen and Flaam

9/3/2003
Dominick A. Miserandino
Good times in Gudvagen and the most scenic railway to nowhere in Norway.

Okay, I am the first to admit that the two town names even said together sound, shall we say, different. Flaam reminds me of the Spanish dessert and Gudvagen reminds me of a German trying to say that he's having a "Good time."

The Silversea ship is small enough to get to Gudvagen so you can have a good time in the town. Most of the passengers were taking a train ride from Gudvagen to Flaam, but we follow the beat of a different troll?.

In Gudvagen we took the tender to town and walked around the town. In about six minutes we finished that completely. Gudvagen is small.

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