Stavanger, Norway

In retrospect we probably could have slept in longer, but we decided to get up at 6am and watch as the Rotterdam pulled into Stavanger. It was pretty cool. We ate a light breakfast on the patio (we upgraded to a verrandah suite at the last minute so we have a private patio...and free DVD rental) and watched the Norwegian countryside turn to city. Kinda. City for Norway anyway. We were the first off the boat at 7am and walked all over town. In 15 minutes. The town was dead - nothing open, no human in sight. Just beer bottles, vomit, hot dog wrappers - all the tell tale signs of a HUGE Saturday night party. I thought Amsterdam was a party, that was nothing compared to the aftermath we saw here. No wonder no one was awake. We walked all over town till about 10am when a cafe finally opened. We got some snacks and decided to head back to the ship since nothing was open and nothing was going to be open. Also because we have already spent $50 on a couple of pastries and coffees. EXPENSIVE!!

So we got Valkyrie and are going to go back to the room to hang out and watch it.

News on the Mac: it is indeed missing. No matter, we have insurance so it can be replaced. Just sucks. We are worried that there might be some crucial documents that might have accidently slipped in the Mac case by mistake. We are waiting to confirm that. That would suck, it might even prevent us from getting the house if our identities are stolen and fraud is committed. I tell you what - I am one of the most systematic, organized folks you will ever meet. Unfortunately when you take someone like that and distrupt their routine, mistakes happen. Two things I believe contributed to this Mac loss and potential crucial documents misplaced into said Mac case. #1 - we are moving, so our "home" copy of our crucial documents had to be removed from their normal spot and NOT packed as we knew we were going on this trip and the documents needed to be accessible in case of emergency. #2 - we were asked to put all our stuff that we needed for 2 days into our carryon and told we would NOT have access to our checked luggage till the cruise. Therefore, I opted to put clothing in my carryon over the Mac. Otherwise that baby is glued to my hip. However, the Mac makes for a poor skirt and or top. Hence choosing clothing over it. Had I known that we would have had access to our bags, even if only for 15 min (which we did at Shiphol Airport but I didn't check my bags as I needed nothing from them) I would have opted to stow my jacket in favor of keeping my Mac in my carryon. Oh well, lesson learned and nothing I can do now.

The rest of today we will relax. I have a scalp massage at 4pm. Tomorrow we port at Bergen and have a hiking tour. I am looking forward to it. I don't think I packed enough warm clothing though.

Oh - last night we had dinner at the nice restaurant and it was AWESOME! We each had a small appetizer and then Dane had the filet mignon and prawns and I had the lobster macaroni and cheese - yum!

So that's all for now. We will post again tomorrow after our port in Bergen.

Note: since we do not have the Mac, we cannot upload pictures. We will try to post pictures each day to our Facebook if you are interested. :-)