We did it! We stayed up past 10pm last night! After our second nice dinner at the fancy Pinnacle Grill we headed up to the Crow's Nest for dancing - unfortunately for us it was music from the 50's and that's not really our cup of tea but we enjoyed watching everyone else dance. It was especially nice when they did the waltz. I feel my generation has missed something by not learning these dances and then I cringe to think of how young people "dance" at the clubs these days. Moving on...
We stayed up till about midnight or so then went back to our cabin and read for a while on our patio - it was a beautiful night out and the waters had finally calmed down a bit.
We were up and docked in Oslo, Norway this morning by 7am. Dane and I ate a lazy breakfast and even fed some seagulls some bread - they took it right from Dane's hand! I have pics. We got ready for our vintage sailing cruise and headed out by 10am. The cruise was fun. We drank white wine and ate fresh prawns - that wasn't so nice. They were very fishy and we had to pull the heads and legs off (I HATE that) and one of the prawns was pregnant and spilled prawn eggs all over. Gross. We had more bread though so we fed more seagulls. The boat took us around Oslo and we got to look at all sorts of nice houses and stuff. After the cruise we were hungry and there wasn't really any sight seeing we could do with the time we had left in port so we ate lunch on the boat and took bread back to our room to feed the seagulls. We had over 20 birds at one point circling our patio, getting on our railing and grabbing bread from us. It was fun.
We decided to go to the thermal spa to watch us pull out of harbor. That ended up being a fantastic idea. We had the suite to ourselves and sat in the hot tub while we pulled away. When that got boring we sat on the heated ceramic lounges and watched the captain get mad and blow the horn at all the sailboats. Then we read our books for another hour.
Now we are getting ready to go to dinner. Tomorrow we will port at 10am in Arhus, Denmark. We don't have any excursions planned so we will wing it. Should be a fun day at port - we don't have to be back on the boat till 6:30pm.
We hope everyone is doing well. Norway is beautiful but I miss America. I'm tired of cruise boat food. I want McDonald's fries. And a fresh salad. And steamed veggies. I'd do anything for fresh, steamed veggies that aren't bathed in sodium.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Friday, July 31, 2009
At Sea
Let me rephrase - HOMEOWNERS at sea!!! That's right - we signed and closed on the house! That's a lie. Randall signed and closed on our house! We signed power of attorney over to him before we left and the poor guy had to sign all million of our home documents. Hats off to Randall!
Other than that things are going well at sea. It's been very rough waters - so rough they've closed the pools because they are sloshing out so much. We spent the morning in the thermal suite and are going back to the room for movie watching.
We ALMOST made it to 10:00pm last night. Almost. They had the "Young & Restless 20's & 30's" meet-n-greet at 10:30pm and we made it till 9pm but got bored and thought we'd "lay down for a minute." Next thing you know we are passed out in our Sunday best on the bed. We finally decided to give up and crawl into bed. But tonight's the night! I can feel it! We WILL stay up past 10pm!!
Other than that things are going well at sea. It's been very rough waters - so rough they've closed the pools because they are sloshing out so much. We spent the morning in the thermal suite and are going back to the room for movie watching.
We ALMOST made it to 10:00pm last night. Almost. They had the "Young & Restless 20's & 30's" meet-n-greet at 10:30pm and we made it till 9pm but got bored and thought we'd "lay down for a minute." Next thing you know we are passed out in our Sunday best on the bed. We finally decided to give up and crawl into bed. But tonight's the night! I can feel it! We WILL stay up past 10pm!!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Flam, Norway
Today we woke up at 6am or so and enjoyed a light breakfast before leaving the ship bound and determined to get in a kayaking trip. Our trip through the ship was canceled due to lack of interest (which is really weird considering the company we keep here *sarcasm* - we are the youngest couple by 40 years...at least) so we found the local tourist office and begged till the kayak guide finally gave in and offered us a private tour. It was a great trip - our guide was a pretty, young Norwegian thing who told us all the folklore of the region while we kayaked through the fjord with virtually no boat traffic. It was amazing. She even told us a story of Huldra, a beautiful woman who would lure young Norwegian boys to the mountain tops and turn them into her slave. She says nowdays if a man calls his love his Huldra it has two meanings. #1 - she is the most beautiful woman in his eyes and #2 - she has the temperment of a troll. So you can imagine what Dane has been calling me of late. :-)
After kayaking we went on a railway tour to the top of the mountain and had traditional cold Norwegian waffles with jam and sour cream. It was a great trip and we must have seen 100 waterfalls. Then we sat in the Crow's Nest for some cocktails while the ship left the port and returned through the fjord. We made it all the way to 8:45 before calling it a night! We were pleased just to have made it through the day with no naps.
Today we've been at sea and have spent the day in bed reading and watching movies. We just spent 30 min with the ship's (cute) captain, engineer and hotel manager for a Q&A which was fun and informative. Now we are going to lounge around, maybe get fancied up for tonight's "master chef dinner" and cocktail party.
In other news, our stuff has made it to Denver safely despite a couple hiccups. Special thanks to Randall for making sure everything is in order. Thanks to Melanie as well for caring for our cats. I have a phone interview on Monday, August 3rd at 1:15pm Denver time, 9:15pm for me in Germany. I'll be somewhere between Warnemunde (sp?) and Berlin, on my way back from a day trip to Berlin. Wish me luck! It's for the Senior Accountant/Accounting Manager position at Denver nonprofit Water for People. It's the same exact position as I do for Treehouse. We'll see. The mission is great and it would be a fabulous opportunity to see and help people in very far reaching spots in the world. I will say the company seems pretty "big, corporate" minded for being as seemingly small as it is. Weird. More details after the interview.
After kayaking we went on a railway tour to the top of the mountain and had traditional cold Norwegian waffles with jam and sour cream. It was a great trip and we must have seen 100 waterfalls. Then we sat in the Crow's Nest for some cocktails while the ship left the port and returned through the fjord. We made it all the way to 8:45 before calling it a night! We were pleased just to have made it through the day with no naps.
Today we've been at sea and have spent the day in bed reading and watching movies. We just spent 30 min with the ship's (cute) captain, engineer and hotel manager for a Q&A which was fun and informative. Now we are going to lounge around, maybe get fancied up for tonight's "master chef dinner" and cocktail party.
In other news, our stuff has made it to Denver safely despite a couple hiccups. Special thanks to Randall for making sure everything is in order. Thanks to Melanie as well for caring for our cats. I have a phone interview on Monday, August 3rd at 1:15pm Denver time, 9:15pm for me in Germany. I'll be somewhere between Warnemunde (sp?) and Berlin, on my way back from a day trip to Berlin. Wish me luck! It's for the Senior Accountant/Accounting Manager position at Denver nonprofit Water for People. It's the same exact position as I do for Treehouse. We'll see. The mission is great and it would be a fabulous opportunity to see and help people in very far reaching spots in the world. I will say the company seems pretty "big, corporate" minded for being as seemingly small as it is. Weird. More details after the interview.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Bergen, Norway
Well I'm half ashamed, half triumphant to admit that yesterday after our Stavanger excursion we went back to our room and slept the rest of the day and night with a few moments of being awake. We watched half of Valkyrie before falling asleep. Woke up as we left Stavanger and sat on our patio while we went through the fjord to Pulpit Rock. We even got to see some base jumpers. Then we ate a light dinner at the table seating restaurant and went back to our room - around 7pm or so. Fell asleep. Didn't wake up till midnight when we decided to order room service and watch The Boy in Striped Pajamas. Tear jerker. We finished that at about 3am and went to sleep all soggy-eyed thinking about WWII and what the Nazis did to the Jews. Sad.
This morning we woke up at about 6:45am naturally and got ready for our hike in Bergen. It was a great hike - good workout and we went up to 1800 feet with fantastic views. The funicular was fun too - it's a glass cable car that went up the mountainside. We got some great pictures and even managed another Facebook upload.
After the hike we were famished so we headed back to town for some authentic Norwegian food. I opted for the dried cod in tomatoes, onions and potatoes. Dane was too scared to get anything too Norwegian so he got the steak sandwich with fries. He did, however, get a side of bernaise sauce so he felt very pleased with his food adventure. Then we walked around town for a bit in the shopping mall and fish market. We just got back to the boat and are going to go for a swim and sit in the hot tub.
Dane just got some coffee with alcohol in it (it's not even 3pm) and gave me a sip. Now I'm drunk. Gross.
No plans tonight except maybe watch Taken and try to stay up as late as possible so we can kick this jet lag once and for all.
Our kayaking trip for tomorrow in Flam has been canceled, but we may try to do that on our own. Either way we are taking an afternoon train ride through Flam and the surrounding countryside to go see a waterfall and have some traditional Norwegian waffles (which means they are served cold with sour cream).
We hope everyone is doing well. We miss you! And our kitties. :-)
This morning we woke up at about 6:45am naturally and got ready for our hike in Bergen. It was a great hike - good workout and we went up to 1800 feet with fantastic views. The funicular was fun too - it's a glass cable car that went up the mountainside. We got some great pictures and even managed another Facebook upload.
After the hike we were famished so we headed back to town for some authentic Norwegian food. I opted for the dried cod in tomatoes, onions and potatoes. Dane was too scared to get anything too Norwegian so he got the steak sandwich with fries. He did, however, get a side of bernaise sauce so he felt very pleased with his food adventure. Then we walked around town for a bit in the shopping mall and fish market. We just got back to the boat and are going to go for a swim and sit in the hot tub.
Dane just got some coffee with alcohol in it (it's not even 3pm) and gave me a sip. Now I'm drunk. Gross.
No plans tonight except maybe watch Taken and try to stay up as late as possible so we can kick this jet lag once and for all.
Our kayaking trip for tomorrow in Flam has been canceled, but we may try to do that on our own. Either way we are taking an afternoon train ride through Flam and the surrounding countryside to go see a waterfall and have some traditional Norwegian waffles (which means they are served cold with sour cream).
We hope everyone is doing well. We miss you! And our kitties. :-)
Sunday, July 26, 2009
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. :-)
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. :-)
Saturday, July 25, 2009
At Sea
Today we are at sea. After touring part of the ship yesterday after getting on board I got a traveler's tension massage which was awesome. I fell asleep at least 3 times while the lady massaged my feet. We ordered room service for dinner and watched the first 30 minutes of Bolt before we decided to go to bed. Woke up at 2:20 hungry and wide awake. So we decided to be bad and order more room service and finish Bolt. We got salmon, a cheese plate, an apple tart and a plate of cookies. I'm sure we've gained at least 5 pounds already.
This morning I woke up at 8 am and decided to go to the thermal room before breakfast was delivered to our room. I entered a raffle yesterday and when it was time to call the winner no one showed up due to a miscommunication. For our trouble, the spa gave Dane and I a free day at the thermal spa - an aromatherapy pool, heated tiled mosiac chaises, rain showers and steam room. Anyway - I went there in the morning and it was beautiful. I was the only one there and the thermal is in the very front of the boat. I grabbed some cucumber water and sat in the hot tub watching the water, listening to Enya and just enjoying some very peaceful solitude. I spent an hour in there and went back to the room for breakfast. After breakfast Dane and I took a tour of the kitchen on the boat - which was amazing! Then we walked a mile on the walkaround (actually we jogged one lap till we discovered jogging is against the rules - no wonder we got the stink eye). Then we explored some more, including the "teens only" oasis at the top of the boat in the back. We figured since we are probably the youngest couple on the boat, save any crew and staff, that age is relative and we qualified as hooligan teenagers.
We are still exploring the boat. I have a detox appointment at 2:00, I'm sure after my night in Amsterdam I will turn the detox pad black. We are eating dinner at the elegant Pinnacle Grill tonight, which conveniently coincides with the first formal night on the ship. Other than that, we have no plans.
Tomorrow we port in Stavanger, Norway at 7:00 am. We do not have a tour planned and are looking forward to exploring on our own.
In other news, I think my Mac laptop was stolen. I specifically remember packing it and it wasn't in my luggage when I unpacked yesterday. We are waiting to confirm that it is not at Mark and Angela's house but I have a vivid memory of packing it. I'm hoping I'm just being silly and it's there. Otherwise that sucks. We did get travel insurance and we do have renter's/homeowner's insurance so I should be covered all around. Luckily I didn't have anything that can't be replaced on that computer, like pictures or papers or stuff like that. Sucks, but what can you do? I find it funny because one of the very reasons I got that laptop was to travel with and what not and yet here I am using the internet cafe on board. :-)
Dane has nothing to say. BORING! Actually he does want to say that we saw a dutch fist fight on night one. Awesome.
That's all for now. We got an internet plan for the boat so we will probably be updating this blog daily to bore you with sappy details of our totally awesome and relaxing cruise.
This morning I woke up at 8 am and decided to go to the thermal room before breakfast was delivered to our room. I entered a raffle yesterday and when it was time to call the winner no one showed up due to a miscommunication. For our trouble, the spa gave Dane and I a free day at the thermal spa - an aromatherapy pool, heated tiled mosiac chaises, rain showers and steam room. Anyway - I went there in the morning and it was beautiful. I was the only one there and the thermal is in the very front of the boat. I grabbed some cucumber water and sat in the hot tub watching the water, listening to Enya and just enjoying some very peaceful solitude. I spent an hour in there and went back to the room for breakfast. After breakfast Dane and I took a tour of the kitchen on the boat - which was amazing! Then we walked a mile on the walkaround (actually we jogged one lap till we discovered jogging is against the rules - no wonder we got the stink eye). Then we explored some more, including the "teens only" oasis at the top of the boat in the back. We figured since we are probably the youngest couple on the boat, save any crew and staff, that age is relative and we qualified as hooligan teenagers.
We are still exploring the boat. I have a detox appointment at 2:00, I'm sure after my night in Amsterdam I will turn the detox pad black. We are eating dinner at the elegant Pinnacle Grill tonight, which conveniently coincides with the first formal night on the ship. Other than that, we have no plans.
Tomorrow we port in Stavanger, Norway at 7:00 am. We do not have a tour planned and are looking forward to exploring on our own.
In other news, I think my Mac laptop was stolen. I specifically remember packing it and it wasn't in my luggage when I unpacked yesterday. We are waiting to confirm that it is not at Mark and Angela's house but I have a vivid memory of packing it. I'm hoping I'm just being silly and it's there. Otherwise that sucks. We did get travel insurance and we do have renter's/homeowner's insurance so I should be covered all around. Luckily I didn't have anything that can't be replaced on that computer, like pictures or papers or stuff like that. Sucks, but what can you do? I find it funny because one of the very reasons I got that laptop was to travel with and what not and yet here I am using the internet cafe on board. :-)
Dane has nothing to say. BORING! Actually he does want to say that we saw a dutch fist fight on night one. Awesome.
That's all for now. We got an internet plan for the boat so we will probably be updating this blog daily to bore you with sappy details of our totally awesome and relaxing cruise.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
OMG
Thank God we only have one night in Amsterdam. Dane and I had a really good time last night. We visited the RLD and meandered around for awhile then went back to Leideseplein (or however that is spelled) and danced the night away at "Amsterdamed." I'm pretty sure I will turn into a Heineken Beer.
The DJ played a lot of MJ songs so of course I rocked out to that. By about 2:30 Dane was ready to call it a night so we headed back to the hotel. All the cabs here are pimped out Mercedes, it's awesome.
So today we check out at 12:00 then head to Rotterdam to board the cruise boat at 5pm. I'm pretty sure I will die before then unless I get more water and aspirins.
Not much else to write home about - actually there is plenty to write about but Dane says it's classified so I guess what happens in Amsterdam stays in Amsterdam. I will say that wiggy-wiggy is not as fun without Angela. :-(
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