Addendum, Postscript, Wrap-Up, Stuff - Part 1: Southampton to Copenhagen

Thursday - 11 July 2013 - Boulder, Colorado, USA

Southern Greenland from SK 925 on 6July13

Back in 95 degree (F) Boulder Colorado. It actually gets dark at night here. Planning to get the $1.95 hot dog at Costco for lunch today. What a change from a typical lunch on Silver Cloud of beef short ribs with fresh Norwegian herring marinated in juniper berries. At least the flight home from Copenhagen last Saturday was scenic.

As postscript to my trip report, I thought it would be fun to mine my thousand or so pictures for those I didn't choose when posting from the ship. Some show the mood of a place or illustrate a point best left for some reflection before publishing. You'll see what I mean.

I'm refraining from my usual philosophical wrap-up and say only that Silver Cloud was very comfortable; the food and service was most likely the best possible on any cruise line; and we were treated fantastically. The butler was ingenious, smart, helpful, and polished our shoes only twice a day. Can't ask for more, and I didn't. The owner of Silversea wants his little venture (for him) to be #1 in the luxury cruise market. The on-board crew is trying to accomplish this, but the headquarters folks would excel as well if the billionaire owner bought them a clue. Other than that, I love Silversea and the lifeboat I've bought with my fares over the year.

Below are my photos that didn't make the original "cut" but are most worthy of ending my story on this most remarkable itinerary. This really was one of the very best cruises I have ever taken.

 

AMSTERDAM

 

Amstel River downstream Amsterdam

The snap illustrates modern Netherlands. A modern windmill watches over a jet hover craft passing a modern version of a Van Gogh bridge. Cooler than what I can't say.   

 

HAMBURG

Hamburg early morning arrival

Weird debasing of historic German waterfront

Beautiful waterfront Hamburg suburb

I guess I didn't have great things to say about Hamburg, Germany. It's essentially a modern city with lots of construction, but the town square was nice and the city looked prosperous. We just expected better since the dawn sail-in was stunning. The Mississippi River type paddle wheel boats (from a recently bankrupted US corporation) along the old historic waterfront was disquieting along with the hodgepodge of ultra-modern buildings. Weird sights, and I'm afraid it got worst during our exploration. Fortunately, the parting view as we sailed back downstream towards the Kiel Canal was of lovely waterfront suburbs. I guess the modern Germans rather live outside the overgrown city.

KIEL CANAL

 

Kiel Canal near "world's longest bench"

Not really a protest group along Kiel Canal

Kiel Canal during rainstorm

 

No prior experience "at sea" rivals the Kiel Canal transit. This busiest but relatively unknown 60 mile waterway is oddly otherworldly. A strange experience was seeing what appeared to be a "demonstration" we passed about half way to the Baltic from the Black Sea. Careful reading of the German, however, shows that this was a bunch of friends and relatives of a couple on the ship who were wishing them a good trip. I chatted with the gentleman a few minutes later.  Actually he was engaging anyone he met on deck to say that he has lived for the last 30 years within sight of the canal and now finally was on a ship in it. He was beaming like no North German I've ever met before.

HELSINGBORG

 

Helsingborg school kids

 

It is most usual for a cruise ship to dock in Helsingborg, Sweden. School kids in international safety vests were being escorted to look at the ship. My, those blond haired, blue eyed munchkins were cute.

COPENHAGEN

Shift Change at Copenhagen's Crown Prince's Palace

Jannik's excellent walking tour included the plaza in front of the Crown Prince's palace. During the guard's shift change ceremony the sentry being relieved could not keep himself from hollering at a tourist who had the effrontery to lean on the building. I guess he really needed the break. The tourist ran away without looking back for fear of being thrown in a Danish dungeon. 

 

Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen is really very little

We docked within sight of the very overrated tiny Little Mermaid statue. Check it out as a smudge along the waterfront directly below the three smoke stacks.

 

A better than expected panoramic tour in the south of Norway

Thursday – 4 July 2013 – Kristiansund, Norway

Silver Cloud sailed southwest out the Alta Fjord in the Arctic at 3:30 pm Tuesday. We had a terrific sail out and great gins and tonics (or was it terrific gins and tonics and a great sail out) with scenery to blow one's proverbial socks off. Yesterday was a sea day with great views of the Norwegian off shore islands, and finally we found open seas and headed back to actual sunrises and sunsets. Of course, twilight is all one gets this far north, but theoretically there was a sunset at 12:30 am overnight. Sunrise this morning was at 2:20 am.

We arrived at 8 am at the small port for the lovely three island municipality of Kristiansund in Southwestern Norway. We opted to blow our remaining "use it or lose it" on-board credit on the ship's excursion entitled, "KSU – A: Atlantic Ocean Road & Kvernes Stave Church". This four hour 70 mile bus tour consisted of exactly 3½ hours of going to the stave church in the nearby town of Kvernes and riding on a $80,000,000 four mile stretch of Norway's "Atlantic Ocean Road." No fooling.

I'm not a fan of what the ship calls, "Panoramic Tours". These are essentially the tours for the possible walker and cane crowd. You know, where one couple (usually elderly but not always) grabs seats in the very first row of the bus with (usually but not always) the woman proclaiming loudly, "his knees", apparently something equivalent to, "first dibs". Years ago I found out that some tour participants' excuses do not work as well, such as the woman who announced, "car sick", when taking the best seat in the bus because some wise guy among the passengers hollered, "So, why did you book a bus tour?." (I did get into a bit in trouble for that. Oh well.)

As they say, "actually", today's tour was quite nice. The ride to "one of the newer" stave construction churches (newer since it was built only in 1300) passed picturesque salmon farms in the fjord and included a ride under the wide part of the fjord in a typical Norwegian infrastructure rich four mile long tunnel. This engineering wonder (we returned in a somewhat shorter but just as impressive one) is 850 feet below sea level, the deepest auto tunnel in the world if one was to believe (or understand) the tour guide. 

Norwegians do not tend to lie about their tunnels, but this guide was German. She spoke Norwegian quite well. Unfortunately, that was the only foreign language she knew fluently. But the stave church was quite charming as well as unusual. The curiously dressed local guide at the church and her colleagues explained a lot, quite a lot, about the construction that uses staves to hold it together (like a barrel) since despite the rough winter weather and high winds off the water, nails were not used. I don't know what is more amazing, the fantastic art that decorates the entire structure's interior or the fact that it lasted until 1400, much less 2013.

Next we had a long but scenic drive around one fjord or another passing lots of dairy cows as well as salmon farms to, now wait for this, the Atlantic Ocean Road. Actually, only the most famous and scenic part I think the guide sounded out from her notes. We also found out about the rough weather along the road because there's a YouTube video on it that shows people being blown off the bridge. That fact came from the guy (with the knee issue) sitting in the first row on the bus. I guess he had a computer as well as the best viewing on tour buses.

In the remaining half hour before "All Aboard" in downtown Kristiansund, Barbara blew half of our remaining Norwegian kroner on an authentic garment. (See above: it's the red hat that says, "Norway", on it). We returned to the ship for the last time on this 27 day cruise and immediately rode up the lift to have lunch in the Deck 7 Terrazza restaurant.

Tomorrow is a sea day. I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to packing up and leaving the ship after probably the most unusual itinerary in many years of my sea voyages. That's because I hate packing to go home. But I'll probably have some additional comments either from the ship tomorrow or in the next few days after arriving back in summer weather with real nights Boulder. Stay tuned, and thanks for following along with us.

Alta sail-out and Norwegian coast photos

Yesterday’s Classical Pianist

Silversea Cruises, as does many of the other cruise lines, employs guest entertainers to supplement the permanent singers and dancers. Pianist Filip Wojciechowski joined the ship yesterday in Alta, Norway and performed Chopin favorites after dinner in the Venetian Lounge, Cloud's showroom that accommodates most of the guests in one seating. In my experience, about half of these guest artists are the sort of acts that would be regulars on Ed Sullivan's show in the 1950s: ventriloquists, slightly risqué puppeteers, solo singers who usually are engaged to perform popular selections from Broadway or West End musicals, and nowadays there's an endless stream of "comedy magicians", sometimes one arriving as one leaves.

Years ago I discovered that half of the other 50% billed as, "Classical Musicians", are mostly showmen and women who dance around on stage with a violin or even a cello (ouch) to their rousing rendition of selections from Carmen, or perhaps an "Opera Singer" who feels obliged to do an selection from Tosca in a way that some of us in the audience really hope that the parapet awaits nearby. The rest are pianists that invariably play the same Chopin selections (you know, Polonaise in A or Fantasie-Impromptu) with much improvisation brought on by jet lag or perhaps a good wine at dinner coupled with the jet lag and little time for practicing before their show. 

Last night's performance by Mr. Wojciechowski even added Chopin's Grande Valse Brillante, clearly showing he knows the usual ship's guests' preferences of repertoire from  A to B. The quality of his playing, however, was a rare exception: not as to the selections but in talent. He was quite good. He did the best he could with the lower notes of the ship's venerable Yamaha being seriously out of tune and a number of the guests nodding off. He stayed awake. I will look forward to hearing Filip on a future cruise when he may please the audience by perhaps venturing into the unchartered territory of a movement from the Moonlight Sonota or a little of Rhapsody in Blue. (His second performance two days later were of a Rhapsody in Blue "selection" and another Chopin favorite.)

A fantastic evening on a Silversea Cruise small ship

We had dinner last evening in the Terrazza, the upscale Italian alternative dining room that has two real Italian chefs with Silver Cloud's Destination Lecturer, Corey Sandler and Janice Sandler. It was great to share experiences with people who have traveled to more places than I have and still have such an enthusiasm for continuing. Traveling is an addiction, of course, but as addictions go there are worse.

Barbara and I then sat in the stage right wing with long time Cruise Director, Judie Abbot (a legend in the cruise industry rivaling only perhaps colleague Ray Solaire) listened to the ship's visiting entertainer, an uncommonly good classical pianist, even if he had to play the obligatory Chopin on the ship's slightly out of tune Yamaha grand piano. 

We ended the evening in the main bar where we watched the Arctic Norwegian fjords go by and asked the off duty Norwegian pilot to join us. Two pilots boarded for the overnight sail to guide the ship through the narrow rocky passages. The pilot who was wearing an international orange vest, cutting quite a figure on jacket (tie not included) informal dress code night, pointed out the small fishing village he played soldier with found German WWII rifles when he was a kid.

 

It doesn't get much better than this. This is what travel can be.

Tahiti or Norway?

We're at sea today. This morning the view to the east appeared to be of Moorea or maybe Bora Bora in the Tahitian Islands. Actually it's mainland Norway just north of the Arctic Circle. Maybe it's time to think about coming home.

One more stop in Norway tomorrow, then a sea day to pack. 

The most northern of real towns

Tuesday – 2 July 2013 – Alta, Norway

Alta is the last Arctic stop of this cruise. At 70 degrees north latitude, this 170 year old town is remarkably vigorous. As usual in Norway, the town fathers gave high priority to building a ski jump. 

We were lucky to arrive in sunshine (more or less) and the rain held off (more or less) for our two shore side activities. Any weather that doesn't require foul weather gear is considered "summer" 150 miles north of the Arctic Circle. Alta is located at the end of the Alta Fjord. Go figure.

We opted for the morning "Rock Art of Alta" excursion, essentially a narrated transfer to the Alta Museum, the access to the nearby UNESCO World Heritage petroglyph site. A 3 mile boardwalk passes by thirteen petroglyphs said to be as old as 6000 years. These were discovered by a couple of teenagers—why is it that all caves and petroglyphs are discovered by adolescents—who ventured out during the week of summer in 1972 (more or less).

The petroglyphs are really remarkable. Although most were enhanced for tourists' viewing convenience by ocher, a few of the rock drawings were left as they were found. They depict the usual hunting and fishing activities of the prehistoric hunter gatherers and later herders as pens are visible. There are fishing nets shown, boats looking like Viking ships (hey?) and even some pregnant moose. They even depicted the moose becoming pregnant. Really pretty cool: petroglyph naughty pictures. But best of all for us was that the boardwalk extended for quite a distance affording a nice hour plus long brisk hike through the woods and along the fjord.

We returned to the ship and had a quick lunch as the sky opened up with warm rain and considerable wind (the lovely apple display at the gang way became dislodged amusing the ship's security officer not at all), but the weather cleared up shortly after enough for us to venture to the downtown area via the ship's half hourly shuttle bus. We found downtown Alta—there are three towns in the area combined recently into one administrative district, no doubt so that they could buy more street lights and snow plows—to be quite nice. A wide avenue leads to the brand new titanium clad cathedral, and there's a huge indoor mall with every kind of store that one can find anywhere in the world, all of which were doing a vigorous business. We even spotted an Indian and a Chinese Restaurant, named Taj Mahal and Wing Wah, respectively. These Norwegians never miss a trick.

We sail at 4 pm for Kristiansund in the deep south of Norway. (We later found out there's also a town of Kristrianson further south. So our Kristiansund is usually written with an "N" after its name.) There, I hope to see both twilight (for an hour or so) and where the timber line way be as high as 500 feet MSL instead of at sea level. We will deplete our on-board credit with yet another tour called, "Atlantic Ocean Road & Kvernes Stave Church." I wonder what we will see on that excursion.