Zeebrugge and Amsterdam

 The last time we visited Zeebrugge, we went to Ypres and Flanders Fields. The change in schedule left us scrambling (and practically begging) to get on that tour again. Hooray for Destination Services! They came through for us.

First stop was the museum, which tells the stories and displays the artifacts.

"In Flanders Fields the poppies grow, between the crosses, row on row:

                                                           Fifteen Years Old.

                                                         They Fell Together.

                                                         Unknown.

                                            Known to be buried in this cemetery.

                                                       Freedom isn't free.

The boat turned over in Amsterdam. Not literally...you know what I mean. We had a day to ourselves to wander around and a day for a really fun tour to "This is Holland" that culminated with a canal cruise and gin tasting.

"This is Holland" is one of those immersive rides with a 360 degree screen, visual and sensual inputs (water in your face), and it's one wild ride around the Netherlands in a helicopter...with your feet dangling. Holy shit was that fun! Next door, there's a tall building with a Lookout Tower for great views of the city.

After that, we drank gin on the canal. Did you know that the canals are actually nine feet deep but only three feet are usable? Um hmm. Three feet of trash, three feet of bicycles, and three feet of usable water.

We were on our way to Barcelona.

Invergordon, Scotland And Back to Europe

 At Invergordon, we visited the  Culloden Battlefield and were regaled with tales of the brave Robert the Bruce. Here's Robert's horse:

And here's the battlefield as it appears today. Remember, the way these battles were fought, back then, was for two sides to line up and charge, drums pounding and flags waving. Difficult to imagine.

Our next stop was Edinburgh. We were docked at Leith, which lies just south of the city center. From our ship, we were looking right at the Royal Yacht Britannia (now a museum). After our last visit here, we saw a TV show about Stirling Castle and it looked really interesting. Off we went.

The castle was home to James V, Mary of Guise, and their daughter Mary, Queen of Scots. One of the Ladies in Waiting was embroidering, which was what those Ladies spent most of their time doing.

One of the most impressive rooms in the castle contains the Sterling Heads, oak carvings produced in the 1500's for the Palace ceilings:

Of course there's a beautiful garden!

But can you find the ant?

We stayed overnight, and the second day was ours, so we took the shuttle into town and went to...wait for it...M&S. The town was really crowded since their annual festival was in full swing and that included the evening Edinburgh Tattoo. We didn't know that or we'd have tried to get tickets.

But here came the weather again! Ships coming into Leith have to pass through a lock to get into the sheltered "pool" that is the bay, and exit through the same lock. It was too windy for the lock, so we got a bonus night that became a bonus day. We rode into town on the shuttle again and this time walked back to the dock, stopping for pies along the way. Nice day.

That bonus day in Edinburgh caused us to skip Newcastle on Tyne so we were off to Zeebrugge, Belgium. 

Hammerfest to Kirkwall

 We're happy to report that Mikkel, our favorite Reindeer Sami, and his family continue to thrive. This time, we had the good sense to take the bus up to the camp rather than climb.

Mikkel's traditionally-built "home". This is their tasting room where guests try reindeer meat, smoked, boiled, jerky...an actual Sami home would be not one-third the size.

This is what we meant about the climb up to the camp. Here's the ship, sitting alongside.

Enroute: 71 degrees, .0861 minutes north. The Arctic circle is 66 degrees north. There was no sunset.

 

Midnight, July 29, 2022:

At Honningsvag, Norway, we again took the trip to the North Cape. Last time, it was so foggy that there was nothing to be seen. This time:

Yep. Foiled again.

We were soon on our way to Lerwick, UK, via Molde, Norway. Tempting to pronounce it "Moldy". It's "Mol-day". Of course. Many of the tours were the same as in Kristiansund, so we stayed aboard. It was this portion of the cruise that was a bit redundant since all port calls to Russia were canceled. We stayed aboard and goofed off: you know, reading the dinner menus and drinking champagne. Stuff like that.

Wait! A sunset!

We visited Scalloway Castle, where they like to make a point about defense readiness. 

Nice digs and a beautiful garden:

Aye, bonnie Scotland:

Shetland Ponies! Little baby Shetland Ponies! They are not sweet! They bite!

Next we stopped in Kirkwall in the Orkneys once again. We stayed aboard since the number of tours there are pretty limited. 

This from the culinary corner: some traditional dishes that are still (occasionally) eaten in Scotland.

Krappen Head: (pronounced Crap in Heed) is a mixture of oatmeal, flour and chopped fish livers. It's seasoned with salt and pepper then packed into the fishs' head and poached in salt water. Crap, indeed.

Reestit Mutton: Legs and shoulders of mutton are soaked in brine for several days, then air dried outside till they stop dripping (!). Then they are hung in peat smoke before being taken into the house and hung in the kitchen ceiling for several months. Yeah.

Sour Skate: (pronounced Soor Skate). A reputed aphrodisiac, skate wings were hung on the clothes line for a few days before being boiled and eaten. Also known as Guffin Skate, because it would repeat on some people with an ammonia aftertaste. This could cause one to be so scunnered (disgusted) that one would need a wee dram (a little, or not so little, drink) of the amber nectar (whiskey). As they say in Glasgow: PURE, DEAD, BRILLIANT!

Skagen to Trondheim

 We left Copenhagen for Skagen, Denmark and headed for Voergaard Castle. No photos allowed inside, but it's a pretty neat place:

From there, we drove to nearby Saeby, home of our tour guide, whose husband fed her lunch of pickled fish and cheese on toast. Denmark. What a cute town!

This is the oldest house in town, built sometime in the 1600's:

The little church in town is famous for its frescoes.

On the way back to the ship, we stopped briefly to see the Buried Church. It seems that a church was built there back when, but the area is famous for shifting sands. The sands began to take over the church. At first, the intrepid worshipers dug it out every Sunday just to see the sand try to reclaim it again during the week. They finally gave up. Most of the church is literally buried. All that's left on the surface is the tower:

Apparently there is a sand dune moving across the area even today, slowly but surely. They're keeping an eye on it lest it eat up any more buildings.  Our next stop was Stavanger, Norway. This is a really nice town where the ships dock right smack in the middle of downtown. It doesn't get any better than that. We took a walk. Next stop, Olden, Norway. We made it a "sea day" and stayed aboard.

Kristiansund, Norway gave us the opportunity to do a repeat drive on the Atlantic Ocean Road. It's about eight kilometers of impossible engineering with beautiful views.

Onward to Trondheim, Norway. We visited the Ringve Museum, which is a private collection of musical instruments, many of them very antique:

Our guide, a very talented young lady, was actually allowed to touch the instruments:

Okay, I tried to get a better photo. But, hey, never mind the old lady with the fancy camera! Just stick your cell phone in front of her!

Next, we went to the Nidaros Cathedral. We'd had an outside visit to the building last time we were there, but this time we went inside. Some said that it's just another cathedral, but to us, it had "wow" factors everywhere. We have more photos, let us know if you want to see them.

Stockholm to Copenhagen

Stockholm!! We visited the Royal Palace:

and the Gamla Stan (old town):

We did visit Kotka, Finland, but took no tour, because we had two tours and a mission in Helsinki. First, a walking tour, the same one we had taken four years ago. This one featured really good coffee and cinnamon rolls as a break. Detail from the Rock Church, which was dynamited into existence over about four months in the late 60's:

The Senate Square:

And we took an out-of town tour to see Hvittrask, home of Eero Saarinen, the famous architect.

On the way, we passed through a town called Espoo (pronounced Espo, like expo). So what's so famous about that? Why, their favorite son, that's what. Ask any rabid Formula 1 fan. They'll tell you who was born there. We're betting that very few of us have ever been there, though.

Our mission was to find Scarpa shoes. Pati searched out a place that might have had them and figured out how to get there. She hit pay dirt at the CAMU store in Helsinki and got them on sale. Shoes safely aboard, we set off for Tallinn, Estonia, where we'd been before and had visited the old town. This time we went to Kadriorg Palace, one of the homes of Peter the Great and Catherine, his second wife, when Russia ran the show. Those old Russians knew how to dress up a place both indoors and out. By the way, in Estonia, they still call them "busses".

Last stop on this leg of the journey was Copenhagen, where the  search for shoes continued. Pati tracked down another outdoors store, plotted it on the map, and this time Gordon got exactly the shoes he was looking for. Bingo!! Done!!