After two nights of formal onboard dining we realized that the
buffet at the Windjammer Café was more to our liking – good selection, lots of
variety (even sushi) and unlimited quantities – including a dessert buffet
guaranteed to satisfy even the sweetest tooth. It was easy for us to abandon our tablemates. They weren’t nearly as interesting as
you guys who crossed to Barcelona with us! The quiet Scottish minister and his wife were offset by the
obese and obnoxious woman from Alaska, a friend and neighbor of Sarah Palin,
who claimed to be so electrically charged she would cause electrical appliances
to self-destruct; need I say more?
Mick and Sheila from England were cute when they giggled like kids that
they so excited to find themselves on a cruise ship.
We didn’t spend much time in Stavenger on Sunday, just enough to walk around town. Stavenger was once a herring and sardine canning center but now owes its prosperity to North Sea crude.
Alemlund, the most northern port on the cruise, seemed to be more
of a convenient stop than a destination, an overnight waypoint at the entrance
of the fjord. We did,
however, enjoy the fru-fru on the white clapboard “art nouveau” houses that
were built after the fire of 1906 destroyed Alesund. It reminded us a little of Napier, NZ.
Art Nouveau houses
Geiranger, in the midst (and mist) of the fjord was pretty much
of a washout. It is part of a
spectacular World Heritage area but with the heavy rain most folks elected to
stay on board and skip the excursions, understandable since you couldn’t even
see the tops of the cliffs. We
were rewarded later that evening when the sun appeared and illuminated the many
waterfalls, engorged by the day’s rain.
With everyone on deck, James Cameron could have used us for extras in
the abandon ship scene in Titanic.
