Sue's purchases and travels

Waterfalls, Waffles and Snow...Oh My!

We awoke to a sunny day and to the ship docked in Skjolden.  This is a town of just 240 residents tucked between some of Norway's tallest mountains.  The tour we chose that day took us to the top of the second highest mountain and as we slowly climbed the curving roads we experienced the thinning of the air and the dropping of temperatures all the while passing fabulous scenery created by melting glaciers centuries back.  We enjoyed waffles at the top of the mountain in a small hotel that is only opened from May till September.  I asked who would want a summer vacation in a snow covered area that  featured just one hotel.  Our waitress explained that athletes from around the world come for a chance to continue their cross country ski training and that just last week they had a group from Colorado.  We did, indeed, see some hearty souls cross country skiing as we sipped hot coffee in the warmth of the wooden hotel. (BTW---connection on ship is sooooo slow...and I just can't take time to get pictures in better position....please scroll down to see all)

The ship has been between mountains so the internet service, which comes through a sattelite, has been down for days....Let me catch up now...

Bergen is, I believe, the rainiest town in Norway.  This was our second visit and it, once again, lived up to its reputation.  The three of us left the ship for a casual tour of the town but it wasn't long before the blowing rain convinced me the ship had more to offer!  We did receive 2 of our four missing suitcases while in Bergen.  David's bag and the bag containing some of my Sweden purchases are still missing. 

We all did get off the ship at our next stop which was the town of Alesund.  The entire town, except for one house,  had been burnt to the ground in 1904 and was rebuilt (no wooden buildings) in almost entirely the Art Noveau style.   The tour we took also  included trips to two small islands one of which featured a small chapel with amazing primitive art created by a local artist(back in the 1800's) whom they referred to as Altarpiece Jakob.  His creations were incredibly charming!  Really Great thing about Alesund? they had a second hand shop!  Found some sweet framed Porsgrund tiles!

Our trip to Amsterdam was to  be a quick flight via SAS from Stockholm's Arlanda airport. We arrived with plenty of time to spare and headed to the SAS Lounge since we were traveling on FREE business class tickets earned through Peter's frequent travels to California this year.  When it came time to go to our gate Peter saw the status switch from on time to cancelled!  Turns out there was not a crew for the plane.  I blame the sudden warm and sunny weather.  We were told the only way to get us to Amsterdam (in time to board our ship the following day) would be a flight to Copenhagen and then a flight to Brussels and THEN a bus to Amsterdam.  We arrived in Brussels around 11 at night.  It was rainy and cold.  It was a smaller plane so we had to take stairs out of the plane (holding my carry on which contained only my bathing suit and about 10 pounds of (spoiler alert) candy for the Klaragals.  We then boarded a bus to take us to the terminal in Brussels.  Our luggage...no surprise here...was not in Brussels  We climbed in the first of two taxi started the two hour drive to Amsterdam.  The rain was torrential and the traffic pretty heavy for late in the evening.  We came upon a traffic jam which, thanks to our non aggressive drive, had us go just 2 kilometers in 60 minutes.  It was 2:30 in the morning when we arrived at the Amsterdam Airport.  The driver stopped at the departure hall dropped us and our hand luggage off, and zoomed away.  He never bothered to notice that the doors were locked!  The 5 of us sloshed our way past three doors before finally finding an open one.   We then began the pathetic search for our luggage.  We made 4 trips to lost luggage before the security person would finally allow us in to search for our bags.  They weren't there.   We left the airport with a phone number to call in the morning and caught a cab to our hotel.  On the way, while stopped at a light, someone backed into our taxi.  Our driver jumped out yelling...."Are you drunk??!! And then took a flashlight from his car and proceeded to check the damage.  We practically kissed the ground in front of our hotel when we checked in at 3:30 am.   The hotel was glorious and had the most perfect bathroom...including heated floor.  I took a long hot bath and settled in for my 4 hours of sleep!  In the morning Peter headed to the airport (since the phone number we had went to a phone that was never answered) while I headed out to buy some clothes.  If you want to feel like a fat American go clothing shopping in Amsterdam.  (or anywhere in Europe)  The H&M store had nothing that fit me!  I was directed to the store that specialized in larger sizes...very depressing.  I had 90 minutes to shop and spent 30 of it discovering I was supersized! I found myself begging to jump the line of women waiting to try on clothes.  All but one let me ahead.  I zoomed back just in time to meet Peter and the taxi he had arranged for our transport to the ship.  Peter learned that our luggage had never left Stockholm (can't blame them...I too love that city!) and was promised it would be delivered to the ship when we docked in Bergen two days later.  Time will tell.