During Ray and Traci’s various cruises, they have frequently asked crew members about their favorite places to sail. A common answer from ship masters (Captains) are the Fjords of Norway. Fjords are deep and narrow sea inlets created by glacial activity. During July of 2023, Ray and Traci decided to plan a cruise adventure to see the natural beauty of these Norwegian waters.
The cruisers decided to sail on the Norwegian Prima, a brand new ship that represents the first of a new class of NCL ships. The ship started her voyage in Reykjavik, Iceland so Ray and Traci would also have a chance to enjoy Iceland in the summer time – their March 2019 Iceland visit was blogged about previously: http://rayandtraci.blogspot.com/2019/03/
The travelers encountered several challenges before their journey ever started – first, the initial reviews of the NCL Prima were terrible for reasons including poor ship layout, inadequate seats in the music venues, and financial cutbacks resulting in decreased live entertainment, especially the Broadway type shows NCL was known for. In addition, due to circumstances (largely) out of NCL’s control, two port calls – Isafjordur in Iceland and Brussels in Belgium were cancelled. And finally, a volcano southwest of Reykjavík started erupting. Fortunately, these events led to some disappointment but not cancellation of their vacation.
Ray and Traci flew on Icelandair on a “red eye” flight overnight to Reykjavik, Iceland. Ray used Alaska Air miles to get free tickets, and paid a seat fee to obtain two exit row seats on the far right of the plane (2-3-2) rows. Iceland air is sort of the low budget airline to Europe, but the couple found their service perfectly adequate. The flight was uneventful, no baggage problems were encountered and their pre-arranged transfer from the airport to Reykjavik went smoothly. The couple stayed at the Reykjavik Hilton Nordica, just as they did in the 2019 trip. They found their room available for much desired early check in. Outside, the temperatures were in the 50s and although cloudy skies predominated, no rain was encountered during their visit.
Both Ray and Traci were exhausted from the overnight flight but decided to do some sight seeing. They walked from the Hilton down to the Reykjavik Old Harbor area and found the Maritime Museum where they could exchange their advance purchased voucher for two 72 hour Reykjavik City Passes. Ray and Traci previously found the City Passes to be a very good deal during their 2019 visit, and this was even more true with their current stay. With the City Passes, visitors can enter a long list of attractions without paying anything, getting a discount at others, and being able to ride the public transportation buses for free. They took a quick look thru the Maritime museum, then boarded a boat which visited an island said to be the world’s largest breeding colony of puffins. While tourists weren’t able to go ashore, the view from the boat included tons of puffins from babies to adults floating in the water, flying in the air, and standing on the island.
After returning ashore, Ray and Traci walked to City Hall and the adjacent duck pond. In this pond, large numbers of ducks float around waiting for people to feed them. Many families were happy to oblige. Ray had always thought Seattle’s population of Canadian Geese were among the most entitled animals in nature – they would sit on asphalt pedestrian paths and even roads expecting cars and people to navigate around them. The Reykjavik ducks, on the other hand, swim up to people demanding food. The ducks not only would eat out of people’s hands, but they would try to eat their hands even if they had no food. The final stop of the evening was at the Aurora Reykjavik – a place to learn about the aurora borealis. Exhibits included amazing pictures and videos of the northern lights along with history of the science (and myths) explaining the phenomenon. Perhaps the most amazing part of the experience was in the gift shop where visitors can put on Oculus VR headsets and watch several videos of the northern lights. Ray and Traci were fortunate in being able to see the real northern lights during their March 2019 visit but summer with seemingly endless daylight prevents good visualization – Sunset was after 11 pm, and sunrise 4 am but it never becomes completely dark. Now exhausted, Ray and Traci had dinner at the hotel lounge, walked to a local ice cream shop for dessert, and collapsed for the evening.
Tuesday brought early dawn lighting to this very northern region – by 4 am it appeared to be midday. Ray went for a morning run on an excellent running path along the waterfront near the hotel. Next Ray and Traci took a public bus to the BSI Bus Terminal to join a tour of a lava cave.
These are structures that once held flowing lava but are now hollowed out tubes and caves. One of the largest was turned into a tourist attraction with internal metal steps and ramps facilitating visits by guided groups. Having an exceptionally entertaining geologist guide in the cave made this a must see experience well worth the 40 minute bus ride each way to get to the site. After the cave experience, Ray and Traci took a ferry to Videy Island, a short 10 minute ferry ride from the north part of Reykjavik adjacent to the cruise ship terminal. A former monastery and later a home for a government official, the small island is best known for the Imagine Peace Tower.
This creation by John Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono, is a wishing well with electric illumination creating a tower of light sometimes seen at 13,000 feet. Iceland was partly chosen for the memorial due to its production of electricity using renewable geothermal heat. With the 2023 state of geopolitics, Ray and Traci thought their visit was especially timely. Before turning in for the evening, Ray and Traci enjoyed dinner at the Hlemmur Matholl Food Hall where Ray had a pizza and Traci a bowl of pho before sharing a gelato and returning to the Hilton.
Wednesday was the couple’s last full day in Reykjavik. They got a late start after catching up on some badly needed sleep – the first stop of the day was at the Arbaer Open Air Museum. One excellent feature of Reykjavik is a very efficient public transit system. With a $60 Reykjavik City Pass, Ray and Traci could ride the busses without paying a fare just by showing the driver the card. Since each bus ride cost the equivalent of $3.50, it did not take long for the card to pay for itself just in bus fares. Of course, the biggest feature of the card is entrance to many attractions for free (such as the Maritime and Arbaer museums) with others like the Aurora Reykjavik offering 50% discounts. Using google maps made navigation around Reykjavik using public transportation a breeze. The Arbaer Museum is a large plot of land which preserves many of the old houses and buildings from earlier Iceland days.
Houses have been restored to provide a glimpse in life from the early 1800s onward. Ray and Traci arrived for the 1pm guided tour which was quite fascinating – both the homes and lifestyles of Icelanders were discussed. Many of the old homes were constructed of rocks using living grass turf to fill in the gaps. Others were built of driftwood originating in Siberia and harvested from the sea to make lumber as Iceland has few trees. After their glimpse into the past, the tourists boarded another public bus and went to the virtual flight ride Flyover Iceland. Like many similar rides in other places, Flyover Iceland puts people in sophisticated equipment simulating flight with amazing views and special effects to highlight some of Iceland’s most scenic areas. The one big miss is the absence of any active volcano scenery given Iceland’s nickname of the land of “fire and ice.” Surely, drones must be taking amazing pictures of the active volcanos in the country. Ray and Traci finished their exploration by touring the Reykjavik Photographic Museum located above the main library. Another public bus took them back to the Hilton for dinner and enjoyment of a live streaming of the Mariners victory over the Minnesota Twins.
Wednesday brought sunshine to Reykjavik. Ray and Traci started their day with runs again along the waterfront – this time heading north to see their new home, the NCL Prima ship which was docked. After packing their belongings, they took a taxi to the cruise port and boarded without incident. Unfortunately, they were scheduled to visit the Icelandic town of Islfjordur and take an excursion to the beautiful Dynjandi waterfall but because of delays in construction of the cruise dock the stop was cancelled. So Ray and Traci spent the day at sea enjoying the dining and entertainment aboard Norwegian Cruise Line’s newest ship. The weather was not warm (low 50s) preventing much of the pool and water slide use. Also, unlike every other ship the cruisers have been on, the NCL Prima has no dedicated running track so Ray and Traci had to use a treadmill for running. Between binge watching videos, listening to music, and eating, the day went by fairly fast.
The Prima’s first stop was Akureyri, the largest Icelandic town on the north coast. Although cold, the cloudy weather was not accompanied by rain and facilitated some amazing photographs. Ray and Traci booked a tour thru the cruise line which started early in the morning. After boarding a large bus, the tourists stopped at Godafoss, the “Waterfall of the Gods.”
According to lore, the waterfall was given the name when an Icelandic Chieftain threw statues of the Norse gods into the water symbolically demonstrating conversion to Christianity. From this iconic Icelandic attraction, the bus next stopped at Namaskard which from a distance looked like a barren smoldering wasteland from some future apocalypse. The large field consisted of pools of gurgling mud and venting steam spiked with sulfur.
The geothermal energy in Iceland makes many types of intriguing natural wonders for visitors to enjoy. Afterwards the bus brought Prima guests to a large lava field called Dimmuborgir – the molten lava which once flowed created numerous lava formations. A brief rest break with sandwiches and beverages was followed by a stop at Skutustadir – a grassy field with moonscape like features – large craters formed from gaseous explosions in lava flowing over cool and wet surfaces 2300 years ago.
This single tour was extremely comprehensive and left visitors with an appreciation of many of the natural wonders found in Iceland. Sailing away from Akureyri treated passengers with beautiful scenery surrounding the Eyjafjordur Fjord. A few hours later, Ray and Traci crossed latitude 66 meaning they reached the arctic circle on their trip to Norway. The arctic circle is defined as the position where the sun does not set on the summer solstice (and the sun doesn’t appear on the winter solstice). Of course, no sign appears in the sea when you reach the arctic so only GPS coordinates can let you know you arrived.
The sailing from Iceland to Norway is often turbulent, but Ray and Traci lucked out with very calm seas. After a sea day, the ship arrived at Alesund Norway on Monday. Temperatures were noticeably warmer and the forecasted rain did not materialize. Sailing in to Alesund, one sees beautiful green mountain terrain lining the fjord before arriving at a relatively small town of 42,000 people. Ray booked an excursion using the travel site Viator for the “Ultimate Sightseeing Tour.” After boarding a large bus, the tour group headed to the visitor center on top of Mount Aksla – a viewing platform in the center of the city. Visitors can be seen zig zagging their way up the path to the top (much like Lombard Street in San Francisco), but tour buses can also bring people directly. Alesund is a city composed of a collection of islands which were on full display on top of the mountain. Tunnels underneath the seas connect many of the islands.
The tour bus next brought guests to Summere museum which is an open air collection of houses and buildings from eras past very similar to the Arbaer Open Air Museum in Iceland. Norway is blessed with many trees so timber was used to construct much more of the houses compared with Iceland. The bus next traveled to Alnes Lighthouse, an active red and white structure standing guard since 1852. The light is now automated and the caretaker house turned into a coffee house but on the tour visitors get to climb 5 floors of steps and are treated with amazing scenic views. The final stop on the “Ultimate Sightseeing Tour” was the 12th century church located on Giske island. Interestingly enough, the church was constructed of marble and then had plaster covering all of the exterior. Afterwards, the tour group headed back to the NCL Prima and sailed to their next destination in Norway.
Tuesday brought even better weather at the next stop – Olden. This small Norwegian town only has a population of about 7,000 – about the number of people on the NCL Prima. Sailing into port the incredible scenery of the fjord included high mountainous hills of green ending in the sea. Houses were noted around the port, and the ship docked in the middle of town. Ray and Traci left the ship and started an NCL organized tour to Briksdahl Glacier. Buses brought groups of hikers from the ship to a trailhead about 40 minutes away. During the bus ride, nature was on full display with beautiful mountains, lakes, and waterfalls capturing everyone’s attention.
Midway, the bus stopped for photos at a picturesque lakefront setting. Upon arriving at the glacier’s tourist center, hikers began the journey to Briksdahl glacier. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but photos cannot do justice to the amazing beauty of this area – enhanced by the blue skies and sunshine.
With trees, mountains, waterfalls, flowers, and views of the glacier lining the route, hikers were rewarded with nature’s beauty for their continued progress. At the end of the trail, glacial melt fed a small lake. One particularly adventurous tourist took a swim in the freezing water. Ray settled for tasting the glacial melt.
After this amazing encounter with nature, Ray and Traci hiked back to the visitor center where a variety of sheet cakes served as a reward for glacier visitors. After the bus ride back, the travelers did a little exploration around Olden. Increasing clouds followed by rain chased the couple back to the ship confirming the rapid changes in local weather conditions. Sadly, the NCL Prima left Olden and with it, perhaps the most beautiful hike Ray and Traci have ever done.
The couple’s luck with weather continued in Bergen, the final stop in Norway for the NCL Prima. Cloudy but 60 degree weather gave way to sunshine later in the day. Bergen is Norway’s second largest city with 275,000 residents. It prides itself on being extremely walkable and has an extensive history as a seaport dating back to the Vikings. Ray and Traci planned their own itinerary in Bergen starting with a ride up the funicular (Floibanen) to the observation station affording beautiful views of the territory as well as a “troll forest” with wooden troll sculptures greeting visitors.
The funicular does not carry many people and the upper observation area gets very crowded with tour groups, so assuming the weather is clear and allows for views of the city, early morning visits would seem to be best. There were three automated machines accepting credit cards and dispensing tickets for the funicular at the bottom station. Ray and Traci walked down the trail back to the city rather than riding the funicular down, and then made their way to Rosenkrantz Tower. This medieval castle served as a residence and defense structure for the Norwegian kingdom. Its rich history started in the 13th century and was involved in battles up through World War II. Ray and Traci’s next stop was the Bryggens Museum which displayed artifacts and history of Bergen including the many fires which dramatically affected the development of the city. The travelers next encountered the Fisketorget Fish Market which was established in the 1500s and now is a collection of merchants and restaurants much like Seattle’s Pike Place Market. Their next stop was the Leprosy Museum. People afflicted with Leprosy were once quarantined at the site which was Bergen’s first hospital. Dr. Hanson spent his career working with the disease, including some very controversial experiments which are explained at the museum.
During their tour, Ray and Traci appreciated the vibrancy of Bergen’s downtown which starkly contrasts with many US cities such as Seattle. Adults and children playing in parks, building creations in community Lego build events, and just enjoying a beautiful summer day was quite inspiring. They next took a break back on their ship for lunch and to recharge Ray’s iPhone which had been continually drained by Google Maps guidance. Afterwards they made another walk around the city looking at architecture and shops before returning to the ship for departure.
The NCL Prima had its final sea day as it transited to Amsterdam. As with the rest of the cruise the seas remained quite calm. On Friday morning, the Prima docked at the cruise port located about a 1/3 of a mile from the central rail station. Amsterdam is a very interesting city as it is a coastal city below sea level. The Amstel river deposited silt as it emptied into the seas creating marshland. By placing a dam across the Amstel, the land dried out and Amsterdam was born.
Ray and Traci booked a walking tour around the city on the travel site Viator from FreeDam tours – their guide Jaap was a student of history and a superb leader for the 12 tourists in the group. Jaap explained that to understand the Dutch you need to know two things – water and money. In their golden age, Dutch seafarers traded world wide commodities like spices as well as participation in the slave trade. To finance their commerce they started the world’s first stock exchange to trade shares of the world’s first publically traded company – the Dutch East India Company. The astonishing success of this company resulted in reaching an inflation adjusted valuation of 7.6 trillion US dollars (over twice Apple’s valuation!) Jaap’s tour started at the Amsterdam stock exchange complete with a bull statue (similar to the one on Wall Street in the US) and proceeded to the edge of the famous Red Light District. Created to satisfy sailors, the area is notorious for an anything goes culture. Sex workers rent windowed stalls and bars fuel the “anything goes” spirit by providing alcohol. Not to be excluded from profiting off of Europe’s sin city, Jaap recalls how churches sold “sin” cards so patrons could pay in advance for forgiveness after participation in sinful behavior. Since sailors faced risky conditions at sea, they took comfort by having a Sin card in their possession just in case their end came. Next, the group entered Chinatown – famous for “coffee” shops not just Kung Pao Chicken. Amsterdam still considers hard drugs illegal but a permissive “blind eye” culture toward things like marijuana have been fostered for years. Well known "coffee shops" will sell marijuana in various forms. While at one time these permissive attitudes were quite novel, recent experience with effectively decriminalized drug use (both marijuana and “harder" drugs) in cities like Seattle make the Dutch attitudes seem old fashioned. The tour of Amsterdam highlighted two interesting architectural features – the ever present canals and the uneven house foundations. While the canals had a useful function allowing merchants to move goods easily, currently the canal system allows water to drain and prevent the below sea level city from flooding. Because Amsterdam is built on silt, buildings were prone to sinking in the soft ground. Back in the day, trees were pounded into the ground to support structures built on top of them – over time, some of the wood disintegrated resulting in uneven floors.
After their city tour, Ray and Traci walked over to the Anne Frank House. Perhaps the hardest museum ticket the two have ever tried to secure, the Anne Frank House memorializes the annex to a warehouse where 8 people hid during German occupation of the Netherlands. Tickets go on sale 6 weeks ahead of time and go very quickly. Despite the limits on ticket sales, the path thru the annex hiding area is quite crowded from opening until closing at 10 pm. The exhibits cover the entire sad story of German occupation and its aftermath and also houses the actual diary of Anne Frank. Ray and Traci next walked to the Amsterdam Flower Market which claims it is the world’s only floating flower market. Both flowers as well as bulbs of every imaginable variety are for sale. The Dutch have a long history of admiring flowers – back in the mid 1600s, the tulip bulb mania occurred which has been referred to as the world’s first financial bubble. At one point, a tulip bulb sold for the price of an Amsterdam mansion! Continuing on the walk across Amsterdam, the couple arrived at the Vincent Van Gogh museum which exhibits many of the acclaimed artist’s work. Before returning to the ship, Ray and Traci took a canal boat ride – the number of companies and boats traversing the canals is amazing. Obviously Amsterdam hosts a great many tourists who want to enjoy the canal system from the water – the boats tend to be fairly large with dozens of patrons each. Exhausted and hungry, Ray and Traci returned to the NCL Prima for a great dinner and well deserved rest.
Originally, Ray and Traci’s cruise was supposed to make the short trip to Brugge, Belgium for their last port call. Due to some situation with low tides, this wasn’t possible so the ship stayed in Amsterdam overnight. Ray took advantage of the extra stay by running along the waterfront in Amsterdam and then all the passengers could watch parts of the Amsterdam Pride Parade during the sail away. Of course, Amsterdam’s parade was on floats in the canals which made it quite unique.
Sunday arrived and the passengers had to disembark the NCL Prima. Ray and Traci still had a big tour remaining. They hired a private guide Ian from toursbylocals.com to take them to Oxford and Blenheim Palace. Both of these places are fairly far from London and the travelers did not have a chance to see them on their previous London visits. Ian picked Ray and Traci up at the cruise terminal and brought them to Oxford, the home of the famous university.
When approaching the university one is struck by the history represented – Ian showed Ray and Traci the favorite haunts of authors including Shakespeare, Tolkien, CS Lewis and JK Rowling. Many scenes in their books derived from the author’s experiences at Oxford. Students accepted to Oxford compete to live in the 38 living colleges, much like fraternities/sororities in America. Balliol College is the oldest and most prestigious of the 38, counting 3 British prime ministers among its alumni. Oxford is located near the origin of the Thames river and the rowing competitions with Cambridge University are among the strongest rivalries. From Oxford, Ian brought Ray and Traci to Blenheim Palace – a beautiful estate which was the birthplace of Winston Churchill. Originally, the land and funds for the palace were given to John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, by Queen Anne for leading military victories over the French. The palace has been passed down through generations.
Winston Churchill’s mother was visiting and went into labor at the estate and the future prime minister was born. The palace is opulently decorated and has lent itself to 71 films and television programs including James Bond’s Spectre and Mission Impossible Rogue Nation. The grounds of the estate are also beautiful with a rose garden, fountains, and a lake formed by building a dam on the Glyme river. The 12th Duke of Marlborough and his family currently occupy the palace and is exempt from property and inheritance taxes. It is doubtful Americans would allow such generous terms for Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, as an example. It is very clear by the huge number of visitors that Blenheim Palace remains an extremely popular place. With the conclusion of the Blenheim tour, Ian dropped off Ray and Traci at the airport for them to spend the night at the Hilton before flying back home to Seattle.
