Friday, May 19. The city is beautiful. New buildings, old buildings. Gorgeously painted. No graffiti. Statues, statues, statures. An entire park containing the works of Parque de Vigeland with a theme of The Circle of Life, but its common style (nudity) left me cold. Vigeland famously didn’t explain his sculptures saying they’re purposes are in the eye of the beholder, which gives me the right to have my own opinion.

But the rest of the city had a massive number of sculptures that I did enjoy. Their large, modern and beautiful new ski jump was very unnatural but very impressive in shape. An small funicular took jumpers to the top. The new opera house was, as usual, unusual. Sloping roofs allowed people to walk to its top. The city has a policy of open doors everywhere. Few gates and easy entry. Even their military area is fairly open.

We took a ferry to the Maritime Museum. Nice place, though I’d expected a reconstructed Viking boat. They had one, but it was very small. They are reassembling a larger one, due in five years.

Ate a Norwegian pizza. Different, but not too different. Walked through their fort. Realized too late the the US Coast Guard square-rigger Eagle was in port and giving tours. The sail out was pretty, but nothing compared to Flam.

Thursday, May 18. After all the excitement last night, I was bushed. We did the included walking tour of Kristiansand in the morning, then slept away most of the afternoon. The tour was great. The city has a lot of interesting sites and history.

Wednesday, May 17. It was very disappointing to pass by Stavanger. The ship did roll quite a bit, though nothing severe. But safety came first. I made use of the spa again. Otherwise a quiet day at sea.

Arrived in Kristiansand, named after its founder, King Kristian. The “sand” was added because it’s a sandy area. We docked in the industrial area, but it wasn’t a long walk into town. Because it’s a national holiday(think Independence Day), the city was jumping. Parties everywhere. We walked past a small harbor with parties on each boat, then down a very crowded street. After passing a very odd McDonalds we heard band music behind us. Lo and behold, a marching band was approaching. Very serious, very good. After passing by we noticed that a not small mass of people were following, so we joined in for a few blocks. Seriously, it made a typical July 4th celebration look like a church social.

I was still disappointed to miss Stavanger and the famous children’s parade, but it was a nice consolation event.

Tuesday, May 16. Flam is about 100 miles from the North Sea. Though we woke long after the ship entered the fjord, we got to see more than a few gorgeous vistas before arriving in Flam. Sadly there was a megaship hogging the pier, so we had to shuttle in.

Pier side had plenty of tourist shops and sights, but we had selected a full day excursion and never saw actually visited the immediate area. Our bus tour included several short waterfall photo stops, made shorter by the inevitably slow disembarkation from the bus. Lunch was at a very swanky hotel, situated next to the last emperor’s summer house(?). Great view of the valley below. The buffet lunch was heavy on seafood.

Briefly visited a “farmstead” museum. 30 minutes of what could have been a half-day experience. The bus had to slowly negotiate a fairly busy one-lane road, which was a little maddening.

The key aspect of the excursion was a series of train rides. The first was a typical commuter train that climbed to 866 meters, where we encountered snow! Everyone rushed to the adjoining train while I enjoyed the snow. This train was a pure tourist event. Many tunnels, many waterfalls. We stopped between two tunnels at one particularly pretty waterfall and a short recorded musical performance. Very creepy music with a blonde-haired “woman” in red dancing beside the falls some distance away. My camera showed that she was probably a dark-haired man with a poorly placed wig. But it was a marvelous performance considering the view.

We returned to the ship to learn that, due to weather, our visit tomorrow to Stavanger would be canceled. This is especially disappointing because it’s “Constitution Day”, when the town hosts a series of parades and parties.

Dinner in the Italian specialty restaurant was very good. The cruise out of the fjord was enchanting, with periodic sunshine highlighting snow packed mountains. The nightclub where I hang out was jammed since no one had to wake up early in the morning.

Monday, May 15. Finally, typical Bergen weather, but without rain. Waited at the hotel for Yoriko’s bag to appear. With the AirTag, we knew it was sitting at the airport. It moved at 11 o’clock, but to the ship, not the hotel! So we’d wasted the morning. Walked the kilometer to the ship. Boarding was routine. After being reunited with Yoriko’s bag and visiting our new home we went back ashore for a little sightseeing. Old fort and tower.

Had a late dinner in the ship’s Chef’s Table restaurant. The theme was Chinese. Very good paring of wines until the beef. Wonderful service, as usual. Met the bartender my sister had recommended from a prior cruise. The night club’s band is entertaining. There are more younger people on board than we’re used to, “Younger” being a relative term.

Sunday, May 14. Fjord cruise. Beautiful day (another one of the sixty days of sunshine). The bay and fjord is much more populated than we expected. All the buildings are beautifully painted. It took over an hour to get to the mostly wilderness part of the fjord. As expected, many waterfalls. Steep cliffs. It was a fun cruise, but not incredible. Slept a little on the way back.

Had a late lunch at a popular sushi/fish restaurant. “Fish Me”. $$$. Good food.

Wandered through the souvenir shops. Had sparkling wine at an outdoor cafe. $$$. All the buildings were so very pretty. We were both stressed out over luggage, so neither had much interest in any in-depth museum touring.

Dinner was at one of the more famous restaurants. Bryggeloftet & Stuene. Superb filet of reindeer. Yoriko had lake trout. Service, setting and food was all terrific. $$$$. (Bergen is a very expensive city.)

Our hotel hosted passengers from the Viking Venus, so it was bedlam both days. Viking Jupiter also was in port (a day earlier than necessary). Seeing two Viking ships was an odd sight. 

Saturday, May 13. Other than the lost luggage, the flights were fine. Took the light rail into Bergen, then walked to our hotel, a comfortable stroll. Left what bags we had and then immediately went to the famous hot dog stand. I had a reindeer sausage dog, twice the size of the roll. With the toppings, it was a messy affair. No seating. Birds literally tried to nibble while we were eating. An unremarkable taste, but a memorable meal.

Shopped for a few toiletries in a small mall. Then rode the nearby funicular to a viewing/recreation area that has a sweeping view of the city. We’d read that Bergen had about 60 days of sunlight per year. This was one of those days. The mountain top was crowded with locals as well as tourists. Children feeding dandelions to goats. Large playground.

Took the funicular back down rather than walk the long pathway. Wandered through the fish market. Neither of us had much interest in a large complex meal, so we ate in a simple pizza joint.

Turned in early and slept 10 hours.

Both bags failed to leave Newark Airport with us. There was a 2 hour layover and our connection was in the same terminal. Go figure. I’d bought Apple Airtags prior to this trip, though I didn’t really see the benefits. Now I see the good and the bad. We knew where the bags were, but had no real way to use the knowledge. It initially just fueled our frustration. But we were able to follow their path back to us, which was very rewarding. Crazily, the two bags return via different routes. Mine came via Copenhagen and arrived Sunday night. Yoriko’s followed our own routing, but arrived Monday morning. Overall, I’m happy with the Airtags.

Enough said. The ordeal was, for me, more stressful than discomforting. Our stay in Bergen, a really pretty city, suffered.

In September 2019 we booked a 2020 river cruise in Russia. It didn’t happen. But I let Viking Cruise Line keep my money, to which they added 25% credit. For obvious reasons, we passed on duplicating what we had booked. So tomorrow we begin a combo cruise of Ocean and River, sailing from Bergen, Norway to Basil, Switzerland. (To say Basil is a little deceitful. We’ll leave the ship at about 4AM and go straight to the airport. So Switzerland won’t be added to the countries I’ve visited.)

After four stops in Norway and one in Denmark we’ll arrive in Amsterdam and transfer to a riverboat. We then stop once each in the Netherlands and France, and four times in Germany. It should be fun. Of course, it begins with a two-layover journey by air, which is becoming less tolerable every year. Fun postponed.