Harstad, Norway

On TVs on our ship there is always a channel where they show you a map, where you are going, a little picture of a boat so you know where you are and a line to show you were you are going. News Flash. There is down time on a ship where you sometimes have No satellite, and no internet, and no news in some areas of the world. Hence, David will watch the navigation page.... endlessly. This one evening David noticed our ship was going in the wrong direction! I had to come see if he was making things up. My cruise ALWAYS follows the right path. So for a half hour we watched the red dot (our ship). He was right. Miles to the next port were going UP not down, we were headed North not South. GASP!

What's this? Is the Captain asleep? Taking a nap? We were stumped. Does the Captain know this???? When we went to dinner we asked around. No one had a clue or would say. Why is land on the right side of the ship instead of the left? WHY WHY WHY? We figured someone was sick and the ship had to take them to the nearest port. BUT the nearest port was Longyearbyen, and we knew from the tour the hospital is small, people have to leave and fly to a bigger city for emergencies and there were only 4 flights out of that airport a day. Well, during dinner at Prime we noticed the ship all of a sudden did a 360 degree turn and started to head South. We were back on course. The Captain must have gotten up from his nap and said WHAT"S THIS??? We never found out why. But as we docked in Harstad, an ambulance and a fire truck were waiting for us and a man was taken off the ship on a stretcher. He had heart problems and needed help. I am guessing this is why the ship thought it needed to get to a port sooner. The man looked OK to us from our balcony and we heard he is doing just fine. A good thing about a cruise is that if you need help, a Doctor and a Nurse are onboard. It is ALWAYS good to have a NURSE nearby!! :) Some of us are lucky to have one in our family..... :) .



Norway is proud to claim the #7 spot in the world for Countries having the longest coastline. We enjoyed sailing all the way up and then back down its long coastline. Norway is famous for its fjords and its magnificent mountainous terrain. There are 450,000 lakes in Norway! It has a clean fresh air smell, unlike Beijing for example where the air is so polluted most people have to wear a mask for protection. In Beijing you can see a cloud of pollution hovering over the city from miles away. Pure and healthy living here.

Some Norway facts:

Norway is regarded as the birthplace of modern skiing. But ski in Norway is a noun, not a verb. Ski means a piece of wood to Norwegians. Snowmobiles are preferred and better then cars, an easy way to travel in towns where there are few roads. Most families own a boat too as traveling over water is a must if you live here.

The movie Star Wars: Empire Strikes back was filmed here. Vikings are well known to have come from Norway. We learned that contrary to what we see in movies and comics, the Viking helmet did not have horns. Some question if Vikings even had helmets as in all of history only one leather helmet, without horns, was found.

Voss Water is bottled in Norway. I was told that the expensive Voss water we buy here, the one with the fancy glass bottle that I buy to impress guests... is actually the same water they drink from the faucet, use to bathe in, brush their teeth with and use to flush toilets....hmmmm. Being one of the most expensive places to live in the world, I wondered if Voss water was sold in stores in Norway. If so, I continued to wonder, what did they sell it for???? Lets go buy tap water in expensive but attractive glass bottles ... 3 cases please. :) They tell us they can drink water right from the lakes. It is the BEST tasting water in the world.

The cheese slicer was invented in Norway. Aerosol cans were invented in Norway.... Norwegians love to eat a BROWN cheese made from goat milk.

The paper clip was invented here. Back in WWII Norwegians designed a wire clip and wore the paper clip as a symbol of resistance and as a show of unity during hard times under the Nazis rule. Once the Nazi's realized this, the paper clip was banned in Norway. At the end of the war, many of these lovely towns were burned to the ground as the retreating army wanted to be sure as much damage and hardship as possible could be done to the Norwegian people. All of these towns have had to rebuild.

In 2008 Norway knighted a penguin.

When you have a baby....listen up.... new Moms take 13 months off with 80% pay. New Dads take 14 weeks off with pay. Families are important in Norway. Wish we would do the same here in the USA.

Some of the special animals you will see if you visit Norway are reindeer (we saw some!),



Puffin birds (Yep, saw some, but they flew away too fast to get a picture), the Arctic fox and polar bears. I would have loved to have seen a polar bear but did not see one this time.

People in Norway do not have to "travel" to see the Famous Midnight Sun like I did. After visiting Norway I have come to the conclusion they can have it. Between May and July the sun barely sets. It is light outside ..... for nearly 24 hours. At 3 in the morning it is like 5:00 in the afternoon..... What's with that? I ask.



Here is a picture I took at midnight.....

Constant sun in the sky wrecked havoc on our sleep. I never knew what time it was. I would look at my watch and be flabbergasted it was midnight .... way past my bed time!! I was not friends with The Midnight Sun. Oh, and the other side of the coin..... in the winter, they never see the sun. During the day the street lights are on because it is dark as night for nearly 24 hours a day..... for months. I think that would be hard to learn to live with.

I bet you wonder WHY so many facts all of a sudden in my blog. I will tell you a secret. I just learned I have a new reader to my blog, especially at bed time. All these little known things we learn while on tours I never put in my blog because I just keep my blog short and sweet. But, I learned some people may like these facts and little stories so I now may start including "fun things for the little people".

HI CAELAN!!!

And ISLA! Hi to you too!





I also hear that someone had a birthday!!! Who was that ???????

Oh My! I almost forgot..... Harstad Norway!



Here is David (Grandpa) waving to me from our balcony. We had a balcony on the 8th deck. Grandpa stayed onboard while I explored the lovely town!!!!






OK it is a tiny town. There was not much to do here. I had to go to 5 different places to find an internet location so I could upload my blog. I found a nice lady at a hotel who gave me a password and let me sit in the hotel lobby.

What I found interesting here was this sign ...:) You will always find something fun if you keep an open mind !



Maybe we have family here????



I think this says Have a Nice Day.... I'm not sure..... But, hey... don't you LOVE it! :)



Thank you Caelan for reading my blog! Sweet Dreams and a Kiss Goodnight!