Sideway Views: I've been away, am back!

I've decided to share my recent trip to NORWAY and to bring whomever wants to go along with me via some photos I made during parts of the past several weeks. I photographed only with my iPhone, so there's not the usual variety of images I may have had with my regular [much heavier] camera. However, I think I managed fairly well, considering.

Note: this was a long awaited trip to somewhere I had always wanted to visit. I have been to Norway before, to visit friends there, but never had I taken the mail ship all the way up to the most northern point in Europe, far above the Arctic Circle. It turns out a friend, Patty, whom I met years ago when we were VISTAs in Applalachia, in 1966, had also always wanted to go to Norway. Her grandmother and several others in her family had emigrated to the USA in the 1940s . It required her persistence over 3 years for us to be able to go -- I couldn't believe that we weren't about to have to hear "We're canceling again this year." Instead, we actually started out from Boston -- Patty lives on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts -- on May 7, headed to BERGEN, on Norway's coast, where the ship set out at 9 pm on Sunday, May 8. (There's a 6 hour time difference between eastern Kentucky and Norway.) We learned a lot and ate wonderful food, including lots of fresh fish. Most of the other 300 or so passengers were German or Norwegian, with some other Scandinavians. The common language was often English. Our entertainment was the water around us asa well as various excursions when the ship stayed in port more thn two hours rather then the usual 15 minutes.

SO, here are moments from the beginning of our getting to know better a hard to reach part of the globe that is graced with great beauty and ruggedness. I repeat: I learned a lot!!

THIS FIRST PHOTO SHOWS OUR AFTERNOON IN BERGEN, before our 9 p.m. departure. I was able to visit my first cousin once removed, Brooke, who lives there with her fish scientist husband and their eight year old son. And she is getting her PhD. The son and his dad were soon off to soccer practice, a very important part of any Norwegian kid's life. Please note: no snow in view until ... the next few days, as we headed north along the Norwegian west coast.

streets in Bergen with our ship, the NORDLYS, in view, docked and waiting for passengers like us

One of these windows is ours.... Our stateroom was on the side of the ship that does off and ons during the many stops for pick ups and deliveries, including the mail. I have many photos from all times of daylight (almost all night long) during the stops which lasted 15 minutes to several hours. That's when we could get off the ship and get to look around for a bit.

getting used to the beauty and the "lay of the rocks and islands -- not just the land"

ships passing in the day -- another Hurtigruten ship -- with much horn noise back and forth

a rescue ready boat? I didn't listen closely enough during our safety presentation to find out....

Tonight I will end with these views of sun, sea and sky -- that began my introduction to this part of the world. I thought it all amazing. It didn't look the same every night, so I am glad I stayed with it the two early nights of the trip. Some of the Hurtigruten ships at other times of the year go looking for the northern lights. In fact, our ship's name means "northern lights" . (BTW, these photos are not necessarily in consecutive order.}