Finsatsea: May 27 - Bergen, well sort of

We’re docked in Bergen where we’ve been next to a couple of different ferries and nearby is a cruise ship named MS Artania. I’d never heard of that one and when I googled I discovered she was launched originally as the Royal Princess in 1984 and christened by Princess Diana. It made me a little sad to see her now. She was the first cruise ship to have no inside cabins and most of the ones she had were veranda cabins. She was also the ship that Al and I took around Cape Horn from Santiago, Chile to Buenos Aires. On that cruise Princess offered for the first time ever a shore excursion in which we flew on a 38-seat prop plane and landed at a Chilean AFB in Antarctica and spent the day visiting a nearby penguin colony and visiting several science stations there. The people planning the excursion had badly misjudged the time it would take. As a result we arrived back more than four hours late. Rumors were flying around the ship that our plane had gone down in the Drake Passage and all lives were lost. We had a marvelous time and saw penguins up close and personal for the first time. I remember on our return flight we were served a gourmet lunch of bologna sandwiches, a bag of chips and some champagne to wash it down. Those were the days!

The Royal Princess as she looked on her maiden voyage

Perhaps you’ve surmised that I didn’t get off the ship today. I woke up after 10:30 AM and looked out and it was rainy and cold. I made the executive decision to declare a sea day, especially since I’d been here a couple of times already. On previous visits I’d seen the sights, ridden the Fløiban funicular to the top of Mount Fløyen, and even gone shopping with the chef on one visit. I determined that in the rain my view from the top would be kind of like the views yesterday. Instead I’ve been here talking to friends, catching up on what’s happening in the world and loafing around. It has cleared off this afternoon, but it’s too late to do much now so here I am catching up on writing.

We have a real sea day tomorrow so I won’t have to make up excuses for lounging around. On Saturday we’ll end another segment of my cruise and almost all the people on now will be leaving including my friend from the UK. I think I mentioned that she’s had a problem with the care of her 98-year-old mother. She’s finally gotten that sorted out so she hasn’t had to leave early. A few other friends are getting off in Amsterdam, a day early, because they have friends or family there.

Okay, I’ve blathered on enough for today. I’m going to include a couple of photos from past visits here just so there’s something to look at besides my ramblings. Ha det bra (I’ll let you figure out what that means)!