(if you are wondering what this has to do with Norway--stay with me; I'll get there!)
At the EPCOT theme park is a section called World Showcase, which has little mock ups of some of the more famous and interesting areas of 11 countries, one of which is Norway. The Norway section contains one of two rides in this large area of the park (the other being in Mexico) and at the end of the ride is a film. Sadly, in recent years, the option to skip the short film is given and I would say at least 90% of guests skip right over this gem (even more sadly, my son Rio is among that majority). Marika, David and I love this film and never skip it. Really. We all three consider it a must see and have all three dreamed of visiting Norway pretty much entirely because of this film. What can I say, it speaks to us!
If you have never been, and wonder what I am going on about, here is a youtube video showing the ride, and the movie (which starts at about 2:10):
So, it is really because of this little film that Marika, Dave and I ended up on a cruise to Norway (Rio asked to not have to go to the cold area on a small ship, so he was left out and going to school, but we were not just being mean parents, I promise, Rio reallly prefered it this way, and we are sailing on his dream cruise in fall. As luck would have it, our friend Joachim was interested in sailing so he and Marika were able to share an interior cabin so no one was stuck paying single rates of nearly double the fare, and Dave and I got a balcony and had extra keys made for both of them so that anyone in the party could enjoy the views any time they wanted).
So, now that you know what led us to drive NORTH for a cruise, and struggle with the conundrum of how to pack for a cold weather cruise, let me tell you a little bit about what we saw when we got there.
Leaving from Copenhagen, our first day was a sea day. Sunrise the next morning was at the ungodly hour of 4:36--which I fully planned to sleep right on through and keep going until at least 8. I knew we would be sailing through the fjord all morning, until we docked around 10:00, but I also knew we would sail back out in the evening, so we all thought some sleep would be good on vacation and made plans to meet up around 8:30 that morning.
A few minutes before 6:00 I woke up to use the restroom, decided to peak out of the window, and poor Dave did not stand a chance! Sleep was NOT happening--not with that kind of beauty going by outside the window. I "might" have thrown the curtain open wide and shouted, "you have got to see this!" This is one place that is nicer than the travelogue. Wow. Wow. And yet again, wow. The photos do not do it justice, but I hope you enjoy them anyway:
After about 30 minutes I threw on some clothes and ventured out onto the cold top deck to get the full effect of the fjords on both sides. There were only a handful of people out at that hour--and about half of the looky lous and photographers were crew stealing a few moments to ooh and ahh. I have to say that was one really fun part of being on the first sailing of the season into such a unique landscape; nearly all of the crew were just as excited about the views and ports as us passengers were. Here are some pictures that show how surrounded we were:
Pretty soon, we were docking in the adorable little village of Flam. We roused the sleepers in their interior room, had some breakfast and admired the view while formulating a plan for the day. The weather was beautiful, and we could see hiking trails--so that planning was really very easy.
The "thing to do" in Flam is to take the railway up to Myrdal and back. I am sure the ride IS breathtaking and worth every penny, but being the crowd adverse, active and budget travelers we are--we preferred to do some exploring on our own, by foot, with a short stroll through town (it is a small town, short is all you can do!) and two hikes up in the nearby hills. You can read about that in my next post.
--Hadley
#flamnorway
#fjord
#rcinorway
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