A Walk Through Aalborg, Denmark

On the final day of our cruise, we were in the Danish city of Aalborg. We had chosen a morning walking tour as we would still have to pack in the afternoon and had an 8:00 a.m. transfer to the airport for our 12:15 flight home.

We met up with our tour guide, Nicholas, in front of the ship, which was docked right in front of the old town. Nicholas later told us that this was the exact place that Queen Margarethe's royal yacht docks when she visits Aalborg. The city is actually in a long river known as the Limfjord, which cuts deep into Jutland, that part of Denmark that sticks up above Germany.

We began our tour at Aalborghus Castle, which was built in the mid-1500s by King Christian III. There is an exhibition in the dungeons, but otherwise the interior of the castle is not accessible to the public. According to Nicholas, the ghost of a woman who was locked in the dungeon for a number of years before being executed still roams the castle. I wonder if anyone who works in the administrative offices has ever seen her?

After leaving the castle, we stopped for a quick look at some street art. But this isn't graffiti, it is real art that has been painted in a number of places around town to bring art to the people, instead of them having to pay to see it in a museum. This was an interesting piece, commenting on pollution and saving the environment.

We then made our way into one of the small older streets just off the shopping area. People still live in these small houses. They certainly are close to everything.

The Budolfi Kirke, a restored Gothic cathedral, stands in the middle of town. Only a very small portion of the population of Denmark is religious, so Nicholas said he was surprised to find that we would not be able to go inside because there was a wedding that day.

From there we visited the courtyard of the former Monastery of the Holy Ghost. It was established by the daughter of a wealthy merchant who had left her a piece of land in the city. She wanted to do good, so she created the monastery to also serve as a shelter and care facility. It still is one now, as it has been converted to a retirement home, which apparently has quite a long waiting list.

After that, we had only a short walk to the brewhouse where we would be able to try a locally brewed beer and some Danish herring. This was at Sogaards Bryghus. We - and that includes non-beer drinker me - had our choice from over a dozen beers that this brewhouse, Twoface Brewing, made, along with some of their own akvavit, or schnaps, and a typical Danish lunch of herring on wholegain rye bread. We thought everything was very tasty. 

Nicholas explaining what we would be
having for our beer and herring tasting

One of the coasters from Twoface Brewing

Yes, I did have a Weissbier and a glass
of Akvavit

Our herring tasting was almost big enough to
be lunch

We continued our walk along what seems to be the 'party street' of downtown Aalborg, Jumfru Ane Gade. This was one bar/restaurant after another, and is apparently hopping on Friday and Saturday nights.

The tour was over at about 12:30, and we thought we'd go back to the brewhouse for lunch, but by then the outside tables were full and it looked like the inside wasn't much better. Too bad; it would have been great to try some of their other dishes.

We went back to the ship and got the packing done early, so we would be able to enjoy the last evening on board.

The ship from the Nyhavn square

The square from the ship

                                              

One thing that Seabourn always does at the end of each cruise is a deck party where as many of the crew as can be spared at that time come out to be recognized by the guests. This one started out with the Barricade Boys singing a couple of songs, and then everyone paraded out and each department got a big round of applause.

                                                                                               

The entertainment staff

As many as I could fit in. Cruise Director Loula and
her assistant Melissa are in front of the pool at the bottom

Once again, a great cruise, and the excellent weather, that we weren't expecting, made it that much better. We were really impressed with the ship, and hope to sail on her again in warm weather to be able to take advantage of those outside spaces in comfort. There was nothing we could say we didn't like - all of the food options were great, and the portion sizes (except for that double cut steak!) were just right. The staff was always friendly yet still professional, and we met some really nice people on board as well. We don't have anything planned for Seabourn yet, but we will definitely be back.

Sweden's Western Islands from Gothenburg

 Our day in Gothenburg wasn't being spent in the city at all, but in the islands of the west coast, particularly Tjorn, where there has been a long history of herring fishing.

Our first stop was in the small village of Kladesholmen, which was a fishing village for many years, but as the industry died out, the homes were bought by people from the city who wanted a vacation home by the water. As you can see from the map, there's only one main road in town, and we walked a good chunk of it in the space of 45 minutes or so.

Many of the houses, although very close together in some streets, have been renovated and extended with porches and verandahs. They are all quite beautiful, even though the standard colour scheme does seem to be white paint with a red clay tile roof. Our guide explained that most chose white because it stands up the longest against the elements, as there seems to be a constant wind, not breeze, blowing here.

Some photos of the houses in town. They are all kept pristine, and there always seems to be some kind of construction work going on.

You can see how close together the houses
are here. We had to walk single file down the
'street'.

Every house was beautifully kept

After leaving Kladesholmen, we stopped for a short time at an outdoor art installation gallery that, truly, didn't make much sense to us.

The natural scenery was much nicer than
the 'art'

An example of some of the outdoor
art on display

After a brief walk around the installation and a quick view of another village, we boarded the bus again to head for our herring tasting at a local hotel, the Hotell Norvik. The current owners have renovated the 17 rooms in 1950s era decor, as that's when the hotel was originally built.

We tried 3 kinds of herring along with some
horseradish cream, potatoes and Swedish
flatbread. Some of us found it delicious, but
others in the group weren't so enthused. 

The bar has been made to look like a
diner counter

The morning sitting room

And you can even rent Room #18 if you'd like to rough it a little - this VW camper bus is set up in the parking lot. 

We were given a little tour on our way back into the city. There's lots of construction, including road and subway, going on in Gothenburg at the moment, and one of our acquaintances told us that it was a little confusing getting around from the shuttle drop off without a map, so we decided to leave our exploration of town for our next visit. We didn't have more than a couple of hours anyway, and wouldn't have been able to see very much.

The monument to the seaman's wife, waiting for his safe
return...but some in Gothenburg say she's pointing
in the wrong direction, so she's actually telling her lover
that the coast is clear!

We were at dinner before the sailout, and suddenly heard what sounded like a band on the wharf. When we got back to our suite, which was on that side of the ship, we found a local marching band complete with flag corps and dancers. Here's a brief video from one of their songs. They actually performed for more than an hour!

It was a little disappointing not to have seen much of the city, but it was quite busy with high school graduation celebrations in one of the city squares, and all of that construction. We hope to go back and get a chance to see what is very likely a beautiful place.

Early Summer in Oslo

 Now that we are at home and the laundry is done, I can catch up on the last few days of the cruise, the Scandinavian ports of Oslo, Gothenburg and Aalborg.

We sailed in to the Oslo Fjord at around 8:00 Wednesday morning and had 2 hours of beautiful scenery before we docked at our berth at the city centre at 10:00. This is one of the most beautiful sail-ins in the world as we pass by islands and peninsulas that remind us of Georgian Bay and the islands of the St. Lawrence River, dotted heavily with cottage homes.

It was a beautiful sunny day with an expected temperature of 24C, so we were already in our shorts and t-shirts for the first time on the cruise.

We had no tours booked or any specific plans for the two days, as we had already seen much of the city on our previous visits. We thought we'd take the Hop-On Hop-Off bus around and get off if something caught our attention. So we walked around the harbourside to the Opera House where there was a person selling tickets. We bought ours and since we had some time, we walked to the roof of the Opera House where we could get some good views of the harbour area.

The Opera House; the Norwegians sure
love to make use of every square centimetre of
space!

                                         

The tour boat on the right was very interesting - no
steps from deck to deck, so completely accessible!

Our ship was berthed at the inner harbour, not
far from the Opera House

These are little floating saunas (bathing suits required) - when you're done
and want to cool off, just jump into the water!

We got on the next bus and rode around to Frogner Park, where the Vigeland Sculpture Park is located. This is a very well-known park displaying the works of Gustav Vigeland. He specialized in sculpture in granite, bronze and wrought iron, and this park contains over 200 sculptures of humans in every aspect of life. We had been here before, but that was almost 30 years ago!

It was as we left the park and wanted to 'hop-on' the bus that we realized we had made a huge mistake...There are two Hop-On Hop-Off bus companies in Oslo, and we had picked the wrong one! The original company, that has more buses and stops more often at each location, has 'Hop-On Hop-Off Sightseeing Norway' written large on the sides of the buses, and the other is 'Hop-On Hop-Off City Sightseeing' run by Hop-On Hop-Off AS. We had unfortunately chosen #2 because it was the first kiosk we came across. When our bus finally arrived, about 50 people were all scrambling to get on, as we had been waiting for almost the full half-hour (some people had been there longer as there was no room in the previous bus) so it was something of a mob scene. We ended up standing for a couple of stops, until people got off at the open air and naval museums. It would have been nice to do that as well, but we were afraid we wouldn't be able to get back on when we were done, so we stayed on board until the bus stopped near our ship, and decided to spend the rest of the afternoon on board at the pool.

We had dinner at Earth and Ocean on Wednesday - as described in our previous post - and made our plans for Thursday. No more buses; we were walking around the city ourselves.

Thursday morning was just as bright and sunny and warm as Wednesday had been, so we set off after breakfast to visit the Akershus, the original fortress of Oslo, which was not far from the ship. We had been through the grounds on that visit 30 years before, but this time discovered that the interior was now open for tours.

The complex also houses the Military History
Museum and some adminstrative offices
for the military

The castle courtyard. The tour basically
took us all the way around it.

This room has a very interesting feature - the crown shape
of bricks above the wooden armoire was put there
spontaneously by the bricklayers working on
renovations in 1937 when now King Harald V was born,
the first monarch born on Norwegian soil in 604 years!

These rooms are all beautifully maintained
and still used for diplomatic functions

The audio-guided tour was very interesting. This castle/fortress was originally built in the 1300s when Norway was a part of Denmark, to be the seat of the king's representative. The castle has seen many additions and remodels since then, and is still used for royal receptions and important government occasions to this day. The last major royal event was the wedding of Crown Prince Haakon in the early 2000s, but the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded here every year, while all the other Nobel prizes are awarded in Sweden.

After we were done at Akershus, we decided to visit the Cathedral in the heart of the city, again, not that far a walk.

The interior of the cathedral. The
walls are quite plain but the ceiling makes 
up for it!

The main altar. Norway's main
religion is a Protestant one.

And then we continued along the main pedestrian shopping street, Karl Johan Gate, toward the Royal Palace.

By then we were getting hungry, and had passed a restaurant we wanted to try out, just because of its name: Egon. That was my father's second name, so we felt we had to see what kind of food they had. Apparently this is a chain with many locations in Norway and a few in Sweden.

 The patio area was quite full, but there were lots of tables inside, so we checked out the menu, found a table, and Larry went off to place our order. The system they use is similar to that in an English Pub - you place your order at the bar, pay when you order, and then, when you're done you can just leave. Tipping is not usual as waiters and barkeeps are paid a working wage, so there's none of the extra time and effort that we have at the end of the meal dealing with the bill.

The interior of the restaurant was quite
beautiful.

I had cod from northern Norway with potatoes
and vegetables

Larry just had a sandwich -- a hungry-man's
Club Sandwich, and fries.

Not long after we left the restaurant and were walking back along Carl Johan Gate, we noticed a small parade coming toward us, complete with horses and a marching band. As they came closer, we realized it was the parade of the Changing of the Guard going from Akershus toward the Palace.

We strolled back to the harbour and the ship after that, and relaxed a little before getting ready for the evening. We were sailing out at 6:00, but we had a 6:15 dinner reservation at The Grill by Thomas Keller, so we would be missing at least part of the lovely scenery. It wasn't getting dark until very late, so we'd have to see where we were after dinner and the early show.

The lighthouse at the very end of the Oslo Fjord

Sunset was after 11:00, and it would be rising again 
before 4:00

We enjoyed our time in Oslo, and were especially happy for the fantastic weather we had. Our overnight sail to Gothenburg, Sweden, was fairly short and the sun was up again long before we arrived.