Sounds

Can you hear it?  We haven't attached any tunes to the blog, so we will do our best to let you know what you are hearing, the rumblings and stirrings of anticipation and activity.

Zip -- packing and unpacking and packing and unpacking (lost count.) 

Ruffle/Riffle -- maybe shuffle is better as we sort and misplace tickets, transfers, vouchers, tour details, flight info, maps and miscellaneous papers. 

Snoring -- the sound we cannot hear because we are not sleeping; awake with last minute chores and to-do lists. 

Swish -- best I could use as a substitute for the sliding sound of zip lock baggies of all sizes; you know, the air leaving when you squeeze the bag so it takes up less space. 

Crinkle/Crackle -- wrapped items make this noise, granola bars, antiseptic wipes, cedar sachets, and sometimes shoes. 

Slosh slosh -- the collective noise of the collective collection of tiny bottles of toiletries, such as shampoo, hairspray, lotion. 

Clinkle -- a new word to describe the sound that vitamins and aspirin and tums make as they are stuffed into a corner of the bag. 

Clatter/Clang -- all the technology bits and bobs that inhabit the pockets of the laptop carrier or purse; charger, ear buds, another charger, cords, adapters, converters, kindles, macs, camera cord, card reader, thumb drive.  (Another separate suitcase, perhaps?) 

Deep sigh -- the one we'll take and exhale when we are finally seated in the lovely limo which will carry us to airport Monday mid morning.

"Baby, baby, can you hear my heart beat?  You're the trip I love!"  

More Food for personal emergencies...like "I am starving, what do we have to eat?" Right NOW!!!

It is true that travelers do not live by bread alone.  Adventures, if they are life-changing, touch all the senses as well as the heart.

That said, the stomach must be monitored and served.  Which leads me to snacks. Snacks, alias emergency junk food that must be available at all costs and at all times!!!!

• Gum
• Cheese or peanut butter and crackers
• Individual coffee pouches
• Granola bars
• Tuna in a foil bag

Which then leads to lunch bags (are you following the breadcrumbs?  Yuck, yuck, groan.)

Beth bot us fold-up thermal lunch bags.  It's very expensive to eat and drink where we are going. As noted in the earlier post about food, the hotels do not discourage "go bags" from the breakfast buffet.  We will "picnic" on the train from the feedbags we pack before departing the hotel. 

We might just decide to have a picnic in the middle of the night on one of the glorious 24/7 daylight hours we will be enjoying. We could be longing for another "polse and Lompe" (It will take you a while to figure this one out). Remember hot dogs are a "hot" item.

We just can't wait to see the first breakfast buffet and see what we get to put in our new "go bags"!! Photos galore!

FACTOID: Today is Midsummer Night, aka Jónsmessa, in Iceland. According to Icelandic folklore, cows gain the power of speech for the night, and seals can take a human form! Be careful who you talk to!!! 

FOOD...not always "white"

Keeping this one simple.  Food.  Simple title and simple post, tho we expect to have some foods and meals that won't feel simple to us.  

We'll be sampling lots of different foods -- well maybe no lutefisk -- but we hear Norwegian/Icelandic hot dogs called polse are a delicacy.

This is where we'll update you on the yummies and the "don't make me eat that agains."  You'll read reviews of eats and service and establishments.  We also understand that the hotels realize that lunch can be expensive 'out there' so they are ok with guests packing a lunch bag to go.

Expect updates as we eat and drink . . . 

Welcome Subscribers

Hello patient and loyal Readers,

Beth and Becky are working to bring you a daily email which will give you the latest in our travel world.

In the email you can read the latest posts.
In the mail there are THREE places you can click to get to the blog.

• At the top of the email text see "GO to the Blog"
• Right below the title and picture see "Go to the Blog"
• Below the text of the post for the day click on "Read the Blog here"

Hope this gets you "the rest of the story" as Paul Harvey would say.  

PS  Hoping I am not the only one old enough to remember Paul Harvey.  *grins*

871 plus or minus 2

Plus or minus a year or 10.  We've been advised to visit the Settlement Museum in Reykjavik.  I'm sure we'll know more after an actual viewing, but apparently it's a display of an ancient house/village dated in the year 871 plus or minus 2.  To make it more intriguing, it's in the basement of the newest hotel in Reykjavik. 

How do we know this?  Some great Lonely Planet reading?  A PBS travel show?  Nope
Met the talented artist Michaela today. Click on her name and watch her designing a cover for the band; The Whole Bolivian Army. Very cool! She's a FOB and a close friend of an FOB (Linda).  She and her friend traveled to Iceland last winter.  Yes, brrrr.

Other things Michaela shared --

• Fish House -- great restaurant
• The Laundromat -- not for clothes care but for sammiches and breakfast
• The Icelanders grow mostly tomatoes and export them to Europe
• Reykjavik is a small town so it's easy to get around
• Make sure we upgrade at the Blue Lagoon Spa (nice robe, floating massage)
• Don't Google "Iceland Food" 

It's always fun-ner to travel when you can get inside info from an "already been there" traveler.

PS -- If you are following the luggage saga, Beth and I have each packed and unpacked at least 5 times. Another repack on Sunday

The Kitchen Sink

After meeting with Maria today, T minus 11 days, we have added much to two important things --

• The stack of travel docs we must carry around and
• Our confidence about the final details of the journey.

We have docs and passes and tickets and transfers for the following:

• Flybus -- will take us from Oslo airport to hotel.
• Tickets for a tour of Oslo.
• Stockholm passes to see museums and other sites.
• Bus tickets to get from hotel to train station.
• Bus tickets for a ride from hotel to M/S Finnmarken
• Tickets entitling us to the spa experience of a lifetime at Blue Lagoon Spa.
• Tour tickets for the Great Circle Tour while in Reykjavik.
• And surely some other bit of paper that will gain us entry to something or other.

We also got some luggage tags and two little carry bags, a copy of our travel insurance and phone numbers to call if planes are delayed or luggage goes astray. What say you! 

Nobody has yet suggested we also take the kitchen sink. AND what am we going to do with all the luggage we am stacking up?? Everything is popping at the seams!!! Beth has tried and tried but cannot get everything in. She has no place to sleep!!!!

What about Becky's knitting??? Where oh where will she put that????

Naming Rights! or The Right Name if you are in Iceland

Saga's Return via our naming ourselves Icelandic! 

This is the way boys are named in Iceland.....

Girls however, have it better, insert Dad's first name (Beth's Dad, Harry: Becky's Dad, August) and then add...dottir..(so Beth would be Harrydottir and Becky would be Augustdottir). NOT GOING FOR THAT!!!!

Beth prefers...the self selected name Sara Sharpwit. Check the right side of our blog for other delightful Viking names.

Becky will be August-dottir.  Okay I reckon, but over the years I've sorta gotten used to Becky.  Silly story from the past -- sales people and others could not, for some reason, spell "August," my father's first name.  As a result my mother would say "August, like the month."  For many years of my childhood I assumed my dad's name was August-like-the-month.

Prayers to protect us and to encourage us

Prayers and Churches

This is the Norwegian Table Prayer 

passed on to us by my friend Gene Nelson, Sun City West, AZ.


I Jesu navn går vi til bords
å spise, drikke på ditt ord. 
Deg, Gud til ære, oss til gavn, 
Så får vi mat i Jesu navn. 
Amen. 

In Jesus' name to the table we go
To eat and drink according to His word.
To God the honor, us the gain,
So we have food in Jesus' name.
Amen.

Heddal Stave Church The church is a triple nave stave church and is Norway's largest stave church. It was constructed at the beginning of the 13th century.  There is a great legend attached to the church in that it was built in three days.  Lord's Prayer Fader vår, du som er i himmelen! La ditt navn holdes hellig. La ditt rike komme. La din vilje skje på jorden                                                                                            som i himmelen                      Gi oss i dag vårt daglige brød. Forlat oss vår skyld, som vi og forlater våre skyldnere. Led oss ikke inn i fristelse, men frels oss fra det onde For riket er ditt, og makten og æren i evighet. Amen Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive                                                                                         those who trespass against us.  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the                                                                                      kingdom, power and glory.  Amen.

A Bit of Robert Service

There is no one who speaks of the FAR NORTH better than Robert Service when he writes of Alaska and the Yukon . This is only a piece of his work but it is how we are thinking about the FAR NORTH of Norway.

The Spell of the Yukon

....
It grips you like some kinds of sinning;


It twists you from foe to a friend;
It seems it's been since the beginning; 


It seems it will be to the end.

I've stood in some mighty-mouthed hollow


That's plumb-full of hush to the brim;


I've watched the big, husky sun wallow
 in crimson and gold, and grow dim,


Till the moon set the pearly peaks gleaming,


And the stars tumbled out, neck and crop;


And I've thought that I surely was dreaming,

With the peace o' the world piled on top.

The summer -- no sweeter was ever;


The sunshiny woods all a thrill;


The grayling a leap in the river,


The bighorn asleep on the hill.


The strong life that never knows harness;


The wilds where the caribou call;


The freshness, the freedom, the farness --

O God! how I'm stuck on it all....

Where do we go and what do we see on this sea voyage???

WOW, A QUICK PEEK AT MANY SPOTS! NOW DOES THIS ALLOW US TO SEE ANYTHING??? WE SHALL SEE!!!

Looking at the schedule for our Hurtigruten voyage...tells me there are things we don't yet know. 

I understand there are ports that we just drop off the mail and ferry passengers but in some of the major towns they offer excursions that last long hours...hmmmm...wonder if they jump back on the ship in another town??? Interesting!

Port	Arrival	Departure	Notes
Bergen	-	20:00	departing at 8:00pm on board by 6:00pm
Florø	02:00	02:15
Måløy	04:15	04:30
Torvik	07:15	07:30
Ålesund	08:45	09:30
Geiranger	13:25	13:30
Ålesund	18:15	19:00	yea a 45 min stop at 6:00pm
Molde	21:45	22:15	yea a 45 min stop at 9:00pm
Kristiansund	01:45	02:00
Trondheim	08:30	12:00	A REAL STOP a 3.5 hour stop!!!!!YEA
Rørvik	20:45	21:15	30 min does not count late at night
Brønnøysund	00:45	01:00
Sandnessjøen	03:45	04:15	too early
Nesna	05:25	05:30	oh good 5 min...
Ørnes	09:15	09:30
Bodø	12:30	15:00	2.5 hour now we are talking!!! Inger/Vikki join us
Stamsund	19:00	19:30	7:00pm we are still in daylight lets go see
Svolvær	21:00	22:00
Stokmarknes	01:00	01:15
Sortland	02:45	03:00
Risøyhamn	04:15	04:30
Harstad	06:45	08:00	Another great morning over an hour stop!!!!
Finnsnes	11:15	11:45
Tromsø	14:30	18:30	get off and see something 2:30 - 6:30pm YEA!
Skjervøy	22:30	22:45
Øksfjord	02:00	02:15
Hammerfest	05:15	06:00
Havøysund	08:45	09:15
Honningsvåg	11:15	14:45	YEA 3 hours of fun!!!
Kjøllefjord	17:00	18:00
Berlevåg	21:45	22:00
Båtsfjord	23:45	00:15
Vardø	03:15	03:30
Vadsø	06:45	07:15
Kirkenes	09:00	-	We arrive at night? It better be daylight!!!!