Off to Norway!

 At last we head off to Norway! We take MArley to his new dog sitter, I feel a bit teary to say goodbye for two weeks, but I think he will be very happy at Kosta’s with the other dogs he knows. Then back for a few final bits of packing - for the first time I actually packed ahead of time, on Sunday for a Tuesday departure, amazing for me. I worked until 11:15pm last night, so very glad to have everything up to date and sent to clients.

Madeleine took us to the airport, we checked in, and saw the longest TSA line I have ever seen - it stretched way back into the ticketing area. I felt lucky we got to go through in the wheelchair. We got on early and the Premium comfort seats were quite nice, not quite like the business class pods but very roomy and with fewer seats in each aisle. A very nice dinner, Barney watched a move and I read, and then we both tried to sleep, only slightly successfully. They also offered a nice breakfast, and then we landed in Amsterdam. There was a long way to transfer so I was glad for the cart to take us. The flight to Bergen was full an fairly short. As it turned out, there were about 350 people arriving on various flights to Bergen at the same time, all headed for the Viking Saturn in multiple busses, so we met a few folks along the way. A quick bus ride, check into the ship, and we arrived!

The room is veer nice, a lot of space, and plenty of storage for clothing, boots and shoes. It feels so strange to be in the same place for two weeks and actually unpack, I almost never do this. It helps keep things tidier for sure, and the Scandinavian design rather encourages this as well. We head down to the theater to hear an interesting lecture about Bergen, then to the World Cafe for a nice simple dinner, and then back to the theater to hear a bit of the concert by Tor Jaran Apold, the violinist I head on their video whose music is quite beautiful. By this time, 9:00pm, we were both exhausted, and had reached our goal of staying up without a nap, so it was time to go to bed. It was still quite bright out here, given the latitude, midnight sun, and how close we are to the summer solstice. The bed was comfy and we’ll be ready for the day tomorrow.