Had a lovely visit with Joel before flying to Southampton, UK. The city is a great place to walk around, and we did the 12th Century Old Town Wall walk. The next day we visited the Titanic Museum, which was also a good walk to get to it. We stayed at the Harbour Hotel which has a lovely breakfast and treated ourselves to one dinner too. The hot tub and steam room were very nice after all the walking too.
https://www.visit-hampshire.co.uk/dbimgs/Southampton%20Old%20Town%20Walk.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SeaCity_Museum
Friday was all aboard the Celebrity Apex. After dinner in the Cosmopolitan Dining Room (excellent service at Table 305 with Bernard and Rashid), the headliner in the theatre was Gareth Oliver - an absolutely hilarious and very down to earth comedian. We stayed up late to see the performance in Eden called Night of the Arts - another phenomenal show.
Saturday Dale did his first talk on Norway - it was very well received; lots of very positive comments. We had to have a nap after lunch as Friday was so late and we really wanted to stay up again as Gareth Oliver was doing a late night show. We had another wonderful dinner (Chic night - so all dressed up) followed by the Production Show - Crystallize, which was truly amazing.
Sunday - Happy Mother's Day - thankfully we did not arrive in Bergen until 11am, so we had a nice sleep-in and a big breakfast before going into town. Bergen is so much like Newfoundland with its colourful houses and friendly people. The shops along main street were very nice, but there were so many more tucked in the small alleyways between them. So many beautiful handcrafted sweaters, hats etc. but my favourite things were the trolls. They were adorable! We walked to Bergenhus which was a fortress and home to some of the local monarchs. We had the full range of weather, from snow to rain, cloudy and sunny, but we were dressed for it. We stopped at the Archaeological museum for a bathroom break and had a coffee and these very thin waffles with sour cream and strawberry jam - delicious! After yet another wonderful dinner - with a very special dessert in honour of Mother's Day. The headliner was Mark Donoghue who was a musical virtuoso who played the violin, the guitar and the piano - and sang too.
Monday - Dale had to meet with Dom, the Cruise Director at 6:30am to be on the bridge to narrate our passage through the Geiranger Fjord. I was invited to come along, which was a real treat. The scenery was spectacular and I got some great shots of The Suitor's waterfall as well as many others. The Seven Sisters waterfall wasn't as grand as it usually is, but the whole Fjord was great. When we docked in Geiranger, we walked 327 stairs up alongside Storfossen Falls that had a vertical drop of 100 metres. We got more great photos on the way down. After another fabulous dinner, Tanya Nicole Edwards treated us to some really great soul music - such talent!
Tuesday - Olden - we had to wait for the tender as we could not dock in town. Once we were ashore, we walked (and walked and walked and walked)! We followed a path alongside the river until we got to the waterfall and then carried on until we got to the lake. Amazing views - sure wish you could see it in real life. It was a beautiful day, and it wasn't long before we ditched our jackets.
After another great dinner we settled into our seats in the Theatre for the Production Show - Tree of Life. We have seen it before, but it gets more spectacular each time. After that, the Love and Marriage game show - always a good laugh.
Wednesday - up early to catch the Flam train up into the mountains. Stunning views and so many waterfalls. We were even treated to some singing by a spirit that lives in the mountains - story in one of the photos. Such a neat adventure! After dinner the headliner in the theatre was Tom Wright - comedian/magician.
Thursday - sea day - Dale did his talk on Bruges, Belgium, which is our next stopover. Mark Donoghue did a matinee in the theatre and after dinner we went to Showtime at the Club - Caravan - another high energy but smaller production show.
Friday - Bruges, Belgium - We got off the ship early enough to catch a train into the city centre. We had a reservation at the De Halve Maan Brewery at noon, so we did the 20 minute walk from the train fairly quickly. The tour was really interesting - the brewery has a 3 km pipeline from downtown to their bottling plant. We got to see the old and the new process and had a great view from their rooftop. Afterwards, we got to sample some of their local beers - Dale had the blonde and I had the rose, which they brewed specially for the ladies - it was great! We then had to complete the Bruges trifecta and had a yummy waffle and, of course, picked up some local chocolate. The Production Show was Rockumentary - another amazing performance, followed by a new magic show by Tom Wright.
Saturday - back to Southampton for our back-to-back cruise heading to the Baltic. New post to follow.
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