Parthemores in Poland

We made a stop in Ålesund, which we both agreed was our favorite city.  The whole place is very quaint, beautiful, and peaceful.  I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

We also walked up to the lookout point, which was some ungodly number of steps above the harbor.  But it was worth it.  We even met a couple from Poland, who were quite surprised to meet a pair of Americans that spoke Polish.

But all those steps were just a warm-up for our hike up to a waterfall the next day in the town of Flaam.  It didn’t look that far when we saw it from the boat, but it was a solid hour of hiking uphill to get there.

We passed some suspicious looking signs:

We figured one of these meant “waterfall” and the other “certain death.”  Fortunately, we chose the right path.

But, once again, it was worth the trouble.

The next city, Bergen, boasts a cute little section of wooden buildings that have now been taken over by souvenir shops.  There is also a huge market, featuring many types of fish.  Unfortunately, that means it smells like fish.

The next day, the captain decided to anchor at his hometown, Nevlunghavn.  He invited the entire boat to his house for pastries and champagne.  Seriously.  It was a neat little side trip and I think he is a minor celebrity in a town of only 300 people. 

Later that day we docked in Oslo, which is the capital and Norway’s biggest city.  We walked around to see some of the major buildings, like the town hall and the royal palace. 

Before reboarding the ship, we took a tour of the castle/fortress, which is still used for official functions.  There are lots of beautiful tapestries and furniture in the main rooms. 

Finally, it was time to pack up and disembark in Copenhagen.  Through the two weeks, we saw so many beautiful places and met some very nice people from all over the world.  And ate a ton of fabulous food.

We returned to Copenhagen to find our car in the same spot, without any tickets or damage.  Hooray!  Our ferry back to Poland wasn’t leaving until 8 pm, so we had the whole day to walk around the city. 

We spent much of the day wandering around aimlessly, getting horribly disoriented by the rat maze-ish road network.  I would try to figure out how far we walked, but I can’t even tell you where we went.  There was so much too look at, we got tired of taking pictures of everything.

And of course, we visited the Little Mermaid, Copenhagen’s most famous statue.  To give you the full experience, here is what you find there:

Everyone jockeying for position to take a picture of the Little Mermaid!  (Cart selling miniature replicas not shown.)

We visited the Rosenborg Castle, which was originally built as a summer home for the king in the early 1600s.  While everything in there was beautiful, the architect went nuts on the ceilings.

The crown jewels of Denmark are stored in the basement, along with lots of other valuable and historic items. 

At last it was time to board our ferry back to Poland.  Our accommodations were slightly more spartan than on the cruise:

So that’s it… By far the trip of a lifetime and I wish I could do it all again!