TenneSea

An absolutely PERFECT day in Bergen. Sunny, sunny, sunny. Found Bergen to be,, well, a city. Not the charm that our last ports had, but it was fun. I would like to have done the fish market area but our day here was short. Had to be on board at 1:30 so that didn't leave much time after a tour. We did the Funicular with a city drive. I would not really recommend this tour. Too much driving around a city. The Funicular (cable car to the top of a mountain) was a little over-rated, in my opinion. You know what you saw from the top? A city ! But it was a nice experience.

@dunscrimpin We have not had to tender at any port (yet). We are in Bergen today and I don't think we tender here either. Olden - right at the dock.

We did the Easy Olden bus tour. It seemed a little long and there is only one bathroom break. The snack that we had at lunchtime was only cake and coffee. I think Princess could improve this tour in these areas. TOM BALL (Britain's Got Talent) was the talent for tonight's show. It was excellent. The food continues to be excellent. At some point, I hope I have time to share the menus and food photos. Tonight's amazing main course was Rack of Lamb - excellent !!!

`

An apple farm.

WED. AUG 16 --- OLDEN Anchoring

Estrella had the lunch on embarkation day.

@JG&Lcruisingnewbies Is the 19th sailing a 14 day cruise ? It's really been nice. Hard to find time to do the blog but it certainly fills up an evening. I hope your cruise is as lovely as this one has been. Our cruise director is Dan France and he has really been great.

I really don't have any other time of year to compare it to but everyone here says June - August is pretty much the same. It rains no matter when you come ! One of out tour guides was asked what his favorite months are and he likes May, Sept, Oct. (Sept and Oct for the color change.). Temp-wise, it's been mild. I thought it would be much colder but it's pretty steady in the 60's. Thank you for the the (pictures) compliment. It means a lot.

My favorite part of the day - seeing these two guys ! Check out this mane. More tomorrow.

And there are glaciers up here. W Waffle break on the way back - delicious ! Perfect little lace curtains Sweet table setting.

Again, often shooting from a moving bus, through thick, dirty, rainy glass. No trees at the top. Pretty desolate up there ! I think someone has a sense of humor.

Tuesday - Skjolden Today's Excursion "Jotunheimen Nat'l Pro & Sognefjell Mountain Pass began, as most do, on a bus. We took a wild ride up a steep, narrow mountain road. It was a beautiful ride, spoiled somewhat by gloomy skies which eventually turned to rain. But, all in all, an enjoyable day. Comparing to yesterday's excursion, I don't feel this one was quite as good, but we really liked. The fjord we docked in is just so amazing. We did stop for a coffee/waffle break which was refreshing and tasty. Here is some of the scenery we saw.

Canada and New England in the fall is on our list ! Sounds wonderful.

@minniegidget Thank you !

@drwbrt I think the next cruise on Sky (19th) is the 1st to have the new rules in place. Everything is normal here now.

So far, it's been upper 60's during the day. Expect rain. Yesterday was perfect but this morning looks gloomy and rainy.

We wish you guys were here too. You would have loved it.

I don't want to jinx anything but, the food on this cruise has been pretty darn close to excellent. Amazing dinner tonight, which I'll post later !

Leaving Haugesund tonight - heading to Skjolden.

I'm always fascinated by local flowers. Viking memorial

And... pictures of the Langfoss waterfall. The water was perfectly still. The forcast was 80 - 100% rain but we lucked out. The day was beautiful ! Some trees stuck out about half way up.

I think this is the marina where we boarded the boat to the waterfall. This must have been a cave ? Almost to the waterfall.

Here are some of the photos of today. Again, as I get my phone images uploaded, I'll post them. The camera is easier to transfer the images so they get posted first. Forgive the out of sequence pics, but I'll try to clearly label them. Also, MANY of these are shot through the moving bus window so, not perfect. Haugesund Port Haugesund Port Scenery Scenery

I'm going to skip ahead to the Princess excursion in Haugesund today. The name of it was "Akrafjord, Eljarvik Farm & Langfoss Waterfall". All in all, an excellent tour. The bus ride out to the waterfall was 1 1/2 hours, which was quite long, but it gave us the opportunity to really SEE Norway. I actually loved it. Every mile was filled with glorious scenery. The bus was comfortable. Note that there were no toilet facilities on this coach. The boat ride was about 45 minutes, out to the waterfall. We were able to get many photos of the waterfall. The guides put buckets into the water and gave drinks of water to us from the famous, glacier-fed falls. I thought that was a treat ! Back on the bus for a quick stop in the driveway of the "Eljarvik Farm" (which they should just remove from the title of the tour - it's not really a stop, it's not really a farm) for photos and the next stop was lunch. :Lunch was at a nice buffet. The store and restaurant were nice and the food was all local. I found it a little underwhelming but we enjoyed it none the less. Before we got back to the pier, there was enough time to stop at the Viking Memorial. Impressions of the Princess tour: I would give it 4 out of 5 stars. The scenery alone was 5 stars but the lunch was so-so and the (lack of) the farm removed one star. The tour guide and bus driver (especially the driver) were very good. The guide had a captive audience on the return portion and espoused all of his political opinions to all of us. Not necessary. I may or may not have detected a few digs at USA and UK, but I guess we'll survive his criticism. He covered just about every world event he could think of.