Another sort of live thread - this time Apex in Scandinavia 2 cruises with a 4 day break

[hcat]

still reading aling.. what were your favs on this cruise?

[abbydancer2003]

On 9/14/2024 at 12:29 AM, hcat said:

still reading aling.. what were your favs on this cruise?

Hard to say, pretty much everything (not a great answer I know).  The room on the second cruise was a lighlight.  Food - probably Fine Cut on this ship.  And Flam and Copenhagen for ports.

[abbydancer2003]

Day 20 Oslo 1 Wednesday 4

 

Today we were up in time for breakfast, and it was nice to be there since yesterday’s breakfast was the last time we saw the Luminae staff.  I had two pancakes and bacon.  (Their pancakes are small, so two isn’t as many as it sounds).

 

After breakfast we hung out in the lounge while Francis did the room.  I also went to the casino, since once we got close it would close until tomorrow night and I still have a lot of OBC to burn. 

 

Although nobody said anything about the sail in, it was kind of pretty.

 

 

After the casino, I went to the pool and hot tub.  It was pleasant and I talked with a couple of gentlemen for a while.

 

Next stop was lunch, which was odd today.

 I started with the broiled feta salad (nothing ever tastes broiled on this).

 

 

Then things got strange.  I ordered my normal 1/2 luminae burger.  When it came out, he brought two plates, each with one half vertically cut burgers and buns.  What was odd was they’d done it correctly before.  Umesha offered to remake it, but I wasn’t that hungry, so I said no.  He then offered to just bring some potato chips.  I agreed, but they never came.  Instead, I just ordered dessert from one of the other waiters.  (White chocolate mousse, the best thing they have).  It didn’t really bother me, but it was just odd.

 

This afternoon, we have Tours by Locals Jewish History tour.  The plan is to meet our guide just after the port area at what was described as “red construction cube with Information spot 5 on it”.  Ok.    I just hoped it made sense.

 

Once we docked around 3, we had Prateek walk us down.  It was pretty straightforward, so we headed out the fairly long pier.  It wasn’t clear until we got to the end of it where we were going, but we did see the cube and our guide, Judith, there.  We’d sent her a picture of us walking out, which she said helped.  I guess it did, because she was waving at us as we arrived.

 

She said we’d start with some history of Norway, and then get to the Jewish history.  We started walking.

 

This is a bridge we were about to cross.

 

On the other side there’s an anchor from one of the German ships that arrived in WW2.

<8086>

 

 

We walked along the water for a bit, and arrived at the Nobel Peace Center.  Apparently Nobel spent part of his time in Oslo, and thus the Peace Prize is awarded here.  

 

 

Apparently they also have conferences there, too.

 

The next stop was the Parliament building. Norway became independent  in 1814, and the constitution was created.  Article 2 said that everyone in the country had to be Lutheran.  No Jews, no Catholics, etc.  

 

 

 

 

Between the Parliament and the Palace we passed a statue of a man and his bke.

 

This is Gunnar Sonseby, Norway’s most well known and best decorated resistance fighter (Apparently after the war, he switched fields, went to Harvard Business School and became a businessman).

 

Also in that area there is a statue of the Poet Henrik Wergeland, who, in 1857 campaigned to get the paragraph of No Jews struck, and succeeded in 1857.  (The last prohibition was against Jesuits was removed in 1956).  

 

This brings up the subject of a Jewish tour of Oslo, since the Jews had a short history here.  The were allowed in in 1857 (most then migrated from easter Europe) and were all deported in 1943.  Very short time, so not that much to tell.  But we did it.

 

After the historic sites, we took a streetcar to a neighborhood where most of the Jews lived.  (Not enoguh to make it a Jewish neighborhood, but most lived there.  

 

Along the sidewalks throughout the area they had these.

 

This marks where deported Jews lived.  They have these sort of markers in many places - we saw them in Berlin as well.   Bryan Stevenson, the subject of the movie Just Mercy, wants them in the US where lynching victims lived, but we don’t have that yet.  Apparently the Norwegian police rounded up the men, and the family had to report daily, or the husbands would be killed.  Eventually, 755 were deported, probably all to Auschwitz,  and 34 survived.

 

Our next stop was the Jewish museum.  The top sign is the Hebrew letter Chai, symbolizing 18.  It means life.  Now you know.

 

 

Unfortunately, because of our port schedule, the museum was closed for the day.  (The timing of the stop was generally unfortunate, since you couldn’t do a lot.)

We did peek iin.

 

I believe it was once a synagogue.  Apparently there is one still active here.

 

We walked over to an interesting bridge.  The carvings at each end repressed characters from Peer Gynt.  

 

We then took a street car back towards the water.  We walked down a pier along the side of the Alershus fortress to the memorial to the Norwegian deported Jews.

 

The memorial consists of empty chairs.  

 

There’s a plaque.

 

<There are also sets of chairs.

 

Every year there’s a ceremony, and somebody in government apologizes, and then everybody gathers for soup.  (Old Jewish joke - they slaughtered us, blah blah, let’s eat!.  We like to eat.  You’re all invited for Passover). 

 

After the mmoria, we walked back up the pier, and stopped for Judith to share more information, about some of the people who were deported.  

 

By the time we got off the pier (which also has the old cruise ship port and gift shop) it was 7:30.  I was a bit concerned about how long it would take me to walk back, so Judith got us a cab.  

 

We went back to the room after about a 15minute cab ride.  Tonight we have our last specialty dinner at Fine Cut at 8:30.

 

For dinner, I had the caesar again, but forgot to ask for it without caviar.  Our waiter was nice enough to replace it.  For my main, I had the Prime Rib, which was still thicker than I like, but it was quite good.  We skipped dessert.

 

After dinner I decided to go to the room hot tub, since I was over 17000 steps and achy.  It was great.  After that, bed time, since we have an early start tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[abbydancer2003]

Sorry for the picture at the end.  I know how it happens, and usually I can prevent it.

Anyway, we're almost at the end, and I'll post the last port day in a couple of hours and should finish by the end of the week.  I think we're finally over the "wake up at 3 am" jet lag.  Now dealing with my bank trying to do a wire transfer for a tour next summer in Ireland.  Stay tuned, and thanks for waiting.

[abbydancer2003]

Day 21 Oslo 2 Thursday 4

 

Our only plan for today was to have coffee with Alexandra, aka @NorwayLady before her workday.  Based on her schedule, we’ll meet at 8:30 at a coffee place nearby.  Yesterday, Judith tried to help us for finding it (something about a spaceman).  

 

We skipped breakfast, and headed out around 8.  We ended up meeting her midway along the wharf, and we walked together to the coffee place.  Turns out we were right by it yesterday, but that was before we told Judith about it.  There is a giant spaceman in front of it.

 

The coffee house is just behind it.  We ordered, and then found a nice table outside.  I had a latte and an almond croissant, and both were great.

 

We spent about an hour and a half having a very nice conversation - I hope we sail with them sometime.  Eventually, she had to go to work, so we said goodbye, and got the required selfie.

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• 

Selies of 3 people is hard. (And this is the first time ever I've had one upside down).  

 

We leisurely walked back and noticed more of the scenery.  Here’s a stilt walker.

 

 

There was also a playground for kids and adults along the wharf and a fake oak tree.  Apparently it’s best a night since it’s a light sculpture.

 

Sadly, we won’t be able to get a night picture, since we’re leaving early today.

 

There was the required gift shop (using the term loosely) so I bought my required magnet.  We were back by around 10:30, and the staff thanked us for coming back early.  

 

I did my pool and hot tub thing at the retreat sundeck today and it was pretty empty since I think many people were enjoying day 2 in Oslo.

 

Following my pool time I washed sailaway from various locations.  After 12:30 (all aboard) they were calling for people.  At 1:05, a couple came of a HOHO bus,  They were very lucky, since leave time was 5 minutes earlier.  The couple  that came out of a zip car at 1:25 was even luckier.  They were both kind of lucky that it was lunch time, so there weren’t a lot of people watching. 

 

We had lunch in Luminae today.  I had the bib lettuce salad, herb crusted chicken, and the coffee panna cotta (not a lot of dessert choices at lunch and if you don’t eat chocolate, you’re very limited).  During lunch I asked for baked brie appitizer and the napolion dessert from Normandie at dinner.  We’ll see what happens.

 

After lunch, I took Glen’s card to the casino.  I also had tea in the lounge.  I’m running a little behind in the casino, but I have fun.

 

Tonight’s dinner is Luminae, and it’s Evening Chic, which means the rack of lamb, probably the best thing they have.  My baked brie arrived, and it was better than the last time I had it (might have been this ship in December, so I think in general, the chefs are an improvement).  Lamb as good as always.   I also got my Napolion, and it was very good, although the plating wasn’t exactly to Luminaes standard.

 

We did have a bit of a laugh over this.

 

After dinner, we did end up going to bed early, since we had an early start today.  Tomorrow is our last full day of this epic cruise trip.