Off the ship in Rotterdam and on to an Uber to the Amsterdam airport. One of the “rules” we attempt to apply when we travel is never take public transportation with luggage. What I mean is: No public transportation that that locals take. It’s either an uber, taxi, dedicated airport bus or train, etc. This “rule” started years ago in Rome when we entered a crowded subway carrying luggage and I was pickpocketed. Talk about being a sitting duck target. Plus, stupid me I was in a hurry and put my wallet in my back pocket. There is nothing wrong with public transportation. We take it all the time without luggage. We were warned by a nice couple from Amsterdam about the prices in Norway, especially alcohol. So, if we wanted a bottle of wine or six pack of beer, purchase it at the duty-free store in the Amsterdam airport, which we did. When we arrived in Oslo we discovered our first somewhat disaster. Rebecca’s checked suitcase was broken. The handle that pulls out of the suitcase simply would not extend, which made it very difficult to move along as we walked. While our hotel was only about seven minutes

In Sandnes we took a shuttle from the ship to the train station. Then went by rail to Stavanger to take a ferry to the Lysefjord, which we heard was a beautiful fjord to see. We met a couple from Pennsylvania and started up a great conversation. According to the brochures, the ferry stops at two places for a view. The first stop is to look up at an outcropping (or projection) of a rock where, on the top, people often take pictures of themselves standing or sitting on the edge of the rock. Seems like a stupid idea. But the picture is nice view of the person on the rock looking at the fjord down below. I have included this picture.  The second stop is a waterfall that is supposed to be amazing to see. The weather was overcast so the fjord wasn’t as pretty as we’d hoped, but the two stops were interesting to say the least. When we arrived at the first stop below the outcropping above, we looked up the cliff and saw a piece of rock (kind of) protruding out from the cliff wall. It was hard to tell. There was no one on top

I thought this was our best port visit in Norway. Olden is a small, quaint picturesque village about 60 miles deep into the Nordfjorden. The population is only around 666. Our 3½ tour in Olden was to take another bus ride to the town of Stryn where we would ride another sky lift to the top of Hovan mountain to see a beautiful view of the Nordfjord. Once we got on the bus, we learned that the town of Stryn was only 10 minutes away from where the ship docked. So why was the tour 3½ hours you might ask? Well, the sky lift wasn’t open when we left early in the morning. So, we took a pointless 45-minute bus ride along and around the fjord to a nice grassy area overlooking the water where we got out of the bus to take pictures. Then our bus would turn around and head back to ship stopping in Stryn. By the time we arrived back in Stryn, the sky lift would be open. What made the whole thing worse was that I drank several cups of coffee that morning and at the end of our 45-minute ride to grassy picture spot,

An interesting piece of information we found out in Alesund, our second port to visit in Norway. Back when I wrote about Honfleur, I mentioned that Normandy was controlled by Vikings. And a Viking named Rollo converted to Christianity to resolve the battles between the Vikings and the Franks. He took the name of Robert. It turns out that Rollo came from Giske island, near Alesund. The Giske family was extremely powerful in the area. The Giske family played a role in bringing Christianity to the Alesund area in the late 10th and early 11th centuries. Around 1150, the Giske Church was constructed on the island of Giske. It is now one of Norway’s oldest surviving churches. Like in Eidfjord, all the Catholic churches converted to Protestant churches after the reformation. In the late 19th century, Protestants in Ålesund were influenced by the pietist movement within Norwegian Lutheranism. Pietism emphasizes biblical doctrine combined with living a holy Christian life. On January 23, 1904, a huge fire broke out in Ålesund. It started from a spark from a butter factory during a stormy night. The fire destroyed nearly 850 houses and left about 10,000 of the town’s 11,000 residents homeless. Fortunately,

Our first stop on the Holland America cruise was Eidfjord, a small village of 962 people at the end of the Hardanger fjord. There are more than 1,700 named fjords in Norway. The fjords were shaped by massive glaciers that carved out deep valleys, which later filled with water as the ice melted. Because the water is so deep, cruise ships can travel far into the fjords. We chose to visit the fjords this year since the Norwegian government is planning to make all cruise ships fully electric in the next couple of years. We figured it would be more affordable to go now before prices go up. In Eidfjord, we took a bus out to see the famous Vøringfossen waterfalls. Instead of booking through the cruise line, we went with another tour group. It turned out to be cheaper and we were guaranteed a tour guide. Our guide was Alexa, who’s originally from South Africa and used to be a film director. She leaves Norway for the winter because she hates the long, cold, dark nights. Vøringsfossen was stunning, though I bet it would be even better in spring when the snow is melting. As we traveled up the

We arrived in Amsterdam after a 2-hour flight from Bilbao. We were picked in an Uber driven by an incredibly nice man originally from Afghanistan. He and his wife escaped from Afghanistan 20 years ago. They fled through Pakistan and then passed along through 7 or 8 European countries before landing in the Netherlands. His life was full of hardship and suffering, but he is now happy that his family is safe in Amsterdam. He works about 60-70 hours a week with little time off. Stories like these make it difficult to be 100 percent anti-migration. He did everything right. But countries have the right to decide who enters the country and have an obligation to investigate and vet the people trying to come to keep their people safe.       We stayed at another Holiday Inn Express, but it was nothing like any Holiday Inn express that I had seen before. It was a 14-story, 500-room hotel overlooking the Amstel river. In fact, we could see from our window the Holland America cruise ship that we were boarding tomorrow. For some reason, I love Amsterdam. I know. I know. Parts of it are decadent. But it is a