Into the Midnight Sun: Bergen Norway Day 1, Arrival
Jul 31, 2020 18:12:32 #
First, some background: My wife and I had been discussing taking a cruise for several years, but were not sure it was a good fit for us. We have always enjoyed traveling and seeing new places. We did a 3,500 mile road trip in 9 days for our honeymoon and went to Victoria BC the next year (about a 2,000 mile round trip). The following year (1973) we managed to spend 11 weeks traveling all over Europe (we were both finishing college within a year of the trip). We spent 5 nights in Oslo on that trip and rode the train from there to Bergen and back; it was the most beautiful train ride we did in 11 weeks of riding the trains all over Europe. We only had a couple of hours in Bergen before the return trip to Oslo, so we didn’t see anything in Bergen. After 8 years of marriage we started having children and ended up with 5 over an 11-year span. With our large family and busy careers we always managed to take vacations, but they were almost all within California and included a lot of camping and trips to Southern California. We semi-retired in 2009 and 2011 and started doing more traveling starting in 2009, including some long road trips and trips to Hawaii at least every other year.
We decided to try cruising and put a deposit on a 2018 Princess cruise to Alaska. As we were planning for the cruise it struck us that we really didn’t want to be on a large ship with 2,598 other passengers and we didn’t like the idea of assigned tables and meal times, as well as the somewhat formal nature of the cruise. We started looking around and found Viking Ocean Cruises. We liked the idea of a small ship (930 passengers) and the less formal nature of the ships, as well as the focus on the destinations and the simple elegance of the ships, rather than glitz. We found the cruise “Into the Midnight Sun,” and it looked great; Princess refunded our deposit (thanks, Princess!) and we booked the Viking cruise. We ran out of superlatives early in the cruise. The fit was perfect for us and it was the best vacation we have ever had and we can’t imagine going on any cruise line other than Viking. While on the cruise, we booked a Viking cruise from Venice to Barcelona for early June of 2020, which of course was cancelled due to COVID-19. We have re-booked the cruise for 2022 in the reverse order and added a Viking Rhine River cruise to our itinerary.
As I think you will see over the next many days, Norway is spectacularly beautiful; the most beautiful place we have ever visited. We also saw some beautiful scenery and interesting places in Scotland. Much of this series could be appropriately posted in the Landscape Photography section of UHH. We embarked in Bergen Norway and disembarked in London 14 days later. We actually docked in Greenwich after a night cruise up the Thames, about 4 miles from Westminster Abbey. Most cruises that say they start or end in London, actually do so in Harwich or Southampton, both about two hours from Central London. However, due to the smaller size of the Viking Ocean ships, they can sail up the River Thames. As you will see at the end of the cruise, I spent some quality time shooting as we sailed up the Thames. We spent two additional days in London after the cruise. We saw some amazing places and spent three days above the Arctic Circle in the midnight sun. We saw the Barents Sea at the northernmost point in Europe on a sunny day, a beach where they do midnight surfing, beautiful coastline, the Standing Stones of Stenness (a 5000-year-old circle of stones, which may be the oldest henge site in the British Isles), the Tower of London in the evening and many more things as you will see.
Norway has the second longest coastline in the world, second only to Canada. The Norwegian mainland coast is 28,953 km (17,991 miles) long, while the 239,057 islands (!) have 71,963 km (44,716 miles) of coastline for a total of 100,915 km (62,706 miles). Norway is not a very large country, especially considering how much coastline there is. For comparison, the total coastline of the United States is 12,383 miles, about half of which is Alaska. Norway has about 91% of the land area of California and about 4% of the land area of the United States.
This first set includes a map of our journey and our first look at Bergen from the air. The first two photos were taken by my wife using her iPhone X as we descended into Bergen, and provide an appreciation of the topography of the rugged Norwegian coast and all of the islands. The last photo is our view looking out of the Bergen harbor from our veranda on the Viking Star, taken with my Canon 80D. The next set will include the harbor at sunset.
I hope you enjoy our adventure. Here we go!
We decided to try cruising and put a deposit on a 2018 Princess cruise to Alaska. As we were planning for the cruise it struck us that we really didn’t want to be on a large ship with 2,598 other passengers and we didn’t like the idea of assigned tables and meal times, as well as the somewhat formal nature of the cruise. We started looking around and found Viking Ocean Cruises. We liked the idea of a small ship (930 passengers) and the less formal nature of the ships, as well as the focus on the destinations and the simple elegance of the ships, rather than glitz. We found the cruise “Into the Midnight Sun,” and it looked great; Princess refunded our deposit (thanks, Princess!) and we booked the Viking cruise. We ran out of superlatives early in the cruise. The fit was perfect for us and it was the best vacation we have ever had and we can’t imagine going on any cruise line other than Viking. While on the cruise, we booked a Viking cruise from Venice to Barcelona for early June of 2020, which of course was cancelled due to COVID-19. We have re-booked the cruise for 2022 in the reverse order and added a Viking Rhine River cruise to our itinerary.
As I think you will see over the next many days, Norway is spectacularly beautiful; the most beautiful place we have ever visited. We also saw some beautiful scenery and interesting places in Scotland. Much of this series could be appropriately posted in the Landscape Photography section of UHH. We embarked in Bergen Norway and disembarked in London 14 days later. We actually docked in Greenwich after a night cruise up the Thames, about 4 miles from Westminster Abbey. Most cruises that say they start or end in London, actually do so in Harwich or Southampton, both about two hours from Central London. However, due to the smaller size of the Viking Ocean ships, they can sail up the River Thames. As you will see at the end of the cruise, I spent some quality time shooting as we sailed up the Thames. We spent two additional days in London after the cruise. We saw some amazing places and spent three days above the Arctic Circle in the midnight sun. We saw the Barents Sea at the northernmost point in Europe on a sunny day, a beach where they do midnight surfing, beautiful coastline, the Standing Stones of Stenness (a 5000-year-old circle of stones, which may be the oldest henge site in the British Isles), the Tower of London in the evening and many more things as you will see.
Norway has the second longest coastline in the world, second only to Canada. The Norwegian mainland coast is 28,953 km (17,991 miles) long, while the 239,057 islands (!) have 71,963 km (44,716 miles) of coastline for a total of 100,915 km (62,706 miles). Norway is not a very large country, especially considering how much coastline there is. For comparison, the total coastline of the United States is 12,383 miles, about half of which is Alaska. Norway has about 91% of the land area of California and about 4% of the land area of the United States.
This first set includes a map of our journey and our first look at Bergen from the air. The first two photos were taken by my wife using her iPhone X as we descended into Bergen, and provide an appreciation of the topography of the rugged Norwegian coast and all of the islands. The last photo is our view looking out of the Bergen harbor from our veranda on the Viking Star, taken with my Canon 80D. The next set will include the harbor at sunset.
I hope you enjoy our adventure. Here we go!
(Download)
Near Bergen
(Download)
Close to the Bergen Airport
(Download)
Bergen Harbor from the Viking Star
(Download)
Jul 31, 2020 18:20:11 #
Jul 31, 2020 18:24:35 #
This is starting off wonderfully well, Dennis.You've wet my appetite for more. Great prose to go with the photos in this post, to fill in the blanks, as it were. Looking forward to each and every upcoming in this series.
Jul 31, 2020 18:37:29 #
NMGal wrote:
Looking forward to a trip that sounds very interesting.
Thank you for looking NMGal and I hope you enjoy the trip.
Jul 31, 2020 18:38:19 #
pixelmaven wrote:
This is starting off wonderfully well, Dennis.You've wet my appetite for more. Great prose to go with the photos in this post, to fill in the blanks, as it were. Looking forward to each and every upcoming in this series.
Thank you for the kind words pixelmaven, I appreciate it.
Jul 31, 2020 19:06:54 #
Jul 31, 2020 19:13:55 #
Looking forward to more pictures! It sounds incredible, and resonates deeply with me! Our daughter spent her junior year of high school as an exchange student, living with two families in Alta, far above the Arctic circle...this in about 2000 or so. One family were herders, living about 20 miles outside of town; that became a little remote socially after a few months so she moved into town with another family. Such an experience has opened so many doors for her, including a full ride at American U in DC....I really want to meet the folks who now are also part of our family! Just hard to wait out this virus thing.....
Jul 31, 2020 20:34:37 #
Bob Mevis wrote:
I sure am looking forward to your trip.
Thank you Bob; I think you will enjoy it.
Jul 31, 2020 20:43:04 #
Webguydave wrote:
Looking forward to more pictures! It sounds incred... (show quote)
Thank you for the comments Dave. I'm certain that your daughter had a very interesting and enriching experience. We got to the Nordkapp, about 100 miles north and 90 miles east of Alta on day 7 of our cruise.
Jul 31, 2020 23:18:47 #
Great set and very interesting narrative Dennis. I'm looking forward to seeing many more!
Jul 31, 2020 23:51:58 #
srfmhg wrote:
Great set and very interesting narrative Dennis. I'm looking forward to seeing many more!
Thanks Mark! There will be many more to follow.
Aug 1, 2020 08:22:59 #
Loved Sweden and Norway, but did not get far north. Looking forward to your series as we wait for the hurricane here.
Aug 1, 2020 08:23:56 #
Aug 1, 2020 10:00:56 #
Can't wait to see your trip photos. We traveled to Norway for 10 days last year. Beautiful country.
Aug 1, 2020 11:08:57 #
Dr J wrote:
Loved Sweden and Norway, but did not get far north. Looking forward to your series as we wait for the hurricane here.
Thank you for commenting Dr J; I think you will enjoy the series. On or 1973 trip we spent 5 nights with friends in Ystad Sweden, on the southern coast. We also loved both countries. I hope you make it through the hurricane OK. You get hurricanes, we get earthquakes.
If you want to reply, then register here. Registration is free and your account is created instantly, so you can post right away.