Okay. I know that I have skipped a couple days. We had several excursions and way too much fun on board. One of our excursions was late in the evening returning to the ship after 1AM. It was the best opportunity to see the Northern Lights. And we did see them! But no photos are attached at this time. It was basically a weak display. The naked eye only could see something like wispy clouds most of the time. For a brief moment they appeared green. People with really good cameras and tripods could expose for about 10 seconds and get much clearer displays. I will eventually borrow someone’s better photos and add them.

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Our first excursion in Alta was the simple included drive through the city. We did stop twice. This is the Arctic Cathedral. We did get to enter and here the story of how and why it was built. Then on to the “museum”. It was pretty small. The highlight in the museum is the stone carvings indicating there have been people living in the area for at least 7,000 years.

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Back on board we were once again at the naughty table. Our new friends are Becky with Dave and Mark sitting next to Kathy. This was lunch and we were still at the small naughty table. For the last time. The crowd has gotten bigger and we now sit at the big tale in the corner.

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Many of ou will recognize most of these crew members from the Grand Pacific Cruise. Every day we see more and more of the crew that know us from that cruise. I will only mention a couple of them. Laura is standing next to Kathy. then Ogi, the tall man next to Laura. Ogi is Famous for the kimono. We get lots of hugs and much laughter. And today we were surprised that Joachim is even on the ship for a short time. He has been promoted and now must check on his shipboard personnel.

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Obviously I have met the Head Chef and have told him the story of the World’s Record for lamb. He has arranged that I can order lamb chops whenever I want at the Café grill. Just like before.

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It has been a slow start for my lamb diet. But I have now had lamb 5 times. And it has been cooked 3 different ways.

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The Viking Vocalists performed their meet and greet in the Atrium. They don’t know us yet. And probably never will since we are only a few days before leaving the ship. I prefer 93 day cruises. One of our new friends came by our table at breakfast and asked if we know everyone on board yet. He bet we did. Do we have a reputation or what?

So much to tell. And I am behind in my stories. Today is Friday January 17. But this blog starts at dinner on January 15. We had reservations at Manfredi’s, the Italian restaurant instead of at the World Café.

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They took the lamb off the menu so I had lobster risotto. I guess I ate all of the lamb during our Grand Pacific Cruise so Viking ran out. Perhaps another story is brewing.

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Just for Bob! Kathy and I shared a tiramisu for dessert. It was great.

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It snowed overnight. So the back terrace of the ship was blocked off. It had snow and probably ice. I had to take the picture through the back window with a few reflections. Sorry! No one was swimming.

The naughty table came back to life at lunchtime on Thursday. Some of you might remember the story about the tall server Ogi, on the Grand Pacific. If not, follow along.

Here is Ogi.

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On that cruise Kathy bought a used kimono. One size fits all. But it is very tall and needs special attention for shorter people to wear it. It fit Ogi perfectly. So Thursday at lunch we showed several of the new servers this picture. Lots of laughter. But even better, several went and found Ogi working at the pool grill. The all laughed at him wearing women’s clothes. Soon he came to our table and told us he was the most famous server on board.

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We took the included excursion in the afternoon. The first stop was at the planetarium to watch a movie about the Northern Lights. No photos allowed. This building was part of a rather large University with over 16,000 students all above the Arctic Circle. But the most interesting part after the movie were the lights on the street. One gentleman (David) asked why colored lights on the street. The guide had no idea. But they were very pretty on the snow. Remember this was early afternoon. Soooooo very dark outside.

As Kathy and I walked up to the World Café we saw the Head Chef talking with another restaurant chef. So I stopped and talked with them. I explained that on our Grand Pacific Cruise I talked with that Head Chef (Andeas) and asked to have lamb. He made certain I could order grilled lamb chops any time I ordered them. David said of course, He could do the same for me. So he and I walked to the buffet line. He introduced me to the chef there and told him to have lamb chops whenever I asked.

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So after sitting and enjoying a glass of wine and a small salad I went and asked for my lamb chops. This chef knew our table. The naughty table! Soon he came and delivered this plate. So I asked if I could have the lemon butter ravioli. Of course! he went back to the grill area and prepared that.

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Soon this plate was delivered to me. So I had lamb and ravioli for dinner. But that’s not all.

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My new friendly server, Alisha, saw that we had finished our dinner. So without asking she made a dessert and delivered it to our table.

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We did see some local area. This was a photo I took during the few minutes of partial sunlight through the clouds. It is the Arctic Cathedral. very interesting architecture. At night there were lights that appeared vertical because they showed through the window at each section of the roof line. Really hard to photo.

We had a ceremony in the pool area celebrating the crossing of the Arctic Circle. Roughly that is 66 degrees and 33 minutes North Latitude.

The ceremony is called The Order of the Blue Nose. Much like the ceremony for crossing the Equator except there was no need to enter the water or kiss the fish. I still won’t drink the Aquavit. Too strong.

Then we went to lunch and were surprised that our friend Ogi from the Orion was serving lunch on the other side of the World Café. We got there too late to claim “our table”. So we went to the same location near the servers station just on the other side of the ship. There was Ogi. Ogi was the tall male in the photo. And he was the tall man who tried on the kimono in Japan during our Grand Pacific Cruise. His girl friend (another server) of the time didn’t like that he was photo’d in women’s clothing. They no longer are a couple. Hope we didn’t break them up. He still has a great smile. The other server remembered us and was also on the Orion. I just don’t remember him

We docked a bit late in Tromso. It was about 2 PM. Sunrise was at 11:46 and sunset at 12:01. Yes! 15 minutes of sunshine except that it was cloudy. I took a photo of the town from our veranda just after 2. This is what the city looked like on an early Wednesday afternoon.

Because of the weather conditions we are now on our second day in a row at sea. There was 4 hours of sunlight and even some sun. Not much. But during those hours we were cruising in an archipelago.

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Small islands on both sides of the ship as we passed.Most rather deserted and pretty.

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The fishing areas were unusual for me. They placed buoys I suppose with nets below the water and then had one boat available to bring in the catch. Don’t get too impressed with the sunlight. I only used the best photos. But then. . . . .

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The sunset was at 1:58 PM. By then it was getting cloudy. I took several shots trying to capture the sunset. This one not only caught the sunset but also the wind turbines on the hills. I thought this one was cool.

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Finally they had braised lamb on the menu. On our long cruise Gilbert was the cook stationed at the carving station. I started talking with the cook stationed there today. Low and behold! This cook came on the Orion for the last segment starting in Hong Kong. He knew Gilbert and had heard about my lamb diet. Yet one more Orion friend.

Stavanger is famous for the oil platforms in the North Sea. They have made Norway a very rich country. So they have a large oil museum. Everyone on any excursion goes there. This was our second time. It is okay. There a re few other sights a little more interesting to me.

In something like 900 there was a battle between some of the feudal leaders that ended with one winner who became King of a unified Norway. This is the monument to that victory. The swords represent ending the battle by burying the swords. Pretty low key monument. But somewhat blue sky!

Then on to the Lutheran Cathedral in town built in 1125. Another story about the history. But we couldn’t enter.

Back to the ship for dinner. Alisha was actually asking me if I wanted dessert. She would get it.

Ice cream with chocolate sauce. Only she made it a bit fancy. Love it.

At 9:15 there was the first performance of this ships Viking Vocalists. Another ABBA songbook. Just like on the Orion except a different group. They were also very good.

We spent a day at sea heading towards Norway. The seas had swells of 13 feet according to the Captain. But they didn’t bother us much. Laying in bed we could feel them. But that didn’t stop s from having fun.

Almost everyday we meet come of the crew from the Orion who remembered us from the 93 day cruise. This is Ela. We saw her the first day but didn’t take a photo.

And now we are meeting new cruise members and making new friends.

Meet Alisha. She was just asking me if I wanted a dessert. Very friendly way to ask if I say so. Yes. Can I have some vanilla ice cream with chocolate fondue sauce. So here it is!

Friends for life!

Okay, I never have done 2 blogs in one day even during our 93 day cruise called the Grand Pacific. Today is an exception.

We went to lunch in the World Café as usual. Everything during lunch was naughty but nice. Mark is a single who has joined us three times already. So we know him quite well. But beyond that there were many episodes that made today special.

It was Norway day on the ship. So they had a Norwegian lunch buffet.

It consisted of several supposedly typical salads such as beets, cucumbers and potato salads. Kathy enjoyed them and said they reminder her of Polish buffets. But the highlight was the Norwegian Oxtail Soup. I enjoyed that a lot.

Still no lamb. But not the norm. This was braised perfectly and we did share.

Even more impressive was the crew. We had several crew members actually come to us and introduce themselves as having served us on the Viking Orion during our long cruise. We didn’t remember all of them. Other new guests sitting near us shook their heads and asked what was happening. Stories again and again.

He served us at the Captain’s table with the entire 93 dayers.

They remembered. Not so much for us.

We then talked with another couple sitting at a table near us who had been impressed with the stories of our long cruise. I kind of think they will join us some time to hear more stories. It was amazing and only lunch!

At about 10 AM we got on a bus at the London Hilton taking us to the dock. Driving through London took some time, of course. But a guide was on explaining the sites. And we did drive through some areas that we weren’t familiar. So we learned more about the city we lived near.

The first two crew members we saw on board were on the Viking Orion with us on the Grand Pacific Cruise. They also remembered us. Hugs all around. Since the room wasn’t ready we went to the World Café for lunch.

To our delight we started our lunch with a bowl of corn chowder. That had become a favorite during our long cruise. Matter of fact the Chef on that cruise actually gave me a copy of the recipe. Of course the recipe made something like 20 gallons of chowder. So I tried to cut it to make enough for 2. The first time was a disaster. Eventually I figured out a correct recipe and even enhanced it with a bit with more thyme than the ship used.

Even better than the soup was reconnecting with some crew members.

This is Laura. I think that I gave her a hug everyday once she joined the ship on the Grand Pacific Cruise. Now she is back on this cruise. The look on her face when she first saw me was fantastic.

We were still somewhat jet lagged from the flight to England. And the time will change one hour ahead after we go to bed. We got up at the crack of 9:30 AM! I can’t believe we slept that long.

We haven’t seen any scenery yet while on the ship. But the crew and the food are great.

There are many typical historical tourist attractions in London. We have seen them many times. So we went to some other famous places.

So we started our walk near Hyde Park and went by Wellington’s Arch. Mostly notice the clear blue sky. In London in January this is very unusual. Okay this wasn’t meant to be a highlight of our walk.

Needs no introduction I hope. Harrods is famous and visited by many tourists. But not really a historic site. We really just walked around to compare prices and see what is new. Plenty and very expensive. We bought a few pieces of candy. But the Food Hall was fascinating.

At times our HyVee has a steak called the Cowboy steak. Now Harrod’s has a rack of them. Probably they sell them individually. But the price blows my mind. 110 pounds per kilogram. That is about $140 for 2.2 pounds. Wow!. And next to them is the Japanese Wagyu beef. That was even more expensive at 250 pounds per kilogram. We also saw Alaskan King Crab at 1oo pounds per kilo. Cheese, fruits and bakery goods were also very pretty and expensive.

On to one of my favorite restaurants, Signor Sassi. It is an Italian Restaurant. Kathy ordered a crab and lobster ravioli. I ordered the veal Osso Bucco with saffron risotto. We shared some green beans. Then we shared a pistachio cake for dessert. No lamb on this trip so far.

English weather especially in the winter can’t be trusted. I took no more pictures because it was raining hard. We were soaked before we walked the mile back to our hotel. Again we had walked a bit. More than 10,000 steps.

The last time we were in London was in 2012. But having lived near London for 4 years about 25 years ago made it seem like going home. After getting to our hotel room and resting for about an hour we decided to take a walk and have lunch. Not far from the hotel we found the Ye Grapes Pub which was busy and serving lunch.

We ordered a very traditional Fish and Chips. I had a pint of bitter and Kathy had white wine. It was great.

Then we took a long walk in the area near Hyde Park where our hotel was. We found a Marks and Spencer with a food court. So we bought some necessary things to bring home. Namely bisto (gravy granules used when making roast beef and Yorkshire pudding like we had at Christmas lunch). We also bought 3 packages of my favorite English cookies. Namely Custard Creams. And we bought some cheese and Iberico ham to have with some bread and a bottle of wine. No need to find another restaurant in the evening. I am certain we will go to bed early since we slept little on the airplane flying over from the US.