Boarding Day 1 for Havila

 06-03: I really didn’t want to get out of bed today! Stuart was up, showered, and ready before I even got up. We had a nice breakfast and then back to our room to ready our suitcase for the next lap of the journey. We will leave the suitcases at the hotel while we explore the area around the hotel and before we head to the Havila ship for our voyage up north. It is a fantastic view from our hotel room. This area is called Bryggen Historical area right near the harbor. 

We had more than a one hour wait standing in line to get on board, that was brutal. The cabins are not ready yet. We had a glass of wine and waited in the cafe until they were ready. We are very tired still adjusting to the time change. Dinner was nice and we chatted with a couple of sisters from Australia and New Zealand. After dinner, we unpacked only what we needed to go to bed. And I think it was only 8:30p. It was an exhausting day, but I saw a lot of new things. Stuart has been here before.

We had more than a one hour wait standing in line to get on board, that was brutal. The cabins are not ready yet. We had a glass of wine and waited in the cafe until they were ready. We are very tired still adjusting to the time change. Dinner was nice and we chatted with a couple of sisters from Australia and New Zealand. After dinner, we unpacked only what we needed to go to bed. And I think it was only 8:30p. It was an exhausting day, but I saw a lot of new things. Stuart has been here before.

On Our Way! Arrival!

06-01: All set to go! Off to the airport at 7:45a for our 9a flight to Denver. We will fly Fresno-Denver-Frankfurt-Bergen. Frankfurt is my least favorite airport in the world (so far) so I hope that goes well. No direct flights but Stuart splurged and bought us 1^st class seats. We went to the United lounge in Denver for our 2-hour layover there, which turned out to be 5-6 hours! There was a hail storm and they blamed it on that for one, but the original plane we had developed a fuel leak and they had to get another plane. Eventually, we left but of course arrived in Frankfurt too late for our connecting flight. Thankfully, United automatically booked us on a later flight and we didn’t need to do anything but show up. The flight itself was amazing in the Polaris are. So much food and attention. We had blankets, pillows, toiletry bag, and so much room! Thank you Stuart for the amazing seats. Of course, this was our dinner, which neither of us could finish! Dessert cart followed this meal as well. 

06-02: In the past my LEAST favorite airport in the world has been Frankfurt. Normally, when landing there you are bussed from the tarmac to the terminal. This time we had an actual gate in the terminal. Not knowing how far we had to go, I had a wheelchair. They were ready and waiting for us. We zoomed through passport control and then on to the Lufthansa lounge for our wait. It was a very nice lounge, I fell asleep at the table, just like school with my head laying down on the table. Yes, we are tired. Finally, it was time to go and they came to our table to let us know my ride was there waiting! We both rode in a cart this time and then I transferred to a wheelchair. We awaited our turn to board and then it was a short flight to Bergen. We got an Uber to take us to the Magic Kloverhuset Harbour Hotel. We arrived there just before midnight. It was a long 30-hour day since we left home, but it was as enjoyable as it could be considering the delays. It just took seconds to fall asleep! This isn't a great photo but it looked like a Christmas Village down there with all the lights. 

The Next Adventure

05-16: We are going to leave on a new adventure pretty soon. This is a “mail run” cruise, RT Bergen. We travel up above the Arctic Circle and back to Bergen. It is a cruise, but a totally different experience. What is the makeup of people on this cruise: Cabin passengers: 468 passengers (housed in 179 staterooms and suites). Day/foot passengers: 172 passengers (who use reserved recliner seats for shorter port-to-port journeys). We will have full board. There is a bar and a snack bar between meals. There are no evening shows, but there are lectures and things like that. Excursions are also interesting! Some start in one port and take you back to the ship in the next scheduled port. Some stops are in the middle of the night for 15 or 20 minutes, just to drop the mail! After this voyage we will join back-to-back Viking n the Baltics where Stuart will be speaking. I have not been on Viking Ocean Cruises, so that will be a new adventure as well.

Home!

05-02: We were up by 7:30a to finish up the last of the housekeeping and packing. That took 90 minutes. A quick stop for gas, and we were on our way to return the rental car. A quick note about gas prices in Hawaii. Costco and several stations have a price of $5.49. Remember when you thought Hawaii was so expensive? Costco gas in Clovis today is $5.40 … It was a snap to return the car (I might not have said we ordered a compact and we were given an SUV). We also had a good price as All Save; we would use them again. Awaiting departure at OGG we had some nice chicken wings at Sammy’s Beach Bar and Grill. Our flights were all uneventful and departed on time. We walked in the door just a few minutes before midnight. We are still on Maui time but tired nonetheless. it's always goo to be home.

Quick note about the food we ordered for the flight. The chicken wrap sandwich was pretty nice. It had a tasty filling wrapped in a green burrito, accompanied by 3 slices of apple and a hand full of grapes. Everything was fresh and tasty. The Beecher’s macaroni and cheese didn’t have any cheese! The penne pasta cooked well and the breadcrumb topping was the only thing on it. Someone, somewhere made a mistake!