Thursday in Amiens

We slept late on Thursday morning, close to 10am for some of us I think. We had some catching up to do. Nic got a few breakfast items at the small store nearby (the Casino) and we managed some eggs for breakfast. He also got a package of some "Pain du chocolate". It has croissant texture but more of a square shape and is stuffed with chocolate. Gwyneth ate 3 of them for breakfast. I think the rest of us had 1 each. Later in the day when we left the package unattended Ethan got to eat 2 of them before we noticed. Gwyneth was upset until we reminded her of how many she had eaten for breakfast. Our apartment spans the 4 windows on the right hand side, the second row from the top in the photo. The building is skinny and the apartment spans the width front to back so we have windows on the the other side too. It is nice to have so much light.

We managed a short excursion this day between about 1 and 3:30PM. We tried to find some of the grocery stores that Fabian and Veronique (the owner of the apartment) had described to us. We only came across the Marche Plus - which was smallish and slightly disappointing in terms of selection. Be bought somethings for dinner however - some flat steak, salad fixings, potatoes, and of course a baguette. It took us some time to find the milk until we realized that it was not refrigerated. I am not sure how they do that but it doesn't taste too bad. Of course, I have only dared to eat it on cereal so far. We rather stupidly bought a 6 pack of large cartons of milk, because then we then had to carry it home. Oh, and we bought 2 bottles of wine, but that was hard to resist at 2 euros a piece (less than $3 each). We had a little time to walk around a bit. The kids got hungry so we made our first attempt at finding something to eat. We were rather successful with the "Croque Monsieur" that Gwyneth is eating. Ethan had picked out a pizza but it turned out to have a lot of onions on it and that didn't go over to well. So he ate some of Gwyneth's leftovers.

We got home around 3:30PM and then Fabien showed up at 4PM to show us around town a bit. It was going to be walking tour so we decided that I should stay home with the kids as everyone was tired. So Nic went out again to find the stores that were so elusive to us and to see where the math department was. He was home around 6PM and we made our first dinner in the apartment. By now we had found the handles to the frying pans (which are removable) and were hiding in a drawer that we didn't think opened. Frying eggs for breakfast in a frying pan with no handle was interesting ... but Nic would have to tell you about that since he cooked them. We enjoyed our 2 euro wine and the food was tasty too. The steak was a bit tough but at least it tasted like steak and not meatloaf! The picture is from the dining area that is not much bigger than you see and it looks out over the front of the of building. There is a rather crazy traffic circle/pattern happening out there and Nic has been fascinated by it and spends a lot of his time just staring at it.

Later on everyone just passed out on some beds rather early. Around 7PM Ethan had disappeared and we found him asleep on one of the beds. I think Nic may have been next close to or before 9PM followed by Gwyneth and a little later by me.

The Hurtigruten - Day 5 (Monday)

Today was Monday and we woke up to even better weather yet. The first main event that we were all awake for was the crossing of the Arctic Circle at about 9:30AM. This time since it was in the daytime we got to see the statue and take a photo of course. Today we got spend a lot of time out on the back deck and look for birds and watch scenery. The kids were not so interested and they watched a movie and did some activity book things. The boat had a TV and the kids watched some Norwegian cartoons for a while and then an episode or two of Bonanza. After that, someone had turned it to football (soccer to you and me) and they had no chance of changing it back.

We saw some sea eagles and Nic reported seeing a Puffin. This happened conveniently while I had gone to the cabin to retrieve sunglasses for him. Overall, Jan added several birds to her life list count ... but I can't remember the exact number. She will have to comment on that. We also saw the most interesting commute to work ever. At some point an announcement came over the speaker that we were stopping to pick up a Hurtigruten employee who was going to work. So we stopped moving in the open water while a very small boat drove over and dropped someone off. I couldn’t see exactly how he got on, but we was getting off of a boat that couldn’t have been more than 20 feet long.

We had a short stop in Sandnessjoen. Jan and I got off as everyone else was tired and/or cranky. Here is Jan supporting the local economy. Oh, and it was on this stop that I lost my (well I think it was Nic’s) red DU hat that you have seen me sporting in many photos. I was wearing it when we got off the boat, and at some point I took it off. When I got back on I didn’t have it. Go figure? Nic said it was bad karma for not buying the Norwegian hat I was eyeballing in the gift shop on the Nordkapp.





We passed more spectacular scenery. Here is the 7 sisters mountain chain. You can try and count them. It gets a little fuzzy at the end however.











Here is the Torghatten. A mountain with a hole in it. You can see it in the center. Somehow the hole was created by ice freezing/melting.













Here is Ethan working on coloring. Another new milestone for him as he has not been very interested in arts and crafts before. This goes along with his new interest in writing letters and typing/spelling his name on the computer. Again somewhere in there we had dinner. Gwyneth and Ethan shared a fried flounder plate. Jan and Ethan shared waffles. I got s sliced (more like cubed) beef plate that turned out to be very good. After dinner, Nic and Ethan hit the hay early to make up for the night before and I think they managed to get some sleep. Gwyneth and I got some ice cream. It would be our last Norwegian ice cream novelty .... so sad. I went for the "Big Ball".

There was one more stop for the night. Jan, Gwyneth, and I got off in Rorvik for a little walk around. This will be the last stop before we get to Trondheim at 6:30 the next morning. We were also joined by the Richard With again – but this time it was going North. Here is Gwyneth in town with the Richard With behind her. The Lofoten is so small you probably wouldn’t have seen it. We took a brief walk. Jan got a few trinkets and Gwyneth bought a marshmallow candy thing that she likes. Then we got back on the boat for the ride home.

Jan, Gwyneth, and I played some cards (Hearts, Rummy, and Scat) before going to bed around 11PM. Ethan and Nic were fast asleep. Again we were going over open seas but it didn’t seem as bad as the last night. Perhaps I was just too tired. We arrived around 6:30AM and had to check out of our rooms by 8AM. We waited for ½ an hour on the boat for Chris to pick us up. Here is Gwyneth & Ethan in front of the polar bear skin in the ship's lobby and the closest we got to seeing a polar bear in Norway. I think we all happily said "bye bye" to the Lofoten.

Day 4 on the Hurtigruten (Sunday)

So we can say that this day began early on Sunday morning as we got on the Lofoten. The photo shows the view as we left Tromso and the closest we got to seeing the midnight sun. As we noted before we right away noticed the difference in size from our last boat. In fact the Nordkapp could hold almost 700 passengers while the Lofoten could hold a little over 200. We took a quick tour of the boat – it didn’t take long and went to our rooms. No elevators this time so we had to carry our bags down 2 flights of stairs from where we entered the boat.


First thing we noticed was that we had 2 rooms yet only 4 beds. The rooms were much smaller than before with barely room to store your suitcase if it didn’t fit under the bed. Also, both rooms only had a sink – there was a common toilet and shower outside the room. We had a bigger problem and that was we had 5 people and only 4 beds. The issue stemmed from the fact that Ethan was free and as such did pay for a bed. We asked if anything could be done and the only option was to do down another level to a room with 4 beds but NO porthole. So we moved (Nic, myself, and the kids) but with no porthole the room was as dark as a cave when we turned out the lights – not optimal with kids. And since we were lower in the boat you could hear the rushing water outside and it was loud. And things were so tight with the 2 sets of bunk beds everyone kept bumping their heads.

We lasted about an hour, well I did – I was a bit claustrophobic and I couldn’t take the water noise. So, we asked to be moved back to our original room as that was their only offer besides paying for another room. So at 2AM we moved 2 sleeping kids and all of our luggage that had been somewhat unpacked into our original room. Well, I think I slept with Ethan in a bed and Gwyneth took the other while Nic went to Jan’s room. These 2 rooms were no picnic either as it sounded like we were on top of the engine – it was LOUD. Eventually we all got some sleep, even if it was minimal.

I was up early – around 7AM – and Nic and the kids slept a little longer. I woke him up from Jan’s room to come sleep with the kids. I went to breakfast by myself and a little later Jan straggled in. Later still, we got the kids and Nic to breakfast. We were there as breakfast was ending around 10AM and a rather unfriendly worker asked if we had tickets that included breakfast. We did and showed her the cards. She took them and said she had to scan them but she was gone so briefly I think she didn’t do anything. From the picture you can see we are kicking it old school in the dining room.

On the positive side the weather was starting to turn better today – slowly. The picture shows the Risoyrenna channel that the captain had to negotiate through – it was only 21 feet deep. Notice all of the markers (posts) in the water.

The day included a few short stops. One where we went to the Hurtigruten museum for about 30-45 minutes. The kids and Jan had fun playing with a big toy boat. Ethan kept talking about it well after we had to leave. Nic and I went over the Finnmarken – an out of commission Hurtigruten ship that was built around the time of the Lofoten (our ship) - and you could walk through it. It didn’t feel too much different I will say- basically old.





Between stops we hung out in the saloon. This was pretty much our spot. The ship was nowhere near filled. I wonder why? This spot was nice because you could get out to the back deck of the boat very easily. You can see it through the windows. So the kids could stay inside and watch a movie while the parents went outside and watched scenery – for example. Today was also supposed to be the day for the spectacular Sea Eagle Safari, where you practically feed them out of your hands. Unfortunately, bad weather cancelled the trip.

As the consolation prize we got to go into the Trollfjord again, this time during the day. The way we were supposed to get to the Sea Eagle Safari was to pull along side another boat and walk a gang plank. Since it was cancelled we didn’t have to take that time and got to go to the fjord in the day time. (I think the parents were slightly relieved that they would not have to witness Ethan walking the gang plank which he surely would have needed to do himself.) This time everyone got to see it, although Jan had circled the boat several times looking for people because she had seen a loon-like bird. She eventually found me as I was looking for Nic too and I couldn’t find him. It turned out that he and the kids were up near the bridge. I think I saw a “dipper” – the Norwegian national bird. Well Nic and I saw it the first time we were in the fjord on the northbound trip. (And sorry, I can't figure out why this picture wants to rotate by 90 degrees.)

We had 2 more short stops that night. One in Svolvaer where Nic, Gwyneth, and Jan got to experience Magic Ice – the ice sculpture museum. Ethan had just fallen asleep and I was feeling the effects of little sleep and was looking forward to a little nap time on a quiet boat, since they either turned down or turned off the engine. I didn’t go, but they told me it was cold at 23 degrees Fahrenheit. The picture shows everyone relaxing on the upper deck of the boat. Ethan had started his nap already as you can see. This was also the place where they had all the cod drying racks. (Not the upper deck, the town of Svolvaer.) I got some better pictures this time and I will post them on facebook.

Somewhere in there we ate dinner. Nic and I had 2 hockey puck like hamburgers. Jan had a nice fried flounder plate. Ethan ate French fries and Gwyneth had a kids hamburger which she ate whole heartily again. Another thing that happened early today was Ethan got another head wound. He was looking out the window in the saloon (our favorite spot pictured above) and fell back and hit his head on the table. The table had a brass lip all the way around the edge and he cut his head open on it. Luckily it stopped bleeding after applying some pressure and some ice.

Last stop for the day was a place called Stamsund. If I remember correctly, Jan tried to get off the boat but the stop was so short they wouldn’t let her. By then, Nic, the kids and I had called it a night. And it turned out to be quite a night. After the we headed into open sea for about 3 to 4 hours and it was rough going. The boat was rocking A LOT and it was loud. I was so tired that I couldn’t get up to video it but I wish I had. It was something else. I almost had butterflies in my stomach from the up and down. Gwyneth and I were in one room and we luckily fell asleep early into “the ride”. Nic, Ethan, and Jan were in the other. Ethan quickly tossed his cookies or rather his bedtime snack – twice. Once on himself and once on Nic. He managed to sleep after that. Nic however, who is not the best at riding in boats to begin with, started to feel queasy after seeing Ethan get sick and he had spent some time sleeping outside on the deck chairs. He managed to keep everything down but did not manage alot of sleep for the day.

Nous arrivons en France

We have a lot of catching up to do Blogwise. The rest of the Norwegian cruise story is kind of interesting, so I hope we'll have it up soon. Meanwhile, we have arrived in France. Yesterday morning, Chris shuttled Siri to work, then my mother to the airport, then us to the airport. The trip to the airport is a little under 30 minutes, so he did a lot of taxiing. Thanks again Chris!!

On our trip to the airport we stopped by this charming town. Oddly, it was a cold day there.


We spent most of our day flying from Trondheim to Oslo, Oslo to Paris. The kids were under control for the flight. Ethan slept pretty much through the second, longer one.



Fabien picked us up at the Charles de Gaulle Airport and drove us approximately 1:30 back to Amiens. There we got our first look at our apartment for the next 4 weeks. We are right in the middle of the small city. Our fifth floor apartment overlooks the traffic circle in the center of town. There are a lot of grocery stores, bakeries, etc within walking distance, so we have high hopes for improvements in the culinary department from Norway. Also the math department of the university is easy walking distance. The apartment itself is funky. It's small by American standards, but has 3 bedrooms (one has a piano!), kitchen, living room, bathroom and dining room. We were barely able to get our enormous luggage through some of the hallways with the bookshelves in the way. The apartment has a lot of character - lots of art on the wall, and knick knacks around. I hope our kids don't destroy anything. There is also a cat here, Olympus, the demeanor of which has yet to be fully determined. So far (s)he has only hidden from us and hissing at us. Anyway it seems like it will work out quite well and we will have a real European experience living here.

Tuesday June 2nd - Relaxing at Chris and Siri's house.

We made it back from our Hurtigruten Trip and I still have 2 days of blogging to catch up on - that will have to come tomorrow I hope. We got back to Trondheim at 6:30AM and Chris picked us up at 8:30AM. We spent the day at Chris and Siri's house doing some laundry and packing our bags for our trip to Paris tomorrow. Jan was getting ready to go back to Denver tomorrow. We decided to send Jan back to Denver with one of our suitcases and put in our warm clothes that we wouldn't need anymore, some souvenirs, and some space for her to pack a few things. So it worked out for everyone. It looks like we will be able to get our remaining belongings into our 3 remaining bags. Travelling home to Denver from Paris may be a different story - guess we'll pass that bridge when we come to it.

Washing clothes involved drying them in an object that looked like a refrigerator. You opened it up and it had posts to hang clothes on. Then you turned it on and it blew hot air around. It wasn't very efficient but at least we got some mostly dry clothes. Nic doesn't understand why no one has a dryer - they have been invented after all. For me, I was just happy to have clean clothes. I hate travelling with dirty clothes!

Once Siri and Chris got home from work we had a nice dinner with a chicken and peach dish that was tasty and easy. Siri put chicken breasts with the juice from a can of peaches, some soy sauce, some lemon juice, and some of the peaches in a baking dish and baked it in the oven - it was tasty! The kids enjoyed the cream puffs for dessert. Ethan successfully computed 3 - 1=2 and he was allowed to keep the 3 cream puffs on his plate. (I am fairly certain that he ate many more than 3 cream puffs however.) He has been working on addition this trip and it getting good at it. Subraction was something new for him.

Other random musings: Before and after dinner Nic and Chris got to talking about math - I think it was going somewhere. For most the of the day (before dinner) the kids where glued to the television. Nic figured out how to get the TV to speak in english and so a lot of Disney Channel shows were watched. Everyone who was on the boat seems to be swaying when they stand still. Personally, the sensation is driving me crazy! I took most of the day to sort out our belongings and pack again ... this travelling is hard work.

Hurtigruten - Day 3

Today was Saturday and would bring us to the end of our northbound journey. We arrived in Tromso at about 3PM. We had just enough time to eat breakfast and be checked out of our rooms at 11AM at the stop before Tromso. We stored our luggage and enjoyed our last few moments on the boat. Here is a picture of where we spent a lot of our time for the trip – at the “arcade” – the playroom is just to the left of where Ethan and Nic are sitting. Gwyneth said goodbye to her friend Preetanjali – we got the correct spelling of her name and an email address. Soon after docking we were off the boat and headed to the Hotel Rica for another place to store our luggage. We would be heading back on the southbound Hurtigruten at 1:30AM that morning. The ferry was to arrive at 11:45PM. So we had a day to fill up!







Here is a picture of everyone getting off of the Nordkapp - built in 1994. Take note of its size and remember that when you see our next ship - the Lofoten - built in 1964. It was raining and cloudy in Tromso so we did not get to see the "midnight sun".

Our first stop was the Polaria museum where we were treated to some very cute bearded seals. It was open until 7PM and we planned to stay there until it closed as we had nowhere else to go and it was raining. Gwyneth ran into her friend Preetanjali and family so she had a second chance at goodbye. We watched both 15 minute films that they showed, played in the play area with cool slide, we looked at the fish, and looked at the seals. We were ready to leave at 7PM and we took the 15 minute walk back to the hotel. We had decided to eat dinner there – especially since Jan said it was her treat!

We were probably sitting down to dinner at 7:30PM and had a pleasant evening. The restaurant was empty and we had a nice view of the water. Ethan fell asleep in about 2 seconds in Nic’s arm – right after we had ordered him a cheese plate of course – and we laid him across some comfy chairs. He didn’t wake up during dinner. The waiter was very friendly and terrific with Gwyneth (he presented the ketchup to her like a wine bottle). The adults tried the Halibut (Jan), the clippfish (Deb) and the lamb (Nic). Clippfish was made from the salted/dried cod that we saw hanging on racks and so it seemed like it ought to be tried.

The waiter had highly recommended the lamb (see photo) and told us that it the lambs were raised locally , high on some cliffs, and were only brought down once …. to be slaughtered I guess. I didn't want to think about it too much. Anyway, the lamb was excellent. The fish dishes where good, but not like the lamb. It was amusing because the lamb was my first choice and Nic was going to get the clippfish until he heard it involves olives, so we switched and he got the better dish. Also, there were no visible olives in the clippfish dish so I think I was duped. Gwyneth got a kid’s sized hamburger that was still rather large and she loved it. She is in the picture with her appetizer on the house – some kind of sausage that was very good. And yes she tried it!

After stretching out dinner as long as possible, until about 10:30PM we moved to the lobby area where we would be able to see the ferry arrive. Also, Ethan had woken up a bit and Nic was looking for a more comfortable chair. The ferry arrived almost on schedule and thankfully by then the rain had stopped. We immediately noticed that the Lofoten looked like the Nordkapp's baby brother. I was thinking "one of these ships is not like the other". We schlepped our stuff a short way over to the Lofoten – the oldest ship in the Hurtigruten fleet. So times were about to change in ways we couldn’t imagine!

Day 2 - Hurtigruten

On Friday May 29th we spent our first full day on the Nordkapp as we travelled from Bronnoysund to the spectacular Trollfjord. You can see Gwyneth in one of our 2 cabins – actually from the night before. Forgive me! The beds on the left folded up to the wall and the bed on the right converted into a couch. Everything in the room was cleverly created for efficiency and storage. (Things will change when we get on the Lofoten to come south, but more on that later. ) We started with a tag team assault on breakfast. Breakfast was a buffet that was included in our ticket offered between 7 and 10 in the morning. I went first with Jan and it mostly consisted of meats, cheeses, breads, fruits, dry cereal/muesli, hard & soft boiled eggs, and drinks. Next Nic & Gwynnie went and then I got the pleasure of going with Ethan. Ethan couldn’t really find anything that he wanted to eat and all he seemed to accomplish was spilling his milk everywhere.


The weather today was not great and while the scenery was spectacular I keep wondering what it would look like in good weather. We did cross the Arctic Circle today but it was at 7:05AM and I was the first to wake up at 7AM. We missed seeing the statue that marks the exact point however on the southbound trip the crossing happens in the middle of the day and so I hope to be awake and get a picture. We had a short stop in Ornes (30 minutes) – just long enough for me to get out and take a picture of the sign. It would have been much better if it was Ormes however! Upon boarding in Trondheim everyone was given a card with their name on it with a bar code. Then every time you get off the boat you have your card scanned and the same when you return. Many of the stops are 30 minutes or less so you can get out to stretch your legs and look around a bit, but not much more.

The long stop for today (2 ½ hours) was Bodo just after lunch time. (We had made ourselves some sandwiches from the lunch buffet and supplemented with some extra snacks that we had brought along.) We continued that pattern for the rest of the trip. The weather in Bodo was rainy and we opted for the optional bus tour of a short drive around town and then out to the Saltstraumen – the world’s strongest tidal current. It happens four times a day as 400 million cubic meters of water pour from one fjord into another through a passage way that is 150 meters wide and 3 km long. Does that sound like I copied it from the guide book? I did. We did not hit the tidal current at peak, we were about 2 hours away but there was nothing we could do about that! Even so, the water looked swift and there were many, many birds to look at. The picture shows Nic, Gwyneth, and Ethan forging their own path back to the bus.



Throughout the day we alternated between walking around the boat, watching the kids near the play area (most of our time was probably spent there!), and looking at scenery ….. in the fog. Nic & I participated in the Arctic Circle ceremony where we had the pleasure of having a large scoop of ice water dumped down our back (next to the skin) in order to get a shot of some rather bad wine. The picture show King Neptune getting ready to “christen” the guy who was closest to guessing the time we crossed the Arctic Circle – 7:05AM or there abouts.



We also go out at Svolvaer around 9:30PM. We were supposed to have an hour, but we were late and only got about 20 minutes. There was a Magic Ice museum that was open and had ice sculptures to look at but we didn’t have time. (It will turn out that we'll get a chance to go in on the southbound trip.) In addition, the kids were melting down a bit so in the end it was just Jan and I who hopped off. We were a bit disappointed about not getting time in the museum but we were treated to seeing cod out on drying racks as you see here! And we scored a couple of nice kid’s T shirts in the Magic Ice gift shop. We are finding that Norway is severely lacking the souvenir T-shirt category!

Around 11PM Nic and I went outside as we were approaching the Trollfjord with an extremely narrow passage that we were going to go through. Jan was in her pj’s, reading and watching the kids sleep for us. Nic & I found a prime spot alone under a ledge (raining still!) in the front of the boat. Remarkably we felt little wind as it was blowing hard but coming from behind us. We had to wait a while and kept wondering if we had passed it already but about an hour later we turned into this spectacular fjord. As we approached I couldn’t believe that we were going to turn into this fjord (given the size of our boat) but Nic kept saying we are going in. He was right! And by this time our spot was prime indeed and we were not alone. So we went in and somehow turned the boat around – we got so close to the fjord wall you wouldn’t believe it! (I will post that longer video on facebook).





Then we came out the way we went in and continued on our journey. Once we were turning Nic realized that this was rather special and that we should go get Jan, so she was able to catch a little glimpse of the fjord as we were leaving. All the waiting was worth it! (On the southbound trip will will go into the Trollfjord again, but during the daytime, and without rain.)

After the fjord, Nic & I decided that this was our time for our beer on the Panorama Deck as Jan was still agreeable to watching the kids sleep. Thanks Jan! While our next boat will also have a Panorama Deck it will be nothing like the surroundings/view on the Nordkapp. I'm glad we decided to enjoy the moment! Here are our beers at about 12:30AM.