This is a different way of cruising: rather than sailing all night and touring on land most of the day, Hurtigruten cruises just about all the time, stopping at each port for 15 to 45 minutes and then moving on to the next. Only once or twice a day do they stop long enough for on-land touring. The good news is that we’re hardly ever out of sight of land and often we’re literally a stone’s throw away from land or at least an outcropping. Being on deck is worthwhile just about all the time. And when it gets too cold you can always watch from your stateroom or one of several public areas.

Today we stopped for 3.5 hours in Trondheim. Many went on an organized tour; we went the unorganized route, wandering around by ourselves. The risk of do-it-yourself is getting lost and having to catch up to the ship on your own. They tell the story of a Brit last year who missed the boat and paid £1,000 to catch up.

Trondheim was for me a surprising city. Here we are nearing the Arctic Circle only to find a big, modern and seemingly prosperous city. It’s the third largest city in Norway with a population of 190,000. Lots of fancy (expensive) shops, lots of construction, several cruise boats in port. Maybe all that oil money being pumped out of the North Sea trickles down to Trondheim.

With only three hours we weren’t about to tackle the three or four museums in the guide book. We just did what any seasoned tourist does: walk through Old Town to the cathedral then walk down hill to your boat. Easy-peasy: old towns are always near the medieval cathedral, which has a tall pointy thing you can see from anywhere. And cruise ships are always at sea level so you have to walk downhill from cathedrals, which are always on top of a hill.

Refreshingly, Old Town Trondheim is mostly residential and quite pretty. It’s located along the Nidelva River with nice views. It took about a half hour to reach the cathedral.

The Nidaros Cathedral is a monster, a mix of Romanesque and Gothic. The first church on this site was built on St Olaf’s burial place around 1030. Recall that Olaf was a Viking who converted to Christianity in France. He died in battle fighting to gain or retain (depending on who you talk to) his crown. The Catholic bishops continually expanded the cathedral, usually after one of the regular fires that destroyed the place every 100 years or so. By the time of the Reformation it had reached its current size.

While the Lutherans took ownership of the cathedral after the bishop fled the country it seems that it wasn’t very well maintained. By the mid 1850s only a few stone walls remained standing. A committee was formed; work has been continual and today the structure is complete but work continues on stained glass.

Nidaros serves as Norway’s national church: kings and queens are crowned here. From what I can see it’s nondenominational. Services from a variety of faiths use it regularly. The waiting list for weddings is more than three years long.

Today has been cloudy with temps in the 50s. No one is working on a tan on the sun deck but everyone is enjoying the scenery as we sail through fjords. At some places the fjord is quite wide – Miles’s across; at others quite narrow – only 20 or 30 feet clearance. Thank goodness the walls of the fjord are steep; the captain doesn’t seem too worried about hidden rocks.

I forget where we land tomorrow and I’m too lazy to find the schedule. I do know that we’re doing an Arctic seashore walk and dinner with a real live VIKING (actor).

Today is scenery day: fjords by ship, bus and ferry plus a bus ride through what is said to be one of the most impressive mountain regions in Norway.

After breakfast we stopped for 45 minutes in Alesund, a nice, good sized town that serves as the county seat, a fishing center and of course a tourist destination with lots of very nice shops on a handsome main street. Judy and I bought stocking caps for about $15 in one store. Two caps on board the Nordkapp run $75 so we felt pretty good. Vietnamese polyester versus hand knit Norwegian wool, I’m sure, but hey, ours are warm enough.

From Alesund we sailed up the Geiranger fjord to the resort town of Geiranger, arriving about 1:30. The Nordkapp is to big for the dock facilities so we transferred to shore via tender. A bunch of folks I took to be weekend vacationers got on to take our place, headed home probably to Molde, the destination of our bus tour. We made it to Molde a good two hours before the Nordkapp with lots of stops. They must have gone for the scenery, not for speed.

The day started coolish (mid 50s) with low-hanging clouds that obscured the mountains on either side of the fjord. The scenery was still quite impressive with frequent waterfalls that drain the snow pack further up the mountains into the fjord. Shortly after the start of the bus trip the sun broke through; we had a bright sunny day with temps in the 70s. Later on when we reached alpine altitudes we went into the clouds. It remained cloudy after our descent to Bode. The tree line in this part of Norway is about 2,500 feet due to the cold winters.

I’m not going to describe the route but parts of it, according to our guide, follow the King’s Path, first followed by King Olaf, later St. Olaf, in the 11th century. St. Olaf is credited with giving Norway its national identity, bringing Christianity to Norway and performing miracles – healing animals and people. The historical evidence on the Christianity part is not strong; most of the heavy lifting was done by others. King Olaf was in it for the wealth that came his way by converting the heathens. Olaf was not a gentle man; those not accepting baptism were beheaded, according to our guide. But here he is today, the patron saint of Norway.

Our guide, a gal from France with an incredible hairdo, spoke in both German and heavily accented English. We ate dinner with a German couple who said she had an equally strong French accent when speaking German. But this is a truly multi-lingual group so it’s a challenge for Hurtigruten.

This area oddly, given its high altitude and very short growing season, supports apple orchards and strawberry fields. They claim their strawberries are the sweetest in the world. They say that the berries grow in a cold climate but that they get 20+ hours of sunlight and plenty of rain.

We had dinner at a Quality Inn in Molde while we waited for the Nordkapp to pull into town. A “white fish” layered on top of mashed potatoes. Not bad for a Quality Inn!

More cruising tonight, arriving at Trondheim at 8:30 AM and staying until Noon. We aren’t taking a guided tour. Rather we’re going to wander on our own. Objective: the Cathedral. Hope we don’t get lost and miss the boat!

A travel day to begin the second part of our Scandinavian adventures. Air from Stockholm to Oslo and on to Bergan, Hurtegruten (our cruise line) bus from the airport to the ship – a nice relaxing day. The flights were smooth and so was negotiating the three airports. In Stockholm we did self-check in and baggage tags and then proceeded to a conveyer belt where we scanned our bags and sent them on their way. No airline employee intervention required, except that it was too easy and we had to ask three employees to explain it all too us. People headed for the U.S. had to stand in what looked like an hour’s long line but we just sailed through. We never showed a photo ID, our passport was never stamped and customs going from Sweden to Norway was nonexistent.

Lunch in Oslo was fund, sorta. Jamie Oliver, the celebrity chef, has a deli in the airport so of course I had to eat there since we have his cookbook at home (veggies is the subject). They offered six different salads plus chicken, salmon or pizza. I ordered salmon and caesar salad. The gal taking my order that sounded lame so she offered, “Why not try a mixture of all of them?” So she scooped some of each into a bowl and it turned out great; the salmon on top was fresh and really well cooked. Judy did pizza and the same salad mix. All was well until I figured the conversion on 400 Kr. At 8 Kr to the buck that came to $50; It made me gulp my bear and resolve to avoid Norwegian restaurants when ever possible.

But now we’re onboard the Nordkapp. Hurtegruten runs a number of ferryboats from Bergen north to Kirkenes, above the artic circle, taking about six days. The ships are configured to handle tourists with staterooms, dining facilities, lounge areas – all the things you might expect on a cruise ship. Except there is no doubt this is a working ferryboat. After the lap of luxury provided by Viking this ship is a bit rough around the edges.

Dinner tonight was a buffet arrangement. The offerings were delicious and, thankfully, much different than what we’ve been eating on Viking these past two weeks. I had a mutton and sausage concoction, braised sheep’s head and a very nice halibut. Judy had mussels, fish soup and haddock.

We’re on Deck 5 after an upgrade from Deck 2 down where they load and offload automobiles. We were feeling cheap when we booked this part; seeing in reality what the bargain basement brings caused us to move up in the world.

After dinner we went on deck to watch our departure. We’ve grown quite fond of Bergen even though we’ve spent hardly a full day here. Of all the places we’ve been on this trip Bergen feels the best. It was almost like coming home. We’ll miss not seeing it again.

We’ve already met a couple at the airport who are on this voyage and are from Nashua, NH, practically next door to our place in Windham.  Small world! But it’s also true that this is a much more diverse crowd. All the announcements are made in Norwegian, English, German and French.

By the way, the sunset pictures were taken at 11 PM. In a day or two we’ll be north of the Arctic Circle – the land of the Midnight Sun.

Gustav II Adolf, King of Sweden was quite a king. He brought Sweden from obscurity to a leading power in the 17^thcentury Baltic region by his military success in the 30 Years’ War. He unified the country, expelled Catholicism and mandated Lutheranism (this was at the height of the Reformation). Incidentally, his devotion to Luther was probably somewhat less than his desire to acquire Catholic properties and wealth, which he did quite handsomely.

So here is Gustav Adolf the Great (as he was later named by a grateful nation) fighting three wars he inherited from his Dad when he ascended the throne at age 16. He faced Germany, Denmark and his first cousin, the king of Poland. Gustav was a dedicated arterialist; he liked to shoot big guns. He ordered five ships to help in his cause; the Vasa was to carry 74 guns, roughly equivalent to the US Constitution 150 years or so later.

The man who designed the ship died one year after finishing the plans; others completed the work. In order to fit all those canons a second gun deck was added. The result: a top-heavy design. Some were concerned but the ship set sail, made it roughly 1,400 yards and sank. The first puff of wind caused the Vasa to heel over considerably and because the portholes were open the ship took on water and sank to the bottom. It didn’t roll over; it sank straight down.

The Vasa museum where the reconstructed ship is displayed is fantastic: the whole ship was submerged in clay that helped preserve much of it. Painstaking work to preserve the remains in a polyurethane kind of coating was done and all the pieces fit together in a jigsaw like process. The shear size of the thing is amazing: over 200 feet long – see the pictures. The museum displays artifacts found in the wreckage; skeletal remains were analyzed and mock-ups made of the persons’ heads and facial features. We spent an hour but needed a day or two.

I got to thinking – why are we visiting a shrine to a mistake, and engineering screw-up and a monument to bureaucrats too frightened by authority to point out the problem that several saw before the disastrous maiden voyage?

But wait, the Swedes weren’t the first nation to fear an enemy and attempt engineering feats never before accomplished, failing multiple times before one model finally worked and Allan Shepard finally made it into space. See the movie Hidden Figuresfor details. And then there were the 0-rings on the Challenger that some engineers feared would fail at cold temperatures. They couldn’t break through the bureaucracy in time either.

The next ship Sweden corrected the errors of the Vasa in the next ship they built. It sailed successfully for 30 years. We learn by doing, sometimes the hard way.

Afterwards we walked to a nice restaurant for Swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes and a chocolate treat for desert. Then we went for a nice river cruise that ended back at our ship around 5 PM. We were back on shore at 6:15 for a two-hour walking tour of old town. I’ll let the pictures do the talking, except to say that Stockholm has the curb appeal that Helsinki lacks. It has the medieval Old Town, narrow streets, tons of interesting shops and restaurants and everything else a tourist can crave.

This was the last day of school for many Stockholm students. They were out celebrating in force. Take a look at the picture of a bunch of kids riding around in the back of a dump truck down the streets of the city.

One other neat activity today: early this morning we sailed through the Stockholm Archipelago – 30,000 islands that are part of Stockholm. Great light and interesting shoreline scenes all the way. There are said to be 10,000 residents and 50,000 summer folks; it’s Stockholm’s summer getaway.

Our bags are packed and out in the hallway, ready for our transfer to the Stockholm airport for our trip back to Bergen and the next leg of our adventure. Stay tuned!

Helsinki lacks curb appeal. Our early morning (8 AM – that’s early for laze about retirees) revealed a city with little architectural charm. No Medieval castles or cathedrals, no quaint Old Town charm; just a city with trams, buses and cars, square utilitarian structures with orderly rows of windows but little visual appeal. I was ready to complete our three-hour panoramic bus tour and go back to the ship and do laundry (ok, Judy does the laundry but you get the idea).

Actually, the Port Talk guy on the ship forewarned us about the visual thing. He blamed the Soviets who ran the place from 1809 until 1917. Even after that Finland has remained in the shadow of the Soviets and Russians.

Like Estonia, Finland has been under someone’s control for just about forever, at least in terms of recorded history. The Northern Crusades that drove the heathens (Vikings and other such ilk) to Christianity caused Finland to become controlled by Sweden. Even today Swedish is one of Finland’s three official languages.

Remember how Peter the Great went after the Swedes in the early 1800s? (You did read yesterday’s history lesson I posted, didn’t you?) Pete got the job done; part of the reward for doing so was Finland. Russia let Finland be an independent duchy with its own language, Lutheranism and what not. Nicholas II (the guy buried at Peter and Paul Cathedral with the rest of the fam, remember) tried to tighten the reigns but Nick II got preoccupied with the Bolshevik Revolution and Finland found itself free and independent in 1907.

Like any good new nation it promptly held a civil war (Reds vs Whites) but got its act together. First it formed a constitutional monarchy, hired a guy from Germany to be king but that didn’t work out so they reverted to a straight democracy. Then WW II happened. Actually, Finland had first the Winter War and then the Continuation War.  Both were fought against the Soviet Union. In the Winter War (1939-40) the Soviets demanded military bases in Finland. Finland refused and kept the Soviets out for 3.5 months before signing a peace treaty of sorts. Germany helped Finland recover from the Winter War and so Finland chose the lesser of two evils and sides with the Nazis in the Continuation War (aka WWII) fighting for the most part against the Soviets.

Despite all that history Finland has somehow maintained a democratic form of government, and a member of the EU and the UN. It has, ever mindful of the giant called Russia on its border, maintained a level of neutrality and has not joined NATO.

Other than the depression of the 1990s Finland has a fairly robust economy, capable of maintaining a strong welfare system. Taxes are a tad high – averaging 53% or so, including health, education and retirement benefits. But the Finns are happy and proud of their system, according to our guide.

So there we were, captive on a three-hour bus ride. First, a 15-minute photo op at the Sibelius monument (the FinlandiaGuy). Kind of nice; a bunch of shiny pipes somehow evoking peace, I think the guide said. Actually Finlandiawas written to help bring a sense of nationalism to Finlandians who weren’t exactly seeing eye-to-eye at the time.

Then a few more random turns down city streets and it’s now 9:30. “You now have one hour and ten minutes free time before we return to the ship.” In other words, “End of the line. You’re on your own.” So we walked with the guide to the town hall for the free toilets and headed out to explore.

We had no plan but nearby was the fish market, right down on the waterfront. We didn’t buy anything but we did sample some sort of Finnish delicacy – a smoke freshwater sardine like creature – not bad, really, once you get over the idea.

Up the hill two blocks is a huge Lutheran cathedral (or is it just a church; I’m not sure Lutherans have cathedrals). Nice looking church inside and out. Finland is an 80%+ Lutheran country but there is an Orthodox population too. In fact around the corner from the Lutherans is a “Slavic” Orthodox church. Finns don’t say Russian Orthodox Church any more; our guide says it’s now called the Greek Orthodox church. This church spits the difference by saying it caters to Slavic believers with priests who speak Russian, Swedish and Finnish.

We then walked up the street, through a park and to the train station that features four giant monolithic statues out front. We’re told the statues are sometimes rented out to carry advertising but today they were bare.

Next stop: the Finland National Museum. Turns out the museum is next door to the very impressive Parliament building. We tried to go for a look-see but the front door guard said Parliament is in plenary session so no visitors today. But the museum was worth the hike. It starts at the end of the last ice age and goes through in considerable detail through 2017. We only could spare an hour but what we were able to see was very worthwhile.

One thing we discovered was that Sweden, during the reformation, passed a law requiring all churches to have a pulpit. “No more mumbling in Latin behind a screen you priest guys. Stand out in front of the congregation and say your piece to the common folk.” Another tidbit: back in the day the houses of the wealthy made no differentiation between public and private spaces. Then someone had the bright idea to create elaborate parlors where you can greet and impress your guests. Bedrooms are just for you; no one will see yesterday’s clothes draped over a chair in the corner.

Judy’s a great traveling companion but at Mile 3 in our jaunt she was getting sore and hungry, a condition requiring immediate attention. I some how coaxed her back to the fish market by the waterfront and a restaurant within the enclosed fish market. There we had the most amazing chowder I’ve had since my Grandma Libby made one from the halibut and haddock we caught one summer in Maine. This was salmon soup and there was no question: the salmon was just off the boat fresh.

Then back through a park (featuring, by my count, statues of three naked ladies), ice cream cones in hand, to the bus back home to our ship. And yes, Judy did a load of laundry.

So, given the soup, Helsinki isn’t all that bad after all. I asked the waitress for the recipe. She said, “I can’t tell you I want you to come back another time for more.” We just might!

Tomorrow it’s Stockholm, our last Viking port of call.