Let’s deal with one thing right up front: I bought, paid for and ate a whale burger for lunch. Yes, I know, endangered species and all that. But, think of me you tree huggers as you will, but there it is: I ate a whale burger.

The good news is that whales are protected not only by international agreement but also by terrible taste, texture and appearance. It’s tough, stringy and rubbery. It’s dark brown like beef and blood red in the center. And it tastes like . . . well, whale. Pares nicely with deep fried grasshoppers, I’ll bet. Don’t look for it at Ruth’s Chris or Mickey D’s anytime soon.

I’m sitting on our balcony (Judy’s down for a 30-minute nap) while I type. The sun is shinning and it’s been 80 degrees under clear skies all day. Our tour director said it rains in Bergen an average of 400 days per year (the real number is 260-ish) so we’ve been blessed by incredible weather. Judy and I made good use of it today.

We reported for duty at 8:30 for a guided funicular tour up Mt. Ulriken, one of Bergen’s seven mountains (or nine mountains depending on how you count them).  The clear weather made for some great views of Bergen and its fjords, hot cinnamon buns and coffee were included at the summit. This being Sunday, the mountain was covered by hikers of all sizes and ages. Sunday is the traditional family hiking day in Norway and with the beautiful weather the trails were crowded.

We then proceeded on an hour’s long “panoramic” bus tour of downtown Bergen and surrounding districts. Informative but you know how bus tours get to be. Here are a few tidbits we picked up from our guide.

Christianity came to Norway around 1,000 AD, eventually driving out the Nordic gods worshiped by the Vikings. Not long after, in 1020 or so, Germanic traders came to Bergen to trade grain for dried cod fish harvested from the northern shores of Norway. By the end of the 13^thcentury Bergen was firmly established as a trading post of the Hanseatic League, a trading consortium of trading guilds that controlled commerce in the Baltic and Northern Europe regions until its decline beginning around 1450. Why did Norwegians allow the Germans in? Two reasons: cod was traded for grains grown in Europe, a commodity in short supply in Norway and; the Black Plague of the 1350s reduced Norway’s population by one third in the first year and by half by 1400. Norway needed grain and people; Europe had people and needed fish.

Our ship has been tied up at the Bryggen quays, the site of the original fishing industry in Bergen. Today it is the site of Bergen’s fish market (where I ate the aforementioned you-know-what) and shops in the reconstructed Hanseatic buildings, painted in bright red, yellow and white colors – you know, the iconic buildings everyone associates with Bergen. Turns out that red was chosen because it was the cheapest color, dyed red with animal blood. Yellow came later and then white, in increasing levels of cost. White became a status symbol; home owners painted the street side white and the back and sides of the house yellow.

By the way, most everything in Bergen is made of wood and most everything has burned to the ground many times in the past 1,000 years. There was a really bad one in 1702 when 90% of buildings burned and as recently as 1955 when 300 buildings went down.

Our guide’s story is interesting: she is half Italian and half Bulgarian. Her father is a sea captain who, when political conditions made living in Bulgaria difficult, took his wife and daughter to sea in a sailboat for 13 years. Along the way she’s learned to speak five languages without ever having one lesson in any of the five. She’s lived in Bergen for two years. Our betting is that the dark, rainy winters will drive her away before too long.

Our morning tour ended at about 12:30 and rather than doing the sensible thing – return to boat, eat our Included Lunch, take the afternoon panoramic bus tour – our guide let us jump ship (bus) and explore on our own. Hence the on-our-own lunch ($55 for the burger, mussels for Judy, a Coke Zero and a beer), a visit to the Hanseatic Museum (with English guided tour), an ice cream cone, shopping for a small over-the-shoulder bag, a hike to the top of the Bergenhus fortress (Judy’s still wondering how I talked her into that climb) and then back to the ship for the 4 PM tea and crumpets and the 5:15 PM muster station drill.

It’s now 6:30 and we’ve been underway for half an hour. It’s time to get cleaned up for a briefing on our next port – Eidfjord and the Scenic Flan Railway tour – and then dinner.

And we’re back from the above, including the Captain’s Welcome party and entertainment review and a sunset stroll on the Sun Deck.

Judy’s footnote:  “There is nothing more peaceful than gliding along the water, crocheting and watching the sun set from our balcony at 11PM.”

It’s not right to judge a country by a two-hour stopover at its international airport, but that’s not going to stop me. We arrived at Iceland’s Keflavik International 7 AM-ish in a steady drizzle, temp in the 40s with a stiff breeze blowing. The forecast calls for the same all week. Pity the poor couple standing in line with us in Boston who were coming for an Icelandic sightseeing adventure. Me, I’d turn around and go home.

The airport was nice, modern and thoroughly efficient, or so we thought. We settled in for a nice cold breakfast of smoothie and pastry kinds of things; checked in on the wifi for news and weather. We had, after all, a two-hour layover, arriving in concourse D and leaving from C. About 30 minutes before flight time we wandered out to find C36 only to discover a large herd of tourists milling about trying to get to the arrivals lounge. “Lucky us,” I thought, “we don’t have to clear passport control.” Wrong. “Your flight just came in from Minneapolis so you have to clear passport control,” we were told. So we joined the throng, competing to pass through a six-person-wide doorway, up a four-person-wide staircase and into a two-person-wide Disney-style queue to reach the half dozen or so agents.

Like I say, it’s unfair to judge an entire country on the airport’s design inefficiency but nonetheless that’s the lingering image of Iceland I now carry.  But you know what? We made the flight with time to spare; it left on time and arrived early. The smoothie was great and Iceland remains on our bucket list.

Arrival in Bergen was a breeze. Luggage came quickly, nothing to declare and no passport control. About every 20 yards (sorry, meters) or so we encountered a smiling, overly cheerful Viking representative pointing the way to the bus. A 30-minute bus ride and we’re on board, welcoming Champaign flute in hand and then chowing down on a cafeteria lunch. Then off to the cabin, a quick unpack and we’re in business. This isn’t like our OAT trip to Southeast Asia where the guide handed out deep fried grasshoppers and every meal was a new adventure!

At this point Judy said, “Do what’s best for you. What’s best for me is a nap.” So away I went for a stroll around the port and surrounding town, located to the north of downtown Bergen. I wandered down the waterfront to a fine view of a large structure at the top of a steep cliff. Naturally, up I went. I’m not sure what the building is, my Norwegian isn’t all it could be but I suspect it’s a school of some sort. I worked my way downwards until I found another cliff. Up the path to the top of what turned out to be the Bergenhoff, the city’s ancient fortress. It’s now a large complex of parklands and stone buildings that today was filled with Bergenites, most scantily clad, spread-eagled soaking up what I suspect is a rare batch of sunshine.

An interesting historical footnote: the Bergenhoff  fought one and only one battle in its 600-year history. It seems King Charles II and King XXX had agreed that Norway’s strict policy of neutrality would be waived to permit a convoy carrying spices and whatnot from the West Indies (now Indonesia) to enter Bergen harbor. Unfortunately the message from Copenhagen didn’t reach Bergen in time so the canons at Bergenhoff blew the convoy to smithereens.

The rest of the day has been usual cruise ship activity, brought to a new level of decadence by Viking: pre-dinner cocktails, a port lecture by the cruise director, a three-course dinner (a Norwegian lamb dish for both of us) with wine, a brief rest on our stateroom balcony and then a 9 PM recital by a well known Norwegian violinist (I forget his name) who played the works of Edvard Gregg and his buddies. Beautiful music well performed but gee whiz, it was all slow going in minor keys. Judy nudged me awake now and then, but only when I was in danger of falling completely out of my chair. Who needs a guardian angle when you have Judy?

We have a trip up Mt Ulriken in the morning and a Bergen panoramic tour (fancy way of saying bus ride) in the afternoon before sailing for Eidfjord and the Scenic Flan Railway. It’s 10:30 and actually starting to get dark so off to bed!

Yep, we’re at it again. This time rather than going southeast we’re headed northward for a two-cruise trip (you gotta get the most out of those airplane tickets!). First, a Viking cruise around the Baltic Sea and then a Hurtigruten ferry boat trip up the coast of Norway on the North Sea (click the pictures to view in larger size):

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Nothing but smooth sailing – no bumpy bus rides, not many airplane trips and only three times we have to unpack and repack our bags. What could go wrong?

You may recall that we retreated from out last adventure – the one where I spent two nights in a Cambodian hospital – with less than lion-hearted resolve. Fortunately treatment at home, culminating in a cardiac ablation procedure has – knock on wood – resolved those kinds of issues.

Just to bring you up to date on our activities since returning, we have

• Spent most of the winter, from January 16 to May 2 at our place in Sun City Center FL
• Returned to NH in March to
  • Buy a house in Melrose, MA with our daughter Rebecca. She and the two grandkids (Esme and Griffin) will be in the front house and we’ll occupy the back house.
  • Participate in various activities with all four grandkids (including Reagan and Carter)
  • Have the above-mentioned ablation procedure
• Upon our return to NH we started packing like mad so as to have everything ready for the movers before we leave on this trip May 25. So far we have enough stuff in Melrose to make that our headquarters. Everything else is in boxes and ready for the movers. We return on June 17, the movers come on June 20 and we close on our NH house (it sold in six days last week) on June 22. I think. We’ll see.

Of course we’ll be heading off for Onawa for the Fourth and be there for the rest of the summer. The usual number of visitors and lots of quality grandkid time too.

The plan this time is just like last time: daily emails alerting you to new postings (email access permitting). Let me know if you’d prefer not to be hit by the daily emails. You can just go to jonandjudy.com when/if the mood strikes you. Share the site with others as you please.