Copenhagen & Norwegian Fjords Cruise

9/7/12 Today we are at the Scandic Copenhagen Hotel which has been provided free to us by Royal Caribbean because we are doing back to back cruises. It is a very nice place with good internet, so if my battery holds out, I will get this posted today. That means I have to be brief - and quick with this report. We arrived in Copenhagen last Friday and had an apartment reserved through www.airbnb.com. It was a very basic apartment but clean and with everything we needed, especially a good bed (we had jet lag). Here is the living room with the bedroom behind and to the left:

The small, but very clean and well-equipped kitchen was quite handy:

It was on a pedestrian street where there was a park right across the street and with shops and outside restaurants right next to it.

There was a stage set up between our place and the park and both nights there was free (and good) musical performances, many of the songs were in English, as most Danes speak excellent English.

Just a short distance away was a "lake" which was really like a big river, with lots of old, picturesque buildings on the banks and also good walking paths on each side.

We were just a short distance from the Radhuspladtz, which is the City Hall Square and ther main part of town. Here is City Hall:

There was a big crowd outside, and then we realized that people were waiting for weddings to take place in there. Here is a waiting bride, groom and friends:

In Copenhagen, there are many old and archtitecturally interesting buildings and lots of great fountains like this one:

The very famous and fun amusement park called Tivoli, with great restaurants and new rides, is right across the street:

As we walked down by the Gammel Strand, we saw this canal boat. We took this trip the last time we were here and it is very good and not too expensive. You catch it at Nyhavn.

Then we took the Metro to the Carlberg Brewery, but the tour is now in a new building, is self-guided, expensive, and all you get is 2 tiny beers at the end. We so enjoyed it in 1997 when it was in the old buildings, and now we do NOT recommend it!

You still can walk through the stables and see the Jutland horses which pull the beer wagons:

They have a HUGE collection of full beer bottles from all over the world:

Here is a quote on the beer hall wall at the brewery:

Here is Elaine with the Carlsbery elephants which are over at the original brewery buildings:

When we got on the Vision of the Seas, our friends Marcia & Lawson Albritton and Lisa Romine had us over to take pictures in the Grand Suite, which we had never seen before.

In the Diamond lounge, we reconnected with Jim and Peter, from one of our other cruises. They are so much fun!

Our first port was Bergen, Norway, where these old historic buildings called the Bryggen, are a UNESCO heritage site:

They are very close together too:

There were lots of beautiful sweaters for sale, such as this, but they were VERY EXPENSIVE:

Our new friends, Don & Kathy Mueller, were also in town:

The fish market is a big tourist draw. Here is some of the dried cod which has always been an important product here:

This picture was taken to prove how expensive things are here. This shrimp lunch plate costs 150 Krona. There are 5 krona to the dollar so this costs $30!!!

We did our own 5 mile walking tour and stopped to see the very sturdy art nouveau theater:

They also have this beautiful lake, with a fountain in the middle, flower beds on the banks, flanked by lots of art museums, similar to our Smithsonian arrangement:

On our way back to the ship, we saw this outside a restaurant. What a menu!

Then we sailed several hundred miles north to the Geiranger fjord. Unfortunately, the weather was awful and we had 30 foot waves overnight! Very rough - the roughest we have ever had. Here are some pictures as we sailed up the fjord:

This is the waterfall called the Seven Sisters:

This is the little town of Geiranger. Too bad the weather was so cold and rainy that we stayed on the ship!