Serene Wandering

It took several lottery cycles before we were able to get tickets to tour Tovrea Castle, a Phoenix landmark. These tour tickets are described as “harder to get than a permit to hike to Havasupai Falls or a night at Phantom Ranch at the bottom of Grand Canyon.” I’m happy to say it was worth the extra time and effort!

Tovrea Castle, sometimes referred to as the Wedding Cake Castle, is on the National Register of Historic Places. 

This part of downtown Phoenix was once harsh desert.  Homesteaders owned the property and were attempting to eke out a livelihood . 

Italian immigrant, Alessio Carraro, purchased 277 acres and went to work building a castle. It was intended as a boutique luxury hotel.  Carraro wanted to host people to interest them in purchasing the luxury homes he intended to build on his land. The castle and surrounding homes were to be known as Carraro Heights.

Carraro, and his son Leo, used whatever materials were available while building their castle hotel.

They used a discarded safe from a local bank to hold valuables and be the wine cellar.

The kitchen cupboards were made of teller cages from the same bank.

The Carraros developed a cactus garden with cacti from all over the world.  (Over time, only cactus from the local area survived.)

Father and son took 14 months to build the hotel structure and surrounding grounds. Carraro’s plans were derailed by the Great Depression and odors from the surrounding stockyards owned by Edward A. Tovrea.  Tovrea ran the largest stockyard in the world encompassing 200 acres of holding pens and processing 400,000 head of cattle a year.

Alessio Carraro sold his castle to E.A. Tovrea in 1931. E.A. and his second wife, Della, moved into the castle. They lived mostly in the basement as there were no heating or cooling systems. The stairs going down were quite steep.

E.A. died a year later and his son, Phillip, took over the stockyard business. Della maintained the castle.

Della married Prescott publisher Bill Stuart and they lived in the castle seasonally.

The bathroom was on the main floor where there were six to eight guest rooms.  The only shower was on the second floor where two suites shared another bathroom. The top floor was a copala.

The couple entertained in the castle and on the grounds.

Della expanded the castle grounds including a reflecting pool surrounded by a rose garden.  She built an aviary to house peacocks and other birds.

After Stuart’s death, Della lived full time in the castle by herself.  As she aged, Della moved onto the main floor.   

One night eighty year old Della was robbed by two men.  There was a tussle over a gun. (A bullet hole remains in the kitchen ceiling.)

Della eventually loosened her bindings and tried to call for the caretaker.  

When her caretaker didn’t respond, she walked down to his cabin for assistance. Della came down with pneumonia shortly after and died.

One of the robbers was caught but Della died a couple of months before any of her property was recovered.  She had lived in the castle for 40 years.

After Della’s death, various family members and caretakers lived in the castle over the next decades. The building and grounds suffered from lack of maintenance.

Beginning in 1989, the City of Phoenix passed a series of bonds to purchase the landmark and rehabilitate the castle and grounds. The city and volunteer efforts took more than 20 years.

Currently, The Tovrea Carraro Society is responsible for conducting tours and maintaining the castle and grounds.  The society began offering tours in 2012 and there was huge demand. The lottery system was adopted post COVID.

We were able to tour the basement where Della and her husbands lived. There are a variety of historic exhibits about the castle and its people.

One of the most interesting aspects of the basement was the ceiling plaster. There are a few birds eggs (plaster) hidden in the plaster. We saw them but I didn’t get a picture.

The society is trying to raise money to rehabilitate a few of the outer buildings.  Many were felled by a microburst in 2015.

The former well house fared better.

We very much enjoyed our tour of Tovrea Castle!

While on the tour, we could see the nearby Stockyards Restaurant, connected in its history to the castle.

That meant we needed to go there.

The Stockyards was the original Phoenix steakhouse.  Opening in 1947, the restaurant became a gathering place for cattlemen, politicians and bankers.  

When it burned down in 1953, it was remodeled by Helen Tovrea.  Helen was the wife of Phillip Tovrea, then the owner of the cattle stockyards, meat packing company and Tovrea Castle at Carraro Heights. 

Thanks to friends, Nancy and Mark, for joining us on the Stockyards field trip! The food was delicious and the experience was very nice.

The other Phoenix castle we toured is the Phoenix Mystery Castle.  We visited in 2023 without having to win the lottery first, or even have advance reservations.  If you would like to read about that castle, it is the blog PHX: Mystery Castle. 

As we approached the end of our Northern Lights Cruise we were supposed to have two sea days south to Bergen where we would disembark and head home.

We left Alta at midnight and when we woke it looked like it should be 7:00 am. It was almost 10:00!  It was so nice to sleep in on a sea day when the ship is rocking just enough to promote sleep, not hinder it. Plus we had had three shore excursions the day prior!

Randy and Flynn enjoyed taking some sunrise pictures as the sun was actually rising as we went south.

We watched the scenery along both sides of the ship as we sailed the Norwegian Inside Passage.

Viking has a polar plunge activity in an ice filled pool when the ship crosses the Arctic Circle. It was amazing to us how many people chose to participate, but we did not. We were really done being any kind of cold.

We did get Arctic Circle certificates!

We had a relaxing lunch with our travel partners Flynn and Jo. We had not traveled together previously, but found complete compatibility. We’d be glad to do a trip together again.

We watched one more educational presentation, this time about  Viking ships. It was about the old, authentic type, not current Viking cruise line ships.

Viking boats had a steering board on the right side.  Over time that became “steer board” and gradually, starboard. The starboard side of a boat is the right side.

The sails were made of wool by women.  I’m sure they used the resources that were available, but it surprised me that sails were ever wool.

We enjoyed our last few calm sea hours on the ship.

Overnight, we had bad weather again with high seas and high winds. 

The seal on our sliding balcony door was not tight enough to stay fully closed in the high winds. Randy got up repeatedly and closed it to avoid the wind howling through. Unfortunately, his efforts only stopped the howling for brief periods!  We told the steward about it the next morning and the maintenance crew was able to fix it.

We had the Norwegian specialty waffles for breakfast. The queue for these each morning had been long enough that we hadn’t bothered before. I thought these were quite good. The brown cylinders are the Norwegian goat cheese we had been introduced to previously.

The weather was still very unsettled.  We were sailing into the storm with winds up to 60-80 mph and 30 foot waves.  The captain had slowed the ship which would likely delay our arrival in Bergen the next day.

We watched a presentation on Bergen, our last port of the cruise and where we would disembark.  We learned Bergen was founded in 1070 and its location was important for shipping and travel.  The city is on the same latitude as Alaska and Siberia but is warmed by the gulf stream

The black plague entered Norway through Bergen, eventually killing half the population of the country.

In the late afternoon the captain announced 70-80 mph, hurricane force, winds.  He said “We’re just rolling on down the sea-way.”  At that point it wasn’t frightening, just very interesting.

This was when it got a bit frightening!  We were sitting at dinner and I glanced over and saw the wave water above the bottom of the windows.   The restaurant was on the first deck.  Crew quarters and many ship systems are on A Deck, below the first deck. 

By then the ship’s shore excursion crew were hoping to adjust the times of our Bergen excursions so we didn’t miss them. Our morning tour was to the town of Dale, Norway, home of Dale of Norway sweaters.

The Dale textile business dates back to 1872. Beginning in 1956, Dale of Norway designed Olympic and World Championship sweaters for Norway’s national ski teams.  They were later chosen to design official sweaters for ongoing Winter Olympic Games.

Even though we had already bought Norwegian sweater jackets in Tromsø, we planned on buying Dale of Norway sweaters in Dale, Norway. That now seemed in doubt.

Overnight we had winds gusting up to 100 mph and 40 ft waves.  It was rough, but at least our balcony door didn’t howl! We woke finding we had survived the night and the seas had calmed.  

As we came into Bergen it was finally calm enough, and warm enough, to go out on deck briefly.  It was my first time out on deck on the whole cruise.

Our 8:00 am scheduled arrival ended up closer to 3:00 pm.  We missed out on our Dale of Norway excursion so I was glad I had bought a sweater on the ship.  Unfortunately, Randy missed out. 

Jo, Flynn, Randy and I went for a walk into town while we waited for our salvaged, abbreviated city tour later in the evening.

We walked by the Bergenhaus Fortress.  There are buildings within the fortress dating back to the 1240s.  The fortress has held the royal residence,  a cathedral, several churches, the bishop’s residence, and a monastery. Haakon’s Hall, formerly the royal hall, was built around 1260. 

The tower was built around 1270.  

In the mid 1600s the tower was incorporated into a larger structure, now known as the Rosenkrantz Tower. 

Once a home to the local governor, it served as a place to store gunpowder from 1740-1930. 

Bergen has had a series of devastating fires in its history.  The wooden houses that once stood along the wharf burned down in 1702.  These houses quickly replaced them so they are about 320 years old.

The Bryggen Wharf is now a UNESCO World Heritage site.

I liked how they cover buildings under construction with a shell that mimics the building.  On the Stiftelsen Bryggen building above, there is still a nice representation of the building and the covering is barely noticeable from a distance. The construction isn’t a visual distraction to the landmark.

Bergen has decorative man hole covers!

Our planned two hour Bergen panoramic tour ended up being just an hour but the crew and shore operators did the best they could to give everyone something.

Our driver drove us around a bit showing us various sites that did not photograph well at night through bus windows.  He took us across the river so we could photograph the wharf from the opposite side.

The next morning we left the Viking Venus with fond memories of the ship, the crew and our adventure.

Jo and Flynn left very early and flew out the same day.  Our reservations required an overnight in Bergen and then out very early the next day.  They were both very long travel days but all was accomplished.

I took a picture of this donation box that we saw at the airport in Bergen.  I have seen them in other European cities as well.  It holds an interesting mix of left over currency in many types and values. 

This is me in my authentic Dale of Norway sweater purchased onboard the Viking Venus. It has actually been cool enough in Phoenix to wear it a couple times.

The Northern Lights Cruise right after us had the reverse itinerary – Bergen to Alta to Tromsø to Narvik to Amsterdam to London.   Due to extreme and unsafe seas (worse than we had) the Viking Venus was “stuck” in Tromsø  and the passengers had extra days there to finish out their cruise.  Viking chartered flights for those passengers from Tromsø to London Heathrow.  Those same charters brought the next group of passengers from Heathrow to Tromsø to begin their cruise. The Northern Lights Cruise after that didn’t see any lights.

We were really very fortunate.  We saw lights numerous times and had seas that were bad enough for a good story but not any worse.  

It was a great trip with great friends, with a great crew, on the Viking Venus.

We disembarked on January 24, 2024.

Alta is about equidistant between the North Pole and Berlin.  The area around Alta held the Nazi’s largest naval base outside of Germany during World War II. 

Many thousands of German soldiers were in Alta.  

There was even a local stalag for Russian prisoners of war.  Stalag 330 held prisoners from 1941 – 1945.

Women at Ravensbruk Concentration Camp were forced to weave insulating straw boots for German soldiers to protect their feet from the cold.

Germany felt pressure from an alliance between Finland and Russia and initiated a forced evacuation of the local people around Alta.  About 45,000 people were forcibly relocated to the Tromsø area.

The German ship, Tirpitz, was named after a general who helped to modernize the German navy.  She was a larger sister ship to the Bismarck.   The Tirpitz was a floating city.

After the Bismarck was sunk, Hitler did not want to expose the Tirpitz because of the potential propaganda value to the Allies if it too was sunk.

The Tirpitz was sent to Norway as a deterrent to supply convoys between the western allies and Russia.  Her presence pulled allied resources to the Arctic and away from other areas.  The ship was more important for what it could have done, than what it actually did.

These beautiful bay pictures show where many of the German navy ships were once anchored.

In September 1943, the Royal Navy struck a blow near Alta.

The Tirpitz was damaged by a series of attacks from mini submarines and bombers. 

The ship made it to land but was unable to return to Germany for a full overhaul.

The Tirpitz was repaired enough to sail to the Tromsø area to be used as stationery artillery. 

The Tripitz was sunk in the Tromsø bay by the Allies in late 1944.

Alta was devastated at the end of the World War II as the Germans instituted as scorched earth policy in the wake of their retreat.  They destroyed almost everything including buildings, infrastructure, mines and wells.

Two churches survived the German evacuation destruction.  This church was built in 1858.

This second church was built in 1937 for the local mining community that once numbered over 1000.  

Many miners were Finns and the statue is in memory of them.

It is not known why these two churches were all that survived the destruction, but it is assumed that a few German soldiers had qualms about destroying churches.

Our tour took us to a museum named for the German battleship Tirpitz.  It is housed in a cabin that was originally built in 1888 in southern Norway.  The cabin was taken apart and brought to Alta after the war because of the desperate need for buildings.

We began with a film about the Tirpitz from its 1939 beginnings in Germany to its 1944 sinking in Tromsø, Norway.

We saw photographs and artifacts that told the story of German occupation and Norway’s struggle.

We learned that chemicals provided a “smoke screen” for the Tirpitz from the allies above. The chemicals had a decades long effect on tree growth as documented by tree ring data. 

This wedding dress was made with silk from a German parachute.

This clarinet was found by divers exploring the Tirpitz wreckage in 2009. Some wreckage is still in Tromsø bay and visible at low tide. One article I read said that it is possible to buy knives made from Tirpitz steel.

We left the museum and headed back towards town. I’m not sure what atmospheric and temperature events were in play to make this part of the bay look feathered but it was cool looking!

On our way back to the ship, our tour guide (from Ireland) was very excited, and distracted, by the sun being almost visible.  (I’m sure I’d be very excited to see the sun too if I hadn’t seen it for two whole months. Living in Phoenix, we get super excited if the summer sun goes behind a cloud once in a while !) He still managed to tell us a few things.

Our guide told us there are 20,000 people in Alta but there is no hospital.  The nearest hospital is three hours over land and the road is frequently closed.  There is an air ambulance that can fly patients to the nearest hospital or to Tromsø if needed and weather allows.

Alta does have a clinic and a birthing center.  The birthing center is only for women having baby number two or more. First time mothers must go (or plan to go) to one of the hospitals outside Alta.  Our guide said he found it surprising that a community of 20,000 didn’t have a hospital in a country as wealthy as Norway.  I must agree.

Later, we had an afternoon tour around Alta that included a UNESCO World Heritage Site for ancient rock carvings.   Randy was still thinking he was done with old things and ancient rock carvings dating back to 4200 BC didn’t dissuade him.  It didn’t help that we weren’t actually even going to see the stone engravings because they were covered with snow.  

We had seen some near Tromsø anyway.

I went on the tour and went to the Alta Museum.  The concentration of carvings are surrounded by the museum.   More than 6000 etchings in and around Alta were discovered in 1973.  They are believed to be from the Komsa people and include people performing rituals, hunting, and gathering. 

There are also animals and symbols.

This rock carving is 4,000-5,000 years old. It was discovered around 1950, in a potato field near Alta.

As expected, all I could see was the surrounding beauty and the museum displays.

Our second tour stop was the same church, the Northern Lights Cathedral, where we had been the night before for the organ recital.  

This time we went downstairs to learn more about the northern lights and how Alta is the place of origin for northern lights research.  The first northern lights observatory opened in Alta in 1899.  

Norwegian physicist Kristian Birkeland made a breakthrough in understanding the northern lights phenomena in the late 1800s when he proposed that charged particles from the sun trigger polar lights.   He made a model to demonstrate his theory.

It is now known that Alta is situated under the aurora oval.

It was Galileo who named the lights the aurora borealis after he saw the red lights in the sky in Rome.  It is very uncommon thing for the lights to dip that far south.

We had a third tour of the day, the last being to Pasketeun, a working slate quarry.  One hundred and fifty people are employed at the site.

Although we saw some products made of slate, the purpose of our visit was to be away from the city and have the opportunity to see more northern lights.

The Sami family we met yesterday were there with a warming lavau and a couple reindeer. 

We had yet another good presentation about the lights but not a lot of real opportunity to see the real thing until the end.  

We were trying to do artsy shots with the reindeer while we waited for the lights to intensify!

Flynn’s tour came to Pasketeun just before we left.   

His timing was much better than ours as he had some wonderful light opportunities.  

These are his pictures.

No worries that Flynn got the better light show. We were more than satisfied with the lights we saw on this trip overall and he shares! Also, we were warm and comfortable back on the ship hours before he got back.

When we arrived in our cabin there was a tray with sandwiches, cakes and wine waiting for us.  This was the second time this had happened when we were off the ship over the span of time when dinner was served.   The first time we had been on a dinner cruise so didn’t need the extra fare, but this time their thoughtfulness was most welcome!  (We were hungry enough that I forgot to take a picture before we dug in.)

Flynn, and the others on the late tour, got back onboard and we sailed away about midnight.  

We were in Alta on January 20, 2024.

Next Up:  The Norwegian Sea plays rough with us too!

On board the Viking Venus, we had signed up for a phone alert for when the crew see the lights during the night. Some people got the alert at 4:00 a.m. but we had not.  We had been fortunate enough to see the lights during our two nights in Tromsø, so we were fine with sleeping!

Today was our first day in Alta, Norway. It is believed by some to be the northernmost “city” in the world.  With a population of about 20,000 people, it gained “city” status in 2000 after combining two smaller communities. 

There are only 1.4 people per square mile in this most northern county of Norway.

The drinking water quality in Alta is consistently the best in Norway. Drinking water quality in Norway is consistently the best (or second best) in the world.

The municipality of Alta provides ice skates, tents, canoes, camping gear etc. free of charge for the health and recreation of its citizens. 

Salmon season fishing attract visitors from all over the world.  There is a salmon lottery for locals with tickets costing about $100.  The cost for guest fishermen along desired stretches of the river goes for $5000.   

Alta is at the same latitude as Barrow, Alaska but has more population and a more hospitable lifestyle because of the Gulf Stream.  Unlike Alaska, there are not many bear.  There are moose, wolverine, wolf and fox.  There are reindeer in this region owned by the Sami.

Our activity for the morning was to tour a Sami camp.  It was a bit cold!  The temperature is shown in Celsius but equates to about 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit. 

While on our bus ride we all clapped for the sun making a real appearance for the first time in over a week for us, and for the first time in two months for those living in this part of Norway! 

We had been told that Sami culture can be identified from 2000 years past as the only recognized indigenous group in Norway.  The Sami are the only ones allowed to own and hunt reindeer.

In 1968-82, a conflict erupted in Norway about building a dam in the area.  The controversy grew because of how it would affect the Sami, an indigenous group that lives in areas of Norway, Finland, Sweden and Russia. 

A smaller dam was eventually built but the process led to a total overhaul of awareness and representation for Sami, allowing for some exclusive protections, including their ability to own and hunt reindeer.

The Sami Village we visited has 200 people and 99 percent are Sami. 

They are encouraged to marry within the community but it is not required.  

Our Sami host came on board the bus to give us an orientation before we got out.

This family’s main reindeer herd is about 70 kilometers away for the winter. 

The reindeer survive on natural lichen and grass found beneath the snow.  They are fed other food only if dire conditions necessitate. The reindeer are herded by snowmobile and dogs.

We were in the old fashioned lavau for hot tea and storytelling. Jo and Flynn are on the left.

They took a picture of us, while I took a picture of them.

We got ready for our reindeer ride and were the most layered up that we had been yet on the trip.  We had purchased winter gear at REI and were using all of that and more. We had three layers below our waist and four layers for our torso.  We had glove liners, wool outer gloves and electronic hand warmers because, of course, we had to have some kind of electronic component!

The only time on this trip that I felt exceptionally cold (my feet) was on our reindeer ride. 

Our sleigh ride was about 30 minutes and it was very lovely.

Cold, but very lovely!

The Sami, of course, are very used to the cold and seemed not to be bothered at all.

Following our ride, we had lunch in their new cement lavau. 

We were the very first tour group to use it.

The reindeer stew, including potatoes and carrots, was quite good.  It was served with bread and butter.

For desert we had a cinnamon topped cake with cream and berries.

We learned that only within the last 100 years ago have Sami people been allowed to own land and practice their culture openly.  

We went back to the ship and warmed up before our evening tour. The atrium area was near the gangway and our string duo still had to play!

Our evening tour was a recital at the Northern Lights Cathedral.  On the way we heard once again that using seatbelts is mandatory.  We heard it every time we were on a bus in Norway.  If the police stop the bus, and we’ve been so advised, it is the tourist that pays the fine – about $120.

Our evening guide told us that when Alta became a city (20,000 population) in 2000, they felt they needed a new landmark. Because Alta was considered the City of Northern Lights, they wanted something to reflect that status.

It took years to get the church designed and cost $11,000,000 to build.

There are 40,000 interlocking titanium plates on the outside.  They are self cleaning and reflect the light.

The floor is made of German Oak.  It worked well until last summer when there were high temperatures and humidity resulting in some sections expanding and popping out.

Jesus was designed to be looking up to heaven as a more positive vibe than the typical Jesus on the cross. 

The sun sets on his face. 

One of his hands is a fist to represent struggle while the other is open to represent welcome. The statue was made in Tuscany, Italy and the building was built around it.

These 12 pictures might represent the 12 apostles or the 12 Jewish tribes or just twelve biblical looking pictures.  No one is really sure.

The golden ladder represents Jacob’s ladder or a way to heaven. Interpretations seem a bit loose.

The church opened in 2013 but the inner structure is made of concrete so they had to wait a year for it to cure before installing the organ.

The Northern Lights Church is a Lutheran church with services but is also a concert hall for the city. 

We were able to enjoy a concert by a Russian organist and composer Irina Girunyan, who lives in Alta.   Honestly, some of the music was very strange but we don’t know enough to determine whether the strangeness was the Norwegian composer’s work, or her interpretation of it, or our very unsophisticated exposure to any organ music outside of Christian hymns and Phantom of the Opera.

After a very good, but cold day,  it was nice to come back to the ship and off to bed early.  We watched the evening’s music show from there. (Broadcasting events live to the staterooms is one of the things we like about Viking Ocean cruises.)

At 11:00 pm we had an alert that the northern lights were spotted off the port side.  Our cabin was on starboard and we were warm and not getting out of bed.  It was shocking how blasé we had gotten about seeing the lights after out two successful nights!

We were in Alta on January 19, 2024.

Next up: We learn about this part of Norway during World War II and see more lights!

Randy took a great video of the northern lights on our dinner cruise. Be sure to click on the link at the very bottom. But first….

Tromsø is considered the Gateway to the Arctic because most expeditions to the arctic left from the city.  Our tour guide told us Tromsø was also considered the Paris of the North because Tromsø people were refined and the women dressed well.  The city had wealth because of the fishing and arctic trades.

The Tromsø population is 72,000 people.  It has doubled in the last 50 years.  People from 100  different nations call Tromsø home.

Being outside is part of the culture in Tromsø.  There was an outdoor movie festival going on when we were visiting in January! We didn’t prioritize that and missed out on sitting outside in the cold watching a movie.

Our first stop of the day was the planetarium at the Science Centre of Norway where they study aurora activity.  We saw a good film showing examples of auroras and their scientific causes.  As study continues in places like Tromsø, scientists are better able to predict when and where they will occur.

Education is the leading industry in the city with over 10,000 students   Seasonally, the university offers free treatment for people affected by the lack of sunlight. 

Most of the city of Tromsø is located on an island accessed by bridges and tunnels.

We could see our ship, the Viking Venus.

The Arctic Cathedral is a protestant church on the continental side of the city. 

The architecture was inspired by polar region symbolism.

The original completion had clear windows behind the altar but the sun was too intense during services.  Thus, the pastor wanted to add stained glass. The architect did not approve and has never been back.

The Jesus figure in glass is unique because it is designed to represent the return of Christ, not his death on the cross.

The organ was built in 2005 and has 2940 pipes, ranging from 32 feet to 5 mm. The bellows are made of reindeer hide.

There is an atomic bomb shelter in the basement as the cathedral was built in the 1960s and Norway shares a border with Russia.

You can tell you’re in Norway when you have a ski jump in the skyline.  Our guide noted that it is conveniently placed near the hospital. 

Because Tromsø was an important base for Germany in WWII, the city escaped damage. However,  In November, 1944 the Royal Air Force sank the German ship Tirpitz in this bay. Close to one thousand soldiers died. The Tirpitz, the largest German battleship ever built,  is visible during low tide. There will be more about the Tirpitz in one of our upcoming Alta posts.

Before we went back to the ship, Randy and I went shopping and bought these Norwegian Sweater jackets. (We didn’t get a picture of us wearing them in Norway, but we have worn them several times after returning to Phoenix.)

Jo, Flynn, Randy and I went on a dinner cruise in the Tromsø bay.  Our vessel was an electric catamaran.

We enjoyed some views of the city.

We had a three course meal on board. The first serving was a fish soup.

This was the varied and generous second course. There was too much fish for me but Jo, Flynn and Randy enjoyed it.  (Everyone eats fish in Norway.  The problem is mine and I survived.)

I did like dessert!

They started a presentation on the northern lights and it kept getting interrupted for the real thing!

We shared photographs during and after the trip so I want to give Flynn credit for some of these.

Don’t forget to watch Randy’s video at the bottom!!

Jo and I were completely content to let Randy and Flynn take almost all the pictures.

However these last two pictures are mine.

I should have kept my phone camera still to avoid the distortion of the Tromsø shore. I kind of liked them anyway.

To watch Randy’s video click here.

We were in Tromsø January 18, 2024.

Next Up: Alta

Our tour led us away from the city of Tromsø to an area to see and interact with sled dogs.   We missed our dog sled riding excursion when we missed Narvik but the purpose here was really to go to a darker environment in hopes of seeing the northern lights.

We saw Tromsø’s Arctic Cathedral all lit up in the distance. We’d be visiting there the next day.

Along the way our guide was checking apps for various values on atmospheric load and particles and said she was optimistic that we would see the northern lights.

She told us a bit about the science behind the lights.   Very basically, there is a process involving solar eruptions, particles, plasma and electrons.  It is the end of the solar eruption that is sometimes visible in various colors.

The sun has an eleven year cycle of maximum and minimum solar eruptions.  The maximum is projected for 2025. As a result 2024 and 2026 are also projected to be very good.  We did not know that when we booked – just a fortunate coincidence. Don’t plan on taking this tour in 2030 or 2031, the low part of the eleven year cycle!

We arrived at our destination and started with the Alaskan Husky Dogs while waiting for the lights to, hopefully, develop.  (Yes, this is Norway, and yes, I wrote Alaskan Husky Dogs.)

Dogs go through training to be chosen to pull a sled with a team.  They are highly socialized.  Appearance is not important.

Most of the dogs were in their shelters but some came out for a people visit.  

This dog was tucked into his shelter but one was just laying on the ice. He was so still that several of us that thought he was dead.  Someone alerted a handler and he assured us that the dog was fine.  He said that this particular dog gets too warm in his shelter and often sleeps outside.

We learned that Norway has the longest dog sled race in Europe and the second longest in the world.  The longest is the Iditarod in Alaska. 

We gathered in the field and our tour guide’s optimism paid off.  At first we saw the faintest whispers of white, whispy “clouds.”  

After a very short while, we could recognize the difference between the clouds and the northern lights.

The color is far more visible through the camera! Our eyes saw white with a slight hint of green.  (We saw white lights moving in Alaska and had not realized that we should have looked through our camera.)

It was an exciting night seeing the northern lights on our first real opportunity!

The skies were clear enough that we could see the stars within the lights.

Randy took all of these pictures just with his iPhone 15 Pro camera. He had cold fingers!

There were fires set up for warmth.

There was also a Sami Lavvu available to see artifacts and also warm up a bit.

After experiencing enough of the lights, or in my case getting cold enough to want to move on, we went to find the husky puppies!

This is their next generation of Alaskan Husky Dogs.  They are four months old. Their kennel has inside and outside areas.

It was a good night – dogs and northern lights – what more could we want!

We saw the lights in Tromsø on January 17, 2024.

Next Up: More from Tromsø

After missing Narvik because of high winds and rough seas, we were excited to be on land again. 

Our tours were for later in the afternoon so Jo, Flynn, Randy and I walked off the ship into Tromsø. We wanted to test out our cold weather gear and had a little anxiety about whether we had enough.  

We had enough! Despite the zero degrees temperature, we were fine.

We walked around Cathedral Square.  The Cathedral of Tromsø was built in 1861 and is the only cathedral in the world made of wood. It has a capacity of 700 people.

At the time of construction, the cathedral and square were built over a cemetery. It wasn’t clear if that was known at the time.  During renewal of the square in 2017, they found graves, some dating back to the middle ages.

We did some shopping.

We stopped for coffee.

As we were returning to the ship about 11:30, we had a beautiful sky. In mid January, Tromsø was just coming out of the “no sun for two months” period. (In summer there is an alternate period of continued daylight.)

We enjoyed seeing what art was displayed on our way upstairs to shed coats, gloves and hats before lunch.

Rot was one of our favorite waiters. He had one week left on his six month contract and then would be going home to Bali.  His young son’s birthday was the day after he got home.  He will be home for two months and then join another Viking Ocean ship, The Jupiter.  Rot says Viking treats them very well which is always good to hear.  Ship crew work long hours every day, always with a smile.

For those that know Viking categories, Rot said crew can go between Ocean and Expedition ships but River crew are separate.

In the afternoon, Randy and I went on one tour while Jo and Flynn did another.  We were headed to the town of Sommarøy to see life experienced north of the arctic circle.  As we left the city we had a beautiful view of Tromsø.

We stopped at a site for stone pictures similar to the petroglyphs we have in the southwest United States.  

The area around Alta, a bit further north, has a higher concentration of ancient stone art.  That is our next port. 

We had the opportunity to take pictures of the surrounding mountains.

We were told there is very good fishing in this area of Norway.

We saw some older buildings and farms likely from the mid 1800s. The residents would have been poor fish farmers. They would have had to keep the fire going in one room all the time.

People ate fish six days a week. On the seventh, usually Sunday, they might have had sausage.

Norway was once a very poor country, very similar to Ireland.  In the 1960s they found “black gold” off shore and Norway is now one of the richest countries.  The money from oil is invested all over the world and saved in a fund for future generations.  The fund is currently valued at $300,000 USD per person living in Norway.

The oil and gas produced currently goes to other countries. There is an end date for oil and gas production as Norway is embracing a greener future.

Houses in Norway are heated by electricity, produced by hydroelectric.  Almost all energy used is clean energy.  Sixty-seven wind turbines produce enough electricity for all of Tromsø.  

They are placed on windy mountain tops and have red lights so planes are aware.

Fish is Norway’s second largest export after oil. Much of the cod goes to Portugal and Spain.

Nearly all houses in Norway are made of wood.  Wood is readily available and building with it makes it easier to accommodate 25 centimeters of insulation in each wall.

We visited a community center serving residents and welcoming visitors.

We were served Norwegian waffles with tea or coffee.  

We also had brown cheese made from the whey of goat milk, a Norwegian staple.  It has an interesting flavor that I didn’t l love but am glad to have tried.  We were served brown cheese numerous times on this trip.

The local women gave presentations on spinning and weaving.

We had the opportunity to buy a variety of handmade items.

I bought these mittens for about $45 USD.

We visited the local museum.  

Three generations once lived here at the same time.

One item highlighted for us was this painting of Wanny Woldstad. 

She was born in this small town of Sommarøy in 1893. Wanny married and had two sons.  She raised them alone after the death of her husband. In the 1920s, she  became the first woman to work as a taxi driver in Tromsø. Through driving, she met trappers who told her of their exploits. In 1931 she joined her first expedition. In 1932, she shot her first polar bear. Wanny spent five seasons hunting.  She and her partners killed 77 polar bears.  This woman, who did so much, died in 1959 after being hit by a truck.  (Something is just wrong with that ending.)

While leaving the museum we saw this woman using a kick sled, a common travel assistance device. In this picture it is nighttime dark at 4:15 in the afternoon.

Enroute to our Sommarøy home visit, our guide told us that Norway has a very popular monarchy.  “They are good people and don’t have troubles like the British monarchy.”

We learned Tromsø has more tourists in winter than in summer.  Winter visitors come looking for the northern lights – just like us.

Our home visit was to the home of a local school teacher.  Our driver told us it was tradition to remove shoes going into a private home. That was quite the task with a dozen of us trying to get our big boots off!

We met our hostess, Helen, who told us about her life as a mother, wife and school teacher.  She said her husband was working this evening.

Then she introduced her husband, Egel – our van driver! They did that very well!

They served tea and coffee and Norwegian lefse.  Lefse was new to everyone on the tour except Randy and me.  I have Swedish and Lutheran heritage so we have made and eaten lefse for decades. 

She served “old lefse” layered with brown cheese.  (We usually eat it with sugar and/or cinnamon.)   She also served soft lefse which was more like a layered cookie cake.  That was new to us. We also had small portions of chocolate cake and who doesn’t love that?

They gave us a tour of their home and encouraged us to ask as many questions about their life as we wanted. They said life was very good in Norway.  Things are very expensive but salaries are commensurate.  Their government provides many services.  

They said that even though Finland is the nearest neighbor, they have great difficulty with the language.  Finland’s language root is from Hungary while Norwegian is similar to the languages spoken in Sweden and Denmark.

Our driver showed us his Nobel Peace Prize. He received it after his service in the Norwegian military (which is required for one year) as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon.

Helen showed us Norwegian and Sami flags.  We would be touring with the indigenous Sami in a few days.

When I signed us up for this tour, I was expecting something similar to another home visit tour we took above the arctic circle in Alaska. During Covid, we went to Fairbanks looking for the northern lights and took a trip north of the arctic circle to see how people live off the grid.  That post is Chena Hot Springs, Denali National Park, and Being Above the Arctic Circle

This home visit in Sommarøy was nothing like the one in Alaska but it was totally lovely!  We were very happy with the tour and seeing their comfortable life above the arctic circle.

We were in Tromsø on January 17, 2024.

Next up:  We see the northern lights!!!!

We have said many times that we love sleeping on a cruise ship because of the gentle rocking motion.  Well, that would have been on the Atlantic, Pacific or Mediterranean. 

We had a little too much rocking and rolling as we sailed the North Sea.

Heading out for breakfast we saw the sea sickness bags out and available. 

We weren’t having any trouble so went about our morning zig-zagging down the corridors to compensate for the swells.

We headed to the education session on The Aurora Borealis by one of our guest speakers. It was taking place in the theater at the bow of the ship. We were just getting settled in when Randy could feel the nausea coming.

Randy went back to the cabin and took some Bonine from his toiletries bag.  It had a 2011 expiration date. That shows how long it has been since either of us felt sea sickness on a trip. Fortunately, I had read that this passage could be rough and purchased some Dramamine to bring along.

Meanwhile, at the presentation we were given a lot of scientific information about the appearance of the northern lights. 

It was interesting to me on the surface level but all I really registered is that there are also “southern lights” around the magnetic south pole. There just aren’t population centers to witness the lights as in the north.

He also talked about how to use various apps to discern the possibility, or probability, of seeing the lights  (We used the apps when we were on our own in Fairbanks in 2020 looking for the lights.) 

On this trip I didn’t really care to try and figure it out.  We were going on Viking excursions at places and times to maximize our opportunities. We had also signed up for the phone call in the middle of the night to alert us if the lights were visible from the ship.

The speaker also included a section on settings for your camera and how to augment your photos after they have been taken.  Three of the four of us had new phones (on purpose for this trip) which manage the environment mostly automatically so I let all of that pass by my attention.  Flynn has a 15 Pro Plus, Randy has a 15 Pro and I have an iPhone 15.   

I do very little augmenting of photos behind cropping and adjusting light levels.  I appreciate how people use photo editing as an art form but I am usually valuing authenticity on my own.

Following the presentation I made my way back to the cabin to check on Randy. He was mostly trying to sleep it off.  I showed him where the Dramamine was and went to look for saltines.

The ship didn’t have saltines but gave out green apples and ginger candy so I took those. Whether it was the sleep, the apples, the candy or the Dramamine, Randy was eventually feeling better.

There was a whole lot of wave action in the North Sea and many people were sick.  

Access to outside decks was closed off so we couldn’t fall overboard. We were told that the situation should resolve in the late afternoon when we should meet the storm going south as we went north.

However, when Jo and Flynn and I were having afternoon tea, the Captain made an announcement that the waves were 20-25 feet high.  He was reducing speed to avoid getting slapped around quite so much as the winds were 50-55 miles per hour.  He said the ship was fine and “Enjoy the ride.”

There were more presentations and Viking offers the option of viewing them in the cabins at your convenience.  Randy and I watched a couple that evening.  

One of the presenters was Sue Stockdale, the second woman ever to reach the magnetic North Pole.  In 1996, when her expedition was done,  the magnetic north pole was in Canada.  It is now in Serbia.  We didn’t know that the magnetic pole moved over time.

We had another very rough night with 35 foot swells and 55 mph winds so the ship had to slow down to not get battered around even more.  

The slowdown meant we would miss the port of Narvik on our itinerary and move on towards Tromsø.

We spent another sea day rocking and rolling.  Randy was feeling fine so we went about our day attending presentations and reading.

We enjoyed drinks and cookies with Jo and Flynn.

In the evening we attending a Viking Explorer Society event for past cruisers.  We were told that 52 percent of people on this passage had sailed with Viking before- including the four of us.

Later in the evening we went to a show given by the assistant cruise director.  This crew is immensely talented.

Later, at the night club, we had one of the funniest moments of the cruise. 

Flynn told the lead singer that he and Jo had been married for 52 years.  Misunderstanding, she announced to the audience that it was Jo and Flynn’s anniversary and invited them up to dance alone.  

It was not their anniversary but when they invited other people to join them on the floor, we too danced for Jo and Flynn’s “anniversary.”

The next morning we woke up at 11:00!  We never do that.  I guess we needed eleven hours of sleep after the last few days!

We finally saw a bit of blue sky again and a few mountains in the distance

We meandered through another sea day including a Tromsø port talk. Tromsø is considered the Gateway to the Arctic as explorations often left from the city.  They can document humans in this area since 10,000 BC.  Tromsø is the northern-most city (over 50,000 residents) in the world.

In the early 20th century, the North Sea was Germany’s only outlet to the ocean and became a major theater of battle during world wars.  After the Nazi invasion and occupation of souther Norway. the King escaped to Tromsø to lead the resistance.  Eventually he and the crown prince evacuated to the United Kingdom.

Members of the resistance were identified by a monogram coin sometimes placed in shoes.  “Weejuns” shoes had a slot for the Norwegian resistance coin.  (Americans eventually co-opted this idea using pennies in the slot to create the penny loafers.)

As was our nightly ritual, we enjoyed before dinner drinks behind the piano, enjoying the art.

We finished the evening with a show featuring three Brits and a Scot, backed by a Filipino band, on a Norwegian ship, above the Arctic Circle, singing US country music!  It was fun!

We were in the North Sea heading north January 14 – 16, 2024.

Next Up: Tromsø

Our plan for the day was a walking tour into Amsterdam taking us from the ship to where we would board a canal boat.  We had a rainy and overcast day so our pictures weren’t nearly as lovely as those we saw during our port talk!

We passed a Chinese restaurant that was built with the same blueprint as one in Shanghai.  On opening night, the restaurant started to sink because Dutch people are larger than Chinese people.  Then had to re-work the restaurant structurally.

Amsterdam has 165 miles of canals forming 90 islands that are connected by 1500 bridges. 

That is more than Venice!

There are 11.5 million wooden posts placed in sand and peat that support Amsterdam.  Eighty percent of the posts are original because they have never been exposed to air.

An average home has 10 posts where the royal residence is supported by 13,000 posts.

Houses are taxed by width so most were built tall and narrow.

There are 2500 house boats along the canals.

Most people in Amsterdam speak Dutch, English and a third language. Amsterdam is the most expensive city in the world, overtaking Zurich.

We were told that 26 percent of the Netherlands is below sea level.  The country  measures 3.5 hours by 2 hours.  That seemed an interesting way to report its size.  It is about the size of Massachusetts and Connecticut combined.

This is one of the locks along the canal system to control water levels.

This is how houses were once identified.

Zeedijk is the street that is a boundary of the red light district.  The city council is beginning to put limits on tourism trying to avoid excess numbers in general and especially excess party-goers in the red light district.

In this photo you can see how the buildings tilt forward.  Many buildings were tilted slightly forward on purpose so items could be hoisted to upper rooms rather than trying to manage narrow crooked stairs.

We stopped at the Pancake House to have pankoeken, a Dutch pancake.

Then it was time to board our canal boat for our cruise.

This building is the Science Museum, nicknamed Titanic by residents.

The people are outside the Anne Frank house. The Anne Frank museum is a few doors away.  We did not have the time in port to visit, but doing so could be a reason to visit Amsterdam again.

There are 800,000 people in Amsterdam and 1.25 million bikes. 

There are 10-12,000 bikes retrieved from the canal annually and recycled.  Some of them are said to be retribution for a broken heart.  Heartbroken,  throw your ex’s bike into the canal. (I saw this picture on Twitter.)

There are two underground bicycle garages on either side of the transportation station, each with room for 30,000 bicycles! 

Driving an electric scooter now requires a helmet so there was a big transition to electric bikes avoiding the helmets.  Pedestrians can’t hear the e-bikes and they go fast so there is a big problem with bike vs. pedestrian accidents.

A parking permit in the city costs about 550 euros per year, but there is a two to three year wait.   I would not want to park any car next to the canal without any curbing!

We have taken Hop On Hop Off bus tours at times, but didn’t imagine you could do the same on a canal boat.

These are called the Dancing Houses.  They are tilted because of movement in the ground layer. 

This is a replica of the ship Amsterdam which sank during its maiden voyage in 1749.  The rudder broke in the North Sea.  The crew made it to safety in England.  The Dutch East India Trading company was once a powerful naval entity. However, the life was difficult.  The Dutch lost 700 ships in the 17th and 18th centuries. 

Churches in Amsterdam usually have three crosses, one each for protection against plague, fire and flood.

We were on the canal during the Amsterdam Light Festival. 

We saw a variety of sculptures, some lit even in daylight, along the canal.

This is the Montelbaanstoren Tower, built in 1516.  It was once a part of the walls protecting the city and the harbor.

We went back to the ship and I decided, somewhat reluctantly, to do laundry.  Laundry facilities (including soap) are free on Viking Ocean ships.  That was convenient because our cold weather gear took so much room in our suitcases that we didn’t really have a large selection of regular clothes.  

We saw wind turbines from our balcony window.  Nine European countries are participating in building wind-farms in the North Sea.

We met Jo and Flynn at what became our regular spot behind the piano. 

On any given night the pianist or the string duo played while we had before dinner drinks.  The screen at the top of the stairs showed a rotating series of paintings by Edvard Munch, 1863-1944. A Norwegian expressionist painter, he became famous world wide. He painted over 2000 pieces and, if you don’t know any other, you probably would recognize “The Scream.”

This painting is called Landscape from Hitsven.

After dinner, we enjoyed our first Viking entertainment featuring the band. 

The captain introduced his officers and senior staff.

The cruise director introduced our five enrichment lecturers. They will present on things you would expect like the Vikings and Northern Lights but also on Formula 1 Race cars and Aliens.

It was a good day in Amsterdam and evening on Viking Venus.  We had no idea what was to come within just a few hours.

We were in Amsterdam on January 13, 2024.

Next up:  The North Sea makes memories

We had a 10:30 am pick up for our bus ride to Tilbury about 90 minutes away.  That was a nice time considering our full day and late night the day before. Tilbury is the sea port for cruises near London.

Along the way, our guide told us about London’s “66 years” historical events.   In 1066 William the Conqueror came and conquered the area.  In 1666 the great fire destroyed most of London.  Because so many buildings burned, most of London is younger than 1666.  And, in 1966, England won the World Soccer Championships!

We passed St. Paul’s Cathedral, the main cathedral in London.  The building is 365 feet high, one foot for each day of the year.  Different from many cathedrals, there is no stained glass.  Services are conducted daily.

The American Chapel on one end was built to commemorate the American soldiers who came to help during world wars.

Mansion House is the home for the Lord Mayor of London.  He is in charge of the old city of London, now the financial district.  The position has no salary and is for only one year.  The Lord Mayor’s responsibility is to promote London as a city of finance.  The benefit to the mayor is the ability to network.

There are 8.6 million people in the 15 square miles of greater London.  Only about 8000 live in the old city but many more “work in the city,” mostly in finance. The economy of London is one third finance, one third tourism,  and one third everything else.

Our guide told us that the British drive on the left side of the road because the Romans did it that way when they settled here in AD 43.  Archeological evidence supports that assertion because the ruts on one side are greater so as when the carts were full versus empty.  

Driving on the right side of the road started with Napoleon’s conquests and most countries in Europe now drive on the right.  All British colonies, except Canada, still drive on the left.

We got to Tilbury and quickly checked in. 

We boarded the Viking Venus and were immediately impressed.

Our cabin was very comfortable and a very nice size.  We had a balcony but weren’t sure how much we would actually use it on this cruise!  Viking has a practice of booking shore excursions based on cabin type and expense.  We matched Jo and Flynn so we could be reasonably sure of getting the excursions we wanted together.

Jo and Flynn had been on a Viking Ocean ship before (they are all the same) so were able to board and relax.  After watching the safety video and checking in at our muster station, Randy and I initiated the refund of our $100 taxi ride from Heathrow to the hotel.  That was accomplished successfully in minutes.

We signed up for a ship tour and learned about the public spaces and the restaurant options.

Later, the four of us attended a port talk on Amsterdam.  Cruise director Andre provided these talks throughout the cruise.

We learned how Amsterdam is really a collection of canals and bridges.

Bicycles are prolific in the city – and sometimes dangerous.

Next was a presentation on the History of the Netherlands by one of five guest speakers on our cruise.  That was all before dinner!

Dinner at the The Chef’s Table is a multi course fixed menu with wine pairings.  Dining at this restaurant (and one other) are by reservation but do not have an extra fee. Jo, pictured below, was on top of things and made our reservations as soon as they were available.

The menu at the Chef’s Table changes every three days.  For better or worse, the menu is what it is, without modification.

None of us were very excited to see that the Cuisine of Great Britain was the theme. The menu included scotch eggs, beer battered fish and chips, Yorkshire pudding and brisket, and a Scottish trifle. 

I would have never ordered any of the things on this menu!  I did, however, eat everything offered (including the fish and chips) and it was all delicious.  I guess that is the point!

We boarded the Viking Venus on January 12, 2024.

Next up: Amsterdam