9/10 home and closure

 Maggi, Larry and I had an uneventful flight home.  Alec picked us up so we didn’t have to hassle getting on the shuttle bus to the cab  pickup area.

The airport in Oslo arranged for Adrienne to have help all the way through to LAX with the transfers and getting on and off planes.  She had a limo picking them up and it first took her to her house to drop the luggage and then on to the hospital.  Val’s doctor had made the arrangements for him to be admitted immediately.  They started an IV chemo drip and are keeping him until next Friday.  

So things are looking up for them.  Maggi sent me a picture and he looks much better. We are all hoping for the best.

This trip was definitely out of my wheelhouse.  Despite the problems I really had a wonderful time.  The Arctic is barren, uninhabited and amazingly beautiful. The ship was luxurious and very quiet with lots  of space for conversations.  My fellow passengers were congenial and interesting.  I am so glad that I went.

Look for my next installment:  Jane Austen convention in Cleveland starting October 16.

9/8 & 9/9 Oslo

 While on the ship, someone told us about a park in Oslo which was filled with Erotic Statues.  Well since visiting the Penis museum in Reykjavik we were ALL FOR a visit to Vigeland Sculpture Park.  It was very near Val’s hospital, so we visited him first.  He looks better, but not OK.

The park was lovely and very green.  After about the 100th comment about the greenness and the grass, I realized that I was with 3 Californians. For them the lush greenness was a miracle!  The statues were NOT erotic.  Yes, they were all nude, but they were people and family groups being ordinary and loving (not in a sexual way).

Turns out that you are not allowed on grass in Norway.  I thought that this was just a French thing.

The Angry Boy is a famous statue.  Notice that so many people have held his hand that it is polished to a shiny gold.

Oslo is a curious mixture of old and new.  There were quite a few people dressed in traditional costumes.  This group was going to church for the confirmation of the boys’ older brother.  The buildings in the background are the older style.

This building is the Opera House. It is possible to walk up the slanting sides to the very top (about 8 stories) and then back down again on the other side.  Adrienne and Larry did this!  Maggi and I passed.  By this time you all know my aversion to hills.

This is the Munch museum. There are many versions of The Scream.  There was a room with the black and white print version that we are all familiar with and also a pastel and and oil.  They are in closed cabinets and shown one at a time for 1/2 hour each to preserve them.  The rest of his work is pretty strange.

Went to Den Glad Gris for dinner one of the only restaurants open on Sunday.  Another traditional Norwegian restaurant.  It means The Happy Pig.

Maggi had baked cod.

I had fish and chips.

Adrienne had a Child’s portion of pulled port.

And Larry had the piéce de resitance - pig’s knuckle.  It was enormous and he ate it all while saying “This is soooooo good.”

The Happy Pig greeted us at the door.
 

We went back to the hotel to pack and Adrienne went to visit Val.  That was when she received the call from the insurance company that the medivac was rejected.

The hospital told her to leave him overnight and pick him up to go to the airport so they could continue giving him fluids and get him ready for the flight. We aren't on the same flight.  Our plane leaves at 6:30 and transfers in Paris, hers leaves at 7:30 and goes through London.

9/7 Maritime stuff

 Adrienne spent the day with Val and the doctors.  Maggi, Larry and I went sightseeing. We took a ferry to the Maritime museum area.  It was such a beautiful WARM  day. I wasn’t prepared to really have summer at the end of the trip.

The Norwegians have always been seafarers and have a long history which wasn’t always pillaging and plundering.

The museum has a boat building workshop where ships are being built in the old handcrafted manner.

Not much space in early cabins.  The desk looking thing between the beds opens up to be a sink!

Larry checking out Kon-Tiki.  I remembered reading about this when I was a child and was excited to see it in person.

We met Dorothy from the ship.  She had hung out with us when she wanted some time away from the group (her husband and another couple) she was with.

The 4 of us went for dinner to Elias which was just down the street.

Smoked Whale

Elk Carpaccio 

Herring and smoked salmon with stuff.

Pumpkin soup

Sheep and cabbage (A Norwegian national  dish)

Reindeer stew with red currants

Risotto with chanterelles.

I was totally exhausted and thought it was 11 pm.  When I looked at my watch, it was only 6.  Went home to bed.

9/6 Disembark and on to Oslo

 After the giant screwup with the getting on the ship, the getting off seemed to be well planned and organized.  We were in color coded groups to get on color coded busses to be driven to the airport 5 minutes away.  There we would pick up our color coded luggage that had been transported earlier and the color coded carry ons from under the bus. WAIT FOR IT…

It was raining and the gangplank was rounded metal steps that moved as you put your foot on them.  A very nice young crew member offered to carry my wheelie.  Maggie said that it was placed right next to her bag in the luggage compartment.  WAIT FOR IT…. We drove by the Doomsday Seed Bank that is in Longyearbyen (that was just opened to give some seeds to Syria.)

When we got off the bus, the driver was beginning to shut up the luggage compartment.  I didn’t see my wheelie.  Both Maggi and I asked him separately if there was anything else in the compartment - he sharply said no!  So I went inside to look for it and it was nowhere to be found.  I asked all of my fellow passengers if anyone had picked up by mistake????  But there were no orphan bags standing around. I reported the missing bag to our color coded chaperone and both Maggi and I said it had been on the bus.  My big suitcase was there, so I checked that and waited while she called back to the ship.  The bus was checked again (probably by the same driver who was soooo sure.) The ship was checked.  The area around the gangplank was checked.  By this time everyone knew that my bag was missing.  Some Chinese women rushed over to make sure that my knitting wasn’t lost.  NO, just my meds, my CPAP, and my iPad!  

OMG, I could do a find my iPad!  The young man who was also assigned to my group helped me and it said that the last place that it registered close to me was at the airport.  That meant that it had to be on the bus.  At this point the chaperone said she was talking to Nuno.  I told her to tell him that the wheelie belonged to the “Lady in the RED coat!” She looked at me quizzically, but she told him and then she went ooooh in a soft voice.

That seemed to light a fire and the bus luggage compartment was searched once again.  Lo and behold there it was.  The bus drove back to the  airport with just the one bag.  I was inside, so I don’t know if the driver  apologized.

The flight to Oslo was uneventful, but Val is getting weaker and weaker.  He was in a wheelchair. We managed to get all of our luggage and stuff out to the taxi stand and get a really big taxi to the hotel.  Adrienne and Maggi took Val directly to the hospital from there.  

The hospital staff have been wonderful and have kept Val to try to get him ready to fly back to the states.  Adrienne has been working on getting their travel insurance to medivac him home.  (As I’m writing this on our last night in Oslo, she just received notice that the request was denied.  We are not flying together so once we all get to the airport she is going to be on her own.)

Back to arrival in Oslo - The Thon Hotel Rosenkrantz is very nice and conveniently located.

Slept really well.

8/31 - 9/5 more of the same

 The days are following the same pattern.  Larry and Adrienne do the shore expeditions and Val, Maggi and I watch with the binoculars and a drink from the dome.  Everyone is happy.

Great walrus haul out place

Many many many beautiful ice bergs and ice caps. The land here is vey stark but fascinating to see.

There was one hike to see Dino tracks.  (Up a hill, across large rocks - I passed.)

One afternoon we were in a sheltered bay, so it was time for the polar plunge.  65(crazy ) people participated.

Each person had a belt on that was teathered to the crewman who pulled them promptly to the platform.  A couple of young guys had polar bear  suits.

Our new friend Kitty.  This was the second time that she has done this.  She said that she came over to thank me for the cake -but I know that she wanted to brag about doing the plunge.

Maggi, Larry, and I took a tour of the Bridge.  I was posed at the helm with strict instructions not to move it!

There was a little window in the floor on each side so that they could look down to see how close to the dock they were.

Maggi and Larry celebrated their 43rd anniversary on Sept 4.  They were serenaded with Falling in Love With You.  Another chocolate cake was shared.

The second to last night the crew performed. Some were really good, but all were cheered on.  There was a raffle  and an auction.  The auction was really for people who planned to take other excursions.  Adrienne won a  stuffed polar bear in the raffle.

The last night was the Captain’s reception.  He introduced himself and the crew.  Then we had strange blue drinks and munchies.

The last dinner was special too.  I had froi gras to start.

Then Venison steak

Then chocolate soufflé.

After dinner everyone scattered. Our suitcases had to be outside the cabin by 2am and we had to be out of our room by 8.  I think we were all ready to move on.

8/30 MY BIRTHDAY

 This was another travel day, so they fill it up with talks and film and other good stuff.  I now know a lot about polar bears and animal senses.

We were given a tour of the kitchen.  First my old friend, Nuno explained about the logistics of supplying ships  in the Arctic and Anarctica.  You can’t just run to the corner Costco.  Menus are created a year in advance.  Another problem is the ship can only hold so much at a time.  Very very complex. They actually have a computer program that keeps track of what everyone orders at dinner and your gender and age, so they can calculate how much of each type of food they need.

We had snacks and champagne and then met the baker who was making Bao for tonight’s dinner.

I think everyone had the Bao as an appetizer.  It was good but not as fluffy as the ones I’m used to.

The kitchen is down a flight of stairs from the dining room.  Nuno held my arm so I wouldn’t fall Then put me in a corner so I could brace easily.  I told him that I was very  happy with my new room.

Tonight was my birthday dinner.  The dining crew gathered round and sang Happy Birthday.  There was special champagne.

This was a chocolate mousse cake.  We asked for extra plates and shared it out to tables around us.  The problem was that there were 3 birthdays and 2 anniversaries in our immediate area, so Larry was going quite far to give it away.

I wore Chuck’s UCLA sweater for warmth on this trip.  It was large but cozy.  A happy memory of him. (For those who don’t know - this is a cashmere sweater that we had custom made for him in Shanghai. He loved it and wore it almost 24/7. )

8/29 village visit

 Today we visited the only place with people on the east coast of Greenland.  I can’t tell you the name because it had about 15 letters, none of which made sense to my ear.  Anyway, it had 300 people.  It was a “wet landing” which means when the zodiac comes to the shore, you step out into ankle deep water.  (If you are lucky.  If a wave comes then, it might be deeper. I managed to time it right both coming and going.)

Maggi and I in the zodiac.  Larry loves to take pictures.

An Inuit woman demonstrated how they knit.  From what the leader was saying I thought it was going to be really exotic. Just continental with beads.M

She was making wristlets to sell.

The supermarket had something of everything. Lots and lots of snack foods.  Frozen prepared stuff like pizzas, hardware, clothing, After the first picture, he said no more. We tasted dried musk ox - like over cooked beef.

Maggi with the village behind her.  

The big excitement for the tourists was the man feeding the sled dogs. He threw large chucks of meat at them and they gulped it down.  There were two little puppies that were still with their mothers, those he hand fed.

On the way back to the ship, I was in the front of the zodiac and it was getting rough.  We bounced which did bad things to my back.  I stopped in the medical office and they loaned by a cane with 3 feet.

At the beginning I could barely walk without it.  The problem was that every time the ship rolled, my back would clench to try to keep upright and that set it back again.  The good thing was that I could sit and knit and sleep well and had a good excuse not to go hiking around on uneven rocky or mushy ground.

8/28 more about the ship

 Our ship has 152 passengers and what seems like 9,000 crew members (really they say only 130). I felt really cosseted the whole time.  Just mentioning that you  needed something and it was there.

Breakfast and lunch were buffet with too many choices.  You could also order from a menu at breakfast so if you wanted pancakes or fried eggs you could get them.  Lunch had 2 kinds of soup, a stirfry station, a carving station and fruits, veggies, cold cuts, pastas, etc.

The ice cream station was Larry’s favorite.

Dinner was ordered from a menu (again with too many choices.)

The plan most days was breakfast, an excursion, lunch, a talk or nap, an excursion, a recap of the day and the plan for the next day, dinner and a little. Entertainment in the dome.

Everything was included, so if we were sitting around drinks and snacks were constantly offered. The crew got to know everyone’s preferences. The Glenlivit neat became my cocktail of choice.