Fish and Potatoes

It is not surprising that they have a lot of fish in Norway.  After all, there are 63,000 miles of coastline (including islands) which is the second longest in the world after Canada.  But who knew that the real national dish is potatoes?!?!  I can’t say that I am enjoying the side dishes with every meal.  The variety of meats is a bit different than I am used to.  To keep meat fresh in the old days, they salted or smoked everything, and they still do quite a bit.  Of course, I expected smoked salmon, but smoked lamb?  That’s a new one on me.  My first night on the ship they served ox - another first for me.  And tonight I tried white onion soup which was made with pickled onions, dried reindeer meat, and leek oil.  Hmmm … not ingredients I usually combine.  There are a lot of Thai and Chinese restaurants.  I walked by one tonight that had all the standard Chinese dishes that I am used to but also a local specialty - deep fried cod tongue.  Of course.

The scenery has been as spectacular as expected.  It is almost like floating by a Yosemite Valley that goes on and on.  But it never gets old.  It is also reminiscent of Halong Bay in Vietnam, but there it feels eerie, and here it feels majestic. On our second day we sailed into Geiranger Fjord, one of the most famous and beautiful fjords with dozens of waterfalls.  It took the better part of a day for the round trip. 

Tonight we are in the Lofoten Islands where the mountains rise dramatically right from the water. 

Passing through the Lofoten Islands, we went into the short, narrow, and dramatic Trollfjord.  They told us not to go to bed because we will not enter it until 11:45 but that it was worth staying up for.  Needless to say, we won’t have any trouble seeing it as the sun will still be up. And, of course, they were right. It was worth staying up for. A short narrow fjord barely wider than the ship with both sides rising dramatically straight up.

We did cross the Arctic Circle this morning at 7:40.  I happily slept through that great event.  But later in the morning we had the “traditional” Crossing the Arctic Circle celebration:  a glass of champagne after they poured ice cubes down your back.  I passed on both but still received an official certificate.

The weather has been overcast and drizzly off and on.  Too bad because I really wanted to see the sun make a circle around the sky, rather than its one way route that we usually see. But the weather had hardly detracted from the spectacular scenery.

I hear very little English onboard the ship and even less American English. It is impossible to distinguish Scandinavian languages, so I can't tell where those speakers are from, but it does seem like the predominant language spoken on the ship is German.