scubacruiserx2

Walking along the waterfront with Aker Brygge on the left , you can see that is was a nice , warm day.

Our last stop was Akershus Castle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akershus_Fortress

This is the chapel inside of the castle

Nice tapestry

We noticed that one of these cannon was trained on our balcony

Our day in Oslo had ended and here's a video clip of us leaving Oslo :

Dyna Fyr , in the harbor , is an old lighthouse which now functions as a cosy restaurant .

Next up hopefully tomorrow , is Stonehenge

As we were leaving the museum we saw Diane and Larry with a local friend. He informed us that there would be a seafood festival at the down town area. We rode the hoho and jumped off of the bus at the modern Aker Brygge shopping area.

Some tents were set up where local chef's were preparing snacks and lunch

Seafood display

After nosing around for a bit were drawn to some spicy scampi and a pizza - like bread . The baby approved of it and it was great ! :)

Walking around the mall we returned to the waterfront with this view of the Legend tied up in front of Akershus Castle.

Seeing some of the farms reminded me of my Polish grandparents farm from the 1950's , in Texas

Small wooden houses - with a double outhouse

And the same style of interior

But their town didn't look this nice

We reached the museum by riding the hoho bus and arrived when it opened at 10 AM. Our first photo stop inside the museum was a house that needed it's roof trimmed

A little walk brought us to the rear of a stave church

This church was built in the 13th century at Gol Hallingdal. It was moved to it's present site in 1881 by King Oscar II in 1881.

The interior features a painting of the last supper of Jesus

The keeper of the keys appeared in native clothing.

 

scubacruiserx2, sorry for the off topic.

Back to your wonderful review and pictures, please.

No worries AntjeG . One of our most interesting cruises was on a MSC cruise . We cruised Italian style with the most diverse group of people , primarily European . And all of the announcements were made in Italian , German , French , Spanish and English .

Next stop : The Norwegian Folk Museum :) :D

Oh, I would love this area.....sculpture my favorite art form.....lovely pictures...

Oh , there was plenty to be seen in this park ! ;)

I know, I know! I've wandered off again! I really haven't gone far. I'm back again, and once again I'm all caught up. :D You have done a wonderful job, as always.

 

While I know you have a couple of cruises already planned, I can't wait to see where you'll be taking me next. I will, as usual, be travelling virtually. If only I could take our cats on cruisesI would be able to cruise more, but then I think about the logistics of taking our cats on a cruise! :eek: That is not going to happen even if the cruise lines would allow it, which, of course, they wisely do not. So for now we will continue to cruise when we can, and take virtual cruises when we can't get away ourselves.

Thanks Nancy and welcome back . The next up is a Cozumel stay just before your cruise and a CB cruise in December . :) :D

Wonderful pictures and tastefully presented and captioned. Love your work.:D

Thank you Mic . I do enjoy recreational photography , but when you type at the speed of molasses like I do - it is work ! :rolleyes:

That must have been one of his sober moments!! :D:D:D

 

I have a feeling the theme of his work is very sad....what is the underlying theme?

I don't know , but I suspect that being an occupied country during the war may have had some influence . My wive showed me a Washington Post article which may shed some light on his inspiration for the monolith :

However, when Vigeland was asked to explain the meaning of the work, he was cryptic: “He replied, ‘This is my religion,’ ” says Stromodden. “To me, this is both an interesting and an irritating response.”

We received the following Email this morning of an increase in Tips for our upcoming cruise :

Princess Cruises

Important Update Regarding Your Cruise

Dear Princess Guest:

To ensure our guest service on board remains among the best in the cruise industry, Princess Cruises has increased the daily gratuity charge for all voyages departing on or after December 15, 2016.

The new daily gratuity amounts are $13.50 USD per guest for interior, oceanview, and balcony staterooms (including children), $14.50 USD per guest for mini-suites (including Club Class), and $15.50 USD per guest for suites.

The gratuity rate increase is comparable to cruise industry standards and underlines our commitment toward our crew for the excellent service they provide our guests.

You have the opportunity to prepay your daily gratuities at the current rate through November 15, 2016 at 11:59PM PST. You may prepay through your Cruise Personalizer or contact us at 1-800-PRINCESS . Guests booked with promotions that include paid gratuities will not be affected by this rate increase.

Thank you and we look forward to welcoming you aboard.

Sincerely,

Princess Cruises

I know that this is a Celebrity thread and so here's their tipping guidelines from the CC article , Cruise Line Tipping Policies: Big-Ship Lines

http://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=266

Celebrity Cruises

The Process: Celebrity Cruises automatically adds gratuities to the onboard Seapass account. The "suggested" gratuities added to your account will be $13.50 per day, per passenger ($14 for Concierge Class and AquaClass cruisers). Suite passengers will pay $17 per person, per day.

Alternatives: If you wish to adjust the amount you pay, this can be done onboard at guest relations.

Extra Charges: An automatic 18 percent gratuity is added to all bar bills.

At the monolith you are naturally drawn to look up

Or take a close up photo

The bridge is lined with sculptures

Like this

The museum in the park did not open until noon and the first Ho ho bus had stopped, so we boarded the empty bus to our next stop , The Norwegian Museum which will open at 10 AM.

Remember the Nobel Peace prize medal on the wall of the Stockholm City Hall ? Gustav Vigeland designed it .

AIDAs 11 ships all have the smiling lips. They are an artwork made for AIDAcruises by Rostock-based artist Feliks Büttner. They call their own ships "smiles for the waves" and their advertisement says (translated - original is German) "where the smile is at home".

AIDAs on-board language is German only (Crew speaks English of course but dailies and entertainment and excursions are German only) so maybe you wouldn´t have such a great time but I love them. Sailed on AIDAbella twice. Unfortunately, AIDAbella will be removed from the German section and be their first ship with on-board language Chinese only from next year.

Oh by the way - AIDAs headquarter is in Rostock. The brand is part of Carnival corporation but they do their own thing - like Costa for the Italian part.

Thank you AntjeG for interesting information , I will now smile when I think of :)AIDA ! It seems like Carnival has investments all around the globe .

That cruise in September of 2013 was our only cruise on a Carnival ship in Europe and was the first time that we had seen an AIDA ship that I recall . And only a couple of months later we saw the AIDAcara in Ushuaia , Argentina . And since then , our sightings have become more frequent .

And on our harbor tour which was the last one conducted in English on that day, most of the people were from the cara and spoke mostly English during the tour .

My wife had 2 years of German in High school which useful near Michigan's " Little Bavaria " , Frankenmuth , where she grew up .

And of course we learned Spanish here in Florida . Dos mas cervezas , por favor :cool:

LOVED your captions!!! You have a wonderful sense of the absurd and I respect that! Thanks for the day brightener :D

Vigeland has that effect on some people . ;)

It was fun to figure out what some of the statues were doing.

Touchdown !

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Angry baby

Piggie back rides and doggie piles

Catching butterflies

The monolith

This is such a strange , strange place - and it's beautiful ..... Eleanor McEvoy Vigeland's Dream

We got off the ship early on a Saturday morning hoping to beat the crowds and got a great seat on the Hop on hop off bus that was waiting for us. Our plan was to go to Vigeland installation in Frogner Park first - because it was the first thing open. They seemed to be waiting for the bus to fill before leaving so we inquired about taxi prices to the park. In an Amazing Race moment we jumped the cab and figured that we would have a hour , in the park , before the hoho bus arrived.

Gustav Vigeland Sculptor :https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Vigeland

It worked ! The park was empty and the light was nice.

Many of the statues were very touching

The fountains were off until 2014

Love that photo of the cloudy sky and the sun peering through.

Thanks Mic , a pre dinner treat . :) :D

So a quick trip to Oslo before returning to Stonehenge . Oslo was our last stop of 4 in Norway on the Carnival Legend . We had mostly overcast conditions and rain at the first 3 , but in the late afternoon just before diner we saw some interesting clouds .

The sail in to Oslo was beautiful. The funny clouds had disappeared and the sky was clear in the morning for the first time this trip. There was another cruise ship ahead of us and I had the video camera.

As you may see , the sky was pink.

I watched as we passed the other ship The ADIA bella , and went down to the cabin to see if Pat was awake . I told her that we had just passed another cruise ship that had two lips on the front of the ship.

" Tulips " she said, "oh they must be Dutch" . Another senior moment with the Scubacruiser times 2 (scubacruiserx2).

The " Dutch " cruise ship

Stunning photography Joe.:D

Thank you Mic !

Have finished the reading the review and loving all the photos, a marvellous thread on a fantastic trip. Cheers again.:D

And thanks for reading the review . It was my favorite trip for scenery and we some great light for photos . :) :D

I just saw that Cruise Critic ranked their top five Baltic and Scandinavia ports

1. St. Petersburg

2. Tallin

3. Stockholm

4. Oslo

5. Copenhagen

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/destination-awards/baltic/

Would anybody care to see our visit to Oslo ?

At this stop in the tour , Sebastian began telling us about magnetic straight lines underground ( ley lines ) .

He invited us to try dousing for the lines using these rods .

You hold the rods pointing forward and parallel to each other and walk . And when you come to a ley line - they cross each other .

He also told us that this line continued across the field - straight to Stonehenge . I didn't try the rods - but I did tighten the grip on my camera !

Neil takes a turn

Our next stop was near Stonehenge - Woodhenge .

Much less visited than it's cousin , it was our first visit there .

We will be using photos from both visits in this segment

Heading through the countryside we came to a pretty area with many thatched roofs .

We came to a house where they were thatching a roof

next door to this beauty

and stopped in front of this interesting stone building .

I did know about the copy of the Magna Carta - it was my reason for visiting in the first place. The magnificent cathedral was a (large) bonus. :D

 

Robert

We did know a bout the Magna Carta on our first trip , but I got so busy photographing the church inside and out that when we went to see it , our half an hour had ended . We had a busy schedule and our next stop on that trip was a trip up to see Old Sarum .

Old Sarum is the site of the earliest settlement of Salisbury in England. Located on a hill about 2 miles (3 km) north of modern Salisbury near the A345 road, the settlement appears in some of the earliest records in the country. It is an English Heritage property and is open to the public.

Wikipedia

The cathedral from Old Sarum

Our London version in it's perch with the view from our London Hotel

A couple of photos from our 2015 visit with Gracie & J . The light was better last year and there were no signs of any dancing rabbits .

The cathedral is so amazing, I loved our visit there last year and all of the Salisbury area. If you want some in depth history of the area the historical novel Sarum, by Edward Rutherford is just wonderful. I read it just prior to the Eclipse TA and it made that tour we took with you all even better. :)

We also loved our visit there with you and J . And thank you for arranging it and Lisbon and including us ! But I'll have to put Sarum on the list though , because I got 3 more DK books in the mail yesterday ! :eek:

Oooh - a reason to go again! This wasn't there when we visited in 2006.

 

Robert

That sounds like a great reason to me ! Maybe it was visiting Australia when you were visiting Salisbury . :rolleyes:

My reason for returning is " We still haven't seen the Magna Carta " ! ;)