BUCKET 2025: Dolomites and Norwegian Fjords

Maybe today they'll be able to restock the 4 red wines that we liked and they ran out of on day 5! They would be a nice treat for our last dinner. UPDATE: No restock of 86'ed wines. Rotterdam is known as the gateway port to Europe and the port part is truly huge! We had a lovely morning walk, about 10,000 steps and returned in time for lunch and 2:30 departure.  We'll arrive back in Southampton at 7am, get a cruise provided airport shuttle to Heathrow and fly to San Fran... arriving same day,  Thursday, at 7:30pm. Zach is graciously meeting us for the ride home.  Some very interesting architecture and sculpture as most of the city was rebuilt after WW2's bombing devastation. UPDATE: just saw that World Magazine highlighted this statue by Ossop Zadkine, called The Destroyed City, created to reflect the devastation after WW2. It was breathtaking!  The famous Market with a horseshoe shape and beautiful wall and ceiling murals.  The outside glass facade captures bea...

This is our second to last cruising day, and we spent it fully on the sea with no ports of call. Couldn't enjoy more sea time on a sea day. Lunch at the Bistro... on the sea.  Afternoon alongside the water. (On the sea)   Cocktails on the sunset deck! (On the sea)  Sunset during dinner! On the sea!  Peggy's favorite toe head twins.  Tonight was lobster night! Pretty tasty!  They paired the lobster with beef wellington. Nice move!  Love the profile in a sunset...(love the profiler! )

We couldn't miss a picture of Elva's favorite meal... even for breakfast!  Perhaps I should humbly mention that your blog master and his wife can retire from trivia.  Going out on top is a good feeling. Yes, we came in first with the theme of animals... teaching biology helped a lot!  Flam is another lovely "end of the fjord" village that has grown to 400 residents... primarily to serve cruise ships. It also serves as a train station for those heading from Oslo to Bergen. The train acts as the primary tourist excursion for arrivals. It's a beautiful 1 hour train ride into the canyon with waterfalls pounding from both sides of the train.  Arrival at 8am. Train station for this afternoon's excursion.  Says it all! The Route The Deets Power couple.. duh!  300 of our best friends breaking all the safety rules... crossing tracks, standing on the edge of the platform, eating waffles instead of boarding... The sun and mist played a nice symphony all ride long. Had...

A UNESCO World Heritage Sight, Geiranger Fjord is considered one of the most beautiful... and for good reason. Some early morning photos as we slowly meandered to our dock around 9am. Later, we're taking a 5 mile hike, mostly up, then down... but this early in the morning we're just excited to be outside (maybe just one of us is...) Since this fjord dead ends here, to drive up and over you need to take Norway's equivalence to France's Alpe d'Huez. The town itself is quaint and pastoral.  This walking pier scissored out to meet the boat... pretty awesome to watch.  Taking a 3 hour hike to a beautiful waterfall was intense and worth the effort.  The hike was 2 miles uphill through a number of waterfalls.  These huge path stones were installed by Sherpas hired to install and then come back to fix this path each 5 years. The Sherpas then use that money in their country to fund schools etc.  Great symbiotic relationship... The backside of water (from Sam's Pirates of...

Relaxing and exercising on board during a sea day makes it challenging to photograph exciting items for the daily post.  Chilling with our favorite 2500 other friends kept me from stressing over photo ops.  Yes, trivia participation at 10 and 4, yes gym at 2:30, yes jacuzzi at 3:15, yes using a few promotions to have an amazing sushi lunch. Shrimp and scallop kiriagi (kinda like onion rings meet tempura)   Then after dinner, an actually excellent theater show with 4 guys from Les Mis, singing a variety of Broadway and motown hits. Awesome sound.