Norway sailing

Tags

Norway, Scandinavia, Trolls, Vikings

During our trip to Norway, some info we picked up on Vikings, it seems that the image we have of them is not quite right, in fact its wrong. They travelled in little boats that were often no more than 40 feet long. The Vikings were not giants either, back then about 1000 year ago, people were small, so you average Viking was 5 feet tall or maybe at most 5.5 feet not exactly a giant race. Today we would appear to them to be giants, this is due to better hygiene and richer more varied diet.

As for the Trolls, have you heard of Billy Goat Gruff? A story written around 1840 by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe about 3 billy goats who tackle a nasty Troll living under a bridge who was very hungry and would eat anyone crossing the bridge.

The story introduces three male goats, sometimes identified as a youngster, father and grandfather, but more often described as brothers. In other adaptations, there is a baby or child goat, mama goat and papa goat. “Gruff” was used as their family name in the earliest English translation, by Dasent; the original Norwegian version used the name “Bruse”.

In the story, there is almost no grass left for them to eat near where they live, so they must cross a river to get to a meadow or hillside on the other side of a stream in order to eat and fatten themselves up. To do so, however, they must first cross a bridge, under which lives a fearsome and hideous troll, who is so territorial that he eats anyone who tries to cross the bridge.

The smallest billy goat is the first to cross and is stopped abruptly by the troll who threatens to “gobble him up!” However, the little goat convinces the troll to wait for his big brother to come across, because he is larger and would make for a more gratifying feast. The greedy troll agrees and lets the smallest goat cross.

The medium-sized goat passes next. He is more cautious than his brother, but is also stopped by the troll and given the same threat. The second billy goat is allowed to cross as well after he tells the troll to wait for the biggest billy goat because he is the largest of the three.

The third billy goat gets on the bridge, but is also stopped by the hungry troll who threatens to devour him as well. However, the third billy goat challenges the troll and knocks him off the bridge with his horns. The troll falls into the stream and is carried away by the current. From then on the bridge is safe, and all three goats are able to go to the rich fields around the summer farm in the hills, and they all live happily ever after.

 

First Fjord

Tags

cruise, Eidfjord, Food, Norway, Pinnacle grill, Sea, ship, voyage

We arrived in Eidfjord around 7am, this means we enter the Fjord and sail down about 58 Km. stopping in this little village of Eidfjord. A very quiet place, surrounded by very high mountains, our guide said 7000 feet and the depth of the water is about 800 feet. All of it created thousands of years ago by the retreating ice shield that covered the Earth.

This picture gives you an idea of the size and how rugged the mountains are. With our ship docked.

Now what I did not know was how important Trolls are in Norwegian culture and mythical history. They are everywhere, they are nasty and smelly and under 4 feet, Evil little creatures. They mostly have jobs with Facebook now or on social media.

Eidfjord, 956 pop, is a place for camping, kayaking, hiking and bicycling. Perfect in the Summer for families and located within an National Park, with great scenic views. If you have time you can visit Hardangervidda (mountain plateau) the Hardangerjokulen glacier, and other sights in the area, which would require at least 2 days. We had only 8 hours and the weather was not cooperating. On the day we visited, it was cold, rainy and damp. I did a little walk around in this very quiet village, only saw a dog looking at me through a living room window. The house are pretty and everything is neat, no troll in sight except for this one, made of wood.

I returned to the ship, and was looking forward to our return to the sea where we could admire on our way out the panorama of the Fjord and its many waterfalls.

The  Hardanger Bridge, longer than the Golden Gate bridge by 20 meters, we passed under it with a clearance of just 2 meters.

During our travel through Norway we heard a lot from the Norwegians about climate change and how very concerned they are about the warming of the climate, which has melted the glaciers, you can still see them but they are now remote at high altitude. Norway has around 60% electric car fleet  and hope that by 2023 it will be 100% as no fossil fuel cars will be sold in the country. The incentives to buy an electric car in Norway are generous, no tax on purchase, free parking everywhere, no cost on recharging your battery which take minutes, no toll on roads, tunnels or bridges. Given that gas is $7 a litre + 35% tax, you do the math easy to see why it is a good deal to buy electric. But there are also other measures I noticed in the grocery store, no plastic wrapping, lots of recycling everywhere, it is all very progressive.

Dinner in one of the specialty restaurant Pinnacle Grill, very nice menu, beef is the main item.

 

 

To Norway

Tags

champagne, cruise, dining, Holland, North Sea, Norway, ship

We boarded our ship in Amsterdam at the Zouthaven Passenger Terminal  next door to the Centraal Train Station.

We were scheduled to visit the Fjords, Eidfjord, Alesund, Geiranger and the city of Bergen. First we sailed up into the North Sea passing Germany and Denmark it takes about 14 hours to do this. We left at 5PM and for the first hour we slowly made our way in the Canal that brought us to the great gate and lock which we have to cross in order for the ship to be lifted up the Sea Level, you understand why it is called the Low Countries, The Netherlands is under the sea level. The scenery as we cruise slowly along the canal to the Sea is heavy industry, shipping and cargo, The Netherlands is a trading nation with a long history of naval commerce from around the world.

Photo taken from our Stateroom at the front of the ship, here it is the gate and lock we will enter it and be lifted up and then continue into the North Sea just in front of us (top of photo) making a right turn to go North.

Our speed was depending on the winds (gale) and height of the waves between 9 to 15 Knots.

We had lunch by the pool area where they have a pizza and bar, you can also get a burger or hotdog and fries. It was a more quiet area than the Lido Market which was mostly a zoo with far too many people. At night the double tier dining room and the specialty restaurants.

So we enjoyed our pizza which was very good with a bottle of champagne of course.

The large pool and triple jacuzzi area was covered by a retractable roof which opens on sunny days. There is another pool at the rear of the ship.

The North Sea

This area of the ship on the 14 deck was called the retreat and was very nice and private.

The blue arrow indicates our location as we make our way North. A nice beginning to our trip.

 

 

Utrecht

Tags

Canada., Holland, Hudson's Bay Co, Mayor, people, Philip Brown, Treaty, Utrecht

While in the Netherlands we decided to visit Utrecht which is 20 minutes from Amsterdam and served by an efficient modern train service. We took the train at Amsterdam Centraal, the train station serves 162,000 people per day, everything is  automated, you buy your ticket from a machine, present said ticket at the automatic wicket and go to the platform. We stored our luggage in the vast storage area of Amsterdam Centraal, again all automated, interaction is with a computer screen, you pay by the day or hour. There is an attendant to help if a problem occurs. There are also attendants at the Information booth to direct you if you are not sure where things are in this vast train station.

The Netherlands, population 18 million is a collection of Provinces,

Drenthe
Flevoland
Friesland (Fryslân)
Gelderland
Groningen
Limburg
North Brabant
North Holland
Overijssel
South Holland
Utrecht
Zeeland

The King Willem Alexander and Queen Maxima live in the Royal Capital of The Hague in the province of South Holland.

Utrecht in the history of Canada plays a role which influenced the political evolution of what was then New France. The Treaty of Utrecht was signed in 1713 and brought to an end the War of Spanish Succession between England and France. The immediate aims of Britain were achieved when the France were driven from the Spanish Netherlands and Italy, and the crowns of Spain and France would not be united.

The treaty recognized Queen Anne as the legitimate sovereign of England and officially ended French support for the claims of the Jacobite party to the British throne. France agreed to restore the entire drainage basin of Hudson Bay to Britain and to compensate the Hudson’s Bay Co for losses suffered during the war.

Moreover, Acadia, whose capital of Port-Royal (Annapolis Royal) had been captured by a New England expedition in 1710, was to pass to Britain, although France continued in possession of a part of the territory (modern New Brunswick) because of differences of interpretation in the size of the territory. Lastly, France retained Cape Breton, where it began to construct the fortress of Louisbourg and Ile Saint-Jean (Prince Edward Island).

Utrecht has preserved its old town with its canals, it is very small area with beautiful houses and mansions, old churches and a cathedral.

This old church has been converted into condominiums and we lived in a small beautiful hotel just next to it.

View of the canal from our room. I highly recommend this little hotel in Utrecht, just charming and so well appointed. The bathroom was modern and big with a beautiful slate floor.

Again hundreds of bicycles parked along the canal. A city designed for people not cars.

The cathedral steeple under scaffoldings, it is the same height as an Apollo rocket or 112 meters high and dates from 1274 it is separated from the main body of the church because a storm 1674 collapsed half of the cathedral building and it was never rebuilt. Unlikely to be rebuilt now the Dutch are not a church going people.

In its original complete form c.1294

Today you can see the missing part separating the Church bell tower from the Nave main back part of the church. It was once the largest church in The Netherlands, it became a protestant Lutheran church in 1580 at the time of the Reformation.

City Hall of Utrecht next to St-Martin’s Cathedral.

At the time of the Reformation the iconoclast movement defaced and destroyed all religious images within many churches seen as idol worship. Here we see God the Father, Virgin Mary, baby Jesus and Apostles defaced.

The Utrecht Train Station area in the modern part of the city. Hudson’s Bay has a large store in Utrecht.

I took this picture for our Mayor Philip Brown to show him that you can have bicycle parking for more than one bicycle.

Utrecht also has wonderful restaurants, great cuisine. It is a peaceful city and very pleasant to walk around.

We returned to Amsterdam the next day by train but wished we had spent more time in Utrecht.

The inter-city train comfortable and clean took us back to Amsterdam Centraal in 20 minutes and we collected our luggage and walked over to the Cruise ship terminal next door. Again Amsterdam a city designed for people not cars.

We are back in Town

Tags

Amsterdam, art., Canada., Holland, life, Rijks Museum

It feels like we left years ago to travel to Europe on this latest vacation of ours. It has to be said that when you live on a small Island like PEI with its tiny population of 150K, you need to leave at least every 6 months simply to see something different.

This trip saw us travel to The Netherlands, Norway and the UK, plane, boat, train. I also want to acknowledge that in our 41 years together, our personal private travel is always arranged by Will who covers all details and always makes our travel interesting and fun.

We are well travelled and have been for 40 years, many places we visit are known to us because we either lived there at some point or been there numerous times in the past. So when we return to visit what we had not seen previously or re-visit places we want to rediscover. On this trip like others we stumbled upon wonderful restaurants and wine bars.

We left Charlottetown two days prior to our flight from Toronto to Amsterdam. We do this to avoid delays and cancelled flights out of Island, the weather in the Maritimes can be unpredictable and high winds or a storm can see cancelled flights. So we flew to Toronto and stayed at 1 King West which is a great hotel at reasonable rates and the staff is so nice.

I King West is at the cross roads of the 5 big banks in Canada, BMO, CIBC, TD, Nova Scotia and RBC all rivalling to have the highest tower or in the case of RBC infusing gold dust into its glass walls. It’s a nice area to be in and close to lots of bars and restaurants.

Amsterdam was our destination some 3 days prior to the cruise departure. It has become an expensive city like London, it remains a wonderful city to visit and is a pleasure to wander through the canal neighbourhood.

Our hotel was on Prinsengracht or Prince Canal. Of course like many cities in Europe, Amsterdam has thousands of people riding bicycles and lanes reserved to them along all streets. Not to forget that gasoline is $3.50 per litre + 23% VAT which is very expensive if you are filing up. We complain in PEI because our gas is $ 1.20 per litre and our VAT is 15%.

Of course in Amsterdam there are lots of coffee shops, good restaurants and wine bars but also lots to see and visit. We wanted to visit the RIJKS Museum, the last time we were in Amsterdam it was partially closed due to a multi year renovation. It is pronounced RIKES and the name means Imperial, until fairly recently the Netherlands had a huge colonial empire spanning the globe.

Here I am in front of the Rijks Museum around 09:00am, a little chilly that morning. We spent 2 days visiting the magnificent collections, you have to take your time to appreciate all that there is to see.

Another view of the Museum as we walked around it.

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is the most visited Museum in the Netherlands. It houses over 1,000,000 pieces of artwork, documents and other important items associated with Dutch history. Although the museum as an institute has existed since 1800, it was originally founded in The Hague. The Rijksmuseum is currently able to present and display around 8000 objects at a given time and regularly changes its exhibitions throughout the year.

I took a few photos of the exhibits inside the museum, it is very varied, from paintings to sculptures, fine porcelain dishes, silver objects, wooden model ships, The Netherlands has a rich naval history, etc…

Charity the Educator by Italian artist Lorenzo Bartolini, sculpted in Florence 1842. Here we see a woman in the role of the Virtue Charity as Educator with two children pointing to a book encouraging the older child to read. This sculpture was part of a theme in Tuscany at the time on fostering education.

The view from the Batavian Embassy in Paris, C.1801 by Josephus Augustus Knip.  We see Place de la Concorde in Paris with the two famous building Hôtel de la Marine and Hôtel de Crillon before Napoleon had the Obelisk of Luxor placed in the square. The Ambassador of Batavia, Rutger Jan Schimmelpennick commissioned this painting.   Batavia was to become a few years later the Kingdom of Holland created by Napoleon for his brother and a few years after that the united Kingdom of The Netherlands under the Prince of Orange Nassau, William I. However the union did not last in 1830 the southern part separated and became the Kingdom of Belgium.

This room exquisite room of lacquer panels and fine Chinese porcelain was created by Elias and Tobias Nijmegen in 1695, the walls mounted with Chinese screens of coromandel lacquer. It originally stood in the Court Stadtholder Palace of Leeuwarden. It formed part of the apartment of Princess Albertine Agnes of Orange Nassau and she used this room to sit and drink tea imported from China, which at the time was a luxury.

The Rijks Museum also has special exhibits and one was by Erwin Olaf who matched his own modern photos with old master paintings and gave a narrative of what it meant to him. It was fascinating because you were drawn into the dialogue with the artist and invited to reflect on what he was saying.

Berlin Portrait 1, by Erwin Olaf. I took this picture in the museum and unfortunately it is not of good quality.  What drew me to this photo was the boy who strangely looks like me, our parents when we travelled abroad made us dress formally, jacket and tie and this photo brought back memories of those times when I was around 12 yrs old.

Here Olaf tells the story of being in an airport lounge and looking around at all the parents and their children. Olaf says he realized that the children had all the power, they moaned and complained, they controlled the holiday, virtually determining what was going to happen. Olaf says that he had an inspiration: he would work with those children and let them rule and banish the adults from their world.

Portrait of a girl in Blue, Johannes Verspronck, c. 1641 Oil on canvas.  Here Erwin Olaf selected this portrait of a little girl from a very wealthy family and says;  I think that this is one of the most extraordinary portraits at the Rijks Museum. I learned that sometimes you need only minimal means to achieve great power of expression. When you photograph you use a mechanical aid to register someone’s gaze but here Verspronck brings the subject to life by simply adding a dot of white paint in her eyes. She really is looking at you.

What I liked about this oil portrait is its delicacy and detail of the dress and how exquisite the paint brush is, it is so real you believe it is fabric you can touch. I agree that her gaze is full of life.

My visit to the Rijks Museum made me truly happy, the place is uplifting and confirmed why I so enjoy working in art galleries and visit museums. There is so much to learn and appreciate.