Allo (that's hello in Norway) from the Fjords

Do you remember the very first time you saw Yosemite? Or for that matter, anytime you visit Yosemite. Awesome … nature at it’s best. Well, almost. In Norway, I have discovered something even more spectacular. A place where nature has outdone Yosemite. First to back track a bit.

Wednesday night never really ended. It just kind of blended into Thursday morning. We finished dinner at 10:30PM with the sun still well above the horizon. Unable to go to bed with it still so light outside, I headed to the upper deck. At 11:30, I took a few photos of the sun as it tried to go below the mountains. Finally at midnight, I gave up. And though it never did get dark, I did finally go to bed ... only to wake up six hours later in one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen.

Somehow, this huge ship we are on made it up through the narrow gorge known as Geriangerforden. Where the gorge ends, the ship anchored 100 yards off the shore from the tiny town of Geiranger. But before the land adventure began, it was time for breakfast. Bacon, sausage, pancakes, eggs, omlettes, deep fried hash brown patties … this is the daily feast of choice for a “large” part of the people on board. It’s all there for the grabbing at the Lido Café. You would think some of these folks hadn’t eaten for weeks, there is such frenzy. So much so, we have renamed the Lido Café … we call it “The Hog Trough,” and we are mere amateurs in the competition to see who can pile their plate the highest. Fresh squeezed OJ, a plate of fresh fruit, Raisin Bran, and decaf. The large and seasoned eaters smirk at us light weights. But then we didn’t see any of them on the hiking trails that lead nearly up to the snowline.

A short tender ride to the dock, we’re in Geiranger. Here, there are a couple of hotels, a few souvenir shops, and a dock where regional ferries bring in supplies, and transport kids to schools in larger towns along the fjords. It is cool (50 degrees), slightly overcast, great for a hike. And that’s what we did, following a rushing river fueled by melting glaciers. The place is truly one of the most beautiful spots I’ve ever seen (and that includes Yosemite, Yellowstone, Tahiti, and the Swiss Alps). The air is clear, the town immaculate, the people genuinely grateful and friendly. Gardens are covered with giant orange poppies, and the apple orchards are just now in blossom.

Following the two hour alpine-like hike, it was back to the ship for a 10 mile cruise through a glacially carved canyon, spotted with so many waterfalls you didn’t know what to photograph next. Even with the sun playing hide and seek with the clouds (the clouds eventually winning and producing a steady rain as we exited the fjords), it was a day not soon to be forgotten. In some spots, patches of snow still hugged the canyon walls right down to the waterline. And all the mountaintops were white capped, with freshly fallen snow and glaciers.

We eventually made it back out to open sea Thursday night on the way to Bergen, Norway’s second largest city.

Here, it is rainy and cold, but that has not stopped us. We roamed around this morning … another amazingly clean and quaint town with castles and tramways … and streets lined with huge blooming rhododendron bushes. And they have a great open air fish market right on the waterfront. But how people can afford to live here, we don’t know. Fresh king crab caught right off the coast, like what we have in the U.S. from Alaska for about $20 a pound, here will set you back $50 a pound. The same is true for fresh salmon and other fish. Clothing is also extremely expensive (regular cotton t-shirts starting at $30-$40 and some as high as $65-$75). With those costs, and with the rain coming down hard, we headed back to the ship. And a welcome surprise … instead of having to head back into town in the rain to access the Internet at the library or McDonalds (every McDonald’s here has free and very fast Internet), I was able to find several unsecured links available from our balcony. So, here you go. Tomorrow (Saturday), we’ll be in Scotland. Now, I’m heading downstairs for lunch at the Hog Trough. Ciao.

Not Another Vacation!

At the risk of renewed ridicule (all good hearted … of course … I’m sure … right?) from friends who say, “I’m so jealous,” “I hate you,” “I want your life,” and “Oh, things must be rough,” we are off again, on another adventure, this time to northern Europe. For 18 days, room 10024 on Holland America’s Eurodam is home. As happens on these ships, each day, the neighborhood changes. One day The UK, the next Norway, Scotland, Russia, and so on.



Leaving LAX at 4:00 PM Sunday, we discovered that most American airlines could learn some lessons from their European counterparts. Like courtesy and service. Ten hours is a long time to be crammed into a coach seat, but two free cocktails, a really great lasagna dinner with complimentary wine (you’re getting the picture here), tons of movies on demand (I chose “I love you, Philip Morris”), and one sleeping pill made it an almost enjoyable flight. From one day, through one night, and into the next morning, the British Airways 747 sped eastward. I can’t say we arrived at Heathrow fresh as newly picked lotus blossom, but, hey, we were there. A two hour bus ride culminated at the docks below white cliffs of Dover. By 5:00 PM Monday, we set sail, maneuvering between the countless ferries and cargo ships that ply the waters from the shores of the UK to those of France and Belgium (which being a rare clear day, we could see from Dover).

The funny thing about jet lag is that you never really know when exhaustion will strike. One minute you’ll feel like vigorous exercise to snap out of the eight hour time difference funk. The next minute, just when you slip on your gym shorts to get that exercise, you collapse. But at 9:00, the evening unceremoniously ended as we came back to the room after dinner and barely undressed before seriously crashing. This far north and being this is the start of summer, the sun didn’t even set until close to 10:30 PM. Didn’t matter. We had checked out. And, we didn’t check back into the world until 9:00 AM (five hours after the sun rose).

I did mention, it is summer? T-shirts, shorts, sandals, right? Ummm, how about sweatshirts, jeans, and shoes. Day #1 was at sea, where the sun barely made an appearance and the high barely reached 50. But we’re on a summer cruise, and the weather be damned. We defied the weather gods and sat outside during breakfast (us, and one other crazy couple). With a jacket along with a hot cup of coffee, we did just f-f-f-f-f-f-fine. It wasn’t that bad, but as Dorothy once said, “T-T-T-T-T-Toto, we’re not in P-P-P-P-Puerto Vallarta anymore.”

After a very smooth day of sailing the North Sea, the first stop is the town of Alesund, Norway. It’s a small fishing village that is quaint, yet, unlike most other European cities, it is modern. That’s because the entire town burned to the ground a century ago, and was totally rebuilt. Today, we walked nearly 10 km … the destination being Atlanterhavsparken, also known as the Alesund Aquarium. Aside from the Monterey Aquarium, this is the coolest one I’ve been to. Sure, there are tons of fish, but also they have an outdoor penguin park. The penguins seemed a bit horned up today, and attempted to perform an erotic penguin show. In the end, all the poor things could do was squawk at each other and jump into the lagoon. Yes, we traveled half way around the world to see frustrated penguins.

Everything is extremely expensive here. We slipped into a grocery store, where prices are about three times what they are in the U.S. And a gallon of gas is pushing $7.00. No wonder the penquins are yelping.

At least it was mostly sunny and a bit warmer today. Thursday, it’s Geiranger and Hellesylt, Norway, where we’ll probably hike some fjords. And perhaps encounter some penguins that are a bit more satisfied.

My new disappointing toy

I’ve been thinking about it for some time, in fact since I left News10 more than two years ago. I wanted to buy a new video camcorder. My old nine year old Sony has served me well, capturing fun vacations and family gatherings, even shooting news stories which aired in San Francisco and Sacramento. But, as happens over time with these things, the picture is getting a bit soft, the camera is showing its age. With home HD cameras now out there at fairly reasonable prices, I thought it was time to take the step (particularly since we’re leaving next week for an 18 day European cruise).

I’ve had excellent luck with Sony, so that was my first choice. I was impressed with the camera, but since the consumer grade Sonys no longer have an input for an external microphone (which to me is like buying a camera without a lens), I had to cross Sony off my list.

After research, I settled on the Canon HF R11 (which shoots in HD and has a microphone input), and when I saw it at Costco this week for under $600 including all the accessories, I bought it. The features, video, and audio are all reasonable good. The only downside was the deplorable Pixela editing system that came packaged with it. But that’s not a problem because there are other great editing programs available for under $100 from Avid (Pinnacle) and Adobe (Premiere Elements).

After shooting some video just to get to know the camera and its features, I downloaded the video from the camera to my computer without a problem. I edited a short project just to get the feel of the software, and then exported the finished masterpiece back to the camera so it could be played back on an HDTV. Oh … wait … that’s the disappointing part.

The camera would not accept its own video after it had been edited on third party software! Seriously! I called Canon tech support, twice, and both times their reps confirmed that only video edited on the totally crappy software that came bundled with the camera would work. The Canon camera will not accept video edited on competitors' software.

I’ve searched for solutions online and talked with one of my really smart tech savvy friends. We’ve both come to the conclusion that for whatever reason, Canon has failed to make their camera compatible with the rest of the editing world. My friend tells me that it would likely be a simple tweak to the software program in the camera. Whatever the reason, it doesn’t work. If anyone from Canon is reading this, come on, get your compatibility act together. If anyone from Sony is reading this, come on, add an input for a microphone. If anyone from Pinnacle or Adobe Premiere is reading this, try working with the hardware manufacturers to make your programs more user friendly. And if anyone from Costco is reading this, sorry, but the camera is already back in its box and will be returned this week. Looks like the old Sony will be going on another vacation.