May 16-29, 2019, I was fortunate to be able to revisit Jarlshof (Shetland Islands), Skara Brae and the Ness of Brodgar (Orkney Islands), and the Isle of Skye with a UNC Alumni Association group. When I made this trek in 1989 with the UNC Botanical Gardens, there were 12 of us, taking LONG walks, and we had a whole week staying at Bussta House in the Shetland Islands visiting Yell, Unst, Papa Stour, Fair Isle and Noss before visiting Jarlshof and from there, flying to Kirkney. And we had another week staying at the Kirkwall Hotel in the Orkney Islands visiting Rousay’s many tombs, Maeshowe at Stromness, Papa Westray, Westray, and The Old Man of Hoy. It wasn’t the same trip this time, but it was the best available for me now.

The trip, Scottish Isles and Norwegian Fjords, was run by Gohagan for alumni from several universities.There were about 40 of us for the pre-cruise trip from Copenhagen by ferry to Oslo, then train to Stalheim and bus to Bergen. In Bergen, we boarded Le Boreal, about 230 passengers and 100 crew, for a trip to the Shetland Islands, Orkney Islands, Isle of Skye and highlights of Scotland (Eilean Donan Castle, Glencoe, Fort William, Glenfinnan).

May 16 and 17: Sammie Dellinger, a friend at Galloway Ridge, went with me. We took an evening flight through Paris to Copenhagen going through 6 time zones over many hours. The trip was better than I expected, we checked into the Copenhagen Marriott, tried to walk around the hotel in the drizzle and cold but there was such a strong wind, it wasn’t worth the effort and after a good meal at the hotel, with a little wine and some Isle of Jura, got a good night’s sleep.

May 18: In the morning, we were introduced to the wonderful buffets we had for most of the trip.

We went to Roskilde Viking Museum. Around 1070, five Viking ships were deliberately sunk in Roskilde Fjord to block entry and protect Roskilde from an enemy attack from the sea. These ships were excavated in 1962.They turned out to be five different types of ships ranging from cargo ships to ships of war. They’ve been partially reconstructed. Lots of activities and lessons at the museum in how vikings built ships.

Then, nearby, to Roskilde Cathedral where Kings and Queens of Denmark have been buried since the 15th century. It’s a beautiful, small cathedral, though a little weird since most of the rooms are burial chapels.

We wandered around town for a bit. It was a beautiful, sunny warm Saturday and town was similar to a farmers market with produce, baked goods, sausages, and a few restaurants with outdoor seating. Sammie bought us a pint of delicious strawberries, which drew the attention of a little girl who pounced on one much to the distress of her mother. Her mother insisted she give it back but we convinced her it was OK to keep it and then had to share more with her little sister. Really cute kids.

We were back at the hotel lunch time. We walked a little on the canal’s edge behind the hotel, then just sat and people-watched. Lots of young people out socializing and having fun, everyone seemed very friendly. Turns out it was the opening day for the bar and DJ set up on the walkway. A couple of people got pushed off the walkway into the water, but they were dressed for it and there were lots of ladders to get out. It was interesting to see a lack of guard rails on the walkways.

The photo below was taken from an upstairs hall in the hotel. Do you see the windmills on the horizon? We saw a lot of windmills!

Then back to the hotel for more of the delicious salmon/roe/cucumber/creamy Sriracha sauce on rice paper we’d had before with another appetizer, wine, and a couple of beautiful desserts and we were off to find our way to Tivoli amusement park. From our window, we could see people going up and down some kind of ride and wanted to see what it was. We managed to find the park and check out the ride but we lost our way getting back to the hotel, amazed that we could get lost in such a short distance — and both of us left our maps in our room!

May 19: A marathon this morning posed some challenges for our leaders maneuvering the buses. We had a nice cruise through the canals of Copenhagen, viewing many landmarks. The bus took us by the Little Mermaid for photos, then we had time on our own. We found a nice little Greek restaurant for a simple lunch (smoked salmon, rye bread, and salad greens).

 

 

 

Mid afternoon we checked in for the DFDS Pearl Seaways Ferry, which is more like a cruise ship that has a couple of decks for cars. Although the ship is very big, the cabins are very small and we had a BIG problem — the Ferry had us in the same room — with a rather small bed. We had double checked our accommodations. We had paid extra for separate rooms. Fortunately, it didn’t take them long to give us our second room. There was an extensive buffet dinner and breakfast on the ferry.

May 20: We arrived in Oslo mid morning. There was rather cold drizzly rain most of the day. We had a wonderful tour of The Opera House! It’s a magnificent building, beautiful, comfortable, friendly, artistic, amazing. I’d love to have stayed longer. The building is loved and used. You can walk on the roof — there are concerts on the roof! The huge Wave Wall of oak is warm and beautiful. We got good views of the sculpture She Lies in the harbor as we walked through the halls, and an excellent tour of the rooms, costume area, a ballet rehearsal and all.

From there we went to another Viking Ship Museum, quite different from the first. This one had two ships that were used as tombs to bury wealthy people with some of their treasures, like ornate sleds and carts.

We had a brief visit to Vigeland Sculpture Park, but it was rather cold and rainy and I was glad we didn’t stay there long.

We checked into the Grand Hotel and went looking for a restaurant for seafood for dinner. We had directions but didn’t follow them very well or didn’t recognize the restaurants as something we wanted to go to. So we started back and somehow the way back was entirely different from the way we got there. But we did eventually find our way back and discovered that the Grand Hotel has very good food.

Sammie noticed a woman in the restaurant wearing a nice dress and sneakers. She had noticed several women in Copenhagen wearing skirts and sneakers.

May 21: We were up rather early for a beautiful train ride from Oslo to Voss and from there by bus to the historic Stalheim Hotel.

The view from our room at the Stalheim Hotel looks just like the photo on their website.

It was a beautiful day and the views were stunning. There’s not much up there. The next morning, the place was fogged in. We were so lucky to have such a pretty day!

May 22: After a big buffet lunch, we left for Bergen, had a short photo stop at Tvindefossen Waterfall (I stayed on the bus, it was raining). This was the end of the pre-cruise trip.

We met up with the other 200 or so people for the cruise and boarded Le Boreal.

It’s a very nice ship. We had an especially nice shower, big for a ship. We were on Deck 4 and used the stairs until the last couple of days. We got a lot of exercise!

Twin Beds means to me, two beds with a table or something between them — at least some space. The bedside tables on the ship were built into the wall and didn’t move so we couldn’t separate the beds. So we improvised a snore barrier.

May 23: We had a short walking tour of Bergen’s old wharf and colorful houses, and then we visited Troldhaugen, the home of composer Edvard Grieg. (His “Wedding Day at Troldhaugen” is a played frequently on WCPE.) Drizzle and rain off and on.

We’ve been traveling for a week. Sammie and I have been eating smoked salmon three meals a days for several days now. The buffets are wonderful! Sunrise is around 4 and sunset around 10:30.

May 24: Early morning, we arrived at Flam and boarded the train for a morning sightseeing trip. Not as exotic as our earlier train ride, but a very nice trip.

It’s Spring in Scandinavia. Lilacs are in bloom. Lovely scenery. These lilacs were at the train station.

Heading out Sognefjord, the largest and deepest fjord in Norway.

May 25: We had a good visit to the Jarlshof archaeological site, though it was quite cold and very windy (I wore about 6 layers, including a wool sweater, hat and gloves). There’s so much to see, I didn’t try to take pictures. There are ruins from different periods with the oldest going back to 2500 BC.

May 26: Today was the highlight of the trip — Skara Brae. I’m really happy to have been there again! It’s mind boggling to see a Neolithic settlement (occupied from roughly 3180 BC to about 2500 BC) that is so well preserved. We also got to walk around the Ring of Brodgar. Standing stones are very impressive and you wonder how they moved them and how they made them stand, but seeing the village where people lived, with bedrooms, bureau, and cooking tools, means more to me. It was cold and windy again and rained at the Ring of Brodgar. I didn’t take any pictures.

May 27: We anchored at Skye on a beautiful sunny day! There’s a bridge now, from Skye to the mainland.

We used a tender to get to shore on Skye and again at Fort William.

In the morning, we went to Eilean Donan Castle. I think this makes four, maybe five times, I’ve been there. But we always took pictures from the parking lot. This time we got to tour the castle. Impressive. But I like my photo from the parking lot best.

In the afternoon, we had a beautiful ride across Skye to Portree.

And then the ship headed to Fort William. We spent quite a bit of time on the deck enjoying the scenery as we passed through the Inner Hebrides.

May 28: We had a scenic drive to Glencoe, visited Neptune’s Staircase canal lock, and had some time to enjoy the scenery at Glenfinnan. I realized I had not taken many pictures of flowers and they’ve been beautiful — besides lilacs, there were rhododendron, scotch broom, gorse, tulips, poppies, bluebells (scotch and spanish), some late daffodils, and buttercups.

I got my last good dose of green hills.

 

The flight home from Glascow was long but not bad. There was rain and thunderstorms at JFK that delayed our takeoff but only a couple of hours.

The food on this trip was awesome! The first week meals were either on our own and we had seafood appetizers and desserts or we had buffets with lots of seafood, smoked salmon, shrimp, and mussels. On the ship, we tried a couple of dinners in the 2nd deck dining room but they were ordinary appetizer/main course/dessert meals. There was a buffet on deck 6 for breakfast, lunch and dinner and we loved it. There’d be one section of smoked fish, cold cuts, prosciutto, cheese, and one of salads, and one of hot casseroles, vegetables and meat, and one of desserts, and lots of freshly made bread with wonderful butter. For lunch each day they had a different carved fish or meat — first was very fresh red fish, next day was beautiful cod, next day was a freshly caught salmon. We stuffed ourselves! And with all the walking, I lost a couple of pounds.

I really liked this trip. There were plenty of things to do, but we weren’t pushed. We didn’t have to get up real early except a couple of times. Instructions were excellent. The people, both staff and passengers, were very friendly and considerate and on time. Sammie was good company, with good stories. I haven’t laughed so much in years. The weather was good. And I loved being able to see Scotland again.