ALWAYS FIND TIME FOR THE THINGS THAT MAKE YOU HAPPY TO BE ALIVE
Southampton (London), England
Bergen, Norway
Flam, Norway
Geiranger, Norway
Alesund, Norway
Stavanger, Norway
Sailing for the first time out of London (Southampton), Lady and The Pirate wanted to take in a bit of London culture, see the musical, Hamilton, and visit a world famous landmark, Stonehenge before embarking on a Celebrity cruise to the land of Vikings, Norway!
Lady and The Pirate spent two days in London, England where much of the adventure was captured on the first two videos below. To this day, Lady and The Pirate will say the bed they slept in at St. James Court in London was the most comfortable they'd ever experienced on any of their adventures. The first day they arrived via Heathrow airport and only had enough time to settle into their room and grab a dinner at a local pub, Buckingham Arms. The Guinness there was certainly far better than Lady and The Pirate had tasted back in the States. The second day was activity packed and began with a walk past the changing of the guard to a bus tour of the city, a fish and chips lunch, and then finally off to see Hamilton at Victoria Palace Theatre in London's West End. Amazingly, Lady and The Pirate were not able to secure tickets to see Hamilton in the United States, but London was a different story and, in their opinion, a rather unique place to watch the musical.
The following day saw Lady and The Pirate board the bus to take them to Stonehenge and then on to the ship for the cruise. The Pirate was unaware of it, but tourists were no longer allowed to walk freely among the stones in Stonehenge starting in 1977 due to erosion of the grounds. You can, however, book a separate excursion where a limited number of people are allowed to go up to the stones. But that would require a tourist be there before opening or after closing each day. Something Lady and The Pirate were not able to do on this trip. From a distance, both Lady and The Pirate thought the stones appeared underwhelming, but The Pirate still enjoyed seeing something he'd only seen in pictures as a child. There's a touristy store before you get to the stones and a bus is generally used to ride out to the site, but some people walked out and back.
Celebrity Silhouette was a beautiful ship. Celebrity is owned by Royal Caribbean (RCL) and is a step up in class and pricing. Lady and The Pirate also went above that and booked a sky suite for this cruise. It was another educational CME cruise for Michelle and her company helps foot the bill. Lady and The Pirate assumed the sky suites on Celebrity would be similar in size and stature to the junior suites on Royal Caribbean ships. They were very wrong. Whereas a junior suite on Royal Caribbean is a slightly larger balcony cabin, a sky suite on Celebrity is a traditional suite with a butler and a lot of extra perks like a suites only restaurant called Luminae. As you know by now, Lady and The Pirate like to partake in a few fine libations. Well...Celebrity ships have a bar called the Martini Bar and the frozen surface is excellent for chilling cocktails. Lady and The Pirate did not believe the first Celebrity ship they sailed on to Alaska was all that, but they were very impressed with this more modern Celebrity ship. For instance, Silhouette has a grass lawn on top, a tree growing in the middle and the treats in Cafe al Bacio & Gelateria are included and high quality. The food, overall, seemed a lot better than the food they'd had on the Alaska cruise ship. Interestingly, Lady and The Pirate were rather impressed that in both the suite private lounge and restaurant, the staff knew their names without even being introduced. Now that's service!
It didn't take long for Lady and The Pirate to see how incredibly beautiful Norway was. The city of Bergen and the World Heritage site, Bryggen were their first port of call and simply taking in the area would have been enough to impress Lady and The Pirate, but when they set off for their first adventure down the Osterfjord, they were blown away with the natural beauty. The waterfalls and serene mountainous environment was breathtaking. There were times the water seemed like it was a mirror. The quaint little town of Mostraumen with the mountainous backdrop looked like a picture postcard from the boat. The air was crisp and clean and The Pirate couldn't help but wonder how many Viking Longships had sailed those waters.
The second port of call found Lady and The Pirate in Flam and Gudvangen, Norway, both quaint small towns with beautiful mountainous terrains. The electric boat ride along the fjord was simply incredible in that it allowed everyone to soak up the beauty of the incredible cliffs and waterfalls along the fjord in silence. Local news reporters saw The Pirate capturing the landscape and interviewed him for the local news. He was supposed to get a copy but is still waiting. Lol.
The Pirate watched a movie called "The Wave" a few years before cruising to Norway. That's when his excitement to visit Geiranger was born. The movie's plot involves the inevitable destruction of the town of Geiranger by a collapse of a cliff in Geirangerfjord that sends a giant tsunami wave toward the town. From what The Pirate can find, there is, indeed, a chance of this happening at some point. Knowing that danger, The Pirate wanted to go there anyway. Maybe it wasn't the wisest choice, but he and Lady Michelle did have an incredible experience visiting the town as well as enjoying one of The Pirate's favorite beers, "Frosen", which, unfortunately, is no longer available. The waitress told him the brewery had gone out of business. Geirangerfjord is famous for the "Seven Sisters" waterfall and Lady and The Pirate ventured off to see it along another boat ride down the fjord. Unfortunately, the season dictates how many falls you can see and only four were flowing when Lady and The Pirate were there.
Alesund, Norway was the next port of call and Lady and The Pirate were excited for one particular excursion, Trollstigen (The Trolls Path). It's a famous serpentine mountain road famous for its hairpin bends and stunning dropoff views with waterfalls. The Pirate enjoyed watching buses coming up it have to stop and maneuver back and forth to make the climb. The excursion also took Lady and The Pirate to the most northern latitude they'd ever been at one second under 62 degrees and 30 minutes north.
Lady and The Pirate's last port of call was Stavanger, Norway. Just don't ask Lady Michelle to pronounce it. Lol. The excursion was another fjord that took them to Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock). This overhang rock was featured in Tom Cruise's movie, "Mission Impossible - Fallout". The Pirate was so impressed he bought a hat and wears it quite often even to this day.
Notes on this cruise:
The cruise to Norway marks the beginning of The Pirate's obsession with documenting a lot of his cruises with video. For this cruise he was using a GoPro with a heavy gimble. Eventually, he would opt for a more compact DJI Osmo Pocket, a camera and gimble all-in-one.
Las Vegas offers a direct flight to Heathrow in London that takes about 10 hours to fly.
The Pirate took home second place in the talent show aboard Celebrity Silhouette. He sung "16 Candles".
A Day In The Life (Part 1)...London)
A Day In The Life (Part 2)...London)
Stonehenge
Bergen Fjord Cruise to Mostraumen, Norway
