Looking Back: Trondheim, Norway

This is another adventure from my time on the ship.  On 6/20 we docked in Trondheim.  I had the morning off, and since I really hadn't had the time to recuperate from the previous very hectic month of massage, I was happy to sleep in.  I escorted an afternoon tour to the Lokke Mines. 

We donned safety helmets and disposable plastic jackets for our trek through the damp, dripping tunnels. 

When we got to the "great room" that is also used as a theater, we were treated to a short concert of traditional tunes.  The acoustics in this great room are renowned. 

After leaving the mine, we boarded a vintage train of wooden cars for a 40-minute ride through the countryside before re-meeting our bus.  Not a grand tour, but a quietly interesting one nonetheless.  Along my travels, I was delighted to see lilacs in bloom.  We had lilacs in our backyard when I was growing up, so I have always had a fondness for them.  However, these lilacs seemed to have little scent.  I don't know if it was because they were past the peak of their bloom, or because it is such a Northerly location, but this lack of their signature scent was disappointing.  I realized that my weight has been fluctuating during my time on the ship and these fluctuations are very much tied to my emotional state, though many people have commented that I seem much thinner than when I arrived.  I'm definitely not thin, but perhaps thinner.  Another realization has to do with travel.  After traveling more in the last eight months than I have in the rest of my life, I feel addicted to travel.  I had always worried that I might become addicted to gambling living in Las Vegas, but I don't seem to mind having a travel addiction.  Ideas about the travel business and how I might fit into it continue to float around in my brain.  I know that at some point, possibly very soon, I will not want to do massage at this busy level, and will want to find some other means of earning an interesting living.  I believe I have previously mentioned that I feel I've entered a nomadic period in my life and as I do not feel the need to settle down anywhere, I might as well continue to travel.  However, for the moment I will continue doing massage and let these thoughts have time to develop.  I recently composed a "rap" song for my last day on the ship.  It is a bit of farewell silliness meant to make people laugh, however I wonder if I will have the guts to perform it.  We shall see!

Art Deco Walks



A section of Ocean Drive

I've always been interested in seeing the Art Deco section of Miami's South Beach, but had never gotten there.  I had planned to spend my birthday in Key West, but Key West is a known entity to me.  So, I decided to add two days to the beginning of my recent trip to Florida to go somewhere new, and do and see different things.  Because this part of the trip was purely vacation for me, I hadn't planned to write about it, but then I looked at my photos and decided to share them.

I took a walking tour through Art Deco Walks (ArtDecoWalks.com) with a lovely English woman, Paula Fletcher, as the guide.  On this tour I learned about the Art Deco, Mediterranean Revival and Miami Modern (MiMo) architectural styles, the history of this barrier island, and about the people who made an impact on the architecture.  I won't go into all of the history - mainly because I did not take notes and would not do it justice, but I want to share the visuals.

The Cardozo Hotel - Streamline style

"Versace Mansion" - Mediterranean Revival

Miami Modern (MiMo) Style

Jellyfish Sconce

Seaweed Chandelier

Rocket Chandelier

Streamline Stairway

Mural and Fireplace

Art Deco inspired furniture

I hope you enjoyed the pictorial - and I hope my captions aren't too misleading!

Looking Back: Aalesund, Norway

This is another post from my time on the ship:

On 6/19 we were in Aalesund.  I escorted a morning tour to Giske and Godoy islands.  To get to the islands you travel through a number of submarine tunnels and over a bridge or two. 

One of our stops was to the Giske church built with thick marble walls that are covered with plaster so you would never know there was any marble unless told. 

The next stop was to Alnes Fyr, an historic, wooden lighthouse where we were served coffee, tea and "Scottish pancakes" (pancakes covered in a sprinkling of sugar).  I sat with a woman named Alice, who turned out to be a tour host for American Express.  Her tours allow her to travel for free, with a small expense account, but she does not get paid.  I discussed professional tour escorting/hosting with her, and we agreed that American Express would not be the company for me since I'd like to get paid for doing this.  One of the local farmers had just mowed the grassy fields near the lighthouse and the strong scent of cut hay and grasses reminded me of the Shaker villages I have visited in Maine and Kentucky. 

We arrived back at the ship around lunchtime, and as I was hungry I took myself to an outdoor cafe in town called Cavatelli.  They had a strange arrangement where you had to go inside to order, but your food was delivered to you on the outdoor patio by the waitstaff, as were any additional items you ordered.  I sat having a bowl of fish soup, a cream-based mix of chunks of a nice white fish and sliced vegetables heavy on the leeks, with a nice glass of white wine.  Even though the sun doesn't seem very strong here since Norway is so far north, I was finally forced to apply sunblock as I felt my face and arms starting to singe.  I then wandered the streets gazing at the beautifully decorated Art Nouveau buildings that were built of stone after the great fire of 1904 destroyed most of the wooden structures in town.

One thing I noted about all of our stops in Norway was that the air everywhere seemed so incredibly fresh.  The scent of the air might change in each locale, but the feeling of cool freshness was a constant.  Here it was June, and you really had to wear a light jacket due to the temperature of this air.  Someone wondered at what latitude we were currently standing, so I looked it up.  If you were to draw a line across to North America, Norway would be on par with the middle of Hudson Bay in Canada - pretty far north.  No wonder it was chilly!  I was told that outside one of the fjords there exist cold water coral!  After living in Key West, I feel I know a little about coral, but had never heard of cold water coral.  You learn something new every day!  Back at the ship I finally had a massage.  When you are constantly doing massage, you really need to make sure you take care of yourself, but few of us on the ship really do.  Devorah, one of the Filipina spa attendants, gives an extremely strong, and sometimes painful, massage despite her short stature.  It was a late massage as she doesn't finish work until 9:00 and she had another client before me.  We finished our almost two hour massage around 1:00 am, and as I was leaving the spa I wandered out on deck and was amazed that it was still twilight.  I was told that the sun had actually set for a short time around midnight, but the rest of the night it was quite light.  I wished I could have sat and enjoyed this amazing twilight more, but with too many early morning tours, I was too tired to do so.

Looking Back: Bergen, Norway

This post is a look back on my travels during my time on the ship where I volunteered to escort as many passenger tours as possible - a great, free way to see the world.

On 6/18 we arrived in Bergen.  The area around Bergen is very green mostly because it rains about 2/3 of the year in this region.  It is very hilly and mountainous with lots of pine - it looks very similar to New England, or more specifically, Maine.  We were lucky to have a semi-sunny day given the typical weather.  Our bus ride took us past many lakes that were so placid that they perfectly mirrored the surrounding mountains and sky.  The buildings here are primarily made of wood as it is a thickly forested country and wood is a ready resource.  These buildings are mostly painted white or brick red (which turns out was traditionally a very cheap paint that the inhabitants could make themselves), with roofs covered in slate shingles, tile, or most interestingly, turf. 

To make a turf roof, I am told, you first put down a good layer of wood, then you put down one layer of turf with the grass side down, and a second layer of turf with the grass side up.  These two layers grow together to form a thick, waterproof, and quite insulating layer.  Then the only upkeep is to mow the grasses and wildflowers growing on your roof, or to simply let the sheep or goats get to it. 

Our guide, Perry, had a very London-y accent and I asked if he went to school there.  It turns out he is from East London and his wife is Norwegian, which is why he relocated.  He was an interesting fellow, a painter (art, not house) by trade, but a bit lax as a tour guide.  He knew his history and was able to give lots of information, but didn't seem to care if everyone reboarded the bus or not, and so it was up to me to ensure that the headcounts were correct. 

Our tour was to Hardangerfjord, the Queen of the Fjords.  Fjords, in case you don't know, are deep valleys carved out by eons of glacial movement where fingers of ocean water creep in amongst the mountains.  Since you are usually many miles from the ocean you could easily believe the fjords are simply lakes - that is until you look into the water and spy seaweed.  Hardangerfjord is beautiful with lots of small orchards scattered along its banks.  We stopped at a hotel for a buffet lunch where we had a choice of cold prepared meats of the region, lots of cold smoked salmon, gravlax, smoked trout, and typical hot foods.  I sat across from an English couple who chose to eat roasted chicken and potatoes.  With all of the local delicacies being offered, it seemed a bit silly of them not to try anything new, but there they were eating chicken. 

Along our bus ride we stopped at Holdhus Kyrkje, a beautifully simple wooden church.  Churches in these more remote areas serve not just as a place of spiritual uplifting, but as the village meeting place and there was a very small green in front of the church for that purpose. 

On our way back to the ship we stopped at Steinsdalfossen, a waterfall that shoots out from the cliff face and there is a pathway under the lip of the cliff where you can stand and look out through the waterfall. 

As we rode through mountain tunnels, Perry played Edvard Grieg's music, as Grieg is seen as the national composer of Norway. 

Rediscovering Paradise

Key West is known by many names:  Cayo Hueso, the Conch Republic, the Southernmost City, but most of the time it's just called Paradise.  I began my journey to rediscover Paradise by leaving a chilly, rain-soaked Boston and landing in Key West where I was greeted with sunshine and warm temps.  A good start!  Now the reason I needed to RE-discover Paradise is that I lived there for almost five years and left to work in Las Vegas and on a ship which took me around the world.  During my years away I often recalled very fond memories of this island city and had frequently wondered if moving back was to be part of my path.  So, how better to give these thoughts some room to grow than to spend a week celebrating my birthday in the city at the end of US Route 1?

Soon after arriving I was bicycling around the island on a beat-up loaner – a woman’s bike with ape-hanger handle bars.  I was a bit wobbly at first, but I didn't care because I was on a bicycle again.  Bicycling is a great way to see the island in detail, and in congested Old Town it is much easier to park a bicycle than a car.  Because I was visiting in May, the island was awash with blooming trees and shrubs.  My favorites:  the umbrella-shaped canopies of the Royal Poinciana alight with blood orange colored blossoms, night air filled with the irresistible scent of Frangipani, and Bougainvillea which blooms everywhere in a painter's palette of color.  The light here is sharper and more intense as compared to the more gentle Northern light.  Colors are so enhanced that the sight of vivid blossoms surrounded by varied shades of green and backed by a deeply-hued blue sky is almost mesmerizing.

As I have always advised visitors:  to visit an island like Key West and not go out on the water is almost a crime.  Following my own advice I booked a snorkeling trip on the Blu Q, my favorite catamaran.  The sky that day was almost cloudless and the water was a dreamy 86 degrees!  At one point I was kneeling on a submerged sandbar with the water only chest-high while enjoying the warmth and sipping sangria.  That’s hard to beat!

As odd as it may sound, my favorite place on the island is the Key West Cemetery.  Almost all of the graves are above ground due to the island’s low-lying topography and high water table.  I used to bicycle along the peaceful lanes between the graves at every opportunity, though now I am told that public access is limited.  One evening I gazed through the fence down the length of the cemetery at the orange-hued, newly-risen full moon and this spectacle was being rivaled by an approaching lightning storm which revealed towering thunder clouds with each dramatic flash.

Speaking of moonlight, I’ve always loved how the tin roofs of the old wooden homes glowingly reflect the lunar light.  It adds a touch of mystery and magic to a nighttime ride or stroll.

And I can't forget about the restaurants!  Key West is well-known for its food, music, and bars ranging from the honky-tonk to the sophisticated.  Some of my favorites are:  Nine One Five where I dined on a series of small plates including devils on horseback, tuna tartare, a cone of fries with aioli, and a great glass of syrah; Square One with Patrick (aka Patticakes) holding court behind the bar where I feasted on duck pad thai while sipping one of the best martinis around; Sunday brunch at Croissants de France sitting under the twisting branches of a 150 year old Spanish Lime tree; Banana Cafe where I got a welcome back hug from Danny, a delightful French woman, and enjoyed my favorite dish of smoked salmon with cream cheese and capers on toasted French bread (in lieu of the normal bagel); and of course I can’t forget Camille's, owned by Michael and Denise, mostly because I used to work there part-time, where lunch consisted of crab cakes benedict and a delicious con leche (Key West shorthand for a café con leche).

At the end of the week I left Key West with a suntan, a relaxed look on my face, and sore muscles (darn that bicycle!), but still didn’t know if moving back was in the cards.  But, heck, it sure is tempting!