We disembarked from the Viking Vela at 8:45 AM this morning after packing out suitcases to be handled to the bus and into the Bergen airport. We rented a car for the balance if our stay and were on our way about 10 AM.

First stop was to a replica of a Stave Church from the Viking time (1150 and 1350). We met a local and had a nice chat about the church, Norway and the area.

Stopped for a cache near a train station along a fjord. Along our drive, there were many, many tunnels ranging from 100 meters to 2 km. Interesting driving.

Then we were on our way to find a geocache at a waterfall. The waterfall was a bust as access was closed due to dangerous winter conditions. The cache was still there and we found it!

Arrived at our hotel around 4:30 pm. Today we had lunch and dinner from supplies! Dinner supplies were obtained by walking to a nearby grocery store. Gary climbed up on a wall to retrieve the cache on the way for groceries.

More driving tomorrow!

This is additional images from the fjord cruise. Due to technical difficulties i am not able to sign in to our adventure site. So I have to resort to an email process. Hope you don’t mind the reduced information.

Gary

MONDAY 3/10 Alesund

It’s true we completed the cruise and never saw the dancing lights, but we still had some good times.

We docked Alesund around 7AM. After a quick breakfast we were on the small boat for the lovely scenery in the morning sunlight (yay-the sun!).

Returned just after 1 PM for the departure to Bergen where we will end our cruise no later than 9 AM.

Pictures below are from our sail through the fjord with great morning sunlight.

Trondheim Two Days 3/8 and 3/9

After the day and night at sea, we arrived in Trondheim around 7 AM on Saturday morning.

Saturday In Trondheim

After breakfast in the World Cafe, we headed out on our own to explore the city. Viking provided a shuttle bus on a half hourly schedule for guests who wanted to get to town and we took it! Once there we began to use our geocaching finds to see the interesting things while adding to our total cache numbers. We even started the day with sunshine! That was great for photographing the Old Bridge and colorful buildings.

Back to the ship for lunch! They do feed us well and you never want to miss a good meal! Then we were off for the organized bus ride excursion through town to a few view sites with a local guide giving narrative. Mostly there are no photo opportunities on a bus ride throughout town!

Sunday Back To Town On The Bus

We had a few more caches to find today before we leave for Ålesund tonight. Breakfast, then donning our rain pants and coats to avoid getting too wet! The bus was waiting, and we were on our way about 10 AM.

Returned in time for lunch. Today was laundry day for us aboard ship. Clean clothes for our week following the cruise on our own. Rented a car for pickup at the Bergen airport on Tuesday morning after we disembark the ship. Then on to see other parts of Norway!

Today the bags are packed, airport shuttle on the way and flights to Montreal then on to London Heathrow for our Viking cruise to Norway!

We have been following other cruises on this itinerary and even though the prospects are low, we are hopeful!

More later as internet is available.

Gary & Joyce

We decided to book a weekend stay in Philly to celebrate our 55th anniversary.  With a little searching we found a lovely B&B near 18th & Pine–La Reserve convenient to the Kimmel Center for our Philly Orchestra concert, our favorite restaurant La Viola and of course some geocaches accessible by SEPTA bus.

We left home a little after 9 AM to drive to the Wawa (Wawa PA near Media PA) station, parked Ms. Merlot in the covered garage and paid for 2 nights parking.

Made the 10:08 AM departure to Suburban station.  From there we took Bus 17 to 19th & Pine. Walked with 1 rolling suitcase the 2 blocks to La Reserve and had an early check in.  We enjoyed lunch after settling in.

Then we were off via SEPTA Bus 2 and 64 to get to the Washington/South Street area.  All bundled up against the cold we found 3 geocaches in a few blocks.

Returned to our B&B via bus 40 and walked the 2 blocks from the nearest stop.  Inside it was toasty warm!!  Had a cup of tea, did some reading and rested up before heading out to dinner and concert.

Departed the B&B around 5 PM for La Viola where we discovered it was “restaurant week”. Had a lovely dinner with a nice wine we brought along (BYOB). Then on to the concert at the Kimmel.

Now time to call it a day! Tomorrow beckons….

Up at 6 AM due to the alarm that went off unexpectedly! Didn’t check to make sure it was off at bedtime last night! Oh, well, we could organize our day and begin our journey home. After breakfast from hotel supplies, we packed up and were on our way around 9:15 AM.

We cached our way home as follows:

Carillon Park, Luray Virginia (sadly, no music during the week)
Samuels Public Library, Front Royal Virginia
3 Guardrail letterbox caches along the highway in Maryland

Today’s drive from Harrisonburg VA to home was along familiar roads that we have traveled for years. We took US 33 from Harrisonburg to US 340 through Harpers Ferry WV, Boonesboro, MD, Thurmont, MD and Westminster, MD. Today we covered 5 states and 215 miles. Ms. Merlot also passed the 82,000 mile mark along the way! Making the 3-week journey a total of 2,960 miles.

Arrived home around 5 PM today. Turned on the water in the house, lowered the air conditioner for a more comfortable temperature, unloaded the car and enjoyed our usual arrival dinner of Chef Joyce’s homemade pizza (previously frozen) and a very nice sparkling rose!

A little TV from our usual stations, some laundry, watered the plants and did a bit of catching up on all the things we missed while traveling.

Great trip all around. No car issues, fun doing different things we can enjoy together and visits with family we don’t see very often.