You Never Know Where You're Going Till You Get There...

"The best laid plans o' mice and men oft times gang agley" ~ Robert Burns 

There's been a bit of a hiccup in our itinerary, but I'll get to that after I share about our lovely morning in and around Bergen. For the first time in our cruising history, we set an alarm so we'd be awake and ready for our early tour. Good thing. We both slept like the dead, but a good cup of coffee and breakfast in the World Cafe woke us up and we were on our way to the stave church in Fantoft. 

This may look like a church, but it's actually a shrine to caffeine--a Starbucks!

Sadly, the stave church is a replica. It was burnt down in the '90s during a spate of arson attacks targeting these ancient churches. There used to be thousands throughout the country. Now there are only 20-some. But this church was rebuilt after an appeal for all those who had visited the original to send in their photos so the replica could be as true to the original as possible. It is built of wood, entirely without nails, and coated with tar to seal and preserve the wood. We were not allowed inside.

  There are both Christian and pagan symbols on the church, crosses and dragons, according to our guide Emmanuel, though I suspect the dragons are representative of Jormungand, the world serpent, according to Norse mythology. 

The church was completely enclosed by a very high chain link fence to protect it from vandals. I was able to snap this pic by holding my camera right up to the diamond-shaped holes in the fence. You can just make out the wire as a fuzzy smudge in the upper and lower left of the photos.

The hike back to the church was through a beech forest over uneven terrain with a fresh coating of snow and ice on the path, but fortunately, no one took a tumble. Then we were off to Troldhaugen (House of the Trolls) Edvard Grieg's summer home.

This was our second visit to Grieg's house but because our guide Emmanuel has a PhD in Art History, he focused on different things for us. This serving piece was designed by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch. I had no idea he'd done anything but paintings. 

In Grieg's day, a composer had to perform as well as write excellent pieces for others to play. It worked out well for Grieg that his wife, Nina, was an accomplished pianist in her own right and had a lilting soprano voice, so she could perform with him. In fact, he preferred her singing of his art songs to all other sopranos of their day. Emmanuel shared that Grieg suffered terribly from stage fright, so he usually traveled with a number of stuffed animals for comfort. However, his most treasured talisman against a bad performance was a small ceramic frog. He depended so much on that little thing, he had to have it in his pocket every time he went on stage. When it was misplaced once, Grieg delayed a concert by a whole hour until it could be found and safely stowed on his person.

The lucky frog!

We were treated to a concert of Grieg's music in the hall near the house. The pianist was wonderful, a masterful performer, who played Grieg's forceful pieces with great authority and his more whimsical tunes with equally great tenderness. I was enthralled! 

I never knew Grieg was so unsure of himself. If you listen to his music, it's not the least timid or shrinking. It goes to show that you can visit the same place twice and come away with different impressions of a place and its people.

View from Troldhaugen. We enjoyed a rare rainless day in Bergen! Like Seattle, it gets "misted" with regularity. 

Once we were back onboard, we had lunch at the Pool Bar. Their Viking burgers are a treat! Then we sailed away from Bergen, unaware that trouble was brewing in the Arctic. 

Hurricane force winds and 50-60 ft waves are bearing down on Alta and Tromso, our first two scheduled stops. At least three other cruise ships (none of them Viking ships) were caught up in the storm, trying madly to scramble away from it. Our captain made the prudent decision to alter our plans because safety comes first. 

So we are heading to Narvik, a tiny town sheltered in part of Norway's inner passage and fjords. We may escape the winds and punishing sea, but cannot escape the cloudy skies. Our chances of seeing the Northern Lights has dwindled considerably. 

But we're on a lovely ship. We're sailing into a port in a part of the world we have not known. We're together. 

It's more than enough. 

Here's our new itinerary (graphics courtesy of our friend Dave!)

More soon...but until then, here's a photo montage from the DH!