July 28-29 Kristiansand & Bergen Norway

 We've never been to Kristiansand, a small city. It's a Sunday morning and the place is deserted...but Mac's is open.

Marina reflected in a harbor building

Street art

Deserted shopping street

Kristiansand Cathedral, with a fountain. The street level fountain suitable for kids to play in seems to be a theme of this trip.

City Hall

Posebyen is the old section of town, but well kept.

Street art in front of a restaurant.

On to Bergen, where we've been several times before. There are a number of island communities on the way in through the fjords..

One mystery solved. This is a water bus/water taxi stop a couple of miles from the Bergen dock. Shortly after we passed a small boat pulled up and the people boarded. I guess that's how they can commute to Bergen for shopping on those islands not connected by roads and bridges.

This looks like the ultimate thrill ride. On most commercial ships the lifeboats are set up to plunge from the deck into the ocean when necessary. This may be a training center for sailors.

Old harbor fort

The famous Bergen Bryggen

The church and homeless camp. A number of people were ministering to the needy.

Floibanen Funicular. We were up there on our first trip to Bergen. Excellent views of the harbor.

No, we didn't

Interesting reuse of a telephone booth -- it's now a small library

One seldom sees a boat this clean and freshly painted. It was docked across the pier from us.

July 26-27 Copenhagen Denmark & Oslo Norway

 Our stop in Copenhagen was also the turnaround day for the ship. A few of us were continuing onto the next cruise, and they had arranged a shuttle bus to take us from our remote dock to the park near the Little Mermaid. The destinations people knew nothing about it, but we finally found it and got our ride.

 We didn't walk over to the Little Mermaid - we've seen it from the land, from a boat, and one year when we were here the LM was in China, but they had a live video feed from the exhibit. That seems to have covered all the possibilities. We instead cut through the harbor fort which is still a semi-active military installation.

St Albans Church

Reflections

King Christian V

Nyhaven  We recommend the boat tour if you have the time. Copenhagen is also known for its street hot dogs, if you have the stomach.

Copenhagen has a pedestrian mall/shopping street from Nyhavn to City Hall.

City Hall

Hans Christian Anderson. 1) The statue always has kids climbing on it, and 2) Hans seems to be looking across the street at Tivoli, the amusement park that inspired Walt Disney to build Disneyland.

Displays of support to Ukraine were frequently seen. Here's one in front of City Hall.

Next stop Oslo Norway. We'll be visiting Norwegian ports for the next 10 days or so. Like Stockholm the sail-in is full of occupied islands.

The boat docks right downtown, no shuttle bus needed.

Cathedral

Cathedral square. The bronze guy is Christian IV

Karl Johans Gate is the shopping street and main axis of town

The Parliament building. Ukraine demonstration actively shouting in the square.

University of Oslo

Norwegian Palace as it would appear on the Day After. Cynthia applied the "Remove People" filter to wipe out several hundred people walking along the avenue.

National Theater

Oslo Opera House. The outside terrace is one huge ramp that looked like an effort to walk up/down. Hard to imagine evening clothed opera attendees walking that promenade.

Ski jump

Akershus Castle and Fortress as seen on sail away.