The city of Oslo, Norway was our last stop, and my favorite of all the cities we visited. It is absolutely beautiful, from the architecture to fjords – the history is fascinating and the people are lovely. The recent massacre that befell that city is impossible to comprehend, shocking and very sad. It’s hard to believe such a peaceful and tolerant city was the site of such a tragedy. It is truly heartbreaking.

Our time in Norway was spent in several locations. After a quick tour of Oslo, we traveled out of the city, through beautiful wooded countryside to the Hadeland Glassverk. The glassworks was founded in 1762 and is the oldest industrial company in all of Norway. While there we saw an interesting demonstration in the glassworks (including glassblowing and the use of ovens ranging from 1200º C – 1500ºC), explored the company’s grounds and checked out their shops. After our time at the glassworks, we traveled back to Oslo, and en route saw some of the beautiful Norwegian fjords I had heard so much about. The blue of this water was so rich and pure – it almost seemed fake. Once back in Oslo, we went to The Viking Ship Museum which was pretty amazing. It featured three different ships that had been dug up from burial mounds and date back to 800 – 900 A.D. I’d love to return to Oslo in the future to experience more of the city and to see more of Norway. It was a fantastic trip. Thanks Becki!

(It’s been a busy week and I haven’t had the time to go through the Oslo photos yet, so we’re taking another break from the vacation pictures)

In early June, our niece Emily graduated from high school. It was a scorcher of a day, but she looked beautiful and Aaron and I watched with love and pride along side the rest of the family as she received her diploma. It’s hard to believe the girl I first got to know when she was three years old is going off to Tufts in the fall (yup that’s our second niece to pick a New England college and that’s just fine with us). The photo above is of Emily and her good friend Caroline on graduation day. We had a nice weekend with the family and it was great to all be together. You’ll see from the album, a simple car ride to dinner can turn into a fun time with this crew. Congrats to Emily. We couldn’t be more proud…

So in Skagen we decided to do something a little different and selected rural excursions. We started our visit at Eagleworld, a sanctuary and research center for birds of prey. There was a small education center with displays of feathers, eggshells, nests, photos and short videos of the various birds who live at the sanctuary. Then we were led to a large outdoor area with benches and the up close experience began. There were several handlers who brought out a variety of birds including falcons, eagles and sea eagles. You’ll be able to tell from the photos, we got to see these birds close up. I have seen eagles on television and I imagine I have seen then in person from a distance, but I had no idea they were so big. The staff at Eagleworld demonstrated exercises they do to teach orphaned chicks how to hunt (which involved swinging dead pigeons around on a string at a dizzying speed), they spoke about the historical practice of hunting with birds on horseback (and demonstrated that as well) and of course the birds flew around freely and we got to see how beautiful and powerful they are. It all was sensational to watch.

After Eagleworld, we went to RÃ¥bjerg Mile, a migrating coastal sand dune and moving conservation area. This area of Denmark has a history of many migrating sand dunes. Over the centuries grasses and trees have strategically been planted to anchor the sand and minimize the moving dunes, but RÃ¥bjerg Mile is a protected, government owned area. The dune covers about 256 acres of land and at its tallest point is about 115 ft tall. It moves 50 – 60 ft a year. Becki and I trekked up and up this sand dune and felt like Lawrence of Arabia. The view from the top was pretty incredible, obviously sand in every direction, but with a distant perimeter of green, which seemed quite odd. It truly felt like being in a mini desert. It was a truly unique site to see. After RÃ¥bjerg Mile we headed back to the center of Skagen and had a great lunch in an outdoor cafe where I managed to order us lunch from a Danish man who didn’t speak English. I think Becki was impressed :) After lunch Becki headed back to the ship and I walked around a bit on my own. At the end of the day we were sad to leave Denmark, but very much looking forward to Oslo.

Next up – Copenhagen, Denmark. One of the first things we saw sailing into Copenhagen was a Middelgrunden wind farm – we saw it from the ship while sailing into port – it was really cool to see – there’s something about wind farms I find mesmerizing. Our day ashore in Copenhagen started in Tivoli Gardens, an amusement park of sorts with rides, but with a strong emphasis on gardens. There were beautiful flower beds, fountains and gardens interspersed with the rides and attractions. The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed exploring the park and even went on a roller coaster: The Demon. After Tivoli Gardens we visited a series of historic buildings including Christiansborg Palace, Børsen (Stock Exchange) which had a fantastic dragon tail spire, Nikolaj Kirke (photo above) and the post card image Copenhagen is famous for, Nyhavn district with its brightly colored 17th and early 18th century buildings on the canal.

Next it was onto Amalienborg Palace Square. The Amalienborg Palace is the winter residence of the royal family and is actually 4 identical palaces all facing a center courtyard. Although we didn’t see anyone, we were told Danish royalty was in residence as one of the palaces was flying the royal flag and there were royal guards on duty in the square. We also saw nearby Frederik’s Kirke and the Copenhagen Opera House. Our final stop was back at the Copenhagen harbor to see the Little Mermaid statue, which was based on the title character from a Hans Christian Andersen story. After a great day in Copenhagen, we headed back to our ship and were treated to a fabulous sunset at sea during dinner.