A Birthday Treat + Norwegian Fish Soup

Warning - get comfy this is a long one!

Friday was my birthday and what a day it was.  I counted 5 different renditions of "Happy Birthday" starting with Linda's when we woke up.  At breakfast, a waiter distracted me while about 8 of the staff brought a cupcake with a candle and sang to me - rendition number 2.  They also gave me a card signed by them.  I got very emotional.

Next up for me was a nice, long walk.  From the port, you walk over a bridge into the city of Haugesund, Norway.

From there, I walked through the city to get to the Coastal Path.

I reached the Coastal Path and walked along until I got to a spot on a little hill where I sat and enjoyed the view.

I didn't go quite as far as I had planned, but decided it was a good time to return to the ship so I could get Linda and go to town for Norwegian fish soup.  On the way back, I crossed paths with Dottie and Tom and Dottie sang rendition number 3 to me.

From the ship, Linda and I took the shuttle bus back into town.

You may remember from previous blog entries that the last time we were in Norway a couple of years ago, sampling the fish soup became a thing for me.  On my morning walk, I had scoped out a restaurant offering fish soup and that's where we headed.  The fish soup was beautifully presented and quite good. Thankfully, the bees were more interested in the lavender than in the soup!

Later in the afternoon we took the Panoramic Haugesund excursion.  We stopped at the city hall, a panoramic overlook, and the national monument.

The big birthday celebration came that evening.  Linda planned a dinner in Red Ginger with a few of the staff - GM Marck, Dottie, Tom, Concierge Gerardo, and FCC Kristina.

The Red Ginger chef, Manolito, made a special seafood dish for Linda and me.

And then came the giant birthday cake and rendition number 4 of "Happy Birthday".

There was a lot of cake left over which we had them bring to the crew mess.  When we returned to our suite, we were surprised to find it nicely decorated.

We decided to walk off dinner a bit and ran into Tom, Dottie, and Olivia from the Oceania office in Martini's.  So I had to have another drink and the cocktail pianist, Rod, broke into another "Happy Birthday" - rendition number 5!  What a day of celebration it was.

Saturday we were in Alesund, Norway.  In the morning, we took a walk through the lovely town center.

After our exploration, we took a nice seat by the canal.

It was then time for fish soup!  There was a conveniently located restaurant on the way back to the ship where I had the fish soup and Linda had the baccalao.  The presentation of the fish soup was not as nice as the previous day's but the taste was better so, overall, I rated it higher.  And Linda's baccalao was delicious.

After lunch, we took the Saga Islands of Giske & Godoy excursion.  The first stop was the 900 year old church in Giske.  The wood carvings were made by one man who carved the altar when he was 22 years old and the pulpit much later in life. 

Walking around the cemetery we quickly noticed that most of those buried there were named Giske.  A bit of incest?

The next stop was the Alnes Lighthouse which I climbed while Linda enjoyed a cup of coffee.

The last stop was an overlook of the fjord.

This was another good excursion.  Our guide was excellent - very informative and humorous.

When we returned to the port, I decided to try to climb up to the Fjellstua.  You can see it on the hill here.

I walked through the town to get to the park at the base of the hill.  It's then a bit of a climb until you reach the stairs to the top - 416 of them.  I made it to stair number 114 where there was a nice viewpoint and where I decided that I had enough.  It must be the 76 years catching up with me!

Returning to the ship, I stopped at the brew pub for what I felt was a well deserved beer  - a nice red IPA.

This morning, we are anchored off of the town of Nordfjordeid.  It's been a rainy morning but we're hoping that it will clear up enough for us to take a short walk in the small town.

Peace and blessings,

Linda and Larry