Anniversary Cruise--Geiranger, Norway

Our second port of call was Geiranger, Noway, which is right in the heart of the Norwegian fjords. Geirangerfjord is a UNESCO World Heritage Site  and is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. This stop was our favorite of the cruise and definitely the highlight of the trip. Sailing in and out of the port was GORGEOUS and I may have gotten a little carried away with the photos. ( : I've posted a bunch but none of them really do it justice.  

We woke up early and went out on deck to get some photos of the sail in. It was chilly but absolutely stunning. I wish we had woken up even earlier. 

We may or may not have forgotten to comb Riley's hair in our haste to make it outside.

Sigh.

Windy!

The pathway seemed too narrow for the cruise ship to navigate. So gorgeous!

Our ship docked in Geiranger, which was a pleasant surprise since we were originally told we would be tendering because the port was very small. It turned out that Geiranger had just debuted a floating pier about a week before, which saved us the time and hassle associated with taking small boats the short distance ashore. I had prebooked a combination boat and bus tour in an effort to make the most of our short time in Geiranger. The pier was right in the heart of the very small village so we had some time to look around before our boat tour began. It was actually not necessary to prebook as tickets were sold at the Tourist Office at the pier but it was nice to save time waiting in line. While the boat tour was beautiful, I wouldn't recommend it if you're cruising since you can see the same views during the sail in and sail away (for free and with less crowds). The girls spotted Viking Ship Tours in the water, which looked much more exciting...the guests even got to wear costumes! In hindsight, I think this would have been alot more fun! Nevertheless, we enjoyed the beautiful views from the boat and the bus trip took us up to a few lookout points high above the village that were truly beautiful. The roads leading up to the lookout points were completely crazy....hairpin turn after hairpin turn...so we were definitely glad we booked a bus tour rather than considering renting a car.

Norway loves its trolls! 

Our ship with the SeaWalk, the brand new floating pier

Another troll! The girls got a kick out of its pickle nose!

Ready to board our boat trip!

The Viking Ship we wish we had known about!

The Seven Sisters Waterfall

Hugs!

I love these guys' expressions while Riley posed as King of the World! (We do this same pose everywhere we go!)

So pretty

From the lookout point above

Family photo!

Wow...

Wayne's self portrait

Lyla was wiped out after all the fun

Geiranger is gorgeous and my advice to everyone is to go, go, go! It was a very small village so one day was sufficient to see most everything. We did see some abandoned farms that are along the mountainside that you could visit if you were there longer. My favorite part of visiting Geiranger was the sail in and sail out. After we had reboarded the ship, we took the girls to an early dinner at the buffet and then sent them to the Kids Club so we could enjoy a leisurely dinner and check out the views. We ate at the informal Mexican restaurant onboard and sat outside, where we had virtually the whole deck to ourselves with amazing views. I had left my camera in the room but couldn't resist taking some iPhone pics. Some look blurry because we passed through a sun shower, resulting in a beautiful rainbow!

Heaven!

Rainbow! Imagine living in that little village...

Amazing!

I want to live here!

Another picturesque village

And a self portrait. Look how light it is out and it was probably 9:00 at night!

After our dinner and drinks, it was off to pick up the girls and get ready for another big day tomorrow. Next stop: the Shetlands!

Cool hat!

The girls loved returning to the cabin each night to find their towel animals!

Anniversary Cruise--Bergen, Norway

Wayne and I celebrated our big 10 year anniversary on August 9th and decided to do a special family trip to celebrate. We chose an eleven-night cruise to Norway and Iceland that embarked from Harwich Port. We drove just over two hours to the port and boarding Royal Caribbean's Brilliance of the Seas was easy peasy. I highly recommend it!

All packed and ready to go!

We spent the first day and a half at sea, swimming in the pool, visiting the Kids Club (which Lyla is now old enough for at 3!), and trying out the water slide. We all had a blast...the perfect combination of family time and relaxing time. Both girls made friends and begged to go to Kids Club for a few hours each day, which was wonderful, and really enjoyed spending mealtimes together and going to the evening shows each night. Perfect!

The girls enjoyed standing in the window and using it as their stage for their many "performances"!

Our first port of call was Bergen, Norway, which is the second largest city in Norway (after Oslo). We didn't book a tour for Bergen because I had read that it was easy enough to do on your own, which was definitely true. We disembarked and walked straight to the Fløibanen funicular, a cable car railway up a steep hill (320 m above sea level!), which I highly recommend. At the top, you can see beautiful views of all of Bergen (we even spotted our cruise ship!) and there are lots of walking trails you could choose from there. We had no problem buying tickets with no real line but later saw that the line was around the block! We bought one way tickets and decided to walk back down, which was beautiful but did take awhile and Lyla was pretty tired by the end. I think there may have been a more direct route down than we took but we got distracted searching for trolls and exploring the woods. It was definitely fun though and we met some nice people along the way!

Posing along the streets of Bergen...en route to the funicular

Riley's pants are oddly rolled up because Lyla kept splashing in puddles and got Riley's pants (for the Brits--trousers!) all wet!

Lyla leading the way

The funicular

All aboard!

There was a beautiful viewpoint at the top

Our cruise ship is the big one on the right

The sun was starting to peek out for us!

Just one more...

And a family shot

Riley and Mommy

King of the World

We didn't take many pictures on the way down until we reached the streets. We were in a hurry to get back to the ticket office because Lyla really needed the bathroom but I did sneak in a few pics!

I think I could live here!

Clever!

 After we made it back to the ticket office and used the bathroom, it was time for a light snack (very light...a cup of coffee cost nearly $10!!!) and a visit to the Bergen Fish Market. Here are the girls posing happily with a troll. Riley was in tears moments later when she saw the reindeer skin behind her and realized that the antlers next to her were real. For some reason, she has always been intensely concerned about animals and prefers not to eat meat...she declares herself an herbivore...and seeing the reindeer and fox fur was horrifying to her. Just wait until she found out that Wayne tried reindeer, whale and moose at the fish market. Total meltdown.

Wayne sampling reindeer, whale and moose sausage. The whale was his favorite. Yuck!

Lyla checking out the King Crabs

On our way back to the cruise ship with tired legs

So tired she couldn't even stay awake

 After a little rest, everyone was wide awake again and ready for a yummy dinner and beautiful sail away. I finally remembered to break out my camera on the ship!

Enjoying the view

A little windy but beautiful!

 A note about cruise dining...it is about as no stress as you can get in terms of dining with kids. We saw many families choose the buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner but Wayne loves his food and we all loved the waiters so we ate dinner in the dining room every night. It was long and the kids were occasionally bored (total number of wine glasses broken over the week=1 so not terrible) but everyone ran around accommodating their every need and ours. They brought Wayne multiple entrees nightly to try, Riley and Lyla gigantic sundaes with whatever flavors their hearts desired, and enough sourdough rolls to feed a small army! Riley threw them for a loop with her strange taste...she ate Caesar salad, veggies with ranch dip and fruit almost every night but they rolled with it and occasionally brought soups or other "entrees" for her to try. Both girls have been missing Allan and Jonathan (our waiters) since we've been home!

Both Wayne and I really enjoyed Bergen and felt like one full day was an adequate amount of time to get a feel for the city, although I'm sure we could have found things to do for another day or two. I would recommend that anyone cruising there skip the city tours (unless you have problems walking) and visit the funicular in the morning before it gets crowded. If you have time, go for a walk back down or check out the lake, although the funicular does run in both directions and only takes about 8 minutes each way. Allot time to visit the fish market and do some shopping (we wish we had bought more souvenirs from the market as they turned out to be much cheaper than some other ports of call) before reboarding the ship. Remember that food is very, very expensive so pack a few small boxes of cereal or pieces of fruit from breakfast...we didn't but learned for our next stop!

Next port of call: Geiranger, Norway! Stay tuned!

Closing Out Another School Year!

The school year ended with lots of fun activities, performances and news!

Riley swam in her school's Swimming Gala, doing a great job with all of her strokes and in her Water Polo match!

That's Riley with the pink goggles!

Waving up at the fans!

She also performed at the Cheltenham Festival of Performing Arts with her Singing Squirrels school choir and her Speech and Drama class. Her group won first place in the Drama competition and 2nd place for singing. Check out the video of her drama group below!

Speech and Drama

Riley also performed in her end of the year dance recital as a pirate. Looking good, matey!

Prettiest pirate that I've ever seen...

My very tall pirate!

Lyla starred as a Hornbill in the End of the Year Performance, singing along with her classmates! Riley was a wonderful narrator dressed in safari gear! They were both adorable!

Our little hornbill is second from the left!

Narrators on Safari

Both girls did wonderful in Sports Day, with Lyla winning two silver ribbons and Riley winning a gold and two bronzes. 

Lyla ready on the starting line!

Go Riley Go!

Riley is a sack race pro!

And the last day of school! What big girls they've become!