Warnemunde, Germany

While we were heading to Warnemunde we had a day at sea and that evening our second formal night of our cruise.

Here we are waiting for our dessert. Thank goodness the portion sizes of our meals were reasonable and so we only gained two pounds each the whole time we were gone (it helped to always take the stairs too).

Our friends and fellow travelers, Kathleen and Terry Oyama.

Gene and Karen Gold. We also had Sally Gold and her friend and relative Jan Gold from Salt Lake City.

O.J. and Vickie Hansen. O.J. was just released from serving as our bishop for the past six years. This was a needed vacation for them.

For some reason I got really sleepy after dinner (too many carbs) and had to rest for a minute. I think our late nights of dancing until 2 am was catching up with me.

This was a tasty appetizer that was ordered quite often at our table.

The next day we arrived in Warnemunde, a beautiful coastal resort town with white sandy beaches in northeast Germany (Berlin is only a 3 hour bus ride away). Of course, we had to try some real German ice cream. Yummy!

We took our own private tour of Warnemunde.

Because of the e-coli scare that had hit northern Germany we stayed away from fresh produce and sampled some delicious pastries and orange Fanta soda.

Walking along the beach and enjoying the Baltic Sea behind us.

Bikes are a fun way to travel especially if you want to bring your pet along too.

This Harley motorcycle was hauling a dog trailer behind it. We thought Aubrey would enjoy this picture.

Old windmill.

By the cruise ship dock there were sand sculptors that were just amazing.

Docked in Copenhagen, Denmark

Our ship had returned to Copenhagen, Denmark for the day and so we took an all day LDS tour excursion with our Danish guide, Hans True, a college professor.

First stop was Frederiksborg Castle where a number of Carl Bloch's paintings are on display.

This scary lion tried to keep us from entering the castle but I was not intimidated and had him purring like a kitten in no time.

Beautiful hand carved wooden doors.

Today church services are still held inside the castle.

The king's dinner spread.

While walking back to the bus, we saw this cute baby taking a ride in a buggy. You see a lot of baby buggies in Denmark.

Next stop was the Copenhagen Temple which is actually in Copenhagen.

Hans didn't understand about temple recommends and walked right in the front door of the temple to see if we could take a tour.

Here are our hosts from LDS Travel, Bruce and Margie Porter from Arizona. They had been on the Vision of the Sea for the past three months with different tour groups. Bruce gave gospel related lectures on board the ship during days that we spent at sea. They were very interesting especially the one about Hopewell Archeology, DNA, and the ancient cultures of North America (having to do with the many mounds found from the Great Lakes and down to the southern part of our country).

After visiting the temple we headed over to the Church of Our Lady to see the original Christus by Thorvaldsen. On display were the twelve disciples by the same sculptor.

Here's Peter with the keys of the priesthood in his hand. I wonder how many people walk by this sculptor and know what the keys are all about. This church was a popular place for tourists to visit.

A sculptor of beloved children's author Hans Christian Andersen.

A Danish baby elephant that I wanted to bring home but Dave said no because we don't need more animals at our place.

Second Port of Call--Geiranger, Norway

While traveling through this fijord to the small town of Geiranger, we were in awe of the beautiful waterfalls, glaciers, rivers, and fairytale villages.

The first sighting of Geiranger.

The ship couldn't tie up at the dock so passengers were ferried to the shore in smaller boats.

When it's time to paint our old John Deere tractor, this is the paint we want to use--super duper metallic gold.

Current Norwegian clothing styles.

Since the U.S. is a little behind Europe in fashion, before long these clothing styles should be in our stores.

We loved the looks of the green garden roof.

We spent some time hiking around Geiranger and found a lovely old church and cemetery where we sat on a rock wall and enjoyed the view.

Heading back to the ship with fellow passengers. The picture below is the lovely town of Geiranger.

Our First Port of Call--Bergen, Norway

From our cabin window we saw beautiful sunsets and sunrises while traveling the open seas.

Here's Bergen the first town we visited. We boarded buses for an all day "Norway in a Nutshell" excursion (which we highly recommend).

While traveling with our very insightful guide, Bert, we were in awe of the lush green countryside, lakes, rivers, waterfalls, and tunnels. We passed through 36 tunnels and one of them was 7 miles long (hard on people that get claustrophobic). The Norwegians sure know how to build tunnels. The ground is so rock hard that they don't even have to reinforce the tunnels with concrete.

We made a short stop in a village along the way and saw this lovely church made out of rock.

We saw so many amazing waterfalls in just one day!

Here's some of the fun people we got to travel with--O.J. and Vickie.

While riding on the bus, we went from the top of this mountain to the valley below on very narrow roads with hair pin turns. Sometimes when the bus came close to the edge of the road, I had to close my eyes.

Along the way we stopped for an authentic Norwegian lunch at a hotel. They served many kinds of fish, salad, and breads.

Beautiful hand carved wood on display at the hotel.

Another gorgeous waterfall. Norway gets more than 90% of its energy from hydropower from their waterfalls.

Norway is known for their many trolls. We bumped into this one holding the flag of Norway.

A great train ride through beautiful mountains and waterfalls.

Here's one of those steep roads with hair pin turns that follows a river. I was glad to be riding on a train and not on that road on a bus.

At this waterfall there were "mermaids" dancing on the rocks to music trying to lure the male tourists towards them. I am happy to report that none of the men we were traveling with succumbed to their charms.

Sometimes jet lag got the best of us and we had to take a little siesta.

Another friend we made along the way at the train stop.

The next photos are of downtown Bergen, within walking distance of the ship.