SEA DAY

Thank you Patricia for your lovely comments. You made our day.
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Additional things we learned on yesterday’s tour with tour guide Emma.
 
Drivers of the economy include Oil, Tourism, Fishing, Produce, Technology and Manufacturing.
 
15% of the overall tourism is driven by the cruise industry.
 
The Government owns the oil rather than individual companies. They are taking the profits and investing it so that when Oil runs out, they will have this money. Think of this saving money for a rainy day and we know there are a lot of rainy days in Bergen.
 
85% of Norwegians ancestry is Norwegian.
 
Hundreds of years ago the trees were removed from the mountains as part of fire prevention. All the trees we now see were planted 100 years ago and when we say trees they are plentiful.
 
Like any city housing is costly. She said often when she and her husband have made an offer on a house in the downtown area the winner is an Airbnb.  In the meantime, they live across the way, and she can walk over the bridge and be to work in thirty minutes or take a bus and be there in ten minutes.
 
 
In school you learn to speak in the language of Norway and you must take two additional languages.

The only buildings that typically survived the fires were those that were deemed important, so they were built with stone. The houses were built with wood to keep cost down but when the fires came, they burnt down. 
 
On one Christmas Eve someone robbed the 7 Eleven which the tour guide showed us. Took all sorts of food. The person felt guilty and returned everything. This is trivia you probably have no use for. LOL

Drugs use is illegal including cannibas.

Paul McCarney performed a live concert in Bergen in 2016. NOE: We did not learn this on the tour but we decided to see if The Beatles played here and this is what I learned.  
 
Additional photos from yesterday’s tour of Bergen, one photo from later that afternoon when we were on-board Serenity and one video from August 25 dinner at Waterside when Sommelier Dusan was pouring wine for Anne Marie.

The Galaxy Lounge

The Galaxy Lounge always brings back special memories to us ever since our first Crystal Cruise on Crystal Harmony in 2002.

During the morning hours we enjoyed many lectures over the years including those on destination, politics, geo-politics, geography, music and theatre, world events, books, movies, photography, wildlife, science and numerous other topics. We've also enjoyed Ocean Views which involved a panel discussion and the opportunity for the guest to participate in answering questions.

When we've seen some of the destination lectures since returning to Serenity, some of the talks takes us  back to some of the destination lecturers we would have on the World Cruises such as Dr. Jay Wolff and Ken Rees. Sadly, they each have passed and are no longer with us as each passed but their memories do carry on and Anne Marie and I can hear their voices and remember some memorable moments from their talks. A favorite from each was Dr. Wolff speaking about the events of that tragic night on The Titanic and there was so much detail you thought he had to be on-board when it struck the iceberg. Ken Rees spoke about that back in the day as a news reporter that when you covered an event you had close to a day to record what would be shown on the news. This time allowed the reporters to reflect on what they saw rather than to jump the gun with little to no time to think through what they had just witnessed.
 


In the evening we enjoyed the entertainment including production shows performed by the talented on-board team and the music of the Crystal show band and we enjoyed the land based entertainers whether it was a solo singer, or a group of singers singing a variety of songs as well as magicians and comedians. In certain ports we would enjoy the local talent that was brought in to perform a special show.

Sometimes a Super Bowl was shown in the Galaxy or maybe some other event such as the Oscars.

And sometimes you would go to the Galaxy for something that has nothing to do with entertainment such as going through local immigration.  

Last evening we returned to Waterside for dinner for the second consecutive night. Below is the Waterside Dinner Menu.

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We had a lovely time at dinner. We always do.  How can you not?  Outstanding cuisine, and service and a beautiful dining venue. 

Waiter Craig performed surgery on the Dover Sole as you can see in the video.

Didn’t take a photo of the special butter but it was Miso butter.
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Today's Daily Reflections follows.

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Today is the final sea day of this cruise and like all sea days it is chock full of activities including three lectures. The talks are on Oslo which is the next port of call, a talk about forms of government including those that fail, and in the after =noon there is a talk about the origins and evolution of virtual worlds.

We are posting earlier today and will provide some additional comments when posting tomorrow.

Cheers,

Anne Marie & Keith