June 17 - 29th, 2015 – Family Trip To Norway
Geiranger, Norway - June 24 - Gretchen, Paula, Zack, Nick, and Tiff - Over looking the Geirangerfjord
We recently returned from an awesome trip to Norway, spending a few days in Copenhagen, and a quick day in Paris as a stopover while in route to Copenhagen. We traveled with Paula, Tiff's mom, and Paul and Gretchen, Brian's parents who we met in Copenhagen. Nick and Zack were with us too and enjoyed their first trip overseas!
In Paris we only had a few short hours – enough to take the Train (RER) from the Airport to Saint-Michel near the Notre Dame cathedral. From there we took a boat tour from Ponte Nuef to see as much as we could while fighting the fact that we only slept a couple hours on the flight. The kids did great and enjoyed seeing the Eiffel Tower. After a few hours in Paris with a quick stop in the Latin Quarter for lunch we headed back to the airport and flew to Copenhagen. We continued our public transit venture by taking the Metro from CPH to the apartment with limited instructions, but no issues. We met Paul and Gretchen at the apartment after a short walk from the metro, a great central location near the botanical garden and not far from Nyhaven (the most photographed part of Copenhagen. Paul and Gretchen flew in the day before after their nearly 2 week exploration of Iceland, so they already enjoyed a partial day in Copenhagen while getting a few items for the apartment – mostly food and beer.
We spent a few days exploring Copenhagen in a little cooler, wetter environment than we hoped, but still a great time. On Saturday the 20th we headed to the port for our featured travel event. – The Disney Magic cruise ship for our 9 night adventure into Norway and the Norwegian Fjords. Our itinerary was fantastic: Sunday, June 21st - Day at Sea; Monday the 22nd - Stavanger - Located at the mouth of the Gandsfjord in southwestern Norway; Tuesday the 23rd - Alesund - Situated at the entrance of Geirangerfjord, Alesund is renowned known for its Art Nouveau architecture and diverse landscape.; Wednesday the 24th - Geiranger - This UNESCO World Heritage Site is a nature lover's paradise, with majestic mountains and cascading waterfalls; Thursday the 25th - Molde - Also known as the "Town of Roses," Molde is a picturesque sea port with lush gardens, green parks and flowery pavilions; Friday the 26th - Olden - located on the southern edge of Nordfjorden—a beautiful, 66-mile-long fjord; Saturday the 27th - Bergen - known as the gateway to the fjords, Bergen is nestled between 7 magnificent mountains in southwest Norway; Sunday the 28th - Day at Sea; Monday the 29th - Debark at the Copenhagen port.
Needless to say, we WILL be doing another Disney Cruise, likely in the Caribbean. Disney was fantastic as they always are – the food, the people, the adventures, but especially the Kids Clubs! Nick enjoyed his freedoms while on the ship, going to the kids club, leaving when he wanted to go eat pizza (if he wasn't joining us for any of the many food services). The Broadway quality shows were a must see in their huge theater, and every night something new was playing. There was so much to do for everyone - hard to capture it all in a short paragraph.