2015 Summer Vacation: Cruising Northern Europe, Part II: Oslo and Gothenburg

Our first port-of-call on the Royal Princess was none other than the capital city of the famous Viking land of Norway!

I always envisioned Norway to be like something of a cross between the Viking ship ride at Disney World and the Kingdom of Arendelle from the Frozen film - bitterly cold with towering cliffs and deep fjords. Incidentally, those vistas were not inspired by Oslo itself...

What we found was that Oslo (like the rest of northern Europe) is crisply cool during the summer, but also vividly green.




We opted to take the "Hop On, Hop Off" bus service, a service that seems to have branches in basically every port-of-call in Scandinavia which allows tourists to see major sights at their own pace.

Our first stop was the Vigeland Sculpture Park, the world's largest sculpture showcase of works by a single artist. The park finely showcased the beautiful summer weather of Scandinavia. The sculptures themselves were interesting as well, even if some of them were somewhat grotesque in nature:

Next, we stopped for some ice cream at a pier to the south of Oslo. The server behind the counter was a dead ringer for Elsa from Frozen! But then, so are about 50% of the women in Scandinavia!

Queen Elsa serving ice cream!

While the green was a bit surprising, one thing that Norway really does have is their Viking heritage! So, we went to the Viking Ship Museum, which houses several Viking ships built over 1000 years ago!

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Before getting back on board, my mom and I visited the beautiful castle just across from the port:

The view of the port from the castle

This was a pretty tricky shot - lighting from the front, and some bokeh!

With that, we got on board and headed to our next stop - Gothenburg, Sweden!

The weather in Gothenburg was nowhere near as nice as what we'd experienced in Oslo. But it did give a very atmospheric vibe!

Pulling into the misty port

The city itself is a pretty classic example of European architecture - with colorful buildings lining water's edges, city squares, and bronze statues:

Our main attraction of the day, however, as the Tradgardsoreningen garden, which we happened to chance upon while strolling the streets!

The key draw of this garden was the fun playground inside of it!

We wound down the day with a tour of the upper decks (sports deck) of the boat, another fabulous dinner, and an acrobatics show in the main atrium of the ship!

With that, we were on our way to our next destination - Berlin!

2015 Summer Vacation: Cruising Northern Europe, Part I: Bon Voyage!

Only three months late, but better late than never!

This year, our grand vacation was spent with the extended family - We met up with Grandma and Grandpa Lian, Brother Ed, Sister Melinda, and Sister-in-Law Sara in Copenhagen, Denmark to embark on an 11-day cruise of the Baltic Sea and the surrounding nations!

We arrived in Copenhagen a day earlier before the rest of the family, making sure to avoid missing the boat due to China's infamously poor on-time flight record. Fortunately, our flights were actually all on time, and the trip to Europe was fairly pleasant, in no small part thanks to my Gold membership status!

The lounge at Detroit

Entertainment on the plane

The lounge at Amsterdam

Before long, we had arrived at our ship's launch location - Copenhagen!

We were greeted at the airport with this fairly odd scene at night - an Anti-ISIS rally

Seeing as it was quite late at night, we decided to quickly navigate the confusing public transport system. Unlike Shanghai, which basically just has bus lines and metro lines, Copenhagen is criss-crossed with trains, metros, subways, "S-trains", "A-trains", and buses, all of which have their different schedules and maps. It took double checking with no fewer than 4 locals to determine the route to the hotel, since the normal easy single train route for some reason was not operating on that day.

Fortunately, the English level in Denmark is extremely strong - basically everyone can speak it with full fluency, which I would learn later is fairly characteristic of the Baltic and Scandinavian countries, but by no means universal in Northern Europe.

The next morning, we started with our first Real Danish Breakfast:

Our first Danish breakfast, complete with real Danish Pastries!

 Then we took a stroll around the neighborhood:

Some fancy architecture near the Hotel Osterport

China used to have a lot of bicycles, but Denmark still has a lot of bicycles, including interesting ones like these. And for good reason too - speaking to a local, the cost of buying a vehicle in Denmark is close to triple that of the U.S. (which is somewhat par for the course in many places overseas, China notwithstanding)... but the cost of fuel was nearly four times as much as in the U.S at around 12 Kroner/liter - or roughly $8/gallon!

A nice church

A shot of some of the decor inside the church

European cars like these are fairly rare to see on American streets

Finally, we made our way to the port to get on board the ship!

Meeting up with Uncle Ed and Aunt Sara

Getting our cruise cards!

Exploring the pool deck

Chilling on our stateroom's balcony!

Our first of many gourmet dinners

Checking out Grandparents' stateroom, with the bunk bed set up!

Next up, Oslo and Gothenburg!