IN SEARCH OF THE NORTHERN LIGHTS

Hello friends and families! It’s almost a year since our last cruise in April 2022. Yes, that’s right, I don’t know how we were able to stay put that long without traveling but we did! We were supposed to go on a Mexican Riviera cruise with our friends-cruisers, Oya and Tommy Holgado but the cruise line company cancelled many of their booked cruises from September thru October due to severe staffing problems.

As I mentioned before we embarked on our South Atlantic cruise last year, we cancelled our Viking River cruise scheduled for December 2022 due to the invasion (Moscow to St. Petersburg) of Russia in Ukraine.

Trini and I will be flying to Bergen, Norway to meet with our dear friends – Oya and Tommy Holgado. We will be embarking aboard the Viking Venus ocean cruise line to start a 12-day trip around the Scandinavian country and will disembark in London where we will be staying two extra days before flying back to the U.S.

Norway is a Nordic country in norther Europe with a population of about 5.4 million. It is a constitutional monarchy. Harald V is currently the reigning monarch. We hope to learn a lot about the interesting history of the Vikings. I will write more about Norway as I take you along our trip.

As we all know, winter in the Scandinavian countries is brutally harsh! We’ve had very cold weather in Las Vegas the last week or so including snow flurries and strong winds which peaked at 80 miles per hour last night! However, I’m sure these will pale in comparison to the freezing temperatures of Norway, especially, the northern part where the maximum temperature in March is 26 degrees Fahrenheit.

We purchased winter clothings to cope with Norway’s freezing temperatures: thick parka jackets with fleece liners, merino wool base layers, thick woolen socks, warm gaiters, goretex gloves and mittens, knit caps, winter trousers and lots of chemical hand warmers! Hopefully, they will comfortably warm us when we go to the ship’s excursions learning more about Norway’s history and culture and most importantly during our search for the naturally occurring phenomenon – Aurora Borealis commonly known as the Northern Lights!

THE NORTHERN LIGHTS