We are an adventurous couple in our 70s who love to travel, meet new folks, take lots of pictures, eat great food, drink delicious wine, and enjoy the outdoors.
OK, so, recently four of us went to Sunday Brunch. It was good to get out early on a Sunday, and as we made our way back home we passed through Place de la Comédie, the main plaza of Montpellier. And, quite unexpectedly, we came upon a temporary a football pitch (a soccer field) set up there. Banners hung around it announced the "44e Festival Montpellier Danse." And that this was DISCOFOOT.
We stayed around for another 15 minutes until the activity got under way. And I'm glad we did! It seems that in DISCOFOOT the primary rule is Keep On Dancing. The teams—dancers from the Ballet de Lorraine—were scored on esthetics of their dancing as well as the goals they made.
Sounds strange? Well, yes! Here's a video to give an idea...
We watched this, stunned! I laughed so hard I almost dropped the camera...
While we had not heard of this event before, we clearly a lot of effort went in to it. We were given a pamphlet explaining that this was the Centre Chorégraphique National (CCN) - Ballet de Lorraine, under the direction of Petter Jacobsson & Thomas Caley (to give credit where credit is very much due!).
So, big tip o' the hat to Mr. Jacobsson and the Ballet de Lorraine!
End of this week we will be off on our summer vacation, escaping the heat, to Brittany. We'll be gone about six weeks, and will no doubt be publishing some blogs from Vannes, where we'll be staying.
Stay tuned!
And we thought this fellow, playing traditional music from Occitaine (this region of France) would be the highlight of our day!
Panorama of the city of Nimes, seen from the upper garden.
Where have we been since our return from Norway at the end of March? Why, right here in Montpellier! We've been watching the winter warm into spring; and now summer is overtaking spring: the trees off our balcony are fully leaved out, blocking our view of our neighbors (which is perfectly fine), and, more importantly, blocking the increasingly harsh afternoon sun.
Meanwhile, we have been making plans... travel plans, of course. We leave for our summer getaway in two weeks; we'll be in Brittany, in the now-familiar city of Vannes for a month. After that, for my birthday weekend (mid-August), we'll spend a few nights at the western end of the Loire Valley.
What else has been happening in Montpellier?
June 21st, the summer solstice, marks the first day of summer, the day when the sun spends more time in the sky than any other day—in the Northern hemisphere, anyway.
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An appreciative crowd waits for more music...
Every town and village in France does something to celebrate the solstice through music. The extent of the celebration depends, of course, on the size of the town. And over the years we've seen many different expressions of this féte!
In years past on the 21st we've been in smaller towns that had low-key but satisfying events. There might be a choral group wandering the streets in costume; a stage in the main plaza with local musicians playing throughout the evening; an orchestral group in a church.
Jazz in full swing.
Here in Montpellier we get all of that, and much too much more. As the evening wears on the narrow streets become all but impossible with people out to celebrate. And far too much of the celebration here consists of DJs behind a stack of speakers playing music pre-recorded by someone else.
A video of a small part of the Fete de la Musique in Montpellier: a jazz band on the newly-refurbished esplanade, and a rock group gets an unexpected interruption...
But there's always a few gems; the trick is to find them (before getting totally burned out!). Early on we found a great jazz trio in the newly-opened esplanade. They played until dark (which is nearly 10PM here, longest day of the year and all). We wandered through the city after that, watching the new fountain with its illuminated water jets. But the crowds got thicker and thicker, and the folks more raucous. We slowly made our way back home. While we live only about a 20-minute walk from the center, it is in a more suburban area, and things tend to be quiet. (There was a neighbor who had a low-key yard party that wrapped up around 5AM... but they were not so loud!).
We all got our first view of the new fountains; the opera house is in the distance.
It was a satisfying evening. We got a taste of the intensity of the city, with an easy walk back to our quiet apartment.
While we are planning a long escape from the city this summer, we've been pining to get out of town, even for a short while. So, Sunday we went on a day trip: a 20-minute train ride to the city of Nimes. The station here in Montpellier is only a 15-minute walk from our apartment, making it an easy, no-fuss trip.
Unfortunately, we got a notice the train would be an hour late! So much for an early start... Fortunately, there was an earlier train. In the end, by 10 AM we were making the pleasant walk from the station in Nimes to the old city, the downtown core.
This modern bronze statue of a matador, with the 1st century Roman amphitheater in the background, shows the ancient link between the south of France and Spain. (And, yes, bullfights were--and still are--held in Nimes!)
And what's the point of a matador without a bull? A modern sculpture with the cathedral spire in the background.
While Nimes, as a settlement, got its start in the Bronze Age (1000 BCE), it became more significant with the arrival of the Romans in the 1st century BCE. Today it is considered the most Roman city outside of Rome. It has, of course, an arena (think Roman Colosseum, but smaller), which is one of the best preserved still in existence. (Although we didn't visit it on this trip; we'd been there a few years before and, honestly? it probably hasn't changed much since then!)
Of course the Romans were neither the beginning nor the end of Nimes. It’s a small town but has a lot of history packed into it.
By the end of the 17th century Nimes was known for its tough, rugged cloth (developed for the use of shepherds in the nearby mountains of the Cévennes). This cloth was called "serge," and since it came from Nimes, it was known as "serge de Nimes." Which was eventually abbreviated to "de Nimes," or, now, denim.
The (very slightly) famous crocodile fountain in Nimes. Why is the crocodile a symbol of Nimes? Possibly due to the Rome--Egypt connection...??
After stopping at a cafe for a late-morning pick-me-up we wandered through the old town towards Les Jardins de la Fontaine, the fountain gardens and their associated water works.
Gates opening on to the Jardins de la Fontaine.
Built around a spring sacred to the Gauls, the Celtic tribes living here before the Romans, the gardens were enlarged and given their classic French look in the 18th and 19th centuries. Today they are a centerpiece of the city, and the entry to the park spreading up the hill behind the springs.
Site of the sacred spring, the origin of the settlement that became Nimes. The Temple of Diana can be seen in the background on the right.
The Roman-era Temple of Diana.
A lily pond found in the upper garden...
...with some gorgeous water lilies!
It was a spectacular day, and we very much enjoyed our walk up into the park with its panoramas of the city and countryside beyond. But the wind picked up in the afternoon and it became increasingly unpleasant: the heat and glare of the bright sun, the dust and annoyance of the gusty wind. So we took refuge in the new museum, highlighting the origins of Nimes.
A canal leading from the Les Jardins de la Fontaine. (Wait... is that fountain spray in the form of a Fleur-de-Lys?)
While much of the display space is appropriately devoted to the Roman period, we were surprised to see a special exhibit on Achilles, the warrior whose exploits in the Trojan war are noted in the Iliad. That was long, long before the Romans!
Entry to the Achilles exhibit was through this illusion of coming ashore at Troy.
The afternoon wore on, we reached "museum saturation," and made our way back to the station to catch the train home (which was only 10 minutes late!).
Overall it was an easy, very satisfying day.
What's next? Well, we will be going to Brittany in two weeks, so there's that.
So. We have come almost to the end of our voyage. But still, we have a few more days before docking in Bergen. And we still have magnificent landscapes out the huge windows, plus the general ship activities. We're winding our way through narrow channels, passing villages (and under highway bridges!), encountering other marine traffic (including some brave souls on a private sailing yacht).
Winding our way through narrow channels...
What are these sailors doing in these cold, cold waters! (Yes, they are all wearing orange survival suits on board.)
Always interested in marine operations, we were keen on knowing more about this vessel, so Paula signed us up for a tour of the bridge. The bridge is the command center, where the captain and mates keep watch and control the ship. It's located on Deck 8, just below the lounge and almost as big. The mates (ship's officers responsible for navigation and the safety of the vessel) had a fantastic working area, huge with massive windows.
The mates, responsible for guiding us through the many passages on our route. (And what a great view they've got!)
It was sunny and clear durning our visit, but the mates commented that we'd been lucky: the weather is rarely so good! We had passed through some rocky, narrow channels; what was that like for the mate on watch on a dark and stormy night?
We were also offered a tour of the engine room, which we quickly acceptd. The chief engineer, responsible for all mechanical operations of the vessel, was personable and generous with his time. He took five of us into the bowels of the ship to his control room, and the (incredibly noisy!) engine room, explaining what we were seeing and how it all worked.
The personable Chief Engineer (left) and his assistant. Their view is not so good as the one the mates get!
One of the smaller of the four engines.
This ship was quite new (in it’s first full year of service) and innovative: a hybrid design, powered by LNG (Liquified Natural Gas, considerably less polluting than diesel). Electric motors drive the ship, powered by batteries and generators. The hybrid design allows the LNG-powered engines to operate at their most efficient, and even be shut down completely in sensitive areas, such as narrow fjords.
Batteries for the hybrid drive.
The landscapes slowly changed as the snow gave way to bare rock and bare trees. This would be a very different voyage in the summer, with everything greened out. (And 20 hours of daylight...)
Also different in the midst of winter, very cold with blowing snow and 20 hours of night!
A navigational aid a few hours out from Bergen. No snow, more houses...
And, finally, docked in Bergen!
It was with no small regret that we made our way off the ship and through the streets of Bergen to our hotel, towing our wheelie suitcases. Our trip had come to the end!
Well, almost. We had the rest of the afternoon; the next morning we'd take the early tram to the airport for our flight to Paris. We had thought about finding the doctor who'd seen me two weeks earlier and thanking him. BUT... today was Holy Saturday, the day before Easter Sunday, and in this very Christian nation everything was closed. No hope of getting into the Dr. Dropin clinic! All the pharmacies were closed, as well as... well, everything. Except, thankfully, restaurants!
A lake in the park in central Bergen. It's much prettier in the summer with leaves on the trees!
Near the park with the lake.
The Bryggen Hansa Quarter, historic warehouses of the Hanseatic League.
As we wandered through the town, we thought of our earlier visit some years ago, in August (and yes, that blog is here!). It's more welcoming in the summer, but the downtown is still very cute, even in the grey overcast.
The former market building. White trim on the façade evokes images of snow-capped peaks... in contrast to the brown hills behind it!
The waterfront in the historic district.
We did find a good pizza restaurant, and, pleasantly full of pizza and beer, we strolled around downtown for a bit as evening came on. We didn't have the time, nor the inclination, to go very far, but we were satisfied to see even just a bit of this cute, pleasant city.
Nice mural art!
Another mural, also celebrating Bergen's major industry, fishing.
Then it was back to the hotel and up early the next morning, Easter Sunday, to catch our morning flight out.
Love the understated humor of this sign at the airport! It's one of the first things new arrivals see.
This is Part Four, the last segment of our Norway blog. Thanks for joining us on this engaging voyage!
After crossing the Arctic Circle we continued traveling ever northward, and the temperatures continued to fall. But it was not until the morning of our arrival in Kirkenes that we began to see ice in the water...
Ice floes on the approach to Kirkenes. Once away from the open water that is warmed by the Gulf Stream, things get colder!
The ship's crew explained that the Gulf Stream kept the water too warm to freeze. But Kirkenes is located at the end of a long narrow passage, away from the open water of the Barents Sea. Here the water gets much colder, and ice forms!
Kirkenes
This very northern (and eastern!) town was our turn-around point; we arrived in the morning after six days of cruising, and left, heading back, just after noon. We had three and a half hours to get off and explore… and we did! While it was cold (someone said -12ºC/+10ºF), it was a beautifully clear, sunny day. We layered up with all our clothing and headed out.
A bit freaked out by all the clothing...
During our initial planning for this trip we had given considerable thought to dealing with the very low temperatures we expected on this voyage (I mean, we're from California, what do we know about cold weather?). Everything we read about Aurora viewing emphasized the cold (after all, it’s only visible at night, when it’s cold!). During our Christmastime trip to Seville (see that blog here) we scoured our favorite thrift store for warm clothing, finding wool sweaters and vests; Paula scored some excellent winter boots.
We had accumulated layers of clothing, starting with thermal underwear. To top it all off we borrowed heavy coats from our friends Mark and Mary—heavy coats they got for Chicago winters. We were set! Maybe.
To familiarize ourselves with this layer after layer of clothing thing, before leaving Montpellier we picked a cold night and made a trial run: we put on all our arctic clothing and went out. It was the coldest night we could find (the temperature was just above freezing), and we left around midnight. After an hour on a park bench we were satisfied; we went home and spent a half-hour getting undressed.
Suburban Kirkenes. Not so different from suburbs anywhere...
Crab-themed playground equipment (can we assume that crabbing is a major industry in Kirkenes?)
We’d made a couple of forays ashore already on this cruise, but Kirkenes would be the ultimate test. We suited up, I brought my studs (rubber slip-ons for my boots with metal studs… snow tires for shoes!). It was a half-hour trek to downtown, through a charming suburban area. The houses could have been anywhere, really. The neighborhood looked pleasant, with single-family homes and yards with picnic tables. Except, it was all under a meter of snow! We trudged along, fingertips chilled but otherwise cosy and pleased to be out. We found there wasn’t much in downtown Kirkenes—it was truly the journey that was worthwhile, not the destination!
Entrance to a WWII-era underground bunker, which seemed to be the extent of the tourist attractions in Kirkenes (well, that and the Russian border!)
The next day I suffered a bit of a relapse—too much exertion too soon—but totally worth it!
Hammerfest
Our first stop after Kirknes was Hammerfest. I was very keen on seeing the monument for the Struve Geodetic Arc located there.
Before satellites, the size and shape of the earth was determined by terrestrial surveying, which consisted of very careful measurements of lengths and angles along the earth's surface. A particularly ambitions survey was begun in 1816. Stretching from Hammerfest in the north some 2800 km (1740 miles) to the Black Sea, this survey was instrumental in giving the first accurate determination of the size and shape of the earth.
The site of the northernmost survey station is marked with a stone monument. Fortunately, it is located near to where our boat docked. I wanted to visit it it, but after the previous day's adventure I was not capable of much effort!
The Struve Geodetic Arc World Heritage site includes 34 commemorative markers; this one in Hammerfest is the northernmost.
The Aurora Borealis
And finally, the Northern Lights! There were a couple of minor displays while we were headed north, on the fifth and sixth days. Paula got some photos, but I was in no shape to get out of bed at 10PM!
Paula got this on the first night we saw the aurora. Not especially dramatic; a hint of what was to come!
Wavering lights seen against the ship's equipment.
Dramatic with the setting sun!
(Those are antennas from the ship in the lower right)
On Day 8, though, our first night heading south, we had a spectacular display lasting several hours. We were both out with our cameras clicking, along with everyone on board. And we found a huge advantage to "aurora hunting" from the deck of a ship, as opposed to from a truck on the tundra: we were warm! Oh, the night was cold, no question of that. But every few minutes we could duck back inside (there was a large, sliding glass door that made that easy), watch from the warm lounge through the huge picture windows for a bit, then return outside for a better view.
Those white dots are stars showing through the lights; they're squiggly due to the long exposure (2 sec).
After this amazing, spectacular display, life aboard seemed to get "ordinary." We were going home; the trip was, essentially, over. We'd crossed the Circle into arctic waters, we'd seen the northern cities, now we'd seen the lights. What was left? This feeling, of heading back after the adventure, intensified after we'd crossed the Arctic Circle again, heading south.
Brønnøysund
We did make another stop at a northern city, Brønnøysund. We got off the ship and walked around; there was less snow now, I hardly needed my studs. I expect Brønnøsund would be quite attractive in the summer, with the trees and grass green. But it was a bit early for greenery.
The church in Brønnøsund.
A pleasant town, brown and drab this early in spring.
Crazy crosswalk downtown!
Shipboard life was becoming routine! Oh, not boring, just routine. The landscapes were still spectacular, as we threaded our way through narrow passages and tight turns. Every day the weather got a little bit warmer. It was still cold, and we were still perfectly comfortable in the cushy chairs on the Deck 9 lounge, surrounded by huge picture windows (with bar service!).
This lounge on Deck 6 was rarely used on our trip, but would be warm and cosy on a dark, snowy night.
The Deck 9 lounge was the place to be: great views, comfortable seats, bar service...
Well, the trip is winding down. We will have one more post, about our tour of the ship, and the brief time we spent in Bergen before flying home.
