2016 – Scandinavia

Monday, April 25, 2016 OSLO, $25

Starts at 4:30 pm

MAGIC ICE BAR
KRISTIAN IV’S GATE 12, 0164
(ACROSS FROM BRISTOL HOTEL)
OSLO

Meet me at the Magic Ice BAR which is a wondrous world constructed from several tons of ice. The ice bar is the work of world renowned ice carvers, they re-craft the bar and the sculptures several times every year. The end result is fantastic ice-blue world where visitors are awed by the dramatically lit sculptures and installations made of ice, which will be presented along with sound, music and images.

Reservations include a cape, gloves, your personal ice glass plus your first cocktail of crowberry wine. (includes tax and tip)

Tuesday, April 26, 2016 OSLO, $135

8:00am – 7 hours

This morning we will venture out of the city to see the countryside and the ‘real’ Norway.

Drobak is a pretty little harbor town with a cluster of wooden houses dating back to the 1700’s on the eastern side of the Oslo Fjord.  This is also the home of Santa Claus where thousands of letters are collected for him every year!  It has it’s own Christmas house as well as many small arts and crafts galleries.

After our visit here, we will return to Oslo and visit Holmenkollen Ski Museum and Tower. The observation deck on top of the jump tower offers breathtaking views of Oslo.

A selection of museum visits will follow – firstly the famous Vigeland sculpture park and museum, one of Oslo’s top attractions. The Viking Museum, the Fram Museum, which houses the world’s most famous polar ship, the Fram, and if time permits the Kon Tiki Museum.

For anyone still ready to shop, our bus will drop you back at the walking street in Oslo or back to the ship at 3:00pm.

Friday, April 29, 2016 COPENHAGEN, $120

8:30am – 1:30pm – 5 hours

“On a 1 hour city tour you will see the Little Mermaid to whom sailors appealed for forgiveness of their sins while they were in port! The famous seaside sculpture of the renowned Hans Christian Andersen character resides in Copenhagen. You will stop to admire the Church of Our Saviour, a baroque church  most famous for its helix spire with an external winding staircase that can be climbed to the top, offering extensive views over central Copenhagen. If time permits we will pass by the Old Stock Exchange, Christiansborg Castle and Holmens Church.

Then you’ll depart for the Helsingør to visit the Kronborg Castle – the actual castle that Shakespeare set Hamlet in! Kronborg Castle towers above a very narrow promontory between the coasts of Denmark and Sweden. The renaissance castle stands majestically with its spires, towers, columns, sandstone and copper roofs. Kronborg Castle is a magnificent renaissance palace and a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site. For 400 years, the castle was the headquarters for the collection of the Sound Dues. Kronborg was a legend in its heyday in the late 1500s. With its menacing guns pointing directly at the ships in the Sound, sailors did not dare to sail past the castle without paying the king his Sound Dues. Kronborg Castle became one of the most beautiful castles from the Renaissance period. Sailors, merchants, diplomats and aristocrats recounted tales of the magnificent castle and court in Elsinore with its pomp, splendour and cannon blasts that resounded to the toasts that the king proposed.

We return to Nyhavn (a quay off the main harbour)___ where you might want to stop for lunch followed with time on the famous walking street……and perhaps a visit to Tivoli Gardens. Transportation on own back to ship.

Monday, May 2, 2016 Amsterdam
You can choose any tours you want me to book for you for any day you wish. See the attached sheet
Some of your fellow travelers have chosen already. If you want to go with them you can, or you can make your own date and time choices. I can only get Bruges and Dutch Masters on May 4th. The other choices are fairly flexible.

You can pay with a credit card.