Northern European Cruise

 The words amazing, incredible,awesome, pinch-me-am-I-really-here, don't even begin to describe our cruise with Brian and Amber to Northern Europe.  (I'm having serious problems with blogger so it's not in order, but there are a few pic and a few words of explaination, just try to put it all together, I dare you!)

 Dancing in the royal ballroom

 The original Christus

 The castle that inspired the writing of Hamlet, and our picnic lunch on the grounds

 Laughing at Amber as our doting head waiter brings her three desserts after dinner, and  a pile of bacon for breakfast!

So, a few of the highlights, and I know I'm missing several things:
Brugge Belguim: stepping back into history among the 11th century buildings, then getting into more modern 16th century ones.  Canal boat ride (in the rain) through the canals, this city is known as Little Venice.  The Church of St Mary's where Michelangelos' Madonna dn child are...the only sculpture of his outside of Italy.  CHOCOLATE...need I say more!  Brugges Square, litterlly jaw droppingly beautiful.  Climbing 366 steps to the top of the bell tower adn being lucky enough to be 1-2 feet away when they started chiming! Windmills.  Our tour guide (brian)  and his able bodied assistant (amber) looking back to make sure we were still with them and hearing him say, "And we're walking, we're walking people..."
Day at Sea where we slept in until 10 and Bri and Amber slept til noon, yes folks, that's 12:00 noon!   (our lunch date got pushed back to 1!).  A basketball contest with a Johnson sweep....Brian took first place by a huge margin, and Amber and Larry tied for second place.  Me?  Well I was the entire cheering section, go team!  Lounging, ice cream, reading, games, fun.
Copenhagen Denmark:  Frederiksborg castle where there is a room filled with original Carl Bloch paintings, Nyharn, the Rainbow Row of shops along the waterway, gorgeous!  Cathedral of Our Lady with the original Christus statue. Stoget, a famous pedestrian shopping mall, all streets are for walkers and bikes only, no cars allowed.  Boat ride through the canals of Copenhagen, and yes, it did rain once again!.  The Little Mermaid Statue.
Helsingborg Sweden:  Church of St Mary, a beautiful 1533 church, ferry across the North Sea through Osengund Sound to Helsingor Denmark to go to Kroneborg Castle, where Larry's family is from.  Also the location for the inspiration and filming of Hamlet.  Lovely picnic lunch on the grounds.  Back to Sweden to hike up to the Keep, the only remaining part of an 11th century castle.
Oslo Norway:  Took a train up to the mountains where the old Olympic ski jump was to hike through a couple of small towns w/amazing views of the fjiords and city down below.  But, once again, the rain found us, the fog moved in and we couldn't see very far in front of us, so we went back into town and took a ferry to the Norwegian Folk Museum with homes and buildings from the 11th century on to more modern times of the 18th century.   Stood in the hall where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded and back on the ship.
Day at Sea:  Sleep in, relax, eat, read, play games, enjoy!  Another exciting ship contest, a putting contest.  Dad got the booby prize for no points and Brian came in second and was so proud of his "major award"!!
London:  In a nutshell, Buckingham Palace tour, Parliment, Big Ben, Westminser Abbey tour, Tower of London tour, riding the London Eye, hiking to a tiny gluten free restaraunt, yummmy!   Trafalgar Square, pictures at night, hike back to hotel and crashed!
Well, it's only a small sampling of our trip, but it was truely an amazing experience!!
Thanks to Brian and Amber for HOURS of research that allowed us to get so many things packed into each day's adventures.  It was awesome!