GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN- AUGUST 1- 6, 2010

We began our trip in Gothenburg Sweden on the south coast side of Sweden where I competed in FINA's International World Masters Swimming Meet, August 2-6, 2010 where I placed 8th overall in the 65-69 age group in the 100 meter butterfly, 9th place in the 200 meter butterfly, 10th in the 400 meter Freestyle and 16th in the 50 meter butterfly.   Medals were awarded to the top ten finishers.  The following pictures were taken in or around Gothenburg with accompanying music of Sweden.  Start the video by hitting the arrow key once or twice, or even three times and enlarge by double clicking on the image:

During the day of relays, Marilyn and I took a boat trip to some of the nearby coastal islands where we met this nice Swedish couple who invited us to have coffee at their summer house:

HARBOR CRUISE OF GOTHENBURG:

VIDEO OF HARBOR CRUISE CONTINUED:

Stockholm - August 6-11, 2011

City Walking Tour of Old Town Stockholm:

Boat Cruise "Under the Bridges" or more appropriately "Through a Rainstorm":

Vasa Museum:

SAAMI CULTURE:

Helsinki

City of Helsinki scenes before start of Grand Circle Travel tour on August 12, 2010:

Harbor Cruise:

Following our boat cruise, we walked over to the central park and listened to the band playing on this particular day (next 3 videos):

Ivalo - Lapland Finland

Leaving Helsinki, our tour group flew to northern Finland and stayed in the town of Ivalo.   The first video was taken from the bus and Linda, our tour guide speaking on the laplanders or as they are now properly referred to as SAAMI's.

Pictures taken from visiting reindeer farm to drive to Kirkenes on the border between Russia and Finland:

Norwegian Coast Boat Cruise

The following videos were taken on Sep 13, 2011 well after our Norwegian ship cruise had been completed.  The video is hard to watch since it shows a ship similar to the one we were on that suffered a terrible engine room fire that killed two employees.  However, all the passengers and other crew members were safely removed from the ship in a nearby port north of Bergen:......
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	Cruise ship catches fire in Norway*
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You can click on the link below for an even more graphic video:
http://youtu.be/8Qwtb9mp9N0http://youtu.be/8Qwtb9mp9N0

So now back to the original post many months ago:

Begin cruise in Kirkenes, the center of the municipality of Sor Varanger with a population of 5,000, to begin boat cruise down west coast of Norway - First Night Video:

This is a copy of a video shown by the Hurtigruten line showing the sights of a winter cruise:


This is a video of our cruise director's description of Viking history and impact:

Cruise and visit to the town of Sortland:


This is one of several video clips that I took of the excursion through the Troll Fiord, so named for the trolls.  These mythical creatures had long crooked noses, only four fingers and toes on each limb with long bushy tails, creatures that live in the dark forests and the mighty mountains with their deep lakes and roaring waterfalls:

Troll Fiord and the music of Norwegian Edward Grieg:

Turn around point in Troll Fiord:

Arctic circle ceremony on board the Hurtigruten on deck 7 where the boat crossed over the Arctic Circle going south:

Trondheim:

Entry into Bergen Harbor:

Bergen City Tour:

Bergen City Tour (continued):

Bergen City Tour (continued):

Bergen City Tour (continued):

Ride from Bergen up coast to view Natural Gas Plant:

Final Leg of Trip - Bus, Train and Boat Ride from Bergen along inland Fiord to Oslo

Train stop at Kjosfossen Waterfall and water maiden show:

Boat exclusion on fiords with captain:

Bus ride to Oslo and commentary:

Bus ride to Oslo and commentary (continued):

Farewell dinner and speeches at Oslo Hotel: