If you only see the outline below, we haven’t yet gotten to update it with what actually happened. Be sure to check back later!

• A slower day aboard the ship

Joyce welcomed the sea day today. She has had a cold and is glad for a slower paced day. Fortunately, she was able to go on all the planned excursions with only one day that she felt pretty badly. A couple days of more than average fatigue, so she is hopefully today will get her the rest she needs.

Alan got a picture with Mohammed our cabin steward and Lester, the assistant as we went to breakfast this morning. The guys really work hard! They greet us by name every time they see us, always with a smile. At the beginning of the cruise they customized our cabin with a top sheet in addition to the duvet, firmer pillow for Alan, extra padding with multiple mattress covers for Joyce, and Coke Zero and Sprite Zero in the room refrigerator instead of wine. They are quick and efficient with their service and they work to anticipate needs. Joyce forgot her readers one day and had to go back to the room as they were cleaning. Mohammed left and quickly came back with both disposable lens wipes and a small microfiber lens cloth. They have made our stay in our cabin very pleasant and clean!

Joyce did laundry twice so far on this trip, once at the beginning after our days in Iceland and then a small load a few days later. We have been busy with multiple shore excursions for several days, so the need to do laundry was reaching critical importance. There is a launderette on our deck with four washers and four dryers. Use of the machines and laundry soap is complimentary. We presorted the laundry into two loads so we would be ready. We checked to see how busy it was on the way to breakfast and found it standing room only. We continued to check several times during the morning and there were still no machines available. Finally, just after lunch, a washer became available so we Joyce put in the first load and Alan went to the cabin for the other load. Joyce always meets interesting people and has interesting conversations in the launderette. Today it was about the odor our clothes brought back to the ship from our tour of the Lofoten Fish Industry yesterday. It appeared today was extra busy and people worked to get the odor out of their clothes. At any rate, people are always pleasant and mostly courteous of each other as we work to get this basic need taken care of. The laundry was cleaned and dried relatively quickly and now will not have to be attended to until after we are home.

Today we are sailing from the Lofoten Islands to the Geirangerfjord through Norway’s Inside Passage. While yesterday was our most sunny, balmy day in Norway, today is a close second. the sun is shining with whisky clouds. There are many, many islands on Norway’s coast, more than 239,000, with about 5000 inhabited. We saw tiny islands, large islands, mountainous islands, rocky but flat island. Some appeared very close to the ship and others just at the horizon. As we blogged and napped, we had our veranda door partially open. We could hear the gentle sound of the ship slowly gliding through the calm water.

• Blogging, napping, port talk

The ship’s captain informed us today that the Norwegian King, Harald V, died today at the age of 89. We were more familiar with his story as within the last year we watched a mini-series about then Crown Prince Harald and the love of his life, Sonja, a commoner. They met through mutual friends and dated secretly for several years. When Harald asked his father, King Olav V, for permission to marry Sonja, he was refused because she was a commoner. After some consideration, Harald declared if he could not marry Sonja, he would remain unmarried and his father relented. Harald and Sonja married in 1968, both beloved by the people of Norway.

• Pool grill lunch
• Blog, show, limited internet
• Tea
• The Chef’s Table dinner tonight
• Reflecting on the trip so far — favorite moments
• Visit to the Abbey and early to bed because early to rise.