Norwegian Cruising Adventure - Goteborg, Sweden - Day 4 - Arendal, Norway - Day 5

Arrival at our ship was like coming home. We have the same captain and many crew members that we had on our Iceland cruise. Given the number of passengers they meet each year it is amazing they recognize us.  Captain Regis Daumesnil is a hands on captain.  He is everywhere.  He meets and greets each passenger as they embark and disembark each day.  If we are getting into the inflatable boats he is helping people climb in and out.  

Upon arrival on board ship there is a mandatory abandon ship drill.  We have to wear our life jackets and go the muster station for our lifeboat. 

Looking good in my orange outfit.

Our cabin is smaller than on past cruises. We reserved the last available cabin for this cruise and requested an upgrade that never came through. We have the larger cabin reserved for our Scotland cruise in 2022. Our balcony is large but it is a bit on the cool side for sitting out doors in the evening.

We have a favorite dining area on the fantail. It is an intimate space that accommodates only 50 guests. We can dine outdoors and avoid the main dining room. There is a great view all around where we have dinner. Tonight is the captain’s welcome gala dinner reception.

Here we are dressed for the Captain’s gala.

I am battling with the weak WIFI on the ship. I can send and receive texts but cannot download photos. I can only publish my blog when we are in port and I have cell service. Even using a hot spot on my iPad takes a long time to upload photos. Enough of these behind the scenes discussions.

We order room service for breakfast everyday. It is an extensive menu except no baked beans. On previous cruises I would get up early to forage around the ship for coffee, 2% milk, sugar and pastries. Then I would use my best balancing skills to get everything back to the room without spilling and dropping everything. The final step was to put everything on the hallway floor in order to open the door to our cabin and then make my delivery. Ah, room service, it’s the best.

We arrived in Goteborg, Sweden. This is our only stopover in Sweden. We had a late start on the tour bus. The bus departed at 1:15 pm for the Volvo museum. Goteborg is the headquarters for Volvo. The company was established in 1927. Our tour guide was way over board on her knowledge of the history of Volvo. She rambled on endlessly about the most minute details of every car. I am sure at least one person in our group might have had that level of interest. The tour guide would quiz us on random factoids and if we did not remember them she would chastise us. “What year did Volvo introduce their second convertible? This is the one with a fiberglass body?” All in all it was an interesting tour to learn that Volvo survived on the sales of trucks, buses and farm equipment until they finally figured out the car market.

I am standing next to a Volvo built with Lego bricks. Five people worked for 10 weeks and used over 200,000 Legos to built it.

We took a bus tour of downtown Goteborg. We saw the many Lutheran churches and several city squares. The city council voted to change the name of the city to Gothenburg to make it more international. The former spelling used a Swedish letter O with two dots above it.

We were back on the ship and underway by 5 pm. We crossed the Skagerrak back to Arendal, Norway. We will spend the remainder of our trip in Norway. Arendal is inland up a long fjord. They do not get many cruise ships due to the small harbor. We are able to visit Arendal because we are on a small ship. The townspeople are happy to have cruise ship visitors so the children from Arendal put on a musical performance on the hillside next to the ship. Arendal shares a similar name with the city in the animated Disney movie Frozen which is Arendelle. The performance is on three levels on the hill with Princess Elsa at the top. It was charming.

The children of Arendal danced for the passengers on our ship.

Here is a video of the Arendal dancrers.

We went on a walking tour of Arendal which is a lovely seaport town with lots of marinas and wooden boats. There is even a Ferris wheel.

There are many wooden boats in Norway. They are all well maintained.

The Arendal Ferris Wheel operates from noon until 6:00 pm.

I have been watching the weather as I always do. We are on the east side of Norway. The forecast is for gale force winds tomorrow. If we follow our schedule we I’ll have the brunt of the storm on the nose and beam as we round the southern tip of Norway and head north to Stavanger. There is a port that is on the tip of Norway before we enter the North Sea called Kristansand. I wonder if they have a dock that can handle a small cruise ship? We shall see. Remember the most dangerous thing you can have on a ship is schedule.