Arriving in Bergen feels like coming home. I have been here enough times with Shap that the city is familiar. After all of the traveling, I feel like it is a homecoming. I rented an Air BnB for the seven of us with ONLY ONE bathroom. We all remembered our dorm days and it worked out fine. The “we” consisted of five friends from Stowe: Alan and Ellen Thorndike, Cindy and Jeff McKechnie and Louise Reed. All five of us have traveled together on various trips; although our personalities are quite different we seem to blend well and have a great time.

Lysoen Shap’s Family home

 Lysøen, Shap’s family’s Home belonging to Ole Bull and now a museum

What is meaningful for this trip is the beginning of a new chapter in many of our lives. Louise, with a year gone by since we lost our wonderful Paul, Allen, with a year of recovery from two long years battling depression, Ellen, with a year of retirement under her belt, Jeff and Cindy, coming out of two weddings and the joyous occasion of a new grandson, Then there is Shap and me,we have arrived into our seventies, are blessed with eight grandchildren, four out of five children living close by and our health is good. Decisions have to be made soon for our next number of years, what form this will take we are not sure.

But right now we are on a ship, cruising up the coast of Norway, stopping at incredibly beautiful ports of call. We passed the Arctic circle at 7:15 this morning. The scenery has changed to high snow capped mountains and small picturesque villages and cottages. I thought we would see more marine life but have been disappointed. I am sure the Gulf Stream has something to do with it.

As we cruise along in this pristine area, we hear that Trump is taking us out of the Paris agreement, has turned his back on Germany, and continues to assume a dictators role. Germany is now lining up with China, everyone is distancing themselves from us, and Rufus Wainwright sang “ I am so tired of America” at the Bergen Music Festival while people were clapping in the audience. Try hearing that? We were all so sad that this is the way that we are perceived. We are losing our standing in Europe, everywhere we go people are making jokes about Trump and the U.S. We have become the laughing stock of Europe, of Russia and the world. Even we laugh at the situation we find ourselves in, while being horrified that our senators and legislators sit by and watch the United States falling from grace. We all ask how much damage Trump can do? Just come to Europe and you will find out, he has done too much already.

Enjoy the photos of an amazing place in the world and remember you can help to make a change so get involved so we can keep this beautiful world.

We are all on a Kodiak going going to look at a malstrüm.

                    The malstürm