First Sea Day-June 25

We survived another boat drill. This time we did have to go to the deck where the boats would come, but is was all done quickly. We discovered that getting a life jacket on when one is wearing a sling is a challenge. Actually met our next door neighbors, Lynn and Ken from Toronto at the boat drill.

Here is our ship- the Voyager. Carries 700 passengers and all the staterooms have balconies. Flowers are everywhere on the ship. Having an internet connection in our stateroom is wonderful and now we have sailed with Regent enough days to get free internet- yeah!

Dinner in the Compass Rose Dining Room was shared with Heather and Neil, a couple from Bath in England. They both were originally from Scotland and had traveled a great deal. Jim had spaghetti and I had pork loin with wonderful risotto for our main courses. The food was very good.

After dinner we went to the stateroom at about 9:45- which became 10:45 by the clock because we had to move ahead one hour. We were in bed and asleep fairly quickly. AND WE SLEPT LIKE LOGS!

After breakfast in the dining room we went to hear two lectures. First was deliver by Sandra Bowern and was a look at modern day Norway. She was a very informative lecturer. 

We learned the following things.....among other things 

1- Norway has a population of 4.5 million people and 10% of them live in Oslo.

2- In addition to the land mass we think of as Norway,  Norway has 50,000 islands. 

3- 40% of the export from Norway consists of oil  

4- The land of Norway has one section of lakes and rivers and one long section of mountains. The lakes and mountains are as a result of the Ice Age and some of the lakes are the deepest in Europe.

5- The names of Norwegians were not made legal until 1925. Until then people went by their first name given at birth, a name that indicated some relationship (Erickson....son of Erick) and then a last name indicating the town where they lived. If a person moved their last name changed.

6- Norwegians, they say, were born on skis. The slalom skiing (skiing down a marked course) and the ski jump were invented in Norway.

7- In the winter there is hardly any daylight and in the summer this is called the Land of the Midnight Sun which we are about to experience.

8-Stave churches- seen everywhere in Norway- are unique because they are constructed without the use of nails or pegs. The wooden panels are slipped into slots on the posts of staves to create the walls.

We heard a second lecture by a man named Brad Koltveit, who just retired as the Director of Research at the Maritime Museum in Oslo. His "talk" explained a Maritime View of Norway- an artist's viewpoint. The most interesting thing was that in 1891 in Chicago an exhibition was held as part of a big celebration of the discovery of America by Columbia. It was clear that there were many people from Norway- Vikings- already in America in 1492. Several of the paintings he showed to us depicted sailors from Norway landing in America.

After lunch I expect a nap will call us.