Life Through My Eyes: Day 3 Of Our NCL Cruise Vacation

Today we got up a little later and had a leisurely breakfast.
We were going to be visiting Alesund, Norway.
Once again the weather was rather dank and dreary with off and on rain showers.
Veronica and I took our time walking around Alesund and once again I took tons of photos. This was to be a re-occurring theme throughout the cruise, so there will be no need for me to keep mentioning this. Those of you that follow my blog know that I am a man pocessed when I get a camera in my hands.
We found a small mall in Alesund and did some shopping there for souvenirs.
Veronica and I called it an early day and we went back to the ship and took a nap....not quite as young as we used to be plus the hectic travel schedule had worn us out temporarily.
After we got up from our nap, we decided to participate in one of the many ships events that they have each day and believe me, they have lots of activities to do on these ships.
Today we got involved in an arts and crafts activity and then a trivia challenge activity. they gave out these slips of paper that after each class or activity, you could get the person giving the class or running the activity, to initial the slip of paper. Once you got 20 initials and completed the card, you would have an opportunity to turn this card or slip of paper in on the last day of the cruise for some type of gifts.
We participated in quite a number of these classes and activities and were able to fill up two of these slips of paper with a total of 40 initials. Now fast forward to the last day of the cruise where we turned the slips of paper over to an one of the cruises activity personnel outside of the Stardust theater, where we were given two NCL t-shirts for our collection of those 40 signatures. Those that had signatures but didn't have full slips of paper or less than 20 initials could get other items such as a frisbee and other NCL logo items.
After participating in those activities, Veronica and I went up to the observation deck on deck #12 and relaxed while watching a storm brewing and building up on the horizon. It was really cool looking at the wide variety of colors in the various area of clouds within this storm and watching where the solid rain shaft was located.
We were heading in the direction of the storm and ran into some rain as the afternoon and night went by.
After watching the storm build up for a while, Veronica and I went to the main dining room for dinner.
When we returned to our room, our room had been spruced up and the bed made and things straightened up a bit. We had a room steward assigned to our room and he would come by in the morning, mid afternoon and in the evening to make the bed, straighten and tidy up the place, clean the bathroom and replace towels along with vacuuming the carpet. Once in a while we would get towel animals left that he had made and some chocolates that he left for us. We did not get many towels animals left for us on this cruise. We have been on other cruises where the steward would leave towel animals every night but we only saw 3 or 4 our whole cruise.
We also received a daily newsletter each afternoon/evening that told about everything that was going on during the following day. It told us about all of the daily activities, shows, special sales, informative discussions, just about anything that you could think of that would be happening on the shop. It also provided us with the time we would arrive at the next location and the projected weather report for that port of call.
We were told that we would be visiting Lerwick, which is part of the Shetland islands, which is part of Britain.
We would have to be tendered in small sized boats to get on shore. In order to make the tendering of so many passengers trying to get ashore somewhat more organized, I would have to go to the main Casino Desk at 7:30the next morning in order to get a number, which would designate which tender boat we would be on.
That night we also received a flyer that told us about a laundry special that they were running. They give you a large paper bag to fill up with as much laundry as you can get in it and it will be cleaned and return to you in a couple of days. The cost of this special was $25 a bag. Unfortunately the bags are made of paper so you have to be careful how you pack your clothes in it but you can get quite a bit in each bag. If the bag tears anywhere, we just put duck tape on it to keep the tear from spreading and we also put duck tape on top and over the top opening of the bag do as to keep the bag from tearing at the top and to keep all of the clothes within the bag. The cost of this special has gone up quite a bit since our last cruise two years ago. at that time I think the cost was around $19.99 a bag.
This special really works our great ad we got clean clothes within a reasonable length of time. We also learned a very good thing this trip....we took way too many clothes with us. I could have brought about 1/2 of what I actually brought, if not a little less and with this laundry service, I would have had more than enough clothes to last the trip with clean clothes to take home with us. Believe me I will remember this for our next cruise. Pack lighter...less is more.

We found Alesund to be a very pretty place

I really liked the way everything reflected of off the water. The water was almost like glass....really smooth

Here we are in Alesund

This inflatable was packed with tourist going out on some type of excursion. This boat looked like it could really go fast and give the tourists a fun filled ride to wherever they were heading

We are still in Alesund

A ferry pulling away from the dock

A postal vehicle

In Alesund, Norway

Veronica saw these in a store and had never seen them before so she bought a couple, opened them on the ship...drank the contents so that she could bring them home safely

Never fails...I always seem to have my eyes closed especially in a really nice photograph...drats!!!!

We saw this dog laying on the floor near the front window of a store. Didn't seem like much of a guard dog but I guess you can never tell what lurks behind those sad eyes...who knows...maybe just a sad dog

This was painted on the side of a building

Veronica window shopping for trolls

I think she really wanted this witchy troll but didn't get it and since being home, I have looked everywhere online for it. I just can't locate this little beauty. If anyone out there knows where I can get of of these "witchy" trolls, please let me know

We sat up in the Observation Deck...Veronica was reading and I was watching and taking photographs of a storm we were heading into. The colors were absolutely vibrant