Happy Constitution Day, y’all! We arrived here on Norway’s version of July 4th, and the day did not disappoint. Norway is an ancient place, but yet not an old country having gained its independence in 1906. The country celebrates with parades and with parties, and we got to see just a bit of it.

We should start with this: the excursion we had booked was cancelled; our thought is that it couldn’t happen due to all the closed streets and shops. NCL had an excursion that took you to the parade (but not just to it, but to march in it!) but that had only one available space. So, we just walked off the shop to see what was happening.

And oh, what happenings! The crowds were in their Sunday best outfits, so many men in suits. Many women were in period dresses with so much hand embroidery; one person we talked said the dresses ran about $7,000, another said that was way low. Even the kids were dressed up. There were bands marching, some were community bands, others were school groups. Norwegian flags were everywhere. Every so often something like a cannon blast would go off, shaking the buildings.

We didn’t do any real exploring here due to the crowds, but had a wonderful time people watching and admiring their patriotism. The weather again was wonderful, with just a little breeze to make it cooler than we were ready for.

Tomorrow is our last sea day of the trip, then Monday we arrive in Iceland. The extended forecast before we left Nampa had been for high 40’s to low 50’s ; Monday’s forecast now is for 72 degrees. We didn’t pack for that! More later…