It was freaking amazing!
Did a few days in Oslo before the cruise / bike ride.
Played tourist, wandered around downtown, visited museums.
Got to the ship, bags were in the cabin, bikes in boxes somewhere. Spent a couple hours reassembling the tandem and then to a little town in north Denmark for a short ride. We only did 15 or so since we'd just put the bike together and wanted to not get stranded. Passed with flying colors and wished we'd done the 30 mile route. Small town, rolling hills, pretty as can be.
When we left port a dozen or so people (probably 10% of the town) were on the dock waving good-bye. They never get cruise boats since the harbor os so small. We barely fit.
Someone said it wouldn’t matter where you were you could take a photo that would be postcard worthy.
Small boat by cruise ship standard- 169 passengers, 112 crew. French chef, the food was over the top.
It was a "choose your own adventure" ride. We gave them out Garmins and they loaded the next days courses. You'd start out with, say, eight miles then could pick from a variety of segments to get about any milage you wanted. Sometimes we were with a group of half dozen or more, other times by ourselves.
Almost always within eyesight of someone else.
Occasionally someone would put the hammer down to show their stuff but it never turned into a throw down, there were too many fun things to see or do to ruin it with a race.
Speaking of race. The day our 65 miles in the drizzle was south 450 miles of a stage of the Tour of Norway and that stage was 135 miles. I pointed that out to some people at dinner... shocked looks prevailed.
Interesting mix of people in the group. About half on single bikes, about half of those were e-bikes. Several e-tandems. A few 40+ guys that wanted to hammer. Most of us just rode a comfortable pace and enjoyed stopping to take pics, see sights, or pick wild raspberries that were everywhere.
Viking ruins, polar explorer ships and museums, 1100 year old churches, little towns that seldom see tourists… it was epic!
Our longest day was 65 miles... light drizzle most of the time. rode over the Great Atlantic Road (google it).
One segment started at the end of a fjord and we rode back 20 miles or so then hiked a mile where we had a great view of a glacier about a mile further and 2'000' up the mountain. We saw photos from 100 years ago where the glacier where we were standing.
There was some serious money on the boat... one team rented a suite that came with a butler. Yes, you read that right.
Some very nice tandems- S&S coupled Calfees, loads of coupled Ti bikes with Di2.
We bought a used S&S coupled Co-Motion for easier shipping.
Sheep everywhere. One tandem team waited for a flock to cross the road then proceeded to ride but one sheep darted back and took them out. He ended up with a broken collarbone and bruised ribs. She got scuffed up but otherwise was fine.
One guy had Covid and, in accordance with the ship's regulations, got put off at the next port with access to a hotel. Bummer for both.
Spent a few days after the cruise in Norway then Copenhagen for a couple days. That is a bike-filled city!.
We were eating pastries outside a shop and some guy rode up, locked up his bike and went inside. He came out carrying a box and asked if we spoke English... guys we didn't look Danish even though we were eating one
He was so excited at the cake he bought for his friends 40th birthday he was dying to tell us about it.
Cakeman. Looked like a gingerbread man made out of small cinnamon rolls elaborately decorated with frosting and candies. Typically given at kids birthday parties. The guest of honor gets to cut off caveman's head while all the others scream in mock terror.
It's wonderfully macabre. My granddaughter visits next weekend for her 12th birthday and you can bet we'll introduced her to this fantastic treasure!
If I had and doubt my wife aka Super Stoker, enjoyed herself it was dispelled when she saw another Santana cruise in New Zealand a year from this January when she said, “Let’s book it!”