Our Norwegian and Northern Lights Voyage on Ambience

Travel to England and Norway Begins    " Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.” Seneca   This is the story of our 16-night, 17-day voyage to the top of Norway in search of the Northern Lights aboard Ambassador's ship Ambience .  If you'd like to skip ahead, you can begin reading at the point where we embarked on the ship in Tilbury, England.  However, if you aren't in a hurry, the full tale begins at the edge of a continent, right at the transition where one journey ends and another begins.   Our time back in the UK and on board Ambience to Norway begins almost a month after we completed our multiyear #Hike4Birds on the Trans Canada Trail and a week after returning to St. John’s, Newfoundland, where we began our trek across Canada many many years ago.   Newfoundland to the United Kingdom   Our final day in St John’s, Newfoundland, was spent hiking the rugged, wind-swept cliffs high above the ocean, reminding ourselves why...

Voyaging in New Directions    “We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” T.S. Eliot, Little Gidding Life at the Crossroads This year began with changes and new challenges entering our lives.  Not long ago, my Grandmother, then some 103 years old, passed away.  At the same time, my parents began to have serious medical issues that meant they increasingly required assistance.  In addition to this, over the past several years, we have begun and now completed the world’s longest recreational pathway, the 28,000 km Trans Canada Trail , bringing our long #Hike4Birds from the Atlantic to the Pacific to the Arctic to an end.      All of this means that we now stand at a point in our lives when change is in the air, and we must chart a new direction for ourselves, dealing with the choices that lie ahead.   Problem with the Algorithm   ...

Ambassador Cruise’s MS Ambience  Voyage to Norway and the Northern Lights In the late fall, we boarded MS Ambience in Tilbury, London UK, for a 16-night, 17-day Norwegian Cruise north beyond the Arctic Circle.    This would be an amazing and memorable experience, taking us from England and Scotland across the North and Norwegian Seas and into the Arctic before returning to visit Orkney.      This photo blog series documents the journey, including the experience of voyaging from the United Kingdom to Norway, crossing the Arctic Circle, seeing Northern Lights, connecting with the Way of St. Olav, and the St. Magnus Way.    Whether you’re dreaming of a similar Norwegian and Northern Lights journey or simply curious about what happens on an Ambassador Cruise voyage, these posts aims to share the natural wonders, stunning Northern Lights, and challenges of Pub Trivia that occurred between ports of call as well as all the quiet moments of connect...