Sunday Smiles - Blue Roads and Flu shot

 Linking to Gillena's Sunday Smiles.

In other news, I got my first high dose flu shot this past Thursday.  I happened to go into the grocery store pharmacy to drop off some expired medicines (they accept these) and I noticed a bunch of people getting shots.  It turns out people 65 and over could get their flu shots at this time so I went for it!  Others will be eligible in 2 more weeks.  

Our Western European Cruise - Bergen, Norway

Husband M and I, our son K and our daughter and her husband, along with M's 2 older sisters returned some weeks ago from our Viking Western European cruise.

The 7 of us gathered at Toronto airport for our departure.  This is a tasty Reuben sandwich some of us had at the airport.

We flew to Amsterdam September 8th, it was a connecting flight to Bergen, Norway.  The Viking bus met us at the airport along with other people on the same cruise.  Viking caters to seniors for the most part.  It was noticeably colder compared to Toronto.  We had been having a warmer season.

Viking Bus with washroom

We boarded the ship and had to attend a safety demonstration.  Daughter L and her husband decided to visit the Ice Bar attraction on shore, the rest of us were too tired.

Bergen - Breakfast on ship

Husband M and I had a wonderful breakfast on the ship that morning.  Then we all took an included tour to the city of Bergen.  The guide was very good.  It started to rain so husband M's sisters decided to head back to the ship with the rest of the tour.  It was cold and rainy that day.  My family decided to stay and explore Bergen.  The first stop was McDonald's to use the washroom.  Here is a neat sign in the restaurant.  You generally have to pay to use the washrooms or at least buy something in Europe.  Someone kind just let us into the washroom this time.  The Norwegians seem to be very nice and friendly people.

 

McDonald's sign - Bergen

McDonalds - Bergen

McDonald's Menu - Bergen

The photos below show what we did before we returned to the ship.  It was very cold and rainy.  The mooseburger and reindeer hot dog at the market were very good, apologies if it offends anyone.  

Bergen - Mailbox

Cute ferry to the ice bar that L used the night before

 

Bryggen - world heritage site in the city of Bergen

red bike lanes - look out they speed!

Another view of Bryggen

Bergen - phone booth

Bergen market

Delicious Mooseburger and Reindeer hot dog

I bought the art at the bottom of this photo for a friend

Bergen - Shops

We were supposed to visit Amsterdam as our next port of call unfortunately there was a storm in the North Sea and we had to miss Amsterdam, in fact the ship stayed in Bergen until the next morning to ride out the storm a bit.

To be continued.

Friday Art - Southern Carmine Bee Eater

 Welcome to Friday Art!  These are my Southern Carmine Bea Eaters.  It is an ACEO (2 1/2" x 3 1/2") in watercolour pencil.   I saw them featured on a David Attenborough Video.  They are so colourful.

Linking to Gillena's Art For Fun Friday.

Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date - Vampire and Roasted Vegetables

Welcome to Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date! The theme is Vampire. I did Vampire eyes an ACEO (2 1/2" x 3 1/2") in acrylic marker. My idea is from Pixabay.com.

 

 For the Dinner Date, I made some roasted cauliflower and green beans.  Easy and delicious.  I mixed in olive oil, salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, oregano, chili powder, lemon juice, dijon mustard.  I baked at 400F for 30 minutes.

Wednesday Memes

 

The colonoscopy

 Husband M had a colonoscopy done this past Oct 3.  I had not been to the hospital in awhile and was impressed by how clean and well equipped the hospital was with excellent staff and volunteers.  We are lucky to live here.  The hospitals are always criticized ... overcrowding, being short staffed, and so on.  But M was well taken care of on this day.  In fact, they wanted to escort him to the car in a wheelchair.  We decided it wasn't necessary, he just wanted to stop at the coffee shop in the hospital as he was starving from the previous day's fasting.  He is to advise his siblings to get tested and his kids should have colonoscopies done at age 40.  This is because he tends to have pre-cancerous type polyps which are removed and tested.  This one was smaller than the one removed 2 years ago.  The doctor also advised him to take 1000 iu Vitamin D tablets daily as these pills are thought to help prevent cancerous polyps.

My job was to drive M home after the procedure.

In other news, daughter L saw the Comet A3 on Saturday night up north in Muskoka where the skies were clear.

Canadian Thanksgiving Day 2024

 It is Canadian Thanksgiving Day!  Have a wonderful holiday.