Along with the "double" main stage performance each evening as well as performers in smaller venues throughout the ship, you will have all kinds of opportunities to join our guest performers for formal concerts, informal audience participation sessions, daily choir practice, "bar gigs," and much more. And all this will be on top of the truly first class dining and activities provided by Holland America.

On top of our musical offerings, Prairie Home is pleased to offer workshops, lectures, and activities over the next ten days covering all matter of subjects from Vikings to Lutherans, fjord formation to bird identification and more than a few tips for crafting a good journal entry.

Once on board, check Holland America's daily schedule for locations and times for these activities or stop by our Info Desk (located by the Holland America front desk) for more details. We'll continue to post activities as determined, so check back later for more info. Final schedules will be provided day of departure.

We're covering a lot of ground in ten days, literally and figuratively, and look forward to exploring, discussing and writing about it with you.

To see the proposed daily schedule for the cruise click here! (PDF document)


I. Writing Workshops
Workshop Leaders: Holly Harden and Phebe Hanson

II. History Lectures
Workshop Leaders: Christina von Nolken and Scott Westphal

III. Naturalist Lectures
Cruise Naturalists: Nancy Bazilchuk, Rich MacDonald, Dyk Eusden, Rick Strimbeck

IV. The Royal Academy of Radio Actors
With Fred Newman, Tim Russell and Sue Scott

V. Wonderful Miscellany
Talent Show, Scotch Tasting, Ballast Submissions, PHC Camera Club, Book Club: John Saucke, Marcia Pankake


I. Writing Workshops

Keeping Track of Things (Holly Harden)
Søren Kirkegaard wrote, "Life must be lived forwards, but can only be understood backwards." In this workshop we'll talk about the importance of great journals of the past written by people like Lewis and Clark, Emerson and Thoreau, and Anne Frank, and we'll discuss some of the kinds of journals people keep and why - records of goals and dreams and events, observations of nature, stories of family events and descriptions of landscapes. We'll look at travel journals in particular, and do a bit of writing, and talk about where we're at when it comes to keeping track of things.
This lecture will be offered three times. Limit 20 per session.
Please sign up at the EMI Information desk in the lobby upon arrival.

My Father, the Norwegian Exile (Phebe Hanson)
Phebe's father, David Martin Dale, was born in Dale i Sunnfjord, Norway on July 23, 1900. She could never get him to talk much about his childhood and youth in "the old country," as he called it. She did know why he left Norway for America-it was a story he told over and over again, how when he was so sick with Spanish Flu, he promised God he would serve Him forever if He let him live. His mother called the village doctor who performed a tracheotomy on their kitchen table and saved dad's life. He'd heard about a college and seminary in Minnesota, and that's where he determined to go. He left Norway the day after Christmas, 1920, on the USS Stavangerfjord, bound for America and Minneapolis where he enrolled at Augsburg Seminary. He was ordained as a Lutheran Free Church minister in 1926. In these meetings, Phebe will share stories she's written about her father, who was a monumental influence in her life. Her mother died when she was eight, the oldest of four children, so she grew very close to her father, especially during the three years before he married her stepmother. Ever since he died in 1979, she has written about him endlessly and almost compulsively in her journals, in poems and in memoir pieces. She felt he went to his grave without her really getting to know who he was. She would also like to encourage others in the group to tell their own family stories, whether or not they involve the immigrant experience.

Wake Up and Write (Phebe Hanson and Leah Lawrence)
Join poet and journal keeper Phebe Hanson and her aerobics instructor daughter Leah Lawrence each morning to get your blood stirred and your pen moving across the pages of your journal or notebook. "Memory is elusive: capture it!" as the little Five Year Diary said, the one in which Phebe wrote her first entry with a stick pen dipped in a bottle of Quink on January 1, 1939. First we'll do 10 minutes of physical exercise led by Leah, followed by 10-15 minutes of spontaneous writing from ideas suggested by Phebe.

Wind Down and Write (Phebe Hanson and Leah Lawrence)
Before you climb into bed, join Phebe and Leah for gentle stretches and slow ruminative writing. Don't think you're a writer? Never mind. This class is for beginners as well as seasoned journal keepers and exercisers. "In the beginner's mind are many possibilities; in the expert's there are few."


II. History Lectures: Vikings and Lutherans

The Vikings and Their Memory (Christina von Nolcken)
This lecture will introduce passengers to those intrepid medieval pirates, explorers and traders who came to be known as the Vikings. Often sailing out of the very fjords we will be visiting, they erupted onto the world stage in the late eighth century, trading where they couldn't raid, and exploring as far as the Caspian Sea, Africa, northern Greenland and the east coast of America. We will mainly think about how they have been remembered, whether by those they traumatized, their own descendants, or much later cultures like our own.

Egil Skallagrimsson and the Viking Ideal (Christina von Nolcken)
Egil Skallagrimsson was the most splendid Viking of them all, who, according to his saga, started composing skaldic-that is, praise-poetry at age three, achieved his first killing at age ten, raided and traded all over the Viking world, feuded with the king of Norway, fought as a mercenary for the king of England, farmed in Iceland, and lived to a furious old age. He was also the finest poet of the Viking Age. You will enjoy him.

The Vikings and a Turbulent Anglo-Scandinavian World (Christina von Nolcken)
In this session we will track the impact-including the linguistic impact-of the Vikings on medieval England. Among the more memorable characters you will be introduced to are Ragnar Hairy Breeches, who ended his days in a snake pit; Eric Bloodaxe, the last Viking King of York, whom Odin summoned to Valhalla; Olaf Tryggvason, for a while a slave in Estonia, later king of Norway, who unsuccessfully tried to impose Christianity on his subjects; Svein Forkbeard, who absorbed England into a Denmark-centered empire; and Harald Hardrada, who fought all over the known world, blinded the Byzantine emperor, escaped from the empress' prison, became king of Norway, and made an unsuccessful bid for England.

Viking Q&A (Christina von Nolcken)
Christina opens the floor to all questions Old and Norse in this open forum touching on topics from Viking sagas to medieval Anglo-Scandinavian relations.

Here We Stood: A Brief History of the Lutherans in Norway (Scott Westphal)
Join the conversation as we explore the history of the Lutherans in Norway. Who was St. Olaf? Why Lutheran? Where are they now? Did Viking raiding parties of yore have any bearing on our current outreach efforts? Bring along your questions and your own understandings about this denominational story.


III. Naturalist Lectures

In addition to the following list of seminars, your APHC cruise naturalists will be on the Navigation deck every morning for impromptu wildlife observations, and on the Lido deck every afternoon for natural history interpretation. Check the daily schedule for "Naturalist on Deck" and "Coastal Commentary."

Introduction to the Natural History of Norway
Come meet all your Prairie Home Companion Naturalists and see what they have prepared for the next 10 days of adventure! You'll hear and see a bit about Norway's landscape and geology, birds and mammals, vegetation and fisheries. You'll get a taste of exploration both historical and contemporary, and what it means to live in a cold climate. We'll highlight bits and pieces that will appear throughout the week's slideshows, to give you a taste of the splendors of Norway.

Holland American Line's Environmental Policies
APHC listeners tend to care about the environment. What is Holland America Line doing to protect the waters through which its cruise ships travel? Why did NOAA (The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) recently award HAL an environmental award? Did you know that every HAL ship has an environmental officer on board whose sole job is to enforce environmental policies and regulations? Come meet the ms. Veendam's environmental officer and learn more about the cruise ship industry's efforts to go green.

Do Puffins Taste Good? An Introduction to the Birds of Norway and the Northeast Atlantic (Rich MacDonald)
Listen to Garrison's monologues and you will hear tales of how misery and deprivation bond Norwegians to the sea. Why else eat fishy seabirds? In this presentation, learn the identification of Norway's charismatic avifauna interwoven with bird tales and how biogeography plays a role in the diverse array of birds.

Whales, Porpoises, Seals: An Introduction to the Marine Mammals of the Northeast Atlantic and Norwegian Sea (Rich MacDonald)
An overview of the identification and natural history of the marine mammals of the northeast Atlantic, including species possibly spotted from the deck of the ship (such as the great sperm whale of Moby Dick fame), as well as a few of the rare vagrants who sometimes swim these waters.

How Many Norwegians Explorers Can You Name? Or, Survival of the Fittest Does Not Necessarily Equal Fame (Rich MacDonald)
Captain James Cook may have been killed by native Hawaiians; Sir John Franklin's expedition was lost in the Arctic. Death, famine, loss, hardship. Epic expeditions are part and parcel of western history. In the long and tragic list of explorers, Norwegians are noticeably absent. Why? Were they better at adopting the technologies of northern cultures? Come learn the stories behind the successes of some of Norway's accomplished adventurers, such as Amundsen and Heyerdahl.

Cod and Lox - More Than Just Good Scrabble Words
(Nancy Bazilchuk) In his book Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World, author Mark Kurlansky wrote, "If ever there was a fish made to endure, it is the Atlantic cod-the common fish. But it has among its predators man, an openmouthed species greedier than the cod." From the Viking days, Norwegian fishermen were among those who reaped the bounty of the sea by catching cod. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, fishermen from along the entire Norwegian coast would head north in the dark of winter to the Lofoten Islands to get the best catch. While cod has always been an important commercial species, Norway is also home to the most genetically diverse Atlantic salmon population on the globe, and is the country that has done the most in recent years to develop salmon aquaculture. This talk will look at cod fishing and salmon farming, from the cultural aspects to the environmental impacts.

Seaweed Bread and Seagull Soup: Life in Occupied Norway during WWII (Nancy Bazilchuk)
The title says it all. When the Germans invaded Norway on April 9, 1940, the country was completely unprepared-and suffered mightily. During the years of occupation, the Germans had absorbed nearly 40 per cent of Norway's gross domestic product. Cars were reengineered to run on wood and Norwegians had ration books for sugar and flour. The arrival of a shipment of herring available for general consumption was front page news. This talk will look at everyday life in occupied Norway-how the locals coped and the legacies that the Germans left behind.

The Norwegian Whale Hunt: History, Culture and Controversy (Nancy Bazilchuk)
Though the hunting of whales has been practiced for thousands of years by peoples the world over (not least of which being the Yankee New Englanders), it was a Norwegian who invented the modern whale hunting harpoon. And Norway is one of the few countries still actively hunting whales and seals today. This talk will investigate the global history of whaling through the present, and explore some of the controversy that surrounds this iconic Norwegian lifestyle, which is still alive and well today.

Til fots og på ski: Hut-to-hut in the Norwegian Mountains (Rick Strimbeck and Nancy Bazilchuk)
Norway's mountains are sprinkled with nearly 400 huts, ranging from rustic old summer farm buildings to rambling complexes with hundreds of beds. Some have showers and hot meals, in others you do your own cooking and take sponge baths, but all of them are koselig (cosy). They are open to all, and can be pricey at today's exchange rates-but the scenery is free. We'll share pictures and stories from our five years of exploring the mountains in summer and winter.

Why Norway Spruce Isn't Really Norwegian: Nordic vegetation from the Ice Age to today (Rick Strimbeck)
10,000 years ago an ice cap smothered most of Norway. As it retreated up into the mountains, plants moved in on the newly exposed rock and sediment. Animals and humans weren't far behind, and by grazing, browsing, hunting, and agricultural activity they have continuously affected what kinds of plants grow where, so that maybe there has never been a balance of nature here.

Why Don't Whales Get the Bends? Ecophysiology of Diving Mammals and Birds (Rick Strimbeck)
SCUBA divers face a painful and potentially fatal fate if they come back to the surface too fast. But whales and seals dive deeper and longer and come up faster without any problems. Marine mammals and birds in northern waters must also deal with cold water and the dehydrating effects of salt water.

To Freeze or Not to Freeze? How Plants and Animals Survive in the Cold (Rick Strimbeck)
Just a few months ago we heard a little bit about frozen frogs in the News from Lake Wobegon. In the Arctic and Antarctic, fish live at temperatures that are permanently below the freezing point of their blood. In Siberia and Canada, trees and insects survive temperatures down to 75° below. All these organisms deploy an array of biochemical tricks that help them survive in a frozen world.

Ice Ages, Fjords and Flat Mountains in Norway (Dyk Eusden and Rick Strimbeck)
A talk about the origins of fjords and in general the Quaternary geological evolution of the Norwegian landscape. The steep-sided, glacially cut fjords flanked by the unusually flat-topped plateaus tell a great story of long-term erosion of an ancient mountain belt, glaciation, glacial erosion, and isostatic uplift ultimately forming what geologists call a drowned coastline.

Schist Happens, Rocks Fold (Dyk Eusden)
The Norwegian bedrock was heated and squeezed by tectonic forces hundreds of millions of years ago. The rocks were at one point tens of kilometers below the surface of the Earth. Rocks that are now hard and brittle were soft and malleable like putty, easily folded into wonderful shapes and grew new minerals. How did the rocks get so deeply buried, what happened to them down there, and how did they get back to the surface? This is the story of how metamorphism and deformation works with an emphasis on Norwegian rocks.

The Appalachian-Caledonian Mountains: Plate Tectonic Connections and Separations Between North America and Scandinavia (Dyk Eusden)
If you close up the Atlantic Ocean and time travel back to the Paleozoic Era about 400 millions years ago, the largest mountain belt on Earth then was the Appalachian-Caledonian range. The mountains extended from the Gulf of Mexico, north along the Appalachians, through the Canadian Maritime provinces, across to the United Kingdom and up through Greenland and Scandinavia. It is a great story about the closure of the Iapetus Ocean collisions of many plates and then the subsequent splitting apart of these mountains when Pangea rifted apart and the Atlantic was born.

Travels to the South Island of New Zealand (Dyk Eusden)
A slide show of the beautiful New Zealand landscape showing tramping, skiing, birding, fishing, and "Kiwi" life on the South Island. Set to music, this show is for those of you who have New Zealand on your list of places to visit or those who have already been there and want to "get back."


IV. The Royal Academy of Radio Actors


The Royal Academy of Radio Actors have some fun tricks up their sleeves for Norway. Fred Newman will showcase his off-the-wall SFX skills with shows in the Rubens lounge and a couple shows for the kids up in Club HAL. On our first day at sea you can also visit with himand learn how to make 3-D photos with your own camera. Count on silliness. And pterodactyls. Tim Russell and Sue Scott take a star turn in "First Impressions: An Encounter in 3 Steps" with special musical guest Dan Newton. And they will host the APHC Quiz Show where you can show off your Prairie Home trivia moxie. We know you tune in but are you really listening? And join every last one of the acting bunch when they reprise the "Actor's Workshop" from past cruises with "The All New Improved Actors Workshop." Get tips and tricks on radio acting from the industry pros.



V. Wonderful Miscellany


Talent Show

You asked for it and we're happy to oblige — there will again be a Talent Show on this year's cruise. Here's the skinny: Guests are invited to audition early in the week (we've tentatively selected the 15th and the 17th). Auditions will be late, after the main stage shows, so you may want to chug some coffee to keep you going if the adrenaline doesn't cut it. Everyone is invited to sit in on the auditions. Acts must be live and no more than 4 minutes long. No recorded music please. And the act will need to be self-contained. This means you must use your own instruments, tap shoes, batons, etc. Finalists will be notified before the Talent Show performance date of Friday, July 20th. Rehearsal time will be available for finalists while we are in port in Kristiansand. On show day the finalists will perform in two groups, one for the early show and one for the late show. Guests are invited to attend their designated show time for that evening only. We know many of you wish to see both shows, but the demand is too great. So you can get the recap with your fellow guests over coffee the next morning.

Pipes and Drams with John

I once had a bumper sticker on my car saying, "WILL PIPE FOR SCOTCH." Luckily no one thought I was a plumber. PHC will offer three Scotch tastings. All the Scotches will be single malts. If you are unfamiliar with single malts, the tasting will introduce you to the basics of Scotch whiskies. We will go over how to drink Scotch, why they differ, and explore their many flavors. If you are a seasoned Scotch drinker, the tasting will have something for you too. Each tasting will include a special single malt from my private collection. Places are limited and expect a small fee, but I hope to see you there. Cheers!


Guest Submissions for The Ballast

You are invited to submit your thoughts, observations and musings for publication in The Ballast's "Passenger Notes" section. Write about where you're from, or how you got here, something that surprised you or charmed you or made you miss your kids. Tell us what you saw that left you breathless for awhile. Write it down and drop it off at the HAL front desk, along with your name and cabin number. If you wish to remain anonymous, let us know that, too. Submissions will be picked up every day around 4:00 p.m., and though we can't include everything, we'll certainly give it our best shot. - The Editors

APHC Camera Club

Calling all shutterbugs! Prairie Home would like to feature several slide shows of your photos and ours over the course of our ten day adventure. Here's how it works: Drop off your digital photo cards to the APHC Info desk in the lobby before 4:30 p.m. each day. Attach to your photo card your name and room number (which is also your phone number) plus a brief description of the content. We'll pull some images from your card and you can stop by to pick it up the following morning. Digital images only please in RAW or JPG formats. Card Formats Supported: CompactFlash, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick PRO, Memory Stick PRO Duo, SmartMedia, MMC, SDHC Card, miniSD Card, SD Card, xD-Picture Card. If you have questions about this, check in with the folks at the APHC Info desk once you get on board.

Book Club with Marcia Pankake

Want to read and talk about Norway and Norwegian books? Come to the Book Club. No advance registration necessary. We've planned two meetings, the first on a famous historical novel everyone has heard of, and the second on migration. The dates, times, and places for our conversations, will be announced later in the daily schedule once you board the ms. Veendam. To get you started, here is information on our first book, Kristin Lavransdatter, and the migration articles (four in total), in the form of electronic texts available for PDF download by clicking on the hyperlinked text below.

Discussion 1: Kristin Lavransdatter: The Pleasures of a Long Book
This best-known novel of Sigrid Undset, who won the Nobel Prize in 1928, tells the story of Kristin and her life and loves - her love for her parents, her husband, and her children. Set in the fourteenth century, in the valley between Oslo and Trondheim, and at Husaby, twenty miles south of our stop at Trondheim, this novel vividly conveys medieval Norwegian domestic life, religion, folklore, politics, medicine, and fierce family emotions. The power of religion, the growth and decline of a woman's individual strength, the rebellion of children against their parents, these medieval conflicts show up in people we all know today. About a month after you begin reading, you'll finish the book, and the day afterwards, you'll be sorry the book is done. But Kristin and the book will never entirely leave you - let's talk about it. Pick up the whole set if you like, but we probably will have time to read and converse only about the first volume.

New Translation: Kristin Lavransdatter, by Sigrid Undset, translated by Tina Nunnally (Penguin). Three volumes in one maybe purchased for around $25.00. The individual volumes (The Wreath; The Wife; The Cross) come in around $13 or $14 each.

Old Translation: There is an older translation of Kristin Lavransdatter by Charles Archer (Knopf) that comes also as three volumes in one or as separates: (The Bridal Wreath; The Mistress of Husaby; The Cross).

A Note on Translations: You can readily find out of print copies of the older edition translated by Charles Archer, published by Knopf. The older translation sounds medieval with occasional formal stiltedness, but sometimes is more poetic. Two examples below may help you choose.

Old: "He had wrought scathe to the maidenhood of her spirit"
New: "He had managed to breach her maidenhood"

Old: "As yet she had arisen from each child-bearing fair as ever. . . But 'twas like her comeliness would be worn away ere she was many years older."
New: "So far she had recovered from each childbirth looking just as lovely as ever. . . But her beauty would soon be worn away before many more years had passed."

Discussion 2: A conversation about migration: Here are five short readings, four available for download, one listed in full, below.

1) "The Land They Left Behind: Norway During the Time of Emigration," by Terje F. Leiren, pp. 201 - 209 in Family Sagas: Stories of Scandinavian Immigrants, ed. Kristine Leander. Seattle, Washington, Scandinavian Languages Institute, 1997. To explain why emigrants may have sought a better life abroad, this scholar gives details ("filth, lice and vermin as a part of everyday life") of life in nineteenth-century Norway. Reprinted with permission. download pdf

2) "Hanna's Letter Home," by Hanna Torstensen, pp. 211 - 216 from the same book. In 1890 Hanna, age 18, emigrated from Drammen, Norway. Her letter describes the voyage, her stop in Liverpool ("It is simply terrible to travel and have no ability in the language."), her arrival in New York, the train trip to Minneapolis, and her settling down in Ashby, North Dakota. Reprinted with permission. download pdf

3) "The American Character," by Knut Hamsun, pp. 17 - 23 in Knut Hamsun Remembers America: Essays and Stories 1885 - 1949, transl. & ed. by Richard Nelson Current. Columbia, Univ. of Missouri Press, 2003. Hamsun, one of Norway's three Nobel Prize winners in literature, published this article in Aftenposten in 1885, after he returned from the first of his two periods in America. "On the other side of the ocean lies a country as big as twenty kingdoms and incomparably rich. . . . I have been over there and have just come back. I went as a young man full of enthusiasm for the world's freest country. . . . By the time I left, a few years later, my enthusiasm and faith had been badly shaken." Reprinted with permission. download pdf

4) "Vignettes from a Norwegian Settlement," by Lloyd Hustvedt, pp. 189 - 198 in Nordics in America: The Future of their Past, ed. by Odd S. Lovoll. Northfield, MN, Norwegian-American Historical Association, 1993. The Jante laws (see below) seem to permeate not only Norway, but also Norwegian culture in the U. S. A. Professor Hustvedt (of St. Olaf College) begins his memoir, "The community in which I grew up has importance because it was mine. Aside from this, no special claim can be made that it was any better or worse than any other." Reprinted with permission. download pdf

5) "The Jante Law" These unspoken rules of Norwegian life take their name from the fictional small town of Jante, in Denmark, created by the Norwegian novelist Aksel Sandemose, in his novel En Flygtning Krysser Stii Spor (The Fugitive Crosses His Tracks), published in 1933. Excerpts below are reprinted with permission.

Du skal ikke tro du er noe.
translation: You shall not think that you are special.

Du skal ikke tro du er like klok som oss.
translation: You shall not think that you are of the same standing as us.

Du skal ikke tro du er klokere enn oss.
translation: You shall not think that you are smarter than us.

Du skal ikke innbille deg du er bedre enn oss.
translation: Don't fancy yourself as being better than us.

Du skal ikke tro du vet mer enn oss.
translation: You shall not think that you know more than us.

Du skal ikke tro at du er mer enn oss.
translation: You shall not think that you are more important than us.

Du skal ikke tro at du duger til noe.
translation: You shall not think that you are good at anything.

Du skal ikke le av oss.
translation: You shall not laugh at us.

Du skal ikke tro at noen bryr seg om deg.
translation: You shall not think that anyone cares about you.

Du skal ikke tro at du kan lære oss noe.
translation: You shall not think that you can teach us anything.

Check out these two websites for more information on the Jante Law:
Jante Law on Wikipedia and The Essence of Nordishness.