Our third annual Prairie Home Companion cruise is setting sail next summer. We sail from Copenhagen on July 13 and up the coast of Norway to Bergen and Trondhjem and into the fjords and return to Copenhagen on July 23, a ten-day venture.
My family and I will be on the ship, the Guys All-Star Shoe Band, the acting company, some Norwegian musicians and an Edvard Grieg contingent-a string quartet from London led by violinist Peter Sheppard Skaerved, with pianist Aaron Shorr and soprano Maria Jette-so you can enjoy Grieg's ravishing music as we sail along the coast. We'll have the opportunity to see stone churches from the 13th century, the 5000-foot Seven Sisters waterfall, Grieg's home in Bergen, and the docks where the emigrants set sail for America, and cruise through fjords with rock faces 3000 feet above the sea. There are two sections of the cruise that offer you the option of travel by land or by sea. You can eat herring or not eat herring. There will be performances galore, great music, some writers' conferences, daily choir practice, nightly dances. Shuffleboard is an option, but there's also basketball and a full-scale health club in the bow with treadmills and weight machines. We'll bring along a team of naturalists to help us observe the wonders around us, have an easy-going experience, see things we'll remember for the rest of our lives, and come home happy and rested.
Our travel advisors tell me to tell you: the purchase of travel insurance is strongly recommended; you must have a passport that is good for at least six months past July 23, the end of the cruise; and you would do well to book flights early.
An excellent travel staff will run the cruise so you can count on things proceeding smoothly. And we're on Holland-America, which is a very well-run line. And it's Norway, one of the world's most beautiful countries. So think about it.
General sales begin November 16, 2006 at 12 noon EST.
