Norwegian Fjord Cruise April 2011

All posted at once after I got home. WiFi on the ship was free, but you get what you pay for ... it  was so slow and complicated to get onto, that I decided to wait to post anything. At least this way you can read it all in one direction instead of skipping back and forth.

By the way ... to see large versions of the photos, just click on them.

Monday, April 11

Well, we survived the trip to get to Norway. But here I will swear a mighty swear that, after this trip, I will never again cross an entire ocean in a coach class seat. In the future, if I can’t afford to fly at least business class, I just won’t go... not even for a free round trip ticket to the destination of my choice! (Seas like the Caribbean don’t count in that freebie remark ... at least not yet.)

My first glimpse of the country as we landed in Bergen was of mountains covered in snow. It was a lovely view. Shortly afterward, my view was a negative in that I did not view my suitcase. So the entire busload of people on our tour was held up while I dealt with the lost luggage folks. Fortunately it wasn’t lost, but just straggling and turned up on the next flight in from Copenhagen later in the afternoon.

We are staying at the Radisson Blu Norge. At first I thought that the decor was left-over “mid-century modern,” but then (duh!) I remembered that I was in Scandinavia where this IS the style! I’ve always liked this style, and it’s fun to see it in its “native habitat.” My room contains a sleek and curvy chair and ottoman that look comfortable, but are only about six inches off the floor, so I wouldn’t dare sit on them ... I’d never get back up again! For contrast, one of the large mirrors in the room has a cast glass replica of a baroque frame ... an interesting juxtaposition.

(Ah, here we need a little “housekeeping” rule. I am traveling with two friends named Virginia. Yes, that’s already confusing since we're all from Virginia. Henceforth I will use VJ for Virginia James and VP for Virginia Porter. Just so you know.) (Also, I’m going to type this with the multinational letter set as appropriate, but I don’t know how that will upload to the blog ... we’ll see.)

VJ and I headed out for a short stroll around downtown Bergen. The weather is just a touch on the nippy side, but there were hordes of people out in this big esplanade-type area called the Torgallmennigen walking around with their children in strollers and carriages. There were a lot more people out on foot than in vehicles. We wandered down to the old Bergen Exchange near the Bryggens wharf area of old Hanseatic League buildings which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The Exchange Building now contains a lovely, helpful Tourist Information Center in the fabulous Fresco Hall (think of the murals in Clark Hall at UVa, but way bigger and grander).

On the way back, hungry after a very light breakfast on the plane and with a number of hours to go until dinner, we went into a McDonald’s (aka “American embassy”) where VJ had her first-ever McD’s burger! To show how food prices run here, 2 Quarter-pounders, a small coke, and a coffee set us back 135NOK, or about $28 at the current local exchange rate of 4.80 NOK to the US dollar. It’s a good thing that we only had a snack because dinner at the hotel was fantastic! Now I’ll try to prop my eyes open for a while longer to get a little more acclimated to this time zone.

Tuesday, April 12

The hotel ran a lovely breakfast buffet. Afterward, I just hung around until our city tour left around 1:25 p.m. It was a good tour with an excellent city guide, and plenty of room on the bus to spread out as we are a group of 28 in a big bus. We went to the Edvard Grieg Museum Troldhaugen. This involved a bit of a hike, but I managed most of it to enjoy the views and the fresh air. After driving by several other points of interest in this city of 257,000 (second largest city in Norway), we visited the UNESCO World Heritage site of Byrggens (see photo). Here we wandered up the alleys to see how the area, built on landfill in the 12th century (I didn’t know that they did landfill back then!), and most of the buildings are settling and tilting in various directions. It was enough to make you wonder how the buildings are still standing and in use today, and what kind of propping up they’ve done inside!

Finally, in late afternoon we boarded the ms Polarlys. Boarding was simple as our tour guide, Craig, did all the running around, picking up and distributing boarding passes and key cards, etc. Craig is our Vantage Tour guide and will be with us the entire trip. Originally from Wales, he has lived in southern Sweden for many years and been a tour guide for almost 15 years. He is very knowledgeable and extremely organized. Those of you who know me, know how much I appreciate organized.

After a good, but somewhat chaotic buffet dinner, we had our evening at leisure except for the obligatory safety briefing before the ship sailed at about 10:15 p.m. I haven’t toured the whole ship yet, but it is very nicely decorated ... very elegant for a ferry ... with wood, brass and marble along with art and statuary in the public areas. My cabin, seen here through the door from out in the hall) is the smallest I’ve been in on some 37 cruises, but it has all the things one needs: a bed (yes, I know it’s a berth), a sofa the width of the cabin that folds down to make another bed, a chair, a small table, a desk area, plenty of storage places, and a bathroom (remember to step UP) with a shower that is at least a little larger than many ships I’ve sailed on in the past. I’m told there is free WiFi accessible on the main deck, but I haven’t hauled the ‘puter down there to try it yet.

Wednesday, April 13

I slept in this morning and missed Craig’s talk about the various local languages and dialects which VJ and VP said was excellent. We had been running directly into the sea swells most of the night, and there was a fair amount of pitch, although most of the roll was handled by the stabilizers. Thus I missed seeing the towns of Florø (4:30 a.m.) and Måløy (7:00 a.m.) and just saw a bit of Torvik (10:30 a.m.) while getting showered and dressed.

At about lunchtime we docked at Ålesund for several hours. Ålesund is famous for its wonderful Art Nouveau architecture. As most buildings in Norway were originally built of wood (no shortage of forests here), huge fires were/are commonplace. A major fire here in 1904 destroyed almost the entire town which was rebuilt in the then-popular Art Nouveau style. The main tour offered here involved walking around town and visiting a museum for about an hour and a half, so I gave that a miss and appreciated the architecture from the open deck aft of my cabin and enjoyed the sun in a deck chair for a while. Today’s weather is partly cloudy and the temperature feels like high 50s or low 60s in the sun ... cooler in the shade, of course.

I didn’t mention the weather in Bergen. We were told that they have rain on 220 days of the year. No wonder their U.S. sister city is Seattle! During the time we were there, it only sprinkled lightly for a few minutes a couple of times. We were complimented by our city tour guide for bringing the dry weather. The temperature there was probably high 40s to low 50s, but a stiff breeze made it feel a bit raw.

Had dinner tonight surrounded on all sides by the Alps of Romsdalen as we sailed down Romsdalenfjord from Molde. Snowy mountains in every direction, seeming to go on forever. Later, as we neared the ocean again, the mountains were lower and greener, but still on every side. At one point we passed another Hurtigruten ship headed up to Molde. Today was a special day for the line as they had just been approved for another 8 year contract with the government. The line has been in business in one form or another since 1893 and is still going strong.

Molde (pop. 24,000) was one of the many towns almost totally destroyed by German bombing in WWII. I am sure we will learn more of this as we go along, but I have heard several times now that just about everything in Norway above the Arctic Circle was bombed absolutely flat by one side or the other. According to Craig, there were 120,000 German soldiers stationed in Kirkenes, the farthest point of our trip, which was then a town of about 2.500 Norwegians. In the states, we hear a lot about WWII in central Europe, but very little about the devastation of Norway.

Dinner itself was pretty spectacular. Our group is assigned 5 tables in a separate section of the dining room where we can switch around our seating as we choose. Tonight’s appetizer was clipfish with a small salad, followed by a delicious chicken with risotto and lentils in a sauce that I later discovered was mostly paprika. Finally, a warm apple cake with ice cream. I (and several other people) were each presented with a little card to bring to dinner each night with the words “ikke fisk” on it. Your guess of “no fish” is correct. The dinner’s presentation was fully as lovely as the meal itself. I don’t think I mentioned the breakfast and lunch buffets which are also sumptuous. While they may not be quite the traditional, formal smorgasbord, they certainly make up for that with variety, quality and quantity. This is fine cruise food, folks. The only difference is that the dinner menu is one-size-fits-all except for us “ikke fisk” people. There is a nice brochure that describes all the dinner menus for the whole trip, and sure enough, there is fish served every other night. But a couple of nights we will get reindeer which I’m looking forward to tasting.

We have one stop left this evening at Kristiansund at 10:00 p.m. Most of the ferry stops are for less than an hour ... some for as little as 15 minutes in the middle of the night. At most of these, I won’t be getting off, even briefly, but I’ll try to at least mention them.

Thursday, April 14

We spent this morning at Trondheim, Norway’s third largest city. It is located on the River Nid, was originally called Nidaros and was the original capital of the country from 872 AD until 1217. We had a nice bus tour of the city (included in our cruise package). As with most “overview” city tours anywhere in the world, we stopped at the local highest point for a city view, the local fortress, and the local cathedral. Here in Trondheim, all three of those spots were spectacular.

The weather was lovely for our entire visit here. The sun was out, and the temperature, while brisk, wasn’t too chilly. We were told that Norwegians never complain about how bright the sun may be, even if it is shining in their eyes.

As with most cities in Norway, the majority of house construction in Trondheim is wood-based. Here, luckily, they haven’t had a major city-wide fire since 1681, mostly because the king at that time decreed that the reconstruction should allow for very wide streets to serve as fire breaks. So, even though the reconstruction was done in wood, many of the old buildings have survived. They are built right out to the street (of course allowing for a small sidewalk), and are painted interesting colors, with white, brick red, and a yellow ocher being the most popular. In the older areas, especially along the waterfronts, they are abutted together, while in newer areas most are stand-alone houses, although many have been divided into duplexes and/or apartments.

We drove by, but didn’t stop at, the main building of Trondheim University which was used by the Nazis as their SS headquarters during WWII.

Beginning with the death of St. Olav in 1030, Trondheim, and Nidaros Cathedral which is built over St. Olav’s grave, became the religious capital of Norway and one of Europe’s most important pilgrimage sites until the Reformation. The cathedral is a testament to architectural history as it was built over such a long period of time and has been added to, reconstructed, and updated ever since. It is truly an impressive thing to behold. This photo is of the main entrance.

But of all that we saw on the tour, the thing that produced the most reaction and glee from our group was a tunnel. The Norwegians are great tunnelers. They have to be to get through all their mountains. According to Craig, Norwegian tunnel workers and tunnel engineers are in great demand world-wide. Here in Trondheim, we went through 3 tunnels in quick succession as we began our tour. What provoked the reaction was the last tunnel which contained a full-sized underground round-about or traffic circle!

This afternoon we steamed up the coast, sometimes in the ocean, and sometimes in amongst the many groups of small islands and skerries (bits of land/rock not high enough or big enough to be dignified with the term “island” but not actually reefs either although the effect of a ship’s hitting one would be similar.)  According to the Hurtigruten guidebook, the Norwegian coast has 30,000 islands and at least 100,000 skerries. So the two Virginias and I got in a game of dominoes up in the Observation Lounge this afternoon while we watched the scenery go by. We obviously have an excellent captain and bridge crew as we were often within meters of large rocks, small islands and the mainland cliffs. At one point the passage between two islands was only 43 meters wide (the ship is 19.5 meters wide) and had a more than 90 degree blind left turn in the middle of it! With all the scenery and excitement, we had a difficult time keeping track of whose turn it was. VP won. I lost.

Friday, April 15

Last night fairly late we stopped at Rørvik (10:45 p.m.) followed by Brønnøysund (12:45 a.m.), Sandnessjøen (3:45 a.m.), Nesna (5:25 a.m.) and Ørnes (9:115 a.m). You couldn’t prove any of it by me, as I was very sound asleep the whole time. I did manage to get up and about in time to see Bodø around lunchtime. However, it was raining fairly steadily and, as you can see in the photo, there didn’t appear to be anything worth walking through the rain to near the ferry dock, so I just stayed aboard. I did discover a new and better place to sit and watch events and people, and that is the Panorama Lounge all the way forward on the top deck. Very lovely and very popular (similar to the Crow’s Nest on Holland America ships).

A whole bunch of people came aboard today, a number of them with small children. The children are mostly very well behaved ... a good thing. Also at Stamsund in the late afternoon another large number of people came aboard, evidently with their autos, although we were at dinner and didn’t see the cars being loaded. After dinner, the announcement was made that because of the large number of cars on board, we would be about half an hour late getting to Svolvær. Several of our group have guessed that the influx of passengers is due to the fact that it is Friday, it is Spring, and it is the week before Easter ... time for a get-away weekend.

In fact, we just arrived at Svolvær around 10:00 p.m. Nils, the Tour Manager (of the ship, not our group), announced that we will be here an hour and listed off a bunch of things to do, many of which are staying open late just for the passengers on our ship. One is an exhibit of some ice sculptures which I would go see if I had even two ounces more energy right now. But I don’t. Hopefully it will still be there on our way south when we should be here for about two and a half hours.

Saturday, April 16

Slept through a few more stops overnight: Stokmarknes (12:45 a.m.), Sortland (2:30 a.m.), Rissøyhamn (4:15 a.m.) and Harstad (6:45 a.m.). We had a brief stop in Finnsnes at 11:15 a.m. then headed on to our next longish stop at Tromsø. The weather this morning has alternated between bright sun and snow showers, and most of the land is covered with at least a coating of white. I have almost expected to see the snow equivalent of a rainbow, but no luck so far.

Craig gave an interesting lecture this morning about Norway and the rest of Scandinavia during the second World War. When Hitler decided to take over Scandinavia, his army hit Denmark first and took it within hours. Then on April 9, 1940, they went for Norway. Most of the coastal towns were taken quickly, but Oslo was a bit different. The Norwegians had built a torpedo base on an island in their harbor. Also on this island was an 18th century canon and one sentry who was supposed to fire the canon as a warning when he saw the enemy. He fired the canon at the same time that the torpedo base happened to fire a torpedo that sank the lead German ship. The Germans thought the canon had gotten them and held back for a few hours. This gave time for King Hakkon and his family to escape. Thus the Norwegian king and his son ruled in exile from Trømso then eventually from the British Isles (the queen and princess spent the war at the White House in the U.S.). Then Quisling took over as Prime Minister in occupied Norway and cooperated with the Germans. Most of the destruction of Norway came at the end when the Germans were retreating with a “scorched earth” policy.

I finally managed to get online just before lunch, although I had some trouble signing in to my blog because, until I could get signed in, everything was in Norwegian. The WiFi is very very slow, so I decided to not try to upload anything from here, but wait until I get home. With patience I might get the text uploaded, but the photos would take forever. At least this means that the whole blog for this trip will read in the right order.

Beginning just before lunch, the weather has alternated between almost sunny, overcast, and snow showers. It seems odd to see snow flakes sticking to the ship’s windows. I don’t remember there being any snow when we were in Antarctica ... but then that was high summer there, and we’re just into spring here.

With a population of about 63,500, Tromsø is the capital of the arctic portion of Norway and is still a major junction of land, sea and air traffic. It was the capital of Norway for several months in 1940 when the king escaped the Germans and stayed here before continuing on to the British Isles. Our Vantage bus tour went to the university, a polar museum with an exhibit on Sami life, and the large church shown here which is often called the Arctic cathedral, although it is actually a Lutheran church. There is a bridge that connects the two sides of the town, and a new tunnel under the fjord. This new tunnel has THREE roundabouts and several traffic lights in it! I just wonder where those other roads go!

At dinner VJ and I sat with a couple who had taken one of the ship’s optional tours that went dog sledding and to a Sami family’s home. They evidently had a fantastic time! By the way, “Sami” is the proper name that refers to the native peoples in this part of Norway. The term “Lapplander” is a pejorative term that literally means “people of the empty land” with an implication of “scum of the earth.” The Sami are the only people who can legally own reindeer in Norway.

After dinner I finished teaching Eileen, one of the other passengers from England, how to make string shopping bags. She’s going a mile a minute on it using a chartreuse sparkly eyelash yarn she had with her. There are also several other crocheters on board. I don’t think I mentioned that our Vantage tour group seems to have a goodly percentage of folks from the southeast U.S. (Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Alabama and Georgia), as well as a somewhat surprising (to me) number who have some connection to Montana at some level.

Sunday, April 17

Recent short stops included Skjervøy (10:30 p.m.), Øksfjord (2:00 a.m.), Hammerfest (5:15 a.m. for a whole hour), and Haveysund at 9:30 this morning). By the way, I did learn that “oy” means “island,” “nes” means “peninsula” and “vik” means “bay.” Of course “fjord” means “drowned valley.” I can’t believe that the trip is half over today!

The trip got a little bouncy last night as we crossed the mouths of several large fjords without the protection of islands. The swells of either the North Sea, Arctic Ocean, or the Barents Sea (evidently the demarcations between them are not sharp) are definitely enough to make you realize you are on a ship, and a relatively small one at that. The Polarlys, whose name means “Polar Lights,” was built in 1996. She is 11,341 gross tons, 123 meters long and, as I mentioned before, 19.5 meters wide. She looks almost identical to this photo of the ms Nordkapp who just passed us as I was typing this.

Several hours later ... we docked at Honningsvåg at 11:45 a.m. and immediately boarded a bus for a tour to the North Cape or Nordkapp, the farthest north (accessible) place on the European continent. (There is a spot nearby several kilometers farther north, but it is not accessible except by a strenuous hike.) We wound up as the tail end of a 7 bus convoy led for the second half of the way by a snowplow with its blade down! There is a beautiful visitors’ center there which is large enough to swallow 7 busloads of tourists and never burp! We had time there to eat a nice lunch, wander around the exhibits, go out to the globe monument seen here, and buy souvenirs. Their movie of Nordkapp through the seasons was not working, so we were each given a DVD of it. I can’t wait to watch it when I get home!

The scenery here at the top of the world is absolutely stunning! I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised that it is somewhat similar to the scenery in Antarctica. Black mountains with lots of snow dropping straight down into the darkest blue sea. Then, as we got higher up, an absolute snow desert with wind blowing both the snow that was falling and that which was already on the ground across the road so that I wondered how the driver could tell where to steer. VJ and I were in one front seat, and VP was in the other. I felt like I was riding shotgun on an episode of “Ice Road Truckers!” But no worries as our driver had been making that run daily for 38 years. They do run those tours in the winters, but I’m ever so glad that we’re here in mid-April!

When we started back, the convoy got stuck for a while, because the first bus couldn’t get up the slope behind the snowplow. After several tries, all the buses had to back up so the lead bus could get a running start at the slope then the rest of us didn’t seem to have any trouble. En route back, while slowing for a dangerous snow-covered curve, someone spotted reindeer on a hillside. Of course the brown animals were standing on a dark patch of ground with no snow and were barely recognizable and not photographable, but we saw them! We are advised that reindeer will be on the menu for dinner tonight, but obviously not those particular reindeer.

Reindeer stew and reindeer sausage. The stew was sort of like a Beef Stroganof with potato in it. The reindeer tasted much like beef but not quite. The reindeer sausage tasted like pepperoni but was a darker color. There was also an extremely interesting bread tonight made with hazelnuts and walnuts. I can’t imagine what kind of walnuts as I can usually taste a single walnut in a whole batch of something, but didn’t get any walnut flavor here. I did learn that to become a waiter here in Norway, one must have 2 years of schooling for it and 2 years as a trainee before one can actually be called a waiter. I suspect that there may also be a requirement for multiple languages.

An interesting evening ... not exciting, but interesting. I managed to get some laundry done. The self-service laundry down on deck 3 (my cabin is on deck 6), charges 30 NOK (about $6) per load ... but the machine supplies its own soap and takes at least an hour to cycle (drying is free, so I guess you get your money’s worth). I don’t know what brand of Norwegian soap those machines use, but I am now the owner of the most amazing collection of very clean and very PINK underwear that was white a few hours ago! Oh for the days on the Prinsendam with free laundry where you left your clothes in a little bag on your bed in the morning and they magically appeared all clean and hung up the next day!

Short stops for the rest of today included Kjøllefjord (5:30 p.m.), Mehamn (7:45 p.m.) and Berlevåg (10:30 p.m.).

It’s 10:00 p.m. and there has just been an announcement that we will pass one of the Hurtigruten sister ships in about half an hour. We’ve done this about once a day, and usually we give 3 long toots, they give 3 long toots, and we give one short toot, and that’s that. This time we are advised that our ship and that ship have a waving contest going and would we all take our (precious few) towels and go out on deck to wave at them! I think I’ll pass on this one and just wave out my window.

Monday, April 18

Several more short stops last night: Båtsfjord (12:30 a.m.), Vardø (4:00 a.m.) and Vadsø (7:30 a.m.). Thus we reached the farthest stop on the line, Kirkenes, at 9:45 this morning. I can’t believe that the trip is already half over!

We had a brief bus tour in Kirkenes, through the town, out to the Russian border (see photo of the gates you don’t go through without a valid Russian visa), to an overlook for photos of the town, and a statue to the Russian troops that liberated the town in WWII. The town (plus surrounding area) has about 7,000 residents now. It was so important because of open pit mining of iron ore and as a shipping and trade location between Russia, Norway, and the rest of the world. Although the pit mine was closed for some years and the workers retrained to other jobs, it has been reopened recently, so more people are moving to the area now. Kirkenes is also the northern end of the E6 highway which runs all the way down to Spain.

In WWII there were 120,000 German soldiers stationed here because Hitler wanted to control the transportation of neutral Sweden’s steel production (they were selling to both England and Germany) as well as the iron ore mined here. During that time the allies bombed the area repeatedly with over 1000 air raid alerts and 320 actual bomb raids that leveled 95% of the town which was rebuilt in the 1950s. Thousands of the locals lived for months in a cave near the pit mine, and only knew that the war was over when the Russian troops arrived. They still teach the children in school how to identify different kinds of bombs so that if they should find one in the woods or countryside, they can report it to the authorities for disposal.

We have had wonderful luck with weather on this trip. In general, almost everywhere we have stopped, there have been periods of sunshine mixed into the rain and snow showers. The weather changes constantly and frequently. Yesterday and today were probably the coldest we have experienced. If in a protected area in the sun and, more importantly, out of the wind, the temperature wasn’t too terrible ... maybe in the mid-30s at the lowest, but add the wind chill, and brrr. Today the wind was fierce enough that both VJ and VP would have literally been blown down if not holding onto someone’s arm walking to and from the tour bus. I was glad I had my walker to hold onto, and even then several gusts stopped me in my tracks for a moment. Unless your hat was tight or tied on, it would have been halfway back to Bergen!

I spoke too soon about the weather! It’s now 7:30 p.m. and we have, so far, had about 5 straight hours of bounding main. With a short ship in a heavy sea there are actually what feels like occasional pot holes where the whole ship flops down over the top of a wave and rattles everything on board. We skipped at least one stop this afternoon because of the rough seas.

VJ, VP and I had played dominoes down on deck 4 amidships this afternoon, and it was even pretty rough there. Then we had to get to dinner in the dining room all the way aft, and it was really bouncy back there! I managed on my own, and Craig escorted the two Virginias separately. Only a little more than half of our tour group made it to dinner tonight. Dinner was good: reindeer steak (or maybe it was reindeer pot roast), reindeer sausage (a different kind from before), and lingonberry ice cream pie. The reindeer definitely had a taste all its own like neither beef nor venison. I left a bit early during a slightly less bouncy spell and managed to get back to my cabin in one piece. Once we get around the west shoulder of Norway, we’ll be more inside the islands and things should be a lot better by tomorrow.

Tuesday, April 19

Well, the main bounded all night, and I’m pretty sure that we skipped a couple more stops during the night, and the one that I know we made at Mehamn was about half an hour later than scheduled. When I went to bed, I made sure that my center of gravity (ha!) was as close to the wall as I could get it. Even so, a couple of times while I was still awake I almost went weightless, which for me is quite a feat! However, the sea was a lot calmer when I got up this morning.

Around lunchtime we had a 90 minute (i.e. long) stop at Hammerfest which is the world’s most northerly town at 70o 39' 48". (I guess that depends on your definition of “town” vs. “village.”) This is roughly the same latitude as Point Barrow, Alaska and the center of Greenland. Thanks to the Gulf Stream, it has always been a prime fishing area, and now there are oil and gas fields nearby which add to the area’s economy. The guidebook says that “shopping is a traditional activity” in Hammerfest. I wouldn’t know as I didn’t go ashore ... not even to see the stuffed polar bear that sits in one of the shops and gave rise to the myth that polar bears roam the streets of Norwegian towns. I did take some photos from our outside deck. The nicest thing about the doors to the outside decks is that, once you begin to turn the handle, the door is automatic both opening and closing so that you don’t have to fight with a heavy door as on most ships.

Another domino game this afternoon, and we have now taught one of our fellow group members how to play. The weather today was lovely and the scenery absolutely spectacular. I believe that most of this area has had a good snow storm since we passed this way several days ago, because the mountains are a lot whiter than before. This photo is the view out the lounge window as we were playing. Around 3:30 or so we stopped at the town of Oksfjord which is not quite pronounced “Oxford.”

Then right at the end of dinner this evening we stopped at the town of Skjervøy. Over night we will stop at places we saw during the day on the way north: Tromsø, and Finnsnes. I considered a tour to the Arctic cathedral for a midnight concert, but it would get back really late and we have an early tour tomorrow.

Wednesday, April 20

Yes, a busy day today. We got off the ship at Harstad at 8:00 a.m. and boarded the bus for a tour that would catch back up to the ship at Sortland. The first stop was at Trondenes Church, a stone building dating from about 1250 with lovely stained glass and paintings. The next stop was at Røkenes Gård (which means Roekenes Farm) just outside Harstad. This farm has been run by the same family for 10 generations, since 1673. These days, rather than being a working potato farm, it is more of a guesthouse/restaurant. Here we had coffee, tea and Norwegian waffles with sour cream and raspberry jam. The current patriarch of the clan told us about the history of the place and his family, then he and his son and several other family members brought out the waffles. Afterward, we had time to check out the original home on the site as well as meet huge, fuzzy, friendly Alberta who is probably a Saint Bernard ... or at least mostly so. If you are interested, their website is at www.roekenesgaard.no .

We then headed out across Hinnøya which is Norway’s largest island. It is extremely mountainous and absolutely stunningly beautiful! Nestled in parts of the area west of Harstad are farming communities raising all sorts of things, but especially strawberries which do well in the cooler summers with lots of daylight. It was difficult to choose one photo to put in here because I took so many! But if something so beautiful can be “typical,” this one is typical of what we saw today. We eventually reached a small community called Refsnes where our bus boarded a ferry to cross a fjord to the equally small town of Flesnes. During the crossing a pod of orcas was spotted cavorting in the fjord. Yet more spectacular scenery lined our route down Sigerfjord to the bridge across to Sortland on the island of Langøya where we caught back up to the ship and lunch.

After lunch VP and I had a long conversation with a charming young woman from Oslo who had been visiting her family up north. It turned out that VJ also met her later in the afternoon. I spend the rest of the afternoon alternately sorting through the morning’s scores of photos and dashing outside about every 5 minutes to take more photos of our transit of Raftsundet which is a 20 km long strait between Hinnøya and Austvågøy. At the entrance to Troll Fjord the ship stopped and turned a full 360o so everyone could see it. Troll Fjord is only 2 km long and 100 meters wide at its mouth. The ferries don’t go in there any more because some years ago, one ferry captain went in when the sea was a little rough and crashed his ship into the side of the fjord. This photo shows the mouth of Troll Fjord with the foggy 1,084 meter high Trolltindan on the right and 998 meter Blåfjellet on the left.

Finally, there was dinner and a brief stop in Svolvær where I did go ashore on my own for a little while. The movie “Heroes of Telemark” is being shown aboard tonight, but I’m just too tired to sit through a whole movie. The Hurtigruten line is billed as a no formal entertainment operation, but that’s not strictly true. Often after dinner there is a couple from Bulgaria who provide music in one of the lounges. There was a “fashion show” last night featuring clothing from the shop on board. Our Vantage tour guide, Craig, gives excellent lectures on various aspects of Norwegian history, life and culture, usually in the afternoon or evening when we don’t have any long stops. And the ship’s Tour Manager, Nils, also gives talks. There is a tv on board if you can handle the Norwegian language, and I think a few of the cabins may have tv sets, although mine doesn’t. There is a library with books in a variety of languages (and a fireplace). Finally, whenever we are in a port for more than 45 minutes, Craig leads a walk around the town. Definitely plenty to do.

We’re coming into Stamsund (about 9:30 p.m.), and I finally figured out that when approaching a port, a northbound ferry give one long, one short and one long toots. A southbound ferry gives two long, one short, and one long toots. They toot about 5 or 7 minutes out from actual docking ... presumably to give notice to be ready to board very soon. In both directions, they give one short toot just before leaving.

Thursday, April 21

Norway generally operates on the theory that its citizens have common sense and are active participants in the local and national communities. Here the good of the community as a whole can outweigh the good of the individual, provided that the individual is acting against the community, but each case is judged (legally, administratively or socially) on an individual basis. Yes, that’s socialistic system rather than our system that is capitalistic, but both systems have their good and bad points. They believe that, if you don’t vote and participate in your government, you do not have the right to complain about it. Craig told us that several years ago after an election there was a big headline about an 86% turnout at the polls and wasn’t that a national disgrace that it had fallen below 90%. In the U.S. we can only wish for that kind of turnout.

Reportedly someone once said (and maybe a lot of someones have said) that in Norway you can breathe for free but everything else is taxed. It is probably close to true, but on the other hand, if you are a Norwegian citizen, you are well cared for from cradle to grave. About the only health care that isn’t covered is dental work, and some of that is covered. All education is free including books (except for some specialized courses), and at the university level, there are loans available for living expenses based solely on your grades and not your financial need. These loans get repaid at a pretty low rate once you begin working, and if they are not repaid by the time you retire (legal age is 65, but average age is 58), they are forgiven. Then there are retirement benefits, maternity/paternity benefits, etc.

All this depends on the individual being a productive member of society. If you are able to work, you have to work to qualify for the benefits ... whether that is making grades to qualify you to stay in school, or working at a job, you have to do your part. If something happens and you lose your job, retraining for another job is free. There are, of course, systems to assure the care of the disabled. Yes, when you are working, taxes are high, and the cost of things, even food, is high, but so are wages. The minimum wage is $21/hour (that’s US dollars, not kroner). At that rate you can afford to pay taxes. In addition to benefits to individuals, the infrastructure of roads, utilities, etc. is kept up and improved by these taxes.

I’m sure that there are negative aspects that I just haven’t come across yet. It is probably much easier to make this kind of system work in a country of 4.5 million people than it would be in a really large and spread out country like the US, and I am not ready to move to Norway (the weather would nix that idea, right there ... I like warmth too much.). But I do admire the rationality of these people and their system.

Overnight I slept through short stops at Stamsund, Bodø, and Ørnes, Now, at 11:00 a.m. we are just leaving a stop at Nesna shown here. Soon we will have an hour’s stop at Sandnessjøen, although we are advised that all the shops are closed because of the Easter holidays. But most of today is just chugging along through the scenery, which is certainly entertainment enough.

After we left Sandnessjøen, the weather closed in and we have been sailing through misty rain and fog pretty much ever since. I am glad that, if we are to have a day of this kind of weather that it is now rather than earlier in the trip when the scenery was more impressive. There is still scenery, of course when we come close to the mainland, or stop as we did in Brønnøysund in late afternoon or in Rørvik in mid-evening, but it’s all kind of fuzzy. The mountains in this area are not as craggy and spectacular as farther north. Plenty of entertainment, though, sitting around chatting with fellow passengers, several of us crocheting. Monika, one of the German ladies, wants my string bag pattern also ... too bad I can’t patent it!

Tonight was the Captain’s Farewell Dinner since many passengers (mostly the Germans) are getting off in Trondheim tomorrow morning. While I didn’t see anyone at first sitting who was dressed to the nines, it was an occasion, and some did dress up a bit. Even Craig broke out a shirt and tie. If I do this trip again, I’ll make sure to bring a clean blouse and maybe a fancy necklace for the occasion. We were greeted at the door of the dining room with glasses of a Norwegian spiced wine (no hope of me remembering the name of it). There even was a dessert parade of the dining room and kitchen staff with sparklers in their version of baked Alaska and the passengers clapping and the Captains bringing up the rear. Did I mention that their ice cream is truly wonderful? It is.

Friday, April 22

We stopped at Trondheim this morning from 6:30 to 10:00 a.m. I did not get up early to see us arrive. But the weather all day was gorgeous! Most of the remaining Germans and Norwegians on board spent the day out in deck chairs. The scenery was also very fine. To the east, the mainland was practically a continuous row of snow capped mountains and fjord mouths with occasional villages, towns and fish farms. To the west, the scenery wasn’t quite as exciting, consisting mostly of islands with lower mountains, skerries and ocean views. Every once in a while, one of those islands would sprout a wind farm. There were plenty of boats out from fishing boats to alesund fast express ferry that whizzed past us and appeared to be a hydrofoil. And one beautiful sail boat shown here.

In the late afternoon we had a brief stop at Kristiansund which is the most perfect postcard view of a Norwegian town. The church you see here is called Nordlandet church and was built in 1914. Somehow it escaped the bombing in 1940 with its stained glass windows intact. Actually, there is a lot more to the town than this small area, but this is certainly the most picturesque part.

After dinner there was a 45 minute stop at Molde. We arrived in the fjord about 8:30 p.m. when the sunset was just beginning to get going. The Alps of Romsdalen and the Romsdalenfjord were breathtaking with the sunset turning the snowy mountains successive pastel shades of apricot to peach to real pink. Then as we arrived at Molde, a famous local musician gave us a very soulful  solo saxophone concert from the balcony of one of the hotels. One of Molde’s claims to fame is a big international jazz festival every summer. It was lovely, and he serenaded us again as we left, still with plenty of light from the sunset.

Saturday, April 23

There was another stop at the Art Nouveau town of Ålesund, but we didn’t get a look at it again becuse we arrived at midnight. We also stopped at Torvik, Måloy and Florø during the night and early morning. We had to be out of our cabins by 10:00 a.m., so Craig played a video of “The Best of Victor Borge” which was, of course, hysterically funny. After a final lunch buffet, we had about an hour to wait until we docked again at Bergen.

We spent the afternoon and night at the Radisson again. It’s amazing how much the scenery has changed to its Spring wardrobe during this two weeks since we were here. This view was taken from the hotel’s restaurant where VJ and I had dinner. We really enjoyed watching all the people down below stroll in the park with their kids and dogs. Again, that restaurant outdid itself on the dinner, even though we were the only patrons in there until we were almost done. I had some fantastic reindeer, and we both had creme brulee for dessert.

Sunday, April 24

Last night was Easter Eve, and evidently a major party time for people in Bergen. A great deal of their partying was done in the streets below our hotel windows until all hours of the morning (they were still at it at 3:30 a.m. when I drifted off for the last time). Up at 6:00 a.m. (that’s 12:00 a.m. EDT). Breakfast at 7:00 and bus to the airport at 8:00. The SAS flight to Copenhagen was delayed by some mechanical problem, so we didn’t take off from Bergen until about 11:45. That was WAY too late to connect with the SAS flight to Dulles, so we got rerouted on British Air with a change at Heathrow in London, and got to Dulles about 8:00 p.m. EDT. Then the usual business of US Immigration, US Customs, and baggage claim took a good while. VJ’s son, waited patiently for us and drove us back to Charlottesville where we arrived at our front door about 11:45 p.m.

It was a brilliant trip! I would recommend it to anyone, even in April. Well ... especially in April. Having the mountains with snow on them was really spectacular. It wasn’t really all that cold. I will admit that I did not go walking around most of the towns we stopped at, and if I had, I might have actually used the thermal underwear I took along.

The ship was much more of a luxury ship than any of the three of us had expected. Interestingly, I learned that about 80% of their passengers are tourists doing the round trip that we did. About 10% take the trip one way, and about 10% are “local” just between various ports on the route.

I also found this a trip that is do-able for the mobility impaired. There were several passengers on board with walkers and at least one person in a wheelchair. While I doubt that our ship has any handicapped accessible cabins, some of Hurtigruten’s newer ships may have them. Certainly the ship itself was perfectly accessible, as were almost all of the places I experienced on shore with ramps, door openers, handicapped restrooms, etc. I would also recommend dealing with Vantage Deluxe World Tours on this trip. They did a fine job for me, and you can tell them I said so (if you do, we may both save some future money!)

We're fine. WiFi is major hassle. Will post whole blog when I get home