Alaska cruise - ms Zaandam. August 3 - 13, 2012
August 3 Fly to Seattle
August 4 SeattleAugust 5 Bus to Vancouver, board shipAugust 6 Inside PassageAugust 7 KetchikanAugust 8 JuneauAugust 9 SkagwayAugust 10 Glacier BayAugust 11 At seaAugust 12 Seward / AnchorageAugust 13 Fly home
Last day. I'll have to start packing soon. The sea is pretty calm...at least for the North Sea. No whitecaps, but some swells coming from starboard. The ship begins to roll, then the stabilizers kick in and she comes back. It's not all that much, but the multi-directional nature sometimes makes walking in a straight line a bit difficult. Fortunately, in our stateroom there is usually something nearby to grab for stability if necessary.
it's been a really good trip. Our weather magic held pretty well for the whole month. We saw lots of interesting places. We met lots of interesting people and enjoyed good times with our table mates at dinners. I will, as always, miss being on board, but I am sort of looking forward to getting home again. I'll be back on another cruise again in a couple of months...Alaska on the Zaandam in early August. Until then... (sorry, I've got to say it like our cruise director) toodle-oo for now.
We appear to have all engines operating again. We left Bergen on time at 11:30 pm with the quite loud accompaniment of a rock concert on shore. It was the celebration of midsummer, and folks were out in force on their small pleasure boats zipping around the harbor in all directions. There were even several bonfires along the shore which is a traditional way to celebrate the summer. By the time we went to bed shortly after midnight, the sun had actually set and there was darkness which we haven't seen in a number of days.
The trip to Stavanger was somewhat bouncy during the night, but we arrived at the projected time amid fog and light rain which we hope will clear off somewhat by late morning when our tours leave. Stavanger is Norway's fourth largest city and is the main place that supplies the off-shore oil drilling industry in the North Sea. It is a large port, and there are a number of large, strong-looking ships that we guess are the oil rig supply ships and one rescue ship in broad black and yellow slanted stripes. Also in port are Cunard's Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria.
My tour was a boat excursion up to Pulpit Rock in the Lysefjord. The boat was a catamaran and quite the nicest and most comfortable excursion boat that I have ever been on! It could probably hold eighty people, but there were no more than forty of us, so everybody had a good seat. Although the weather was cloudy with mist in the distance, my weather magic held until I got back to the dock where I got rained on getting back to the ship.
Lysefjord is 42 kilometers long and mostly 400 meters deep. The granite cliffs rise to about 600 meters high. Pulpit Rock is one of the most famous attractions in Norway. You often see photos of it taken from the air looking down at people standing on it above the fjord. The rock itself is separated from the mountain by a significant crack. This photo, of course, is looking at it from the other direction.
There is a herd of goats turned out to pasture at the base of Pulpit Rock in the summer. The excursion people give them treats, so whenever the goats see an excursion boat, they come trotting to meet it. Most everyone on our boat crowded the outside decks to take pictures of the goats. I do have one slightly blurry photo of goats, but it's not worth posting here.
After the photo op at Pulpit Rock, we continued a short way up the fjord to the Hengjane Waterfall seen here. Our boat pulled in right to it, and one of the crew caught some of the water in a stainless steel bucket and let anyone who wanted to taste it have some. It tasted like cold wet water to me.
Then we stopped at the Helleren Fjord Restaurant pasted on the side of the fjord at the base of a high cliff for Norwegian waffles with sour cream and jam along with coffee or tea. There was a tall teenager there in full Viking get up for people to photograph. Also there was a young boy with a fishing rod pretending to fish in the fjord. Aside from those slightly hokey bits, it was a lovely break in the tour.
WOW!! Both Queens just sailed right past us! The Queen Elizabeth sailed first then the Queen Victoria. Both were sent off by the local fire boat pumping five streams. It was quite a sight. Word is that one is starting a seven day tour and the other a fourteen day tour, but i'm not sure which is which. We will be leaving soon, but the fire boat disappeared while we were watching the other ships negotiate the narrow part of the harbor. That's okay. We had our fire boat welcome yesterday in Bergen.
And again, we are small enough that when we sail, we are going up the Lysefjord to Pulpit Rock before we head for Amstrdam. If I had known we were going to do that, I could have saved the cost of a tour, but I really won't mind seeing it again from our larger ship. This kind of extra touch is why I like sailing on smaller ships that can go where the big ones can't.
4:15 pm. We are finally arriving at Bergen. There is even a fire boat spraying water to welcome our captain to his home city. We will be docking very near Bryggen which is the area of old Hanseatic League warehouses that has been preserved as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
We had a two hour bus ride around town past a number of places that I had seen last year. The photo here is of the Bryggen area. Not the most inspiring tour I've ever had, but at least it didn't rain more than a sprinkle, and we got back to the ship in time for dinner. As for the rain, evidently Bergen is the rainiest city in Norway and is sister city to Seattle, our guide said that it rains here on average 275 days a year, so I am guessing that Jill's and my weather magic is still working if we only got a sprinkle.
The only word on the engine situation is that we are still supposed to sail around 11:30 this evening and are now supposed to arrive at Stavanger tomorrow an hour earlier than originally scheduled.
Aaahh! Sun! We were sailing south, and the temperature, even out here beyond all the islands, was quite moderate, and the sky was only partly cloudy. I wished that we were a small enough ship to sail between the islands and the mainland, but we are not. We did have a view of the islands off the port side until we got south of the Lofoten Wall.
We spent most of the morning, or what was left of it by the time we finished breakfast, on our balcony enjoying the sunshine. The temperature was up in the high 60s with barely a breeze and very calm seas. Delightful.
According to the Captain's report this afternoon, our delay in Tromso was an engine problem, but then, when we were ready to leave, the dock's linesmen had gone to another area work the departure of another ship, probably the Costa Deliziosa, thus we had to wait until they got back. Then, during the night, the engines acted up again, so we are making what speed we can and will be about six hours late into Bergen tomorrow. That will delay all the tours, but shouldn't matter much since it will still be light by the time we leave again. (We will cross the Arctic Circle again this afternoon so will begin having sunset and sunrise again.)
I don't remember if I mentioned that Jill's next door neighbors are on board for this second half of our trip. Anyway, we are meeting them early this evening for drinks and dinner at the Pinnacle Grill. That will be a nice change from our late second seating dinner. Later. Yes, it was a most elegant dinner with both champagne and wine, several flaming entrees and with things like chocolate souffle and creme brûlée for dessert.
There is a pronounced roll to the ship this evening. My guess is that it is more noticeable because we are having to go so slowly due to the engine problem, whatever it is. However, the wind has picked up a good deal also making lots of whitecaps.
About 9:45 this evening we passed this oil platform. I'm sure glad that I never had to even visit one of those, much less work on one. It doesn't look too bad from a long way off, but the thought of riding out a storm on one is really scary.
Bergen
Well, we are not in Bergen yet, and won't get there until at least 4:00 pm. The engine problem reoccurred during the night, and we evidently spent a good while dead in the water while they got it going again. As I write at 11:00 am, we are poking along the coastline. No one knows yet how this will play out. If they can get things fixed in Bergen, I am guessing that we will probably go on to Amsterdam but skip the stop in Stavanger Fjord, but there's no telling yet. At the least, with such a late arrival in Bergen, most of the tours there will probably be cancelled, especially the long ones. Ours is/was just a two hour tour of the city which goes to places that I have already seen, but Jill hasn't seen. Ah well, "Success is learning to deal with Plan B."
Hooray! We are docked at Honnigsvag instead of having to tender in. The Celebrity Constellation is anchored and tendering. The Braemar of Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines just docked near us. After we went off to North Cape, the Braemar cast off, anchored out, and started tendering. As we got back the big, slab-sided Costa Deliziosa was just docking. I think the Braemar will dock in our spot after we leave at 6:00 pm because she isn't leaving until 9:00 pm.
Since about the only thing to do here is to go to North Cape, there were hordes of buses taking people up there. I counted 21 buses that I could see, and there were probably more than that as they just kept shuttling up and back. The trip up was very very foggy. I could barely see the bus in front of us part of the time. The main difference from last year was that most of the snow was gone exposing the treeless hillsides and mountains. We did make a short photo stop on the way up at the Sami camp where everybody, including me, got out to take a photo of a reindeer and a guy in Sami costume.
At North Cape itself the Nordkapphallen (visitor center) was fairly full when we got there, but nothing like it will be this afternoon! It was also so foggy that you could barely see 50 feet. You certainly could not see the globe statue from the building, and probably couldn't see the whole thing from far enough away to get a photo of it. We watched the nice film and poked around in the souvenir shop then came back to the ship for lunch. The fog had cleared a little on the way back down so we could see occasional groups of sheep, goats, and reindeer grazing on the hillsides. The scenery is just as stark without the snow as it was with snow, but still interesting.
We got another view of North Cape after we sailed. Going west, we were a lot closer to it than we were the other day en route to Kirkenes. The Captain slowed the ship down and did a do-si-do turning in a complete circle so that everyone had what view there was of it from the sea.
Tromso
To get to Tromso we needed to go under a bridge that is 45 meters high. With her mast stepped down, Prinsendam is 44 meters high. We made it. The Costa ship is here today also, but couldn't fit under the bridge so is docked a good distance away from the center of town while we are right there.
Our tour today, again under low clouds but no rain, visited the "Arctic Cathedral" which is actually a Lutheran church with the biggest stained glass window north of wherever. Then, after driving around town, we visited the Tromso University Museum. It is a very nice museum where we saw a beautiful slide show of photos of the Northern Lights, then had plenty of time to look at other exhibits on things like geology, animal and bird life of the region, Sami culture, and arctic exploration. The university, which is the northernmost one in the world, has several unique specialty research areas including the Northern Lights, fish health mostly for salmon and other fish farming operations, and a center for peace studies.
After we got back, Jill went to a particular shop in town that she wanted to see. I watched the always interesting process of raising lifeboats and tenders on our side of the ship until she got back and we went for lunch. After lunch was lazy time. We carefully did not go up on deck to witness the "polar swim" with "Thor" and "Odin" in attendance, an event which is akin to the "Neptune" festivities when crossing the equator. I learned years ago to avoid things like that on ships.
We were over two hours late leaving Tromso. At first it was because of two missing passengers. They had evidently wandered off on their own and hadn't paid attention to the time to be back on board which was two hours earlier than usual. But then there was some sort of trouble with one of the engines that delayed our sailing, so the couple were able to board even though they arrived an hour and fifteen minutes late. I bet they always pay strict attention to the departure time after this.
Another sea day. The morning started out sunny then clouded over with haze or light fog. After breakfast we spent the rest of the morning in the Crow's Nest lounge up top forward reading and working on our various needlework projects. Eventually the fog cleared and we could see the coastline which is still very mountainous. At noon we must still have been in the upper reaches of the Gulf Stream because the outside temperature, while quite brisk in the wind of our passage, is not really all that cold. I wouldn't want to sit out on deck for a long time, but 15 or 20 minutes I could do it without resorting to a heavy jacket.
It cooled off some more in the afternoon, but hey, we were sailing past the top of Norway at 72 degrees north which is certainly the farthest north I've ever been. By evening as we sailed past North Cape, the fog closed in. While we were at a Captain's cocktail party up in the Crow's Nest, the fog horn started and went on until well after we went to bed. The ocean was kicking up a bit also, but the ship's stabilizers are up to the task of keeping us pretty smooth. Hoping for decent weather tomorrow at Kirkenes, but the official forecast is for lots of rain. We'll see.
Kirkenes
Cloudy, somewhat foggy, cold, and clammy, but not raining as of about 10:30. Thankfully, we are docked instead of tendering. That is a lot easier for me to go ashore. Jill's and my weather luck held pretty well. The local forecast had been for heavy rain today, and we only got sprinkles and some light rain while on our tours instead.
My tour went up the Passvik Valley. The Passvik is a very large river that forms the border between Norway and Russia (before WWII the other side was Finland). There were several scenic photo stops including one at the highest point in this region at 96 meters from which we could see across to the Russian city of Nikel. That city is known for its nickel smelter and for many years under the Soviet regime produced so much sulfur pollution that the average life expectancy there was 45 years. That was because they were processing high sulfur nickel ore shipped in from Siberia. Now they only smelt local low sulfur ore, but the Norwegians monitor the emissions very closely.
Our main stop was at the National Park Centre. This was originally established in the 1950s as an agricultural research center. It still does some of that, but also does monitoring for both the sulfur pollution and for radiation pollution from the Russian nuclear plant to the east which is of the same type as Chernoble. The Park Centre was attractive and modern with a theatre where we saw a nice film about the different animals and birds in the park. Evidently there are lots of animals and plants in the park that are found nowhere else in Norway.
Basically this tour was about four hours on the bus on roads that were about one and a half lanes wide. Despite the narrow width of the roads, the bus and other on-coming traffic seemed able to pass each other without slowing down. As usual, I had a front row seat for any excitement. At one point we came around a curve to find a big orange excavator taking up the entire road and digging a huge hole on more than half of it. Eventually, it deigned to vacate its position to let us creep by.
The most interesting thing for me was seeing the taiga ecosystem. There are over 3,000 lakes, ponds and other bodies of water in the region, and, of course, permafrost under it all. The forests are mostly short birch trees with some short pines, although there are more pines farther up the valley. It is all short because of the climate and short growing season. The pine trees can take 100 years to reach 10 meters tall. We didn't see any moose or other wildlife, but there was a herd of reindeer in one of the fields. Our guide was going to stop on the way back so we could take photos, but by that time they had gone elsewhere. Reindeer herding is the only agricultural pursuit allowed in the park itself, although there are about a dozen farms left in the valley from its original settlement in the early 1900s. Kirkenes itself was only founded in 1906 after iron ore deposits were discovered in the region. Actually, in this photo (which is also one of my famous collection of telephone pole shots around the world) you can see the reindeer herd as little light-colored specks in the far field to the right of center.
The word from the Captain is that there will be three other cruise ships at Honnigsvag tomorrow besides us. There is not dock space for all four, so it seems as there will be some negotiation as to who gets what. I am hoping that, as a Noewegian himself, he has some clout with the harbor master, or maybe that we can get there first. This also means that the Visitor Center at Nordkapp (North Cape) will be packed, but I still want to go there unless we have to tender in rough conditions.
I tried to post this from Kirkenes, but we are way too far north for satellite reception, so it will have to wait.
