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Ahoy there from the MS Vesteralen!
The Fjords are absolutely stunning, we've been stopping off at lots of little villages (as well as some bigger ones) and they are all a bit, well…..small and wooden, I guess is the best way to put it, lots of timber buildings and everywhere is soooo tiny, even at the ports you can walk across the centre of town in 15 minutes!
On Thursday we took an excursion to Gerainger Fjord and Ǻlesund, which meant boarding a smaller boat that took us to the shore. Gerainger fjord was beautiful, although it was raining all day, so the weather wasn’t great for sight seeing. We spent a couple of hours on the bus being driven around the countryside, which was a bit of a drag as we really wanted to get out and explore, but I suppose it was geared up for the oldies (of which there are quite a few!).
We arrived in Trondheim on Friday and we joined the short excursion to the Nidaros Cathedral and Ringve Museum. The cathedral visited was very interesting - the tour guide told us about the story of Saint Olaf. Olaf was a Viking who became a saint because his coffin rose out of the ground twice and apparently his hair and nails continued to grow after he had died….we just think his coffin needed more ballast! Due to us being on an organized tour, we didn’t really have enough time to look around the cathedral ourselves before we had to get back on the bus for the museum. The museum was full of hundreds of musical instruments (from 17th to 20th century) which were collected by an eccentric old lady who lived in the town. Unfortunately we were not allowed to play any of the instruments ourselves, some of them were very odd.
Yesterday we had a very early start as we were due to cross the Arctic Circle, so we dragged ourselves out of bed, put on loads of layers and stood up on deck! We are now officially polar explorers and crossed into the Arctic Circle at 7.14am. The only difference it seems to have made is that it has got appreciably colder, and we’ve had to get the thermals out!
Yesterday was also the national festival day and all the Norwegians on board were dressed up in their national dress and everybody was very excited, waving flags, singing and blowing plastic trumpets. As we don’t have that sort of thing in England, we couldn’t really appreciate the significance of it and found it all a bit odd. We took part in a town parade and it seemed they were kind of waiting for us as we were greeted with a gun salute as we entered the harbour at Bodo. The locals were folk dancing in national costume once we had docked and there was a ceremony to commemorate the sinking of a Hurtigruten ship in 1940 which hit a mine on it’s journey along the coast.
Back on the boat and we traveled through the Trollfjord (at about 11pm) which was absolutely stunning. We were surrounded by tall snow capped mountains, waterfalls and dramatic sheer rock faces. The crew brought out some hot soup and ‘magic drinks’ to mark the occasion. We’re not sure what was in it, but it was……..interesting!
Nights are very light here too, an obvious statement I know, but it is still odd when you are standing on deck at half past midnight watching snow capped mountains slip gently past and it's so light it feels like mid afternoon!
It is mainly old people on the boat, lots of single old ladies strangely enough, with a liberal sprinkling of Americans. They are all friendly enough though and it means we get to go the outside to ourselves pretty much as they all sit in the warm panoramic lounge drinking coffee. One of the ladies on our table at dinner, Martha, actually lives in Kirkenes which is where we get off the boat on Tuesday and she has offered to put us up for the night before we head off again, which is very helpful indeed as we were planning to just turn up and find a B and B!
Anyway, this morning we had a visit from King Neptune! (aka a crew member dressed up in a silly costume with seaweed and beardy mask!) He welcomed us all to the Artic Circle and shoved handfuls of ice down our backs …..we haven’t worked out why, but we got a free drink for, so it was worth it! Drinks are very expensive, as is everything here in Norway, so we are glad that we picked up a bottle of duty free rum on the ferry from Newcastle…..it has saved us a fortune (although a bottle of coke is 3 quid!).
Later on today we will reach Tromso, where we have a few hours ashore before heading north east to the North Cape.
Photos will follow when we can get cheap internet access!
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Wendy Boardman
non-member comment
One of the single "old ladies"on the Vesteralan !!
I had never thought of myself as an old lady, perhaps "mature" may be more appropriate - and any other kind adjective you think of. Anyway, I am writing to ask about your stay with Marta. Did she show you the delights of snowy Kirkiness and surrounding area. Look forward to reading more of your trip. (I did say I was interested!) Wendy