Honningsvag and the North Cape

Small Fiord

The town of Honningsvag is the farthest large town in Norway at a latitude of about 71 North. Just to the north is North Cape, the last of the European land mass and about 1300

To The Cape

miles from the North Pole. It is around this cape that the convoys of WW2 found their way to Murmansk Russia and thus it saw a lot of action from submarine attacks to the sinking of the Sharanhorst pocket battleship. We we able to spend some time in the town itself but other than many fishing boats, there was little to see. Our tour left in mid morning for the 45 minute ride to the Cape. The landscape was one of tundra, dwarf trees and small bogs. It is much like

North Cape

Canada's north with the exception of no permafrost. The road is only open from May to October and 5 days before we arrived they had over a foot of snow. The cliffs at the cape

are over 1,000 feet high. Apparently we had one of the few days of bright sunshine that occurs. A movie, gift shop, historical info and barren, snow patches and cliffs were the order of the day. We have now been the farthest mainland north and south with our visit around the Cape in South America a few years ago. The trip was escorted but the bus driver on the drive back gave a very good commentary about the area. He stopped so we could take pictures of reindeer, a fiord and a sod house built by the Sami “native”

Selfie At The Cape

peoples. Only the Sami are allowed to own reindeer. In all neat little excursion. Tea and a light lunch and were ready for the rest of the day. We did go to the food action station tonight for hor's d'oevres. The attraction was the shrimp fountain. Dinner was good as always. It was prime rib. Our waiter was on the ball tonight and we were out in time to see the North Cape from the sea. We saw some of the entertainment. It was someone from the British Isles doing and impersonation of a British singer. At least he had some energy. There was a Midnight Sun Party on the open decks a

Reindeer

10:30. There was music, snacks, ice carving, games etc. We were dressed warmly but it was still cold. It is really odd to see sunlight at midnight. Tomorrow we are in Tromso where we will simply spend the day exploring. Weather could be nasty.

At Sea To the North Cape

Today we had one of the very few sea days on this cruise. We are currently at the top of Norway heading east to the north cape area. We passed the Arctic Circle at 6 this morning which means that we will not see any darkness for the next 3 days. The photo shows the

Midnight Sun

sky at midnight. We were up early enough this morning to have breakfast before the 9 am Zumba class. The venue was crowded. The class itself was a bit shorter than others that we have attended and was not hard as we have done in the past. No jumping at all. After that we heard an interview with the captain. That was the first for us. Line dancing was better than we have seen in the past. The class moved along. No electric slide! Yea! We ended by doing the Wobble! A filling lunch in the dining room with a British and American couple. Then came the wine

Chocolate Dessert

tasting and most of the day was gone. Tonight was formal night. We did have out photos taken before dinner, just for the fun of it. Formal night brought a meal of lobster tail, always a favourite with us. Our waiter is extremely slow but tonight was too slow. He seems to disappear from our table. His other 2 tables were on their dessert and we did not have our lobster meals yet. The result was that we were late for the production show and did not find seats. We did stay for the Proud Mary song. The dancing reminded Judy of her zumba class in Florida. We left early because we were tired of standing. We are on a tour to the North Cape tomorrow. Weather looks good with a high of 41 F.

Trondheim – A Big City

  Last night around midnight there was a wonderful sunset. We are down to about 3 hours

Midnight Sunset

of darkness a day as we move north along the coast. We are now as far north as Iceland. By tomorrow we should be above the Arctic Circle which means continuous daylight. 

     We were ashore in Trondheim early. It is one of the biggest places that we will visit . There was plenty to see. We managed about 6 hours of walking around. The short list of places included the outdoor market, the Stiftsgarden, cathedral, Bishops house, the old bridge, the fort, old town and the U Boat pens. After leaving the tourist bureau, we passes through a blocks long open air market. We were early and they were just opening the tents. We stopped at the Catholic

Nidaros Cathedral

church which is now used for concerts. Inside was a “childrens” choir from Minnesota practicing for a concert later in the day. We stopped at the Stiftsgarden which is the summer home of the royal family. Once a private residence, it has 140 rooms. They were home – we waved the queen's wave but we got no response. Next came the Nidaros cathedral. Built starting in 1070 and finished in 1300. It is a previous catholic now Lutheran church. It was a typical Gothic structure with a huge pipe organ. We found out later that the tower is sometimes can be climbed! Maybe next time! We returned later in the day for an organ recital. Next to the church, the Archbishop's residence have been largely rebuilt. The old bridge was the access to the Kristiansten fortress built is 1681. The Nazi executed members of the Norwegian resistance here during World War 2. It afforded nice views of

Old Town

the city. On the way down to the old town and wharves, we passed a bicycle lift. You lock in the right foot, balance and you are pushed up the hill! Easy biking! A walk along the old town next to the river, then a return for the recital and another stroll through the open market which was packed with people. This gave an opportunity to try reindeer hard sausage. Quite tasty! 

     Our last stop was off the beaten path. We needed to ask directions a few times but we did find the WW2 submarine bunkers built by the Nazis. It is a bit out of the tourist area so we took

WW 2 Submarine Pens

our picture and left. Basically the

Selfie

pens are not open to the curious public. Finally a return to the ship for some tea ended the day ashore. After a short rest, we watched sail away. The day was very warm and sunny! We dressed for dinner and headed for the elite lounge. Today the food was assorted Sushi with soy sauce, wasabi and pickled ginger.. Dinner and a comedy showtime ended the long day. The comedian was not very funny and neither of us enjoyed the show. Tomorrow is a “restful” day at sea. We need it!

Alesund – A Walk Ashore

At The Top

   

The 418 step

Today we were in the city of Alesund. It is somewhat larger than Flam. For those fans of the Amazing Race, it was one of the cities on this year's race. The city has about 45000. The things to see are limited. We had decided to just wander around and not take a tour at this stop. We were away early today after breakfast in the dining room. Our first destination was Mount Aksla which was the check point on the race. The attraction is the 418 steps to the perfect view point of the city. The vistas of the area and the town centre are quite nice. The weather was overcast again today (usual weather here). We did not find “Phil”. We were sure we had it right! We took a different trail back to the city centre. This trail was sloped with few steps. After the last 2 days of uphill climbs, we did not want to do the steps again which by the the time we started down were quite busy. Besides the Crown

Another Race Venue

Princess there is a Holland America ship in. That make about 5000 extra people in town. We walked through the main mall, then along the small waterway where another part of the race was filmed. Again lots of people. The buildings have a rather unique design. It seems to be a mix of European and Baltic. We walked along the water crossed the bridge and made our way to the Alesund Church. The church itself was not “fancy”. From there we headed back to the ship. We only found one bar but did not go in. It was a hole in the wall where the locals were

gathered. I went in but Judy did not like the looks of the place. We wandered a bit more and returned to the ship.  We are currently farther north than the division between the prairies and the NorthwestTerritories. That places us just “south” of Iceland. Sunrise is

down to about 3:30am and sunset at 11:30 pm. We will be in continuous daylight in a few days. We did go to Afternoon tea today. We found out that is being held but it is not listed as an activity as in the past. It is shown under dining options. As we sailed away there was

Fire Boat Demo

a fire boat demonstration. We have seen others but this was a nice send off.As we left Aseland we spotted where the third part of the race was filmed! Then it was off to see the comic. Neither of us liked him tonight.  Dinner was very good again and we are enjoying the company of our new friends from England and  Australia. We did stop at the entertainment (lead singer of the Hollies) but we left. He never seemed to make a connection with us. Tomorrow will be a long walk around day. The city has just under 200,000 people. 

Flam AndThe Brekkefossen Hike

    We woke this morning docking at the end of a fjord. At least I did – Judy managed to sleep in again. I guess the hike yesterday was a bit much. Flam is probably the smallest town that we have ever been to by ship. It is a busy very little place as the tour buses seemed to be coming and going all day. The main attraction is a train ride through the valley. It stops at a number of small towns. You could take the train and walk back to the ship. We had decided to just explore Flam on our own and not join the hordes that took the train tours.

At The Falls

     I had spent a bit of time learning about Flam and knew that there was a hike to a waterfall not far out of town. The local tourist bureau had a very nice coloured map with the trails clearly marked. We headed for the Brekkefossen – the Brekke waterfall. It is a 2-3 hour hike. Most of the trail is along a flat road but then goes to the knoll next to the falls. The trail itself was not like the rock steps of yesterday but it was straight up. This trail was more typical of what we see in the Banff area. Rocks yes but more dirt and trees. The steady up portion was fine until about half way when water along the trail turned it into a muddy mess and very slick. The steepness of the trail meant that the way down was very slippery. Others on the trail fell but we did not.

The Falls

View Of Flam

The view of the waterfall from the knoll was very 
nice. A good volume of water was flowing over the shear drop near the top. After a bit if a rest we headed back to town. People were jammed in the small “Mall of Norway”. We stopped at the AEgir brew pub. It was crowded as well. This is the local gathering place for all the tourists in town. Of course we had to try the beer. It is a rule that when you are in small foreign town you must try the local brew. I did. It was very refreshing after the hike.

The Fjords

     We decided to watch the sail away for an extended period of time since we are deep into a fjord and this was one of the attractions of this trip. This ship does not have the chart displayed on the TV. We missed being able to follow the track of the ship as we have done in the past. As we move north we are seeing more and more daylight. Sunrise is just before 4 am and sunset is after 11.

The transit out of this fjord took about 5 hours. The views of the sheer cliffs was beautiful. I thought that we were in the main fjord. As we sailed along we could see many more fjords. The main one got wider and wider. We have never seen a fjord like this even in Alaska. It certainly did fulfill the expectation of this cruise.

    The rest of the early evening was spent wandering around until dinner. One thing that we have noticed is that there seems to be less wait staff. In the past there was an assistant for every waiter. Now one seems to roam in the area but not assigned to a specific person. The result is that there is less attention. Plates are not cleared an quickly as they use to be. There does not seem to be true afternoon tea being served. That may be a function of being in port with tours scheduled all day. This is the first time we have encountered a buy on get another for $1 more. We don't recall this promotion on our cruises. Everything else seems to be the same.

    We did see the show tonight. It was the comedian that we saw the first night. I liked him more. He did about an hour show and had some very good jokes. Another walk around day tomorrow.

Stavanger – Pulpit Rock and Another First

    Today we were ashore in Stavanger and had another first ever experience. We were off the ship by 8 am – as soon as it was announced that we had cleared the port authorities. This involved a bus ride to the local ferry dock and then a 40 minute ferry ride across the bay to Tau then another bus ride for the 30 minute ride to the base of the hike to Pulpit Rock.

     

On The Trail

Pulpit rock is a ledge which is at the top of the fjord. The height from the start point is about 1000 feet. The length of the climb is 4 kilometers. Essentially is a straight up climb with a series of downhills in between each level. The entire climb takes about 22 hours. Pulpit Rock is one of the most visited sites in Norway. We did opt for a ship tour for this stop. It is not like hiking in the Rockies. This trail was essentially all rock all the way. The rocks themselves have been arranged roughly in steps but they were not easy to navigate. The climb takes about 2 hours without stopping for any length of time. We collected our lunch and a bottle of water and headed up. Most of the people on this hike were reasonably fit. No bad knees and hips here, just a lot of out of breath people.

    About an hour in we experienced another first. The rocks were very slippery - and got worse as the day wore on and the hundreds of people made their way through the water. Judy stepped and slid down, landing on her back. No problems. However she did stick her arms out and promptly cut and scraped them. We needed a bandage but did not get one until we reached the top of the rock where the guides were. She also needed to fill out an accident report which we did later. Oh, I slid down the same rock and so did the person behind us. My fall was broken by the backpack.

Made It!

Pulpit Rock

    The view from the top was outstanding. Shear drops, a long fjord, rocky outcrops and hundreds of people were all viewed from the top. It was worth the hike. We had our lunch (provided on the bus) as we enjoyed the rain free site. The time down was also around 2 hours but by the time we started down many more tour buses had arrived. The traffic going up the trails was non stop and with that the trail became even more slippery. I did my share of almost going down as we went down.

The Drop

When we were ready to head back to the ship, another first happened! Our bus had backed up in a parking spot, went over the barrier and was stuck! Essentially, it needed a tow truck to get back on the road. We needed to return to catch the ferry to make the sail away time. Fortunately there were 4 buses and the other 3 were not completely full. After much figuring all on our bus were able to find space on the others. We did not need to stand. We arrived at the ship just before it was to sail. The rain had moved in and continued throughout the afternoon. A beer, a slice of pizza and some down time were the order of the day.

After the hard day, we cut the evening short. We did have dinner at the appointed time but decided to skip the entertainer (lead singer of the Hollies). We are looking forward to a walk around shore day tomorrow in Flam. After the strain of the climb today, we can use a more relaxing day.

A Day For Rest – At Sea

    In all the years that we have been cruising, today we did something different. After the long day yesterday – about 36 hours with no sleep we slept in. We did not get out of bed until nearly 11 am. Last night we had a clock advance which was partially responsible but the long day took a toll. We are still a bit draggy today but managed to find things to do all day.

     We did miss zumba and the port lecture in the morning. We did manage a bit if the line dance class and it getting marginally better. He did go over 4 dances while we were there. We missed the first 20 minutes and the electric slide! By noon it was time for breakfast and of course tea at the international cafe. We skipped the champagne art auction in favour of the ballroom dance class. The dance was the Merengue and the instructor taught 5 or 6 moves. Usually they teach 2 or 3 so that was also a pleasant surprise.

After Judy bought her Clinique (enough until the next cruise). We then headed for the Princess Theatre for a talk by Pete Best. He was the original drummer for the Beatles and he talked about the early days in Liverpool and how the band came to be. He is a good story teller. Ringo came in just after they cut the demo for their first album. He was replaced just before recording the final cut. We heard him on the last cruise and he seems to have become a staple on some cruises.

Formal Night

A glass of wine, our canapes and a nap finished the afternoon. We dressed for the first formal night and were on our way to see the comedy and magic show. So the second thing happened that in all our years of cruising has never happened before! We have been locked out of our room because of a faulty key slide. In this case we were locked |IN OUR ROOM. The door would not unlatch no matter what we did. They tried from the outside (after our panic call) and still no response. I started to think that they would be handing down our meals in a bucket. Finally the steward appeared on our balcony. The balconies have doorways that can be opened so you can go from one to another. We escaped through the room next to ours. Fortunately the people had already left! When we returned later in the evening the door handle had been repaired.

Chocolate Dessert

We got in. I hope we can get out in the morning for our tour.

     The Captain's champagne reception waterfall, speeches and a formal photo took place before dinner. Dinner was excellent, followed by a 'new' production show. Gone from this show was all the old style musical show that featured mainly singing and dancing. This one was called Magic To Do which was a simple background story joined by a series of illusion we have seen before. People appearing and disappearing from boxes, etc. It was quite entertaining.

   We packed up for our early tomorrow. We are going on a hike up a fjord. The all day trip is our longest booked tour. The weather is suppose to be cool but no rain! We shall see!