With Susan in training for a half marathon, running became part of our sightseeing plans! A fabulous way to see the cities of Oslo and Bergen in the quiet of the mornings before the hoards of tour buses arrived. Running on our Hurtigruten stops helped burn off some of the food we were eating and allowed us greater range in the short time frames of the stops. And, of course, running under the midnight sun (and the blood moon) at 12:30am in Trømso was very cool!
Svolvær - 5km, or was that 3km?!
Kirkenes - 5km in the pouring rain. Our only true rain day!
Florø - short, gotta get off the boat and and burn off some of the food we've been eating!
The most northern point in Europe!
...well, not quite. That would be an island well north of here.
The most northern point of mainland Europe?
The most northern point of Europe accessible by road (read tourist bus)?
We can almost see the North Pole from here!
The Arctic Circle, that circle of latitude that marks the southern most point of the polar night of the winter solstice and the polar day of the summer. Its actual latitude does vary due to the Earth's wobble but it is at roughly 66 33' N. And we crossed it! We are close enough to the summer solstice to experience the 'midnight sun', the endless day that the Arctic enjoys.
Yay for our windowless cabins!
And the certificate to prove it!
The next leg of our trip is a voyage on the Hurtigrtuen Coastal Ferry, the MS Lofoten, from Bergen to Kirkenes and back to Bergen. Travelling through the famed fjords, across the Arctic Circle and over the top of Europe to the end of Norway and back! MS Lofoten is a grand old girl, the oldest and the smallest ferry in the Hurtigruten fleet. Along with the 100 'cruising' passengers, the ferry carries cargo and up to 300 day passengers stopping at 36 ports, towns and villages along the 2500nm journey.
Ruteplan - Bergen to Kirkenes and back!
Our cabins are on C-deck, in the bowels of the ship well away from the engine noise, the flushing of the shared toilets and the clatter of day passengers. Our inside cabins are wonderfully dark for sound sleeping during the endless daytime of the Arctic north.
The meals on board are plentiful and delicious. Breakfast and lunch are a buffet and, with a nod to its 1960s heritage, dinner is a set menu with assigned setting and full silver service. We gorge on salmon in all its forms, cheeses, home made ice-cream, caviar and reindeer. Hunger is definitely not an issue.
We stop day and night. Sometimes for several hours enabling a shore visits and at others just a quick 15 minutes to offload/onboard passengers and cargo. The cargo is craned on and off with the cargo stored on deck or in the cargo hold. The cargo ranges from roofing materials to small boats, agricultural equipment to unidentifiable pelleted and wrapped parcels.
Divide by 5.5 and that, my friends, is why we weren't drinking!
Our fellow passengers are a slightly older crowd from a wide range of countries. Manfried from Germany is our 72 y-o walking buddy and GPS. He has an uncanny sense of direction and, between that and his brisk gait, we are never at risk of missing the boat! Etienne from Marseille is travelling with his parents and 97 y-o grandfather. Grandpa is amazing negotiating the steps and rolling deck with his walking stick hung around his neck. John and Pat from the Napa Valley, quick with a joke and an invite to view his slide show each evening. Galena (Galena, Galena vacuum cleaner - how else are we to remember?) from Holland is the uber participant in on-shore excursions.
The daily routine involves a lot of eating, lounging in the Panorama Lounge or on the Outdoor Explorer Deck ( how intrepid!) enjoying the stunning scenery and going ashore at every opportunity. Sometimes this is to do an organized shore excursion, sometimes a wander around the town and, most frequently, a run to burn off some of the calories consumed. An hour stop means 5km, an hour and a half is 10km... Time is not an issue due to the 24hrs of daylight.
The boat is well equipped for rough weather with the tables all bolted down and the chairs on chains thus limiting the damage by a bouncy sea. 'Stormy Weather Bags' are liberally sprinkled around the public spaces and each cabin well supplied. And due to the chilly water, our life jackets are partial survival suits!
Sturdy chains to prevent chairs flying around!
Hope we don't have to deploy these babies!
After catching the early morning train across the stunning Hardangervidda plateau and through Finse with Norway's highest train station, we arrived in Bergen. The railway is an engineering feat. Starting in the 1870s, it took 34 years to construct, battling freezing winters, deep snow - and all with a slide rule and hemp rope! It is 484km long with 17.7 km of tunnels (182 tunnels in total).
Again, our morning runs took us around Bergen checking out the sights without the hoards of tourists. The tourists (of course, we do not fall into that category) seemed to appear late morning, building to plague proportions by mid-afternoon. The early mornings were clear, sparkling and quiet!
We had had some debate in Oslo as to buying an 'Oslo Card'. These offer discounts to major tourist attractions and free use of public transport. We decided against it but in hindsight, we thought perhaps we should have. So, on arriving in Bergen, we armed ourselves with a 48-hr Bergen Card! With the prospect of rain, we did some research and decided to visit the house of Ole Bull - simply because it required a tram, a bus and a ferry to get there and good use of our Bergen cards! But who is Ole Bull? Exactly the question we asked but now know he was Norway's virtuoso violinist and composer who built a rather gorgeous house which is now a museum.
So off we went on the tram to Lagunen, #62 bus to Buena and the ferry across to Lysøen where the museum is. This took us south of Bergen by 30km, past fjords, over mountains, along winding roads and magnificent bridges.
Now that's a front porch!
And we thought our new house had some wood!
Fully utilizing our Bergen cards, we explored the Bergnhus Fortress. This included a peek into Haakons Hall and climbing the Rosenkrantz Tower. The tower is straight out of the middle ages with winding stone staircases and a dusty, dank dungeon! I now have a new appreciation for the medieval soldiers in chainmail ofter trying some on! It took both Wendy and Susan to lift it and I had trouble standing, let alone brandishing a sword, running up narrow, stone stairs or riding a horse.
Making full use of our Bergen cards, we explored the Norway Fisheries Museum, the Bryggens Museum with it archaeological excavations showing foundations of the early houses and a quick flit around the stunning St Mary's Church.
Is that a cruise ship at my back door?