Day 14 - Bergen.

Bergen is reputed to be the wettest city in Norway with four out of every five days having rain. It was no surprise therefore to be greeted by a cloudy sky and a rather persistant drizzle. This was not going to dissuade us from travelling into the city for what was only a half day stop.

We headed initially for the area of the city known as the Bryggen, an UNESCO heritage site on the waterfront. It is said that the producers of Disney’s “Frozen” used this area as the basis for the animation. You can understand why.

Behind the three storied building were little passages and pathways that gave an interesting pattern of the rooftops.

In fact everywhere you looked there were interesting things to photograph. (Even in the rain the shorts were out!!).

The buildings which were originally used as trading houses in the days of the Hanseatic League now are home to shops, offices and nightclubs.

Further down the quayside can be found the 13th century Bergenhus Fortress which is the oldest medieval castle in Norway. The defensive tower in front of the fortress was enlarged in the 1560s and is now known as the Rosenkrantz Tower.

The one sight that I was looking forward to seeing was the Fisketorget, the Bergen fish market, but quite frankly I was disappointed. I was expected a bustling market featuring lots of locally caught fish but was faced with a couple of stalls selling predominantly smoked salmon.

In fact the best sized fish could be found back in the Bryggen!!

We continued to walk around the city taking in the cathedral and other buildings brfore catching the shuttle bus back to the ship ready for our 2.00 pm departure. As the ship made its way from the Bergen Bay Sylvia once again picked up her paintbrushes to sketch a picture of Bryggen without the rain.

Bergen was our last stop on what has been a very enjoyable cruise, after a day at sea tomorrow we will be home Saturday. The scenery in Norway has been spectacular and we must have taken hundreds of photos, only a handful have I had chance to post. We have met some lovely people on the cruise and in fact have bumped into a couple of acquaintances from home, Peter Gibson and his wife.
This therefore will be the last posting from this cruise and I thank everyone for reading it daily and making the comments. I hope you enjoyed it.
It only seems fitting that the last photo should feature the shorts under a Norwegian flag.

Robbins Ramblings will return in 50 days time from the decks of P&O’s Britannia….see you then!!

DAY 13 - ALESUND.

As the ship moved to its berth in the picturesque town of Alesund, the weather appeared a little disappointing, with the cloudy sky and a little drizzle. Throughout this cruise we have experienced pretty good weather so we can’t really complain.

We hadn’t booked a ship excursion at this stop instead opting for a trip around the town on a hop-on/hop-off bus. The plan was to get an idea from the bus tour of the places we would walk to later if the weather perked up.The first stop on the tour was the Aksla view point normally accessed via a 418 step climb from the City park, but much easier on a bus.

As you can see the sun had begun to break through giving spectacular views over the city and the fjords beyond. The bus then took us through the town (pictures of this later) and out to Hessa view point which gave a view across the harbour (including our ship) to the city.
The Askla view point can be seen high on the hill.

We stayed on the bus until it returned to the ship, no hopping on or off for us, but we knew now where we needed to walk.
Alesund was almost completely destroyed by fire in 1904 as sparks from a local fishing factory, fanned by the high wind from the fjord ravaged the wooden buildings in the town. The town was rebuilt over the next three years in an Art Nouveau style by northern German architects. The town itself is very attractive, indeed it has been voted Norway’s most beautiful city. Our walk took us first to the buildings on the wharfside….

….and then taking in the ornately decorated houses around the old town.

Wherever you looked there were more examples.

A little up the road is the fine Alesund church,solidly made from stone….

but inside the Art Noveau theme continues.

The city of Alesund has connections to the United Kingdom as one of it’s old residents, the viking Rollo, journeyed to Northern France in the 10th century. Here he seized land and the French King at the time created him the first Duke of Normandy in 911. His Great Great Grandson (maybe one too many greats) , one William, was set to become King of England in 1066. His feats are commemorated by a statue in the city park, interestingly an identical statue can be found in Rouen,France, where he is buried.

Alesund is a really beautiful town with many of the attractions easy to reach on foot and the weather, which as you can see turned out really fine, made it a pleasure to visit.
Back on ship we had a late afternoon sitting in the sun on deck before yet another trivia near miss. No wins at all this cruise but at least today we were awarded a certificate (as was everyone as on the cruise) for crossing the Arctic Circle.

Tomorrow the last stop on the cruise, an early morning visit to Bergen.

Day 12 - A Quiet Day at Sea.

It made quite a change today to wake up with no mountains visible from the window, today was a day at sea. Generally when you cruise in the summer a sea day is a good excuse to lie on a sunbed and top up your tan, in these climes that is not possible. The decks were therefore clear with virtually everyone camped in the inside spaces. Sylvia and I decided to use today to get pictures of the ship to show our neighbours who will cruising on her in the near future.
Firstly though we decided to take in the morning trivia which was hosted by Mika the Australian assistant cruise director. Now trivia is generally a non-contraversial pastime with the general rule that the quizmaster is always correct even if he’s wrong, however today there was a major rumpus. The question master, from Australia remember, asked the question “Who discovered Australia?”. I was always taught Captain Cook but one group insisted it was Tasman then an even more vocal group insisted it was a Dutchman called Janszoon. Voices were raised and at one stage it looked to be getting quite personal. Extraordinary when you consider that the prizes being played for here were Princess key-rings and pens !!! The advice I gave Mica was to use a reputable website such as www.kensquiz.com for his questions.

The first stage on our ship’s tour was the basketball court where Sylvia demonstrated that she had lost none of her netball shooting skills.

Next we wandered to the atrium, the centrepiece of the ship that stretches over three floors.

In the theatre we were treated to a talk from the singers and dancers from the shows telling us about their training and the production of the shows. This was followed by a question and answer session.

The theatre never usually looks this empty as you normally have to be there about half an hour before the show to get a seat. The alternative to the theatre is club fusion, a show bar located at the rear of the ship. It is here that other cabaret shows and many of the game shows are held.

The late night disco is located right at the back of the ship at deck 18 linked to the lower floors by a moving staircase.

Judging by the average age of the passengers on this, and most other cruises, I reckon that the DJ has about the easiest job on the ship.
The final walk along the deck in the sunshine gave the perfect opportunity for a posing shot in the shorts.

Tomorrow we visit Alusund.

Day 11 - The Lofoten Islands.

I am beginning to run out of superlatives for the views that we wake up to, today’s was once again a wonderful site. The mountains, if anything, were more rugged than those in the fjords but there appeared to be more of a coastal strip and more small fishing villages.

This was the last port in which we needed a tender and the ship moored in the bay overlooking the small fishing village of Gravdal.

The tendering operation was completed smoothly and in no time at all we were ashore on a coach ready for our excursion. The coach first took us through the undersea tunnel to the island of Vestvagoy, one of the six islands that make up the archipelago. The tunnel was built in the late sixties together with the road that links the islands to the mainland. The tunnel features a sonic device to prevent the foxes on one island taking the tunnel to eat the rabbits resident on the other.
The first stop was the historical fishing village of Nusfjord, where fishing has been carried out since 400AD.

The village is now a preserved museum where you are free to wander around the village buildings including the first power station in Norway. However the principle business here is fishing and the drying of the cod to produce Torrfisk or Stockfish. Here some of the fish heads drying, these being used for animal feed or fertilisers.

The colours of the houses signify the status of the occupants with red being the commonest followed by yellow and usually one white house per village. This was general reserved for the village owner.

The village was very picturesque with photo opportunities at every turn, in fact it was difficult to choose the photos for the blog tonight.
These two choose themselves…..

…...

We haven’t seen much evidence of wildlife so far on this trip with the exception of the reindeer at North Cape and the sighting of a porpoise in Flamm. The white tailed eagle with a wingspan of up to 4 metres is apparently common on the islands but unfortunately we did not see any. Our Norwegian wildlife watch today was limited to these beautiful wild flowers….

….although we did see some sheep on the roof of a house. They use them to keep the grass at the right level.
We next made our way to the Lofotr Viking Museum a reconstruction of a viking long house together with a display of artefacts. A local farmer discovered the site of a 1500 year old viking settlement after ploughing the first time with a new modern plough. Using the measurements from the archeological dig a reconstruction of the original long house was made.

Inside the buliding was split into three sections , the stables, the banquet hall and the living area. In each recontructions of various items of Viking paraphernalia were at hand to touch and play with. Sylvia tried her hand at cooking…...

…..but I think it will be a long time before I get my meal!!!

Tomorrow is a sea day as we make our way south out of the Arctic Circle.

Day 10 - Tromso.

There were lots of people on deck at midnight last night, cameras poised ready to capture pictures of the midnight sun. Not to be left out I joined in and this is my best effort.

The photographs do not really show the full effect as it was literally daylight all night. This photo taken from the other side of the ship perhaps gives a better idea of how light it was. This was taken at 12.15 am.

Tromso, our stop for today, is often referred to as the “Gateway to the Arctic” as many explorers such as Amundsen left from here on their adventures. The mountains behind the city were large and threatening, covered with snow they surrounded the conurbation.

Tromso it self is located on an island and is joined to the mainland by the spectacular Bruvegen, a huge 1kilometre bridge that blends nicely with the landscape.

The ship berthed out of town in an industrial complex by the University, a shuttle bus was therefore need to make the journey to the city. (Incidentally Tromso is home to the northernmost University in the world.)
The first stop on our tour was the Domkirke, the only wooden cathedral in Norway which was located right in the centre.

People were arriving for a service as we took photos outside, some in traditional Norwegian dress.

Sylvia went inside to have a look but as the shorts had joined us to day I stayed outside.

In stark contrast the other major church in Tromso is known as the Arctic Cathedral and is a modern structure located on the mainland. Its design features eleven arched triangles of glass, stainless steel and concrete. It makes a truely impressive sight on the hillside overlooking the city.

Due to the limited time in port and its distance from the centre, we didn’t visit this church. Perhaps next time.
Instead we made our way around the harbour area, taking in the colourful quayside buildings…….

..towards the Polar Museum. The museum tells the tale of Norway’s polar explorers through the ages with special reference to the travels of Roald Amundsen. A very interesting visit with many artefacts from the journeys, such as this layout of one of his ships.

Unfortunately the museum also contained a display of hunting and trapping in the Arctic which did contain some graphic scenes of seal clubbing. We went through this section pretty quick.
As this was a Sunday virtually all the shops in the city were closed so after a nice walk around admiring the old buildings, window shopping as we walked, we returned to the ship. Here Sylvia once again picked up her paint brushes trying to capture the grandour of the mountain scenery, while I watched the Austrian Grand Prix.

Tomorrow we will be visiting the Lofoten Islands.

Day 9 - Honningsvag & North Cape.

It’s become normal to wake up to snow capped mountains moving slowly past the window, today was no exception as we sailed into Honningsvag. The town itself is a working town with people employed predominantly in fishing but with two other cruise ships alongside ours today, tourism is important.

Honningsvag is the port that provides access to the North Cape, the most northerly point of mainland Europe. It was here that the trip we had booked today was to take us. The journey took around an hour in the coach but on the way we stopped at an authentic Sami village (built especially for the tourists). Here we met one of these North Norway natives who herd reindeer in this remote and desolate area.

We arrived at North Cape along with around a dozen other coaches so it became quite difficult to get a clear photo of the North Cape monument. However we gave it a good try.(I’ve no idea who the woman next to me is!).

Sylvia decided to pose with nothing but the North Pole behind her.

We visited several exhibtions in the North Cape Hall including one that told the history of the Cape. This included the story of the first tourists (From Thomas Cook) who to get to the Cape had to climb a 200ft cliff. It was slightly easier for us.
By this stage it had started raining so after a little retail therapy at the souvenir shop we returned to the ship.
After a change of clothing,the return of the shorts, we ventured out to view the sights of Honningsvag itself. Following a short photo stop with a troll…..

…we visited a fishing museum.

The museum also contained some fascinating items from the Nazi occupation in the Second World War. Next door to the museum was an Ice Bar where everything including the glasses are made from ice. The shorts enjoyed the experience immensely…….

……although Sylvia decided to wrap up a little.

A final stroll around the quayside ended yet another shore day.

Tomorrow we visit Tromso.