Bounder, of Adventure!

Sunday 29^th September.  

Spent our first night on board the MS Midnatsol last night and the buffet dinner was fantastic. Internet here is painfully slow but at least there is some.

Yesterday, we woke up in Bergen and had breakfast our hotel which was included in the price. It was very strange to walk into the dining area and not be pounced on by staff wanting to know our room number to ensure no-one was taking advantage. We spoke to a staff member who said, “just eat”. So we did, ‘just eat’. Surprisingly, there was a toaster, there’s not one on the ship, and breakfast was your typical Scandanavian fare, with the added bonus of bacon and fried eggs as well as baked beans. We were able to package up a lunch box for 65NOK, as much meat and cheese etc as you could wrap in the provided paper, and a small plastic bag to add other stuff like bread and fruit. Bargain! We ate that later on a bench in Bryggen. I forgot to mention earlier something about how they make the beds here. They fold 2 single bed doonas in thirds lengthways and run them down the bed and throw a large bedcover over the bottom half. When we opened the door to our hotel room, I thought there were people already in the bed!! LMAO. It was like sleeping in a cloud, the bed was so soft and the pillows too. The doona was stitched into squares and each square was packed full of down, they were all puffed up. I don’t like sleeping under just a doona, I get too hot and much prefer a top sheet on  my bed, but that’s not the European way it seems. When in Rome ……..

It was so tempting to go back up Mt Floyen, the weather was not as good as yesterday, cooler and cloudy, still no rain, but we had other things to do. We packed up and checked out, leaving our bags at the hotel until it was time to go to the Hurtigruten Terminal. A larger market had appeared outside our hotel, just begging to be explored. I would have loved to buy a Norwegian wool beanie, but I think I’d have needed a bank loan. I definitely would have needed one for the knitted jacket I saw later in a boutique. That one worked out to be a little under $700 AU! The tourist information office is across the road from where we stayed, the Scandic Strand. It has been built in the ugliest building you could possibly imagine, they must have run a competition, it looks like it was based on a shipping container, all tinted glass and coloured metal uprights all along the side. Probably not all that bad in the right place, but amongst the traditional buildings around the waterfront, it’s totally wrong. Anyway, there was an area in the Bergen brochure we picked up called ‘Art Street’, no more information than that, so I went to the Tourist info to find out where it was. I was expecting some sort of public street art type area but apparently it’s the area down one side of the lake in town where the art galleries are. If they’d had free entry, we might have gone in, but being fairly well overloaded with art already, we didn’t see the point in paying for something we were a bit iffy about doing. Probably find out later that some really famous piece was in there and regret not going in, but, that’s how it goes. It was a nice walk anyway.

We got back to the hotel to get our bags and there was an American man and his Dad waiting for the Hurtigruten shuttle bus to the terminal so we waited with them and had a chat. They’re from near Seattle, about 45 mins from the Canadian border.  We also spoke to a man who got off the MS Lofoten the day before and he said they saw the Northern Lights 3 times during their trip. The shuttle bus was running late and we wondered if we might have to catch a cab, but it eventually arrived and it was a full-on tourist coach, very plush. After a zig-zaggy lap around town collecting more passengers as we went, we arrived at the terminal. Being delayed had advantages, most of the crowd had already gone through the check-in process and were on board. Bag check was similar to an airport, cabin door keycards were issued along with an information pack. We have been assigned to table 12 at the first sitting for dinner, hope we get along with the other couple at our table as we’re stuck with them for dinner the rest of the cruise. The safety lecture was very well organised. There is a room where we were ushered in and seated and a woman gave the lecture in 2 or 3 different languages, alongside a video of the how and whys. This is not just lifejacket territory, this is thermal suit and lifejacket territory! If we strike trouble, let’s hope there’s time for all the mucking around putting a jumpsuit on with built-in gloves, then donning the lifejacket. There’s baby sized ones too but I’m sure that by the time you got the baby fitted, he would be an orphan!

Reminders onboard in case you forget

We had an hour to kill between boarding and cabins being available so we took up a position in the forward lounge on the top deck. This spot is going to be very popular.

We bought a bottle of wine last night at dinner and we’re going to see how many nights we can make it last. It’s the most we’ve ever paid for a bottle and it’s the Hurtigruten house wine, but at 345NOK, we won’t be buying too many!

Breakfast was very good this morning, buffet style, as it will be for the length of the journey and lunch was another buffet. Prawns, mussels and smoked salmon seem to be standard offerings, so can’t complain about that. It’s a very protein based diet, there was some pasta at lunch and bread rolls, and apart from a bit of salad and a stir-fry veggie dish, the rest was fish or cold cuts. And big slabs of pate!! Yum!! Haven’t hit that yet, but it looks pretty good. Maybe tomorrow’s lunch will be pate and crackers……………..

We left Bergen last night around 8pm and it was dark by then so we didn’t bother going out on deck. It was very smooth running as we picked our way through the hundreds of small islands that litter the coast around these parts, but by bedtime the boat had picked up a bit of a roll, but only barely. Today, it’s been smooth again and apart from the sound of the motor changing speed and sometimes a turn taken on 2 wheels, you wouldn’t know you were on a ship.

We are currently parked in the Hjorundfjord, been here since around 10.30 this morning, chugging up and dropping people ashore by tender for the first of many excursions the line has arranged in the hope of parting people from their Kroner.

There was also an option to tender ashore for a bit of a look-see but it has been drizzly rain since we woke up and I’m not going out and getting wet just now. My cold has developed into a hacking cough and I’m sure I disturbed our neighbours early this morning. Going to try to track down some cough medicine tomorrow in Trondheim where there is a big town and a 3 hour stop. We had a 45 min stop in Alesund this morning but it would have been too early for any shops to be open.

I will now read to you some riveting local information, as all good tour guides do.

At 0200 we arrived in Floro and departed at 0215. At 0415 we arrived in Maloy, one of the biggest fishing ports in Norway. Up to 200,000 tonnes of fish are landed here every year. Departed at 0430. At 0500 we passed the southbound MS Vesteralen, another Hurtigruten ship. 0515 see us commence the crossing of the Stadhavet, one of the many open stretches of sea that we will cross. This will take about 2 hours. Slept through all that. 0845 – 0930, arrival and departure, Alesund. 11.30 – 1500 at anchor in Hjorundfjord, one of Norway’s most beautiful fjords.

It really is something to see. The mountains rise out of the fjord with little or no usable land at the base, and they still have snow on them from, plus a light dusting of new powder. I can see why the Norwegian Blue was ‘pining for the fee-jords’!! The excursion went to the dock at Urke, for those with a very good Norwegian map.

Urke

green roof

Then, blah, blah, blah, back to Alesund for another quick stop and later tonight, at 2120, we will pass the southbound MS Nordkapp, who will probably take our spot in this amazing fjord tomorrow. After that exciting passing (??) we will dock for a whole hour at Molde, internationally known for the annual jazz festival and for the roses that bloom here in summer. But, we’ll be in bed by then. There’s a couple more ports through the night, as there was last night, but I didn’t hear a thing. We’re on the dock level of the ship but maybe they’ve been portside docks and we’re starboard. Who knows?? It’s 3pm and I’ve just heard the anchor I think, so we must be just about due to head off. Might pop my head outside and see if the rain has gone. We’ve taken photos through the windows, but outside would be better.

Well the rain left us temporarily, I managed to get some nice shots before the drizzle returned and I made a hasty retreat indoors.

I sat back in the same spot we had been on the way into the fjord. This time I’ll see the other side. Good choice as it turned out, there were several pods of small whales off the starboard side. There was an announcement over the P.A. but after we’d passed that lot, there were many more. Very special. Before we know it, it’ll be time to eat again. Some things are the same, no matter who you cruise with. I’m very impressed with this ship. It’s not terribly big, but it’s more modern than I expected, I’ll have to take some photos of different areas, especially the dining room. It’s certainly not the Arctic explorer that I imagined.

I can see a very large bridge off in the distance. Must be somewhere important and busy. Car ferries are the way to go up in the fjord.

car ferry