Our cruise was the Northern Lights cruise as there was a guarantee that you would see the northern lights on your trip. It's a 12 days trip from Bergen to Kirkenes and back again with lots of activities and, of course, lots of staring at the night sky for the Aurora Borealis. The main thing to remember is that this isn't like a normal cruise with all the entertainment that is apparently usually expected (but who needs that with the scenery you get) and is more about getting to see a bit more of Norway. The ships are also still working ships, ferrying mail and locals from one port to another, so expect a lot of stopping but with not a lot of time at each port and many of them will be visited at night while you sleep. However, I actually preferred this and think that the usual type of cruises would be too much for me.
And now for the actual trip.
Day 1 was actually mainly a travel day with us flying from Bristol to Bergen where our ship (the MS Nordlys) was traveling from. And yes I did say fly, unfortunately. It's not a great aspect of the trip but I am going to work on my carbon footprint the rest of the year to counter act that. When we landed in Bergen there was snow everywhere, even on the runway, and we were told on the coach to the ship that this was very usual for Bergen as the Gulf Stream also gives them the mild temperatures we get in the UK. Made me very glad I had brought all of the thermals I did as it was looking like Norway was also experiencing a cold snap. Once the bags were on the coach we didn't have to worry about them as they magically appeared at our room, and then it was just sorting out our belongings, a buffet dinner, and watching the health and safety video before just relaxing. The first night on
the cruise definitely lets you know that this is a working ship and I would definitely recommend ear plugs if you're on the lower two desks - lots of engine noise. I'm not normally someone who can deal with ear plugs, but got used to them.
During Day 2 we travelled from Florø to Kristiansund. The longest stop for us was at Ålesund, which is a beautiful town to walk around. In the early 20th century there was a large fire which burnt down almost all the wooden buildings and everything was then rebuilt from scratch with the help of Kaiser Wilhelm (slightly ironically) who took vacations in the area. Because of this almost all the buildings are in an Art Nouveau style that was popular at the time, with a Scandi twist.
Snow boots were definitely needed but it wasn't as cold as we were expecting and I had to remove some layers pretty quickly. One thing I definitely noticed during the whole trip was that even though it's cold, it's a dry cold and not the damp cold I'm used to here in Britain, so you don't need to layer up quite as much as you would otherwise expect.
Tonight we ate at the set table we had been given and met the six other people we would be spending the next nine dinners with. Three of us (myself included) had eating requirements and we think that's why we were placed together, but I have to say we were very lucky with the people they choose to put us with who were a great laugh. We probably became the noisy table with all the laughing we did, but we've made some great friends which we plan to keep in touch with for a very long time.
Day 3 saw us travelling from Trondheim to Rørvik. We had a particularly long stay at Trondheim (about six hours) and that allowed us to properly explore the town. My Mum particularly wanted to see the cathedral as last time she was here she had damaged her knee and was in a lot of pain, so we did a walking route recommended on a map provided on the cruise ship.
As it was Sunday none of the shops were open but that did mean we were able to amble around with ease, but also meant we only had around 20 minutes to check out the cathedral before the next service.
Firstly we passed the statue of Olav Tryggsason, the viking King founder of Trondheim in the 900s. Behind his foot is the head of a slave called Kark who murdered his master (and Olav's enemy who he had put a bounty on) King Haakon in the hopes of getting the reward. However, this was not allowed for slave's to Olav cut off his head as well and put them together on stakes - lovely.
The cathedral was very beautiful and the vaulted ceilings were absolutely amazing, the acoustics must be great. The stain glass windows were also beautiful and it was interesting to see the Norse carvings on the structure similar to the Celtic ones we have in our churches here. You're not allowed to take any photos inside the cathedral so you'll just have to take my word for it........or go yourself.
We then carried around to the Old Bridge with the red wooden structure and which has a bike lift we couldn't see because it was covered in snow. From there you get a great view of The Wharves made up of wooden buildings right up against the river's edge.
Then we took a left and ended up in the Bakklandet area, which is a place worth travelling to Trondheim to see in it's own right. It must be irritating having so many people wonder past your home taking photos, but it is a lovely little section and, at this time of year, very quiet.
The 'Point of Interest' (a Hurtigruten Cruise term) for today was the Munkholmen island opposite Trondheim which has been used since Viking times (mainly for executions and to display severed heads - nice) and has been a monastery and a prison. You can actually visit it during the less bitter months, but that wasn't something we were able to do this time.
After dinner we headed up to the open section on desk 7 to look at the sky for the norther lights. Whilst there were some on display they didn't look anything more then just streaks of grey. What was frustrating was that people would say to us 'You could see green colouring just 10 minutes ago'. This just made us more adamant to see them the next time.
Day 4 was a day of not a lot of sleep as we travelled from Brønnøysund to Svolvӕr. We got a call at around 2.00 am telling us that the northern lights had been spotted, so we quickly put all our warm clothing on and rushed upstairs. As before, on day 3, we only really saw them as grey, cloud-like features so after a while we headed back to bed.
Then at 7.00 am I dragged myself out of bed to see the globe which marks the crossing over the arctic circle. It was pretty dark and so you couldn't really see it too well (and definitely not get a great photo of it), but I'm glad I made the effort to be conscious when we crossed over.
Later at 10.00 am we had the ceremony to celebrate this crossing, which included having ice cold water with ice cubes poured down your back. They got some amazing photos of people, but I actually didn't feel that it was as bad as I thought it was going to be and the cloudberry liquor more then made up for it.
My first expedition (this is the word the cruise uses, but I'm not entirely sure any of the trips can really be called that. Still, it feels it feel like you're doing something exciting) was to go on an Arctic Coastal Walk at Bodø. Bodø was an interesting place in itself, though not pretty, based on the fact that pretty much all of the buildings are from the 1950s after the town was destroyed during WWII during a Luftwaffe attack.
However, the coastal walk was stunningly beautiful, especially in the cold and snowy setting. The weather was particularly cold on this trip as the wind blowing in dropped the temperature by about 6 degrees when it was already -10. Even the lovely ladies taking us on the guided walk said that this was much colder then expected with temperatures using being -2 degrees Celsius for this time of year.
They talked about the geology of the land, the cold coral reef just off the shore (bits of which get washed up during storms and end up on the beach to be ground down into sand), Doggerland and the flood that covered it, and of course the Vikings as a few burials had been found in this area. Very cold but worth it.
We then decided to go to our first 'Gathering with the Expedition Team', which was very informative and incredibly funny, and then watch the documentary they were putting on about the Norther Lights before I headed off for my second excursion which was to the Lofotpils Brewery in Svolvӕr. This is a small, family started and run business, and the tour didn't take very long but was packed full of information and worth it.
We also got to try a number of the beers they produced, which seems to basically be one of each style of beer, and my favourites were definitely the Pilsner and the IPA. Unfortunately we couldn't buy any as it was after 8.00 pm, but if you're ever in that area I would see about getting a tour if I was you.
The last call of the day was a trip up Raftsundet to look at the Trollfjorden fjord, a very skinny fjord that they aren't able to travel up this time of year due to the dangers of avalanche and rock falls. However, they did shine quite a strong light down the fjord to allow us to attempt to look down it as best we could. During this time the expedition team talked us through some of the struggles the fishermen fishing in this location had, not with the fish which were apparently abundant, but with other people. Such as a fight that took place between traditional fishermen and those with steam powered boats at the mouth of the fjord.
We also got to try some berry tea (with or without alcohol) and some of us who weren't vegetarian tried an interesting looking fish cake which looked like it had the same texture as tofu. We did get to keep the enamel mug as well, so that has been added to my collection.
It was cloudy and snowy that night so we knew it was very unlikely we'd see Northern Lights that night or be woken up during the night to see some. I have to say I was kind of glad about that, I needed the sleep.
During Day 2 we travelled from Florø to Kristiansund. The longest stop for us was at Ålesund, which is a beautiful town to walk around. In the early 20th century there was a large fire which burnt down almost all the wooden buildings and everything was then rebuilt from scratch with the help of Kaiser Wilhelm (slightly ironically) who took vacations in the area. Because of this almost all the buildings are in an Art Nouveau style that was popular at the time, with a Scandi twist.
Snow boots were definitely needed but it wasn't as cold as we were expecting and I had to remove some layers pretty quickly. One thing I definitely noticed during the whole trip was that even though it's cold, it's a dry cold and not the damp cold I'm used to here in Britain, so you don't need to layer up quite as much as you would otherwise expect.
Tonight we ate at the set table we had been given and met the six other people we would be spending the next nine dinners with. Three of us (myself included) had eating requirements and we think that's why we were placed together, but I have to say we were very lucky with the people they choose to put us with who were a great laugh. We probably became the noisy table with all the laughing we did, but we've made some great friends which we plan to keep in touch with for a very long time.
Day 3 saw us travelling from Trondheim to Rørvik. We had a particularly long stay at Trondheim (about six hours) and that allowed us to properly explore the town. My Mum particularly wanted to see the cathedral as last time she was here she had damaged her knee and was in a lot of pain, so we did a walking route recommended on a map provided on the cruise ship.
As it was Sunday none of the shops were open but that did mean we were able to amble around with ease, but also meant we only had around 20 minutes to check out the cathedral before the next service.
Firstly we passed the statue of Olav Tryggsason, the viking King founder of Trondheim in the 900s. Behind his foot is the head of a slave called Kark who murdered his master (and Olav's enemy who he had put a bounty on) King Haakon in the hopes of getting the reward. However, this was not allowed for slave's to Olav cut off his head as well and put them together on stakes - lovely.
The cathedral was very beautiful and the vaulted ceilings were absolutely amazing, the acoustics must be great. The stain glass windows were also beautiful and it was interesting to see the Norse carvings on the structure similar to the Celtic ones we have in our churches here. You're not allowed to take any photos inside the cathedral so you'll just have to take my word for it........or go yourself.
We then carried around to the Old Bridge with the red wooden structure and which has a bike lift we couldn't see because it was covered in snow. From there you get a great view of The Wharves made up of wooden buildings right up against the river's edge.
Then we took a left and ended up in the Bakklandet area, which is a place worth travelling to Trondheim to see in it's own right. It must be irritating having so many people wonder past your home taking photos, but it is a lovely little section and, at this time of year, very quiet.
The 'Point of Interest' (a Hurtigruten Cruise term) for today was the Munkholmen island opposite Trondheim which has been used since Viking times (mainly for executions and to display severed heads - nice) and has been a monastery and a prison. You can actually visit it during the less bitter months, but that wasn't something we were able to do this time.
After dinner we headed up to the open section on desk 7 to look at the sky for the norther lights. Whilst there were some on display they didn't look anything more then just streaks of grey. What was frustrating was that people would say to us 'You could see green colouring just 10 minutes ago'. This just made us more adamant to see them the next time.
Day 4 was a day of not a lot of sleep as we travelled from Brønnøysund to Svolvӕr. We got a call at around 2.00 am telling us that the northern lights had been spotted, so we quickly put all our warm clothing on and rushed upstairs. As before, on day 3, we only really saw them as grey, cloud-like features so after a while we headed back to bed.
Then at 7.00 am I dragged myself out of bed to see the globe which marks the crossing over the arctic circle. It was pretty dark and so you couldn't really see it too well (and definitely not get a great photo of it), but I'm glad I made the effort to be conscious when we crossed over.
Later at 10.00 am we had the ceremony to celebrate this crossing, which included having ice cold water with ice cubes poured down your back. They got some amazing photos of people, but I actually didn't feel that it was as bad as I thought it was going to be and the cloudberry liquor more then made up for it.
My first expedition (this is the word the cruise uses, but I'm not entirely sure any of the trips can really be called that. Still, it feels it feel like you're doing something exciting) was to go on an Arctic Coastal Walk at Bodø. Bodø was an interesting place in itself, though not pretty, based on the fact that pretty much all of the buildings are from the 1950s after the town was destroyed during WWII during a Luftwaffe attack.
However, the coastal walk was stunningly beautiful, especially in the cold and snowy setting. The weather was particularly cold on this trip as the wind blowing in dropped the temperature by about 6 degrees when it was already -10. Even the lovely ladies taking us on the guided walk said that this was much colder then expected with temperatures using being -2 degrees Celsius for this time of year.
They talked about the geology of the land, the cold coral reef just off the shore (bits of which get washed up during storms and end up on the beach to be ground down into sand), Doggerland and the flood that covered it, and of course the Vikings as a few burials had been found in this area. Very cold but worth it.
We then decided to go to our first 'Gathering with the Expedition Team', which was very informative and incredibly funny, and then watch the documentary they were putting on about the Norther Lights before I headed off for my second excursion which was to the Lofotpils Brewery in Svolvӕr. This is a small, family started and run business, and the tour didn't take very long but was packed full of information and worth it.
We also got to try a number of the beers they produced, which seems to basically be one of each style of beer, and my favourites were definitely the Pilsner and the IPA. Unfortunately we couldn't buy any as it was after 8.00 pm, but if you're ever in that area I would see about getting a tour if I was you.
The last call of the day was a trip up Raftsundet to look at the Trollfjorden fjord, a very skinny fjord that they aren't able to travel up this time of year due to the dangers of avalanche and rock falls. However, they did shine quite a strong light down the fjord to allow us to attempt to look down it as best we could. During this time the expedition team talked us through some of the struggles the fishermen fishing in this location had, not with the fish which were apparently abundant, but with other people. Such as a fight that took place between traditional fishermen and those with steam powered boats at the mouth of the fjord.
We also got to try some berry tea (with or without alcohol) and some of us who weren't vegetarian tried an interesting looking fish cake which looked like it had the same texture as tofu. We did get to keep the enamel mug as well, so that has been added to my collection.
It was cloudy and snowy that night so we knew it was very unlikely we'd see Northern Lights that night or be woken up during the night to see some. I have to say I was kind of glad about that, I needed the sleep.
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