what a busy day and what a long one! up early to make sure we were outside and watching, cameras at the ready, for the globe symbol of the line of the arctic circle on its rocky 'skerry'. it was a cold and gloomy morning and we passed it at around 7.15am.
photos taken it was back into the warm for breakfast. at 10 o'clock it was up to deck 7 for the ceremony with king neptune for all those whose first time it was. we lined up for what i had been led to believe (someone's blog) would be three ice cubes down the back of the collar. i got seven and a ladle full of ice water.
'at least they could have used a slotted spoon' i muttered to lou afterwards! a nip of some local liqueur was offered and, having drunk it, i rushed straight down to our cabin to divest myself of soaking fleece, t-shirt and jeans. as i got to the bottom layers a further ice cube fell out of my pants! back up top i discovered lou had been baptised too after saying he wouldn't! so no picture of his agonised face! :)
we had our photo taken with king neptune, some long suffering crew member!
An early lunch as we were docking in bodo at 12.30. once there we trudged against the driving rain and wind into a not very prepossessing town. Most of the coastal villages and towns had been bombed to pieces during the last war so little remains of any earlier architecture in some of them. We found a shopping centre and wandered around it trying to warm up. I found a scarf shop (can I ever resist?) which also sold wallets. Lou has needed to replace the one he had stolen last september so we left there with a scarf (me), a wallet (another birthday pres for lou) and a bag of pick 'n mix which we've become addicted to since finding it in bergen! To give bodo its due we walked up to the 'centrum' and took a photo of the church
back on the dock it was a photo of me and the whole length, just, of our ship, ms nordkapp.
as we came on board there was a sign on the reception desk saying we might not stop at samstund or svolvaer due to bad weather. regular announcements warned us of 'movement' as we crossed over to the lofoten islands but to us it was like a choppy channel crossing. The possibility of going into the trollfjorden was denied due to the bad weather as well. during dinner we heard the ship docking at stamsund so guessed things were ok although lou said the wind on the port side (facing the north sea) of the ship was horrendous when he had been out for a photo opportunity! later, from the panorama lounge on deck seven, we watched the captain make four or five attempts to come alongside at svolvaer. we felt like breaking into applause when he finally made it! :) lou decided we needed fresh air! so we girded ourselves for the outdoors. We walked to the end of the main street, the dock seeming to form part of it, and then straight back! in the cabin there was no time to relax as there were fishcakes and a 'magic drink' being served on the top deck – outside - at 11 o'clock. We had been 'persuaded' to buy a troll mug for the magic drink! As we left the harbour the ship swayed and lurched and anything not tied down rolled or slid to the port side. The tour director came over the tannoy and told us to sit tight and hang on as it would soon calm down, in five to ten minutes. I began to feel claustrophobic and so stood looking out of our square porthole and watched the white horses and the huge plumes of spray just below us as the ship hit the waves coming at us at right angles. Scary but exciting!
It did calm down as we entered another fjord and up we went for our fishcakes (yuk) and the drink (odd flavour). Not many people turned out for it! Lou ate my fishcake and the drink went down the cabin sink. After all that we were very glad to fall into bed knowing there was no need for an early start today.
ps please excuse quality of photos. lou is slow to upload his much better ones and i am too impatient to wait especially as the blog changes the date if we add them later (why?) so a rubbish photo of the arctic symbol but at least it proves 'we was there!'
photos taken it was back into the warm for breakfast. at 10 o'clock it was up to deck 7 for the ceremony with king neptune for all those whose first time it was. we lined up for what i had been led to believe (someone's blog) would be three ice cubes down the back of the collar. i got seven and a ladle full of ice water.
'at least they could have used a slotted spoon' i muttered to lou afterwards! a nip of some local liqueur was offered and, having drunk it, i rushed straight down to our cabin to divest myself of soaking fleece, t-shirt and jeans. as i got to the bottom layers a further ice cube fell out of my pants! back up top i discovered lou had been baptised too after saying he wouldn't! so no picture of his agonised face! :)
we had our photo taken with king neptune, some long suffering crew member!
An early lunch as we were docking in bodo at 12.30. once there we trudged against the driving rain and wind into a not very prepossessing town. Most of the coastal villages and towns had been bombed to pieces during the last war so little remains of any earlier architecture in some of them. We found a shopping centre and wandered around it trying to warm up. I found a scarf shop (can I ever resist?) which also sold wallets. Lou has needed to replace the one he had stolen last september so we left there with a scarf (me), a wallet (another birthday pres for lou) and a bag of pick 'n mix which we've become addicted to since finding it in bergen! To give bodo its due we walked up to the 'centrum' and took a photo of the church
back on the dock it was a photo of me and the whole length, just, of our ship, ms nordkapp.
as we came on board there was a sign on the reception desk saying we might not stop at samstund or svolvaer due to bad weather. regular announcements warned us of 'movement' as we crossed over to the lofoten islands but to us it was like a choppy channel crossing. The possibility of going into the trollfjorden was denied due to the bad weather as well. during dinner we heard the ship docking at stamsund so guessed things were ok although lou said the wind on the port side (facing the north sea) of the ship was horrendous when he had been out for a photo opportunity! later, from the panorama lounge on deck seven, we watched the captain make four or five attempts to come alongside at svolvaer. we felt like breaking into applause when he finally made it! :) lou decided we needed fresh air! so we girded ourselves for the outdoors. We walked to the end of the main street, the dock seeming to form part of it, and then straight back! in the cabin there was no time to relax as there were fishcakes and a 'magic drink' being served on the top deck – outside - at 11 o'clock. We had been 'persuaded' to buy a troll mug for the magic drink! As we left the harbour the ship swayed and lurched and anything not tied down rolled or slid to the port side. The tour director came over the tannoy and told us to sit tight and hang on as it would soon calm down, in five to ten minutes. I began to feel claustrophobic and so stood looking out of our square porthole and watched the white horses and the huge plumes of spray just below us as the ship hit the waves coming at us at right angles. Scary but exciting!
It did calm down as we entered another fjord and up we went for our fishcakes (yuk) and the drink (odd flavour). Not many people turned out for it! Lou ate my fishcake and the drink went down the cabin sink. After all that we were very glad to fall into bed knowing there was no need for an early start today.
ps please excuse quality of photos. lou is slow to upload his much better ones and i am too impatient to wait especially as the blog changes the date if we add them later (why?) so a rubbish photo of the arctic symbol but at least it proves 'we was there!'
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