Day 9 (2nd march)
we both slept extremely well and lou woke up full of the 'oh, be joyfulls'. i hoped there wouldn't be a swift decline after breakfast! the restaurant was calm and it was possible to find what you wanted without being elbowed.
we seem to be about half the passenger numbers since turning for the south. several people I had spoken to northbound had said they were only doing the bergen to kerkenes leg. what they will have missed! we have had calm seas, lots more sunshine and stunning scenery (i'm running out of adjectives for the scenery!). the bulk of the passengers seem to be german or norwegian now with a bunch of americans and japanese travelling with 'the vantage group'. they receive messages to go to their 'happy meeting' NOW!'. their leader is fred, a rather shambolic norwegian, and they all have dog tags on long lanyards announcing they are with 'vantage'. god forbid, we breathe, each time a summons comes over for them!
at risoyhamn we stood on the deck and watched the boat turn a complete circle so as to come alongside on the port side where the passenger and freight gangways are situated. we had been in a narrow channel up to this point and watched, fascinated, as the captain took us between very close posts. a lot of 'left hand down a bit' went on, only, in this case, right hand! :)
we spent the rest of the morning gazing enraptured at the passing scenes; me in the panoramic lounge (warm) and lou out on the open decks (cold). at one point we sailed down a channel dredged for the purpose between low skerries and buoys covered with perching birds. Our progress was necessarily slow and stately!
after lunch it was a stop at stokmarknes where hurtigruten have their museum.
after tramping up the main street to find a cashpoint it was back to the museum to muse on the style of the earlier boats (no stabilizers!) and their antique décor; a fireplace in the cabin? card and magnet purchased it was back to the boat and a rest! :)
around five in the coming dusk, it was the raftsundet sound and its cliffs that rose around us. you could hear a pin drop, for once, in the upstairs lounge.
part way down the captain stopped and turned the boat, nose first, into the opening of the trollfjord, an extremely narrow piece of water that runs between extremely high cliffs and is not navigable in the spring due to snow and rock falls. we were there for quite a while as everyone took photos and wondered how on earth a ship as big as ours could possible navigate into that tiny space and find enough room at the other end to effect a three point turn to come back out! we were told that in the summer it is possible; an invitation to book at once! :)
at svolvaer I just caught sight of the cod drying racks as we came into port. sadly, we have only visited this major port (major is a very relative term up here!) in the dark so have missed what is meant to be a pretty place. lou elected to go off and look for apple juice, another recent addiction, he has drunk the cafe dry of their limited stock! i went to the little, private war museum we had noted the last time we had stopped here during our constitutional. my museum was quirky and run by a very proud chap who pointed out things he was particularly fond of.
i found a magazine cover that was printed four days before lou was born with a satirical cartoon of hitler trying to get quisling, the norwegian nazi governor, to stand on his own two feet. the owner was imprisoned soon after publication.
i was taken by a photo of german prisoners of war being herded onto boats. one was of two young boys who looked as if they hadn't even started to shave. with their eyes downcast i wondered if they were bound for the uk prison camps or to russia to work and, possibly, die building stalin's gulags.
i decided i couldn't bear to have any more reminders of the evil that had been visited on this beautiful and wild country and went back outside to the present day. assuming lou was back on board i trudged across the virgin snow for a few more photos of a statue (check out who later!) and went back to the ship.
with so few we had been offered a single sitting for dinner with open seating but we all reunited (sheila has been suffering with her cold and lou and I had skipped the occasional meal) on 'our' table, number 38, and a lovely, lighter meal was served. afterwards lou went out on 'lights watch' and did find some sort of activity going on but it was a strange, smudgy and reluctant affair. we were now crossing the open water away from the lofoten islands and towards the mainland but such a change from last time, just a gentle rise and fall! i sorted the last load of washing for the next day before we start to think about packing...sniff!
we seem to be about half the passenger numbers since turning for the south. several people I had spoken to northbound had said they were only doing the bergen to kerkenes leg. what they will have missed! we have had calm seas, lots more sunshine and stunning scenery (i'm running out of adjectives for the scenery!). the bulk of the passengers seem to be german or norwegian now with a bunch of americans and japanese travelling with 'the vantage group'. they receive messages to go to their 'happy meeting' NOW!'. their leader is fred, a rather shambolic norwegian, and they all have dog tags on long lanyards announcing they are with 'vantage'. god forbid, we breathe, each time a summons comes over for them!
at risoyhamn we stood on the deck and watched the boat turn a complete circle so as to come alongside on the port side where the passenger and freight gangways are situated. we had been in a narrow channel up to this point and watched, fascinated, as the captain took us between very close posts. a lot of 'left hand down a bit' went on, only, in this case, right hand! :)
we spent the rest of the morning gazing enraptured at the passing scenes; me in the panoramic lounge (warm) and lou out on the open decks (cold). at one point we sailed down a channel dredged for the purpose between low skerries and buoys covered with perching birds. Our progress was necessarily slow and stately!
after lunch it was a stop at stokmarknes where hurtigruten have their museum.
after tramping up the main street to find a cashpoint it was back to the museum to muse on the style of the earlier boats (no stabilizers!) and their antique décor; a fireplace in the cabin? card and magnet purchased it was back to the boat and a rest! :)
around five in the coming dusk, it was the raftsundet sound and its cliffs that rose around us. you could hear a pin drop, for once, in the upstairs lounge.
part way down the captain stopped and turned the boat, nose first, into the opening of the trollfjord, an extremely narrow piece of water that runs between extremely high cliffs and is not navigable in the spring due to snow and rock falls. we were there for quite a while as everyone took photos and wondered how on earth a ship as big as ours could possible navigate into that tiny space and find enough room at the other end to effect a three point turn to come back out! we were told that in the summer it is possible; an invitation to book at once! :)
at svolvaer I just caught sight of the cod drying racks as we came into port. sadly, we have only visited this major port (major is a very relative term up here!) in the dark so have missed what is meant to be a pretty place. lou elected to go off and look for apple juice, another recent addiction, he has drunk the cafe dry of their limited stock! i went to the little, private war museum we had noted the last time we had stopped here during our constitutional. my museum was quirky and run by a very proud chap who pointed out things he was particularly fond of.
i found a magazine cover that was printed four days before lou was born with a satirical cartoon of hitler trying to get quisling, the norwegian nazi governor, to stand on his own two feet. the owner was imprisoned soon after publication.
i was taken by a photo of german prisoners of war being herded onto boats. one was of two young boys who looked as if they hadn't even started to shave. with their eyes downcast i wondered if they were bound for the uk prison camps or to russia to work and, possibly, die building stalin's gulags.
i decided i couldn't bear to have any more reminders of the evil that had been visited on this beautiful and wild country and went back outside to the present day. assuming lou was back on board i trudged across the virgin snow for a few more photos of a statue (check out who later!) and went back to the ship.
with so few we had been offered a single sitting for dinner with open seating but we all reunited (sheila has been suffering with her cold and lou and I had skipped the occasional meal) on 'our' table, number 38, and a lovely, lighter meal was served. afterwards lou went out on 'lights watch' and did find some sort of activity going on but it was a strange, smudgy and reluctant affair. we were now crossing the open water away from the lofoten islands and towards the mainland but such a change from last time, just a gentle rise and fall! i sorted the last load of washing for the next day before we start to think about packing...sniff!
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