Search for the Northern Lights Cruise 9th-25th February 2013 (Part Four)
Feb 19th Our First Day at Sea Heading Back South
The captain took the ship on a detour so that we could do some sightseeing. He took the ship up a narrow Fjord as far as he could so that we could see the amazing landscape and an area called The Troll Fjord. He wanted to take us up the Troll Fjord, but because of the risk of falling rocks we weren’t allowed to enter.
As far as the eye could see for hour after hour we were surrounded by mountain ranges covered in snow. This landscape was so wild and so breathtaking we could have been at the North Pole, or even more so, the Antarctica. Yet there was still houses here. I was told that a great deal of Norwegians had holiday homes, which would be mostly used in the summer.
We decided to walk a mile around the deck with no coat on to burn some calories. As I walked I looked up at the moon and I swear it was blue. I don’t know if it was anything to do with the air, which had never smelt so clean, or the light so far North, but either way it was a rare phenomenon.
That night we saw some spectacular lights. There were massive clouds of aurora which thinned into strips then rippled rapidly across the sky and at long last I managed to get some photographs. Hooray!
Feb 20th Our Second Day at Sea Heading South
We had been so lucky with the weather that we were shocked to wake up to clouds.
The landscape is still snowy, but not as snowy as it has been. There are also more trees. I hadn’t realised how much I had missed the trees until I saw them again. My natural passions, snow, mountains and trees; heaven.
We had a quiet day, did another walk around the ship with no coat on (it clears the cobwebs) and I caught up on some writing.
Dad thought he saw a submarine (we weren’t too far from the Russian border), but they have lots of little islands with lighthouses on and someone said it was probably one of them.
After dinner we decided to do some laundry, the ship had a wonderful laundry room, so it was Cinderella, the ball is over.
Feb 21st: Kristiansund Our Second Last Port
We arrived in Kristiansund at 7.30 this morning. It was a very hilly town with houses, in some cases, built on stilts.
We went out on a tour at 1.30. It was a walking tour which included the Blacksmith and Coffee Roaster.
As we passed the harbour the guide told us how the area was so rocky they couldn’t grow anything. Because of this they used to trade soil for fish. Italian vessels used to come loaded with soil and leave loaded with fish ad in doing so the local people could begin to grow carrots and potatoes, which became part of their staple diet.
The Blacksmith told us how important the smithy was for the town because of the ship building and said how young boys would start in the trade the moment they left school.
At the Coffee House they said coffee was introduced because there had been a serious alcohol problem in the region. This was a way of persuading the populous onto the healthier beverage. Now Norway is the 2nd highest coffee consumer in the world, America is the 24th and the UK 44th.
We walked back to the ship and set sail soon after.
It was always exciting as the ship was preparing to leave the harbour, so we were up on deck to watch the preparations.
As we were moving away from the dock they sounded the horn and there came a response we didn’t expect from the hills surrounding the town; we got a three gun salute from a cannon nestled in the trees.
As we moved up the river, people who lived in the apartments on the bank were outside on their balconies waving their hands and waving flags. It was a fantastic sight; almost everyone was out. It really made you feel welcome and made you realise what wonderful people they were.
It is now full steam ahead to get to Bergen on time tomorrow.
Next week, Bergen and homeward bound.
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