The land of Iceland, Norwegian Coastal Cruise and a touch of Germany!

[ADLhighflyer]

Upon arrival in Flåm, there was only 45mins between the Fjord cruise arriving and the Flåm Railway journey commencing. So with a quick wander around the town including the mandatory stop at the local bakery, I boarded another of the worlds scenic railway journey’s from Flåm to the nearby town of Myrdal. Unfortunately for my journey, the constant rain was a bit of a dampener but I can only imagine how amazing this would be in the summertime. Definitely something to hopefully come back to and try again one day.



Upon arrival in Myrdal at about 3pm, the light was fading fast and then hopped aboard a local train service back into Voss for the night. Arriving back about 4pm, I thought I’d have a quick look around the shops, but found most had already closed for the night! Oh well, something to do tomorrow!

Headed in for dinner, and found I was the only one in the dining room this time! Regardless, the meal again was absolutely fantastic and enjoyed very nicely with another Norwegian beer.

The next morning, I had a few hours spare before my train at 2pm so I headed into town for a bit of a look. Weather again was fairly overcast with on/off rain – but hey, this is Norway! Naturally, I included a visit to a local bakery (these places are awesome!) before eventually boarding my train to Bergen about 2pm, arriving about 90mins later.

 

[ADLhighflyer]

Making the most of my short time in Bergen, I headed back out to explore what I could and in typical style in Bergen – it was raining. Apparently, Bergen has on average 200+ days of rain a year. So I’m guessing if you have 2+ days without rain, you must be a local! I wandered down to the waterfront of Bryggen to see the famous houses, but with the constant wet weather was happy to have a night in so found an expensive take-away pizza that I struggled to finish.


The next day, I again went out and about having a good look around Bergen. First stop (and whilst the weather was kind!) was to travel on the Bergen Funicular railway, which provided great views over the city. Next stop, I had read about the worlds largest gingerbread town being Bergen so headed off in search of that. I was quite awed by all the various gingerbread houses, objects, locations presented – and even found Donald Trump in gingerbread form!

 

[ADLhighflyer]

On my way back, I was able to spot my next home for 12 days arriving back in Bergen – the mighty MS Polarlys. At this stage, it was raining again so headed back to the hotel to wait for an hour or so before boarding the bus over to the Hurtigruten Terminal.



Coming Up Next: The Hurtigruten Cruise from Bergen to Kirkenes and return!

 

[JessicaTam]

Thoroughly enjoying the TR, ADLhighflyer. Particularly as I was in Bergen last week!

 

[ADLhighflyer]

Thoroughly enjoying the TR, ADLhighflyer. Particularly as I was in Bergen last week!

Glad you like it JessicaTam - writing this TR is bringing all the awesome memories of the trip back!

 

[mstuart681]

I'm enjoying the TR .... Looking forward to the next installment

 

[OZDUCK]

Also thoroughly enjoying the TR - it is only 41 years since I was in Bergen

 

[JessicaTam]

Despite the few people here, the meal was absolutely amazing and went down well with a nice Norwegian beer (which name escapes me at time of writing).

Not Isbjørn by any chance?

 

[SuePa]

Enjoying your TR. Up to this point your trip has been very similar to mine in October, but Bergan was my point of return to Oslo and home, so

I'm very much looking forward to your next instalment, to see what I missed!​

 

[amaroo]

The Memories.... NIANS is the package! Bergen is a stunner, we hit the jackpot with 3 straight days of sunshine back in Jan 16.

 

[ADLhighflyer]

BERGEN – KIRKENES – BERGEN 25/11 – 6/12

It was time to finally board the cruise! Going backwards a bit, there were a few things that determined which cruise and when I would select along with how would I best enjoy it. As I was travelling solo, I wanted to go on one of the expedition cruises which are only operated on select Hurtigruten ships, with MS Polarlys being one of them. Next, I wanted one of the ships that had recently been refurbished in the last 2 years so that I could really enjoy my Hurtigruten experience in modern facilities. Lastly, this had to somehow fit in between my Iceland tour and following trips to the UK and Germany. All this combined, the 12 day cruise commencing on 25th November was decided upon! I also wanted to have a little bit of space and comfort in my room, not knowing how much time I would spent in there so opted for the Arctic Superior room category on Level 5 of the ship. The rooms above this category were the Mini Suite and Suite (both of which I got to see).



More about the MS Polarlys ship here:

MS Polarlys

After boarding, it was straight to the room when they were available from 6pm to sort everything out, and then off to the buffet dinner to meet my fellow passengers for the journey and later the exploring of the ship to see where everything was!

The ship was no-where near as big as your typical cruise liner that docks in Sydney Harbour, hence why the vessel can get into all the small ports of Norway – making the journey even more spectacular.

The original Departure of 10:30pm was amended to a 01:30am departure ex Bergen, so in late evening I decided that I wasn’t going to wait up that long and headed off to bed.

In the morning following breakfast, I took in the scenery passing by. Following Bergen, there were 3 small stops before the first ‘major’ stop in Ålesund where we could all get off the boat to have a look around. Being a Sunday afternoon about 3pm, not much was open apart from your typical Souvenir stores etc!

 

[ADLhighflyer]

Arriving in Ålesund



No excursions were available due to the short time in Ålesund.

 

[Mattg]

Great trip report so far!

 

[kermatu]

Thoroughly enjoying this TR!

 

[wannabeinvestmentbanker]

Echoing the above sentiments. Great TR and making me consider a spontaneous trip to Norway or Iceland. Just wish prices on the ground were a little closer to Spanish prices (writing this from Malaga where I can live off €10 a day easily).

 

[ADLhighflyer]

Not Isbjørn by any chance?

Quite possibly - I did try a few of the Mack Beers

 

[ADLhighflyer]

We departed Ålesund at approx. 1600, with the next major stop being Trondheim with an ETA of 0600 the following morning.



I woke up the following morning and enjoyed a hearty buffet breakfast (and by the end of the cruise, this had no doubt contributed to my increased waistline!) and headed off for my first excursion of the trip – a city tour of Trondheim including a tour of Nidaros Cathedral. Quite fascinating to see inside the Cathedral, but unfortunately no photos were allowed.



Following the tour, I elected to make my own way back to the ship so decided upon walking back through the old part of Trondheim. The colours of the houses reminded me of what I had seen in Bergen only a few days prior.



Departure from Trondheim was approx. midday, so took in the opportunity to enjoy the first of the Head Chef’s presentations on seafood and tried some of the local muscles. All of the food aboard Hurtigruten is bought from local suppliers along the Norwegian Coast in the area you are, so everything you eat is well and truly local.

That afternoon, spent a bit of time outside enjoying the last bit of sunshine I would see for the next week, with the crossing of the Arctic Circle expected in the morning.

Later in the evening, we met MS Trollfjord in Rorvik, and were lucky to see some more lights approx. 1hour after departure. I found it quite hard to get decent shots of this due to the constant motion of the ship. Something to consider if all you’re after is a bit of light spotting.

 

[ADLhighflyer]

The following morning, we crossed the Arctic Circle at approx. 7:45am and had the obligatory ceremony with King Neptune paying a visit. Ice cold water was subsequently thrown down our backs! A great experience to enjoy onboard.



Our main stop for today centred on Bodo, where I picked the Artic Coastal Walk which was a 3km walk around the coast of Bodo learning about the history etc of the area.



We did make a visit into Trollfjord, and as luck would have it a big snowstorm hit at exactly the same time so we couldn’t event see the sides of the fjord only a few metres away! Oh well – next time.



The next morning, the climate outside had changed dramatically with ice/snow all over the outside of the ship. Today’s major port was in Tromso, where I was about to go dog sledding! We arrived at approx. 2pm into Tromso, with the sun outside already well and truly gone.

 

[tgh]

Really enjoying this tr.. more…

 

[ADLhighflyer]

Upon arrival, it was off to go sledding!

It was simply an amazing experience with the ride lasting between 20-30mins. We also got to see all the new puppies that are bred especially for sledding. Interestingly, they mentioned that each litter of puppies is uniquely named - for example, one of the dogs seen was called Tinder . This is so that they can identify puppies from each litter for breeding etc. If given the chance, I'd definitely go sledding again!



Following departure from Tromso, we did see the Northern Lights again briefly – but no pictures this time sorry!


The next day, the major stop was at Honningsvag where I used the time to head to the northernmost point in Europe: the North Cape! With light (well, what there was of it anyway...) fading fast, we all bolted down to the Globe to get the obligatory pictures!



Shortly after, it was back on the boat to continue the journey around to the halfway point of the cruise that would be reached at 9am the following day.