Hurtigruten - 11 day Norwegian Coastal Voyage. Day 1

Have just boarded the Richard With (pronounced Rikard Wit in Norwegian) for an 11 night "cruise" up the coast of Norway, through the Arctic circle to the border with Russia (where I will be snow- mobiling James Bond style to Cock a Snook at Russia then beat a hasty retreat).

We flew Manchester to Bergen, Norway on a charter flight with Germania Air. I have never heard of them so was a little nervous but they were absolutely fine. Super efficient air line, even got us here 10 minutes early. Check in was smooth and we were pre allocated the 2 seats next to the emergency exit so had plenty of room to ourselves. The only negative was the amount of hand luggage brought on board vs the amount of overhead locker space. Every seat was full and every seat occupant had a large winter jacket or coat as well as their hand luggage - when the overhead lockers were opened at the end of the flight it was like those scenes where inflatable dinghies explode out of containers. Also - to quote Agent K from Men in Black "a person is smart - people are dumb". We all had a seat allocated, we all had a place on the coach and a berth on the boat so why people have to panic dash around airports like they were the only ones in the world that matters I don't know. Hubby and I generally stand back and let the chaos go on around us then step in at the end. It's amazing how often that works out for us! Today we stood back and while we watched people fighting to get their suitcase on the coach a driver quietly directed us to an empty coach where we leisurely settled ourselves down and waited for the Madding crowds to realise it was there. #smug. What is extra amusing is that all these people who are killing each other for a place on the coach are going to want to be your friend over the next 11 days - ha! Never gonna happen buddy!

First impressions of the ship are good. We've got a great cabin with plenty of storage space and we had a decent buffet tea - although Hubby made the mistake of eating smoked lamb and is now having a Rennie based dessert. We are sat in the Horizon lounge waiting to set sail at 22.30 and it is blissfully quiet. It looks promising for a good holiday.

Here's a link to the Hurtigruten website so you can check it all out for yourselves.
https://www.hurtigruten.co.uk/

and here's a picture of my route. Catch up tomorrow - hopefully with some photos.