Hurtigruten Norwegian Coastal Trip Day 8 and 9

Day 8

In case you hadn't realised - or I didn't make clear- we are on the return leg of the journey now. We are visiting some ports again and some for the first time as they must do a slightly different route on the way back (or South bound as they say).

It is well and truly clouded over now and we have had a little bit of rain and some snow so our chances of seeing the Northern Lights are nil. In a way I'm a bit relieved as it means we can relax a bit more as we're not waiting for the call to get on deck at all times of the night. We did see them for 4 nights on the run at the start of the holiday so can't complain.

Today we were treated (if that's the right word) to a display from the Norwegian rescue service who were practising rescues from ships with a Sea King helicopter. It wasn't put on for our benefit - I think our ship just happened to be scheduled to be part of this manoeuvre. It was fabulous to watch though and obviously they take the whole thing really seriously, the deck was closed off, the life boats were set ready to go in case anyone fell in. Sadly they didn't ask for volunteers as I would happily have volunteered Hubby 😉

I say they take it seriously -and they did - but they still managed to do a fast fly by waving to us all on deck when they'd finished - show offs!

Stopped at Hammerfest today - we got off and did our usual wander around. Came across the Polar Bear Society - which is more about survival in the Northern-most city of Europe than it is about polar bears. I liked the range of souvenirs - hubby liked the free wifi! 

 http://www.nordnorge.com/other-scenic-routes/?News=201

Day 9

Another day of frequent shorter stops.

We stopped at Stokmarknes for an hour where you had the opportunity to visit the Hurtigruten Museum - which is actually an old Hurtigruten ship and looked quite interesting - we didn't feel we had enough time to do it justice for the 50 K entry fee but I'm sure it would be worth a look if you had more time.

Luckily the ship has docked in the centre of all the towns we've stopped at and there's always time to pop into a local supermarket for some beer or pop. A beer on the ship is £10 - it's £3 in the shop. A 500ml bottle of diet Sprite is £4 on the ship but you can get 1500 mls for £3.20 in the Co-op. Just to show you we don't have to go far for a shop ....

FYI -The shop is on the right 🛍

Part of the trip we have really enjoyed is the watching what goes on when we dock in the small towns. Some have a population of less than 2000 people.

One night we watched a car drive off then a mini bus drive on, joyful reunions as people got off the ship and were met at the foot of the gangplank and tearful farewells as people got on leaving their families behind. Here's a typical quayside scene -

There always seems to be only one person on the quayside who is responsible for tying off the ropes fore and aft, driving the fork lift truck to unload and load the freight then untying the mooring ropes when the ship sets off. This night we watched them loading a snow mobile, on a pallet, into the cargo hold. It took about 4 different manoeuvres to get it on board and would have been amusing if it didn't involve a £10,000 piece of machinery. Didn't get photo's as I was mesmerised just watching it all.