Hurtigruten Norwegian Coastal Trip Day 6 and 7

Day 6

This was a quiet day for us.
We spent a few hours docked in Honningsvag.
Most passengers went off on a trip to the North Cape so we pretty much had the ship to ourselves.

We got off for an hour or two and had a wander around the town.

and discovered the story of Bamse, the St Bernard dog who became the mascot of the Free Norwegian Forces during WW2. I love a good doggy story and this one is a classic!

I had a quick google and found many stories about Bamse's exploits. Interestingly he died and was buried (with full military honours) in Montrose, Scotland. This is a link to the site I found with the most information.

http://www.bamsemontrose.co.uk/


Day 7

We actually went on an arranged excursion today.
If you've read my Iceland blogs you'll know the only disappointment we had on that trip was our snow mobile tour was cancelled. We decided to have another go at ticking something off Hubby's wish list hence we booked a snow mobile safari across a frozen stretch of the Barent sea.

Consider that wish well and truly ticked!

The company we went with were Barent Safari and I would happily recommend them. Very safety focused but once all that was established it was just fun, fun, fun. 

After the safety briefing we were shown how to drive the snow mobiles then set off in convoy.
We stopped after a short distance and the more confident drivers were singled out and sent off behind the tour leader. We were with this group and we went at a pretty fast pace. It was exhilarating and a little bit scary but so much fun! Adding to the amusement were the 2 young girls in the group (young to me - so probably in their 20s) who lost their selfie stick as we were racing across the frozen sea. We all stopped to search for it and then carried on much to our amusement and their mortification!

http://www.barentssafari.no/en/activities-winter/snowmobile/

Check this out:

After the trip we sat in a Sami lavvu (like a teepee) and drank coffee and ate dried reindeer heart. 
Taken back to the ship with 10 minutes to spare - brilliant!

Hurtigruten Norwegian Coastal Trip Day 5

There were lots of stops during the night (apparently on the return trip we'll stop at these places again but it'll be daylight).

One main stop today and that was Tromso, known as the Paris of the Arctic Circle, (although I never really got to find out why) population c75,000. We were there for 4 hours so had plenty of time to wander around. As we have now come to expect, the ship docked in the centre of town so we didn't have very far to go into town.

We decided to walk across the Tromsoebrua bridge to visit the Arctic Cathedral. The bridge is 1 km long and gives spectacular views of Tromso.

Norway does colourful skies amazingly well - as well as the greens and blues of the Northern lights you also get pink sunsets!

The Arctic Cathedral is equally spectacular. Built 1965 so same age as me. Perfect place to light a candle and have a few moments quiet reflection. They have a midnight concert here most nights - we get the chance to do that on the return leg of the trip.

As we have also now come to expect the Northern Lights were visible from about 7 pm. We stayed on deck until about 10 pm and they were still active. Hubby finally managed to convince me to try and take a photo and after a few blank shots I finally got it sussed and I was hooked!!

The following are all my own work (if we don't count Hubby setting up the tripod, altering the camera settings and basically telling me what to - 😀).

As I write this the sky is full of clouds so I'm guessing no Northern Lights tonight. Having seen the Lights when we were in Iceland (2015) I didn't think I was that bothered about seeing them on this trip - I was more focused on seeing the whales. Sadly the whales weren't meant to be but the Lights made up for that a million times over.

Hurtigruten Norwegian Coastal Trip Day 4

We crossed into the Arctic Circle at 7 am this morning. I'll just have to take the Captains word for it as I slept right through it  💤💤💤.

Stopped in Ornes for 15 minutes at 9.15 am - this time we were awake and on deck for a pre-breakfast breath of Arctic air.

Ornes:-

It became apparent at this stop just how much of a coastal life line this shipping route is. In the 15 minutes we were here we saw local people getting on and off, a family reunion on the quay, a car getting off the ship and a small van backing up to the cargo door and a sofa being unloaded. You don't get that on any cruise ship I've been on.

Didn't go on deck for the Arctic Baptism - ice down your back not at all appealing ! 

Found out today that our whale watching trip has been cancelled - no whales 🐋

Bodo

Docked here for a few hours so we got off and had a wander round. Once again you realise these are proper coastal towns with the harbour in the centre of it all. 

Who said I wouldn't find Pandas in Norway? (I hope they're not in the burgers 😱 )

At 9 pm we docked in Svolvaer where we saw our first snow 

It would appear no evening is complete without a show of the Northern Lights......

and tonight was no different!

Hurtigruten Norwegian Coastal Trip Day 3 (photo alert)

The ship docked in Trondheim at 6 am this morning. We got off (much later in the morning) and wandered around the town for an hour or so. It was a Sunday today and for the first time it really struck home that we are not on a cruise ship but a local car/passenger ferry and postal delivery service. 

When we have been on cruises in the past all the shops have been open wherever, and whenever, the ship arrived. One trip we were the last cruise ship to be calling into Rhodes at the end of the season and they were literally closing up the shops for the winter as we left. However, the Hurtigruten ships are not cruise ships, they operate to a daily timetable and carry a couple of hundred not a couple of thousand, passengers. So no biggy for the shopkeepers in the towns. 

Trondheim was very pleasant to walk around anyway. See for yourself....

O - and if we look freezing it's because we were freezing! Yesterday we were wandering around in t-shirts - today it was -2 !

Also sailed through some magnificent Fford scenery today...

and found a house for Hubby

We also saw these (again)

In the spirit of full disclosure I must inform you that I had half a pizza shoved up my jumper when these were taken - the Northern Lights announcement was made just as we had got our tea from the cafe and we didn't want to miss out so.....I improvised.

Hurtigruten Norwegian Coastal Trip Day 2

Today we visited Floro and Maloy but I can tell you nothing about them as the ship docked in them at 04.30 and 07.15 respectively and I didn’t leave my bed! If I’m honest I didn’t even open my eyes! After breakfast – fruit, yogurt and toast – (could have had raw fish but that would have been 3 meals on the run and that’s too much for anyone) we stepped off the boat into Alesund. We were there 3 hours; one of the longer stops on the trip so made the most of it by climbing to the top of Aksla viewpoint. They say the views are breath taking but it wasn’t the views that took my breath away – it was the 418 steps I had to climb to get there. Ok the views were great – here are some photos….

There were also some WW11 bunkers at the top which you could have a nose in.

o - and here's our ship 

Tonight they say there is a good chance of the Aurora Borealis making an appearance. We have gone to bed with the ships info service on in case it happen. They have ship wide announcements all the time; with so many stops they need them to get people on and off in the right places. The announcements come through the phone in your cabin and you can switch them off or on as you want. If the Northern Lights don’t make an appearance in the next 12 days we get a free holiday so…….

UPDATE - No free holiday because this happened at 3am..

Interestingly they advise you to use a tripod to steady the camera when you photograph the Aurora,  as you have the lens open for 30 seconds to take the best photo and you need to hold the camera still. Hubby did all that but as the boat is moving, so is the camera, so all the lights from the town appear as wavy lines. I like it - I think it adds to the photo. But then again that's now 2 nights I've had no sleep so who am I to judge anything!

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.

Photo books and how to use them

It's taken me ages but I've finally sifted through the 3500 photos we took in our month in the USA and put them in a photo book.

I've used Aldi photo books in the past and would happily recommend them, however, Bonus Print have some great offers available through www.moneysavingexpert.com so I used them this time.

Click on this link and you'll be able to see the album.

http://onlinephotobook.bonusprint.co.uk/view-online-photo-book/01f1b451-b5b8-42ad-8dc8-74f70a3ee1c6 

When you've done a big trip and you have so many fabulous memories I think a book is a marvellous idea. 

Imagine presenting 1000 individual photos to a friend and saying "have a look at these" - people would start running when they saw you coming. Photo books look wonderful on the bookcase and let you relive the good times in your own time. I look at old photo books all the time- more than I ever would on the computer. We also lost some photos when an old computer crashed so don't want that to happen again.

Top tips

Use your own photos as a background - it's a good way of including photos you may not bother with otherwise.

Maps of the areas or routes taken make good backgrounds too - you can download these within the Bonusprint website.

Put a border round your photos so they stand out from the background 

Take photos of souvenirs and include them - the back cover of this photo book is a photo of all the National Park brochures.

The odd full page or double page spread breaks up the book and is a good way of showing off photos you may be really pleased with. I used them for the iconic sights such as Niagara and Mt Rushmore.

Text boxes are useful for noting the names and dates of places visited, especially if you've gone off your route and visited out of the way places ( like we did with Bridal Falls and Snake Creek).

Have fun with it all - quirky angles, funny backgrounds, clip art etc all add to the impact.

Take your time - don't send it off until you're happy with it.

Happy photo booking 😀🐼