Norway

My photo album of this great trip is up and running.

Click Hurtiguten Norway 2015. Click the first picture and then click "slideshow" at the top to enjoy the pictures that way.

Enjoy!

Rusty

Our last 24 hours on board was spent cruising southbound towards Bergen. The scenery was spectacular and you never seem to get tired of looking at a beautiful coastline.

All in all, the cruise was more than we expected in terms of scenery and enjoyment. The cabin was comfortable, only about 350 people on board primarily Norwegian, German and French and everyone enjoyed each other. The crew was exceptionally friendly and truly liked their work. Their schedule is roundtrips on and two roundtrips (22 days) off, year round. The get on and off the ship at whichever port is closest to their hometown, which makes life very good for them. This will not be my last trip on Hurtigruten - Spitzbergen and Antarctica (again) await.

We were off the ship at 7:50am this morning for a tour of the city and the Cathedral...the oldest Gothic Cathedral in Scandinavia circa 1050. We were not allowed to take pictures inside at was an active Lutheran Cathedral for the past 500 years. It was the grave site of St.Olaf.

Today was a transit day as we dipped below the Arctic Circle at 9:30am this morning. It's been stormy and rainy for the past two days, as there is obviously weather coming in from the west. This afternoon we had a 45 minute stop at Bronnoysund, so we got of the ship in the light rain, got some fresh air and walked around for about thirty minutes in the slush, but it was refreshing.

Many of the public spaces on the ship are on the 8th of 9 decks and I have included some pictures of those spaces.

As we continue our voyage south towards the Arctic Circle and Bergen our mid-day stop was at Sortland for the standard 30 minute stop for cargo and ferry passengers.

We then headed to Stokmarknes, the home of the Hurtigruten (Hurtig Ruten or Quick Route) Museum. The line was founded as a mail carrier and has expanded to full ferry and passenger service as the years went by. The hallmark of the Museum is the Circa 1912 vessel Finnmarken, which has been brought ashore and made into part of the museum.

Our final stop of the day was at Stolvaer - the center of the cod fishing industry both in the past and currently. We visited the restored portion of the late 1800's fishing village and listened to a story of the cod fishing war of the Trollfjord. It was a truly dark and stormy night. Even though the temperature was in the high 30's we were greeted with rain, hail, lightning, thunder and significant wind.