20 July 2024 - Kristiansund, Norway

Lie in this morning - excellent! Followed by a late and hearty breakfast. We weren't on tour, and I'd done a little research before we left the UK about Kristiansund. It's basically made up of four connected islands with a little ferry running between them. The cruise port is on Kirklandet, and I'd spotted a hill with a little tower (Varden Tower) surrounded by paths and woodland a little over 1km away from the port.

As we often see in Scandinavia - church architects like to branch away from the norm. This is Kirkelandet church.

The weather was glorious - 26 degrees C and sunny. Good ole Maps.me provided the route and we set off from the ship, through the town, meandering through parks and checking out sculptures on the way.

Kirklandet Church was worth a visit, the stained glass window is quite awesome!

We also checked out some lakes or ponds we saw on the map. They didn't have a lot to offer, but we were entertained by a herring gull just a few feet away as it was repeatedly screamed at and dive bombed by a very ferocious kittiwake. Peter has it on film.

Our aim was the tower, but we wandered in all directions, just wanting to look at this, or that, and took quite a few detours, walking through Loveparken and ending up on the west coast of the island at a place marked on the map as Klubba. We'd brought a couple of bananas and some water from the ship and sat enjoying the view.

We spotted this deer near the cemetery as we walked.  It didn't seem bothered by us or dogwalkers.

From there it was back through Loveparken, past a large, much used and well cared for cemetery, up the hill and finally we reached the tower.

Varden Tower

Not that high, just a couple of stories, but Oh My was it hot at the top! All those windows up there just intensified the heat of the day. We took a few photos and got out quick.

View from Varden Tower

From there we decided to take a look at the area around the marina as we'd been given a tip there would be "lots of rusty things". It was actually a boatyard museum which didn't look like a museum, and at one point we weren't even sure if we should be there. Good to walk through though.

We finally came back to the port. I decided we need a few Norwegian krona and we spent a while trying to find an ATM. Most of them seemed to be in banks, which were closed, but we did eventually find one in the shopping center right alongside the cruise terminal.

As we left port, we sailed out around the point we'd walked to.

Our lunchtime spot - at the end of the little sticky out bit of land.

Two other things to report:- Peter's trail shoes have been evicted to the balcony, they turn the air green when left in the cabin. And days are getting longer - it's light outside at 11.30pm - quite weird.

19 July 2024 - Same ship, new cruise - Back to Norway and more.

Spirit of Adventure

And we're back cruising! We've been on the ship for a couple of days now, so this is a quick rundown of all the interesting bits that have got us here.

Firstly - we nearly weren't here at all! Peter was booked for this cruise nearly a year ago, but, a week before embarkation, he got an email from the agency telling him that Saga had overbooked the cruise, and that there wasn't a cabin for us. We had to wait to see if there were any cancellations. Obviously there were, otherwise we wouldn't be on board, but it wasn't confirmed until Saturday 13th July evening that we could board the ship on Wednesday 17th.

Second - we've taken to driving down the day before embarkation. It's a long way, and we know from previous experiences how stressful it can be when the accidents and the like can slow traffic to a standstill. Tuesday's journey proved our reasoning. We just missed an accident by seconds, as Peter had pulled out to overtake a HGV that had been acting very erratically. It had been swinging in and out of the first and second lanes for no apparent reason (we were in a 50 mph stretch), blasting his horn and seemingly harassing a vehicle in front. As we overtook, the lorry's horn started blasting continuously, and as we got past, we realised that there were a car stuck almost horizontally against the front of the HGV, the car was being pushed along sideways! Quite distressing! The HGV was slowing to a halt, but that will have caused quite a hold up behind.

And then, about an hour later we ended up in standstill traffic for a good 40 mins due to another accident.

The famous white cliffs

We stopped in a Premier Inn overnight on Tuesday. Takeaway chinese for dinner and breakfast on Wednesday in Dunelm (fantastic bacon baps). We got to Dover as one of the earlier arrivals and were on board in no time. We're on the Spirit of Adventure, the cruise is called An Arctic Summer, and will go to Norway, Iceland and the Shetland Islands.

Dover Castle

We've had a couple of days on board now and Peter has been running classes in the Almalfi restaurant. As usual the first one was a bit hectic, but today (Friday), he's had 30 passengers at both sessions, no-one was turned away, and everything went reasonably smoothly. The only fly in the ointment is the eager waiter who wants us out as soon as possible in the morning cos he wants to set up for lunch.

We know the crafter, Carolyn Schulz from the previous cruise, and have had a couple of catching up getting to know you chats. We also know the Assistant Cruise Director, Rolando, and we've met Katy, the lass that books Peter on the different cruises. She seems really nice.

We also know Hugh McCurdy, a chaplain we met on our first cruise with Saga when there were a lot of covid regulations in place and the guest entertainment staff were made to eat together in the Grill every night, (we had a brilliant time). Apparently Peter made a strong impression on him! He's a lovely man and ended up having to listen to my enthusiasm over moths for a good 10 mins on Thursday night when we met him up on deck 13.

It was at that time that the singers that make up "The Sound of Simon", a tribute act to Simon and Garfunkle, came past. He cornered them into conversation (sick of moths perhaps), and we stood chatting to them for a while. Peter and I had watched their show on the first night (Wednesday). I'll admit I was hoping for better, but I didn't say that to them, obviously.

This trip we're following instruction and using the Brittania Lounge, rather than the Living Room after classes. It's lovely and quiet, and we can stuff our faces on nuts and crisps, so not a bad change.

Tonight (Friday), was formal night, Peter looked handsome in black tie with me in a posh frock, and despite my slight reservations, we decided to watch The Sound of Simon duo again in The Playhouse - they were better, and I enjoyed their show, so all is good.

And tomorrow (Saturday) is our first port day. We are going to be in Kristiansund which we've visited before with CMV and we both escorted tours. The one thing I remember most was the Atlantic coast road and stopping on the landmark bridge. That was awesome. We won't be doing that again, but we are gonna go out for a walk cos I have a little tower in mind. Bring it on!

31 Mar 2024 - Flam

This is the last port of this cruise, and to be honest, it feels like we haven't seen that many places this time. Not that I'm complaining. Our cruises of a lot longer than 15 days, so this one has been relatively short. Overnight stops in Bergen and Alta were unusual, and spending two days in Alta was brilliant. But now we are at Flam.

Flam is a World Heritage site, and understandably so. The scenery is magnificently dramatic. Stood on the deck of the ship, we were surrounded by towering snow topped mountains, all lined with numerous waterfalls spilling down near vertical sides. Mist and wispy clouds rose near the tops, adding to the grey sky and giving everything an almost mystical air. The valley floor leading up from the fjord is scattered with brightly coloured wooden houses which look tiny against their surroundings, and if it wasn't for the lack of sun, it looked exactly like the pictures in the brochures.

We've been before. The main attraction here is the Flam railway. One day we should book ourselves on to it, it's not that expensive. I looked it up, it's about £46 per head, and involves a 1 hour journey each way to the Myrdal mountain station. But not today. Today we decided to walk up to the Brekkefossen Waterfall again.

We've done it before, and sort of remembered that we could walk on up past it. We are a little bit limited with regards to time, because Peter and I have been summoned to attend a tea party event in honour of one of a loyal passenger's 89th birthday. Peter had painted his gift (commissioned by Saga) and had to be in attendance during the presentation.

I really should get fitter again. My excuse is that I didn't walk much last year, Plantar fasciatis, and I'm sticking to it.

Still, we got to the top, took loads of photographs

After lunch we started to go further up. But the path was really quite scrambly and slippy. And we remembered that we had tried this before on our last visit and decided then that there was no benefit, so we turned and made our back to the waterfall, where ate lunch and talked to a couple of Norwegians with a three legged dog and a motorhome.

Out the bottom, we took a slightly different route back to the ship. A loud noise, like an incoming jet filled the valley, we looked up, trying to see an aeroplane, until Peter spotted the source of the sound. One of the many frozen waterfalls was having a mini avalanche. Really cool to see.

We were back well in time to change and make ourselves presentable for the birthday event. Then we had to change again to go back out on deck for the sail away. Flam is the longest fjord in the world, and takes a long time to sail out of. The captain announced that deck 7 forward would be opened to allow passengers to an excellent view as we cruised along the fjord. We were curious, so we had to go and find out where it was. The scenery was everything we expected it to be. Amazing.

We have a couple more days left on board now until we get back to Portsmouth. Barring anything out of the ordinary, that's it for this cruise. Next blog post should be for our next cruise in July; "An Arctic Summer" on the Spirit of Adventure. We'll be coming back to Norway, and then on to Iceland. Cooooool!