26 July 2024 - Honningsvag, Norway

Today we woke to look out on the little town of Honningsvag. It is the Northernmost city (town) in mainland Norway and has a population of 2,245 (according to Wiki). Today our ship has brought somewhere in the region of 1400 people to it. And we weren't the only ones. Other, smaller cruising vessels similar to the Hurtigruten were docking too.

There isn't much to do in the town itself. It's pretty enough, with a little marina, restaurants and gift shops. But the main attraction of Honningsvag for cruise ships is that it is the starting point for bus tours up to the North Cape. We've been on this trip twice before. The first time failed due to blizzard conditions and during our second visit the rain was hitting us sideways and it was so cold we could hardly take our gloves off to take photo's before dashing back into the visitor centre.

Today was different though. Today was really warm, the scenery along the drive was stunning and we got to see reindeer.

At the visitor center we stood outside enjoying the warm wind and the sun. We even had time to find our way down to the Kings View - a platform carved into cliff accessed via a tunnel from the centre.

After the tour, we took a very short walk around the town. The water in the marina was mirror smooth and every corner presented another photo opportunity. In Peter's words "Everyone's a banger". Bonus sightings of a Black Guillemot and a couple of seals in the marina just added to the experience.

Now it is time for the us to make our way to Iceland. The ship has to sail past the North Cape on the way - more photographs.

And we got to see what I think might have been White-sided Dolphins whilst eating dinner - no photographs though. 😞

25 July 2024 - Tromso, Norway

We've been planning this visit since the last time we visited on 28th March this year on a Northern Lights cruise. Tromso in late March is covered in snow. Today it was gloriously warm and sunny.

The ship has run out of good bananas but we weren't worried as we know where the cafes are. We grabbed some water as we left the ship and got on the shuttle.

The shuttle bus driver turned out to be a mine of information, telling us where the botanical gardens were, where to see reindeers, tunnels, walking paths etc etc. I've filed most of it away in my memory for the next time.

Tromso in summer is full of building contractors who seemed to be repairing just about everything:- rooves, walls, roads and pavements. They were also repairing the bridge that joins the island of Tromso to the mainland and it was closed to traffic. Fortunately there is a tunnel a little further north.

The bridge wasn't closed to pedestrians though, so we were able to cross. There's a little ice-cream cafe on the other side near the cathedral, so we nipped in to get some chocolate and carried on to the cable car.

The cable car takes you up to 421m above sea level, which is about 2/3rds of the height of Floya mountain (671m). There's a cafe, loos, platforms picnic tables and plenty of space to walk around and enjoy the absolutely spectacular views. We pottered around for half an hour, loving the warm sun, soft breeze and amazing scenery.

And then it was time to start upwards.

It's not too difficult, but we were probably a little bit tired from our walk at Leknes. Getting to the top gave a sense of achievement.

What a wonderful place to be. We sat and ate our chocolate and tried to soak up as much as we could to take away with us. Photographs can never capture a view, and these views were magnificent.

Sadly, it was eventually time to go down, and we reversed our route.

Going down. You can just see the top of the cable car and the cafe ahead.

We enjoyed ice-creams and cold drinks from the cafe next to the cathedral before finally working our way back to the shuttle bus. T'was a brilliant day and we would happily do it again.

Tomorrow we will be at Honningsvag, the most northerly port of our cruise. We've been before, but not in the summer so this is gonna be another new experience. Awesome.

23 July 2024 Leknes, Lofoten Islands, Norway

We've been to Leknes before- the last time was on the CMV ship Marco Polo, when the ship ran aground. That was a bit of an experience! We eventually got ashore and escorted a tour to a replica Viking Longhouse, which was actually quite interesting.

The view from the cabin Balcony - the cruise ship on the left is the Aida Luna - 2100 passengers. Steinberget is the starred hill on the left, and Sundsheia on the right.

No tours planned today, a walk instead, and as we got closer to port we worked out the lay of the land in comparison to the paths we could see on Maps.me. We decided to head towards Gravdal, where we could see a small hill called Steinberget, which looked within easy walking distance.

The ship anchored out in the bay and we were tendered to a pier about a mile outside Leknes town.

We were the only two passengers in our tender (which is a lifeboat), on the way to the port.

Gridlock at the pier - Aida tenders on the left, Saga on the right.

Using Maps.me it seemed a long walk to the start of the climb, but we made good time (cos it's flat).

Ghostbusters at work in the Lofoten Islands

Through Gravdal to a point where we climbed over a fence stile behind a garage of parked ambulances, and then we were in the woods. It wasn't long before we the trees opened out.

Before we knew it, we could see the peak of Steinberget. At that point we decided that we wanted to do more and turned our attention to Sundsheia, about a mile away and about 400ft higher.

The Norwegians love being outside, and they make easy for themselves, and us as visitors, to cycle, walk, hike and climb. Today was no different, with wooden planks laid as paths in areas where the ground would be too boggy to walk on. The paths were well used and easy to follow, and of course we used Maps.me on our phones.

We loved it.

A couple of locals, although this pair were looking for sweet grass rather than Cloudberries.

As we'd walked up, I noticed loads of attractive bright orange berries on the ground, and wondered if they were edible, as the leaves reminded me of strawberries? On the way down, we met Norwegians carry small buckets of them, they explained that they were Cloudberries, often called “Mountain Gold” due to their golden skin and expensive price-tag. I should've sampled them.

The height and distance was just right considering our fitness levels and the time we had. We enjoyed a quick lunch of bananas and water, taking in the views and watching the clouds roll over and down the hills in the distance. We could see in all directions, just fantastic!

We could also see low clouds on distant hills getting closer.

We couldn't stay long if we didn't want to be soaked by mist and drizzle, so sadly it was time to go down. We did get rained on on the way back, but Peter was organised enough to have brought our waterproof jackets. We were back at the tender boats with easily an hour to spare. A good 6-7 mile walk all in all.

A seaday tomorrow, which is good cos it'll give our legs a rest. Our next Port is Tromso and another mountain.