Norway 2022/23 – 10 New Year’s Eve

Tags

Arctic Circle, Bronnøysund, cod liver oil, Hurtigruten, King Harald V, MS Trollfjord, Rørvik, Sandnessjøen, Seven Sisters, Yaktrax

We crossed back over the Arctic Circle, 66’33″N, at 8.45, but I didn’t go on up on deck this time. An hour later we were invited to go up for the appropriate ceremony.

As we had been told in the previous day’s briefing, this time there was to be no ice down the back. Each would be invited – no compulsion of course – to take a spoonful of cod liver oil. And we could keep the spoon from which it was served. “If you want more spoons… [you can buy some more in the shop? Oh no] … you’ll have to drink more cod liver oil!”

Excursion Manager Heinz and hotel manager Sigmund played out a scenario of how this would make us all roaringly strong. No hardship, I thought, I’d had to drink masses of the stuff as a child.

It was Sigmund who served me. The spoon was/is of an excellent quality – but I didn’t need any more. Instead I availed myself of the excellent hot chocolate being served in the adjacent Polar Bar, in a metal mug also to keep, which got rid of the unpleasant taste left in my mouth

I didn’t go to a talk on ‘Norwegian fairytales, myths and legends’. And I stayed in my cabin during a brief stop at Sandnessjøen.

But I did go onto deck 6 to try to take photos and a video of the Seven Sisters, ‘female trolls turned to stone’, about which we had been told in the previous day’s briefing. But as the PA announcement said, today they were rather shy, scarcely visible here behind the low-lying hills, because of low cloud.

The English-language briefing was at 14.15. At 15.00 we would be stopping at Bronnøysund for a couple of hours where there was the chance to go on a flat walk with Heinz, or to ‘visit the salmon‘. While I don’t eat meat, I do eat fish, including farmed, but I had no desire to see the farming operation. The walk promised to be a gentle one, so I had booked on to it. It would be on the green (in summer) part of the town, which was comprised of several islands.

On the other hand it would be dark, and because the weather was unseasonably warm – it should have been below freezing at this time of year – underfoot it would be rather slushy at times.

Indeed, there was melted ice on top of solid ice at times. We were all obliged to wear what they called ‘spikes’. I had bought some Yaktrax with me, but I was not sure that they would serve for all the surfaces we were to walk on, so I accepted the team’s offer of a loan. I felt totally secure with what I later found were also Yaktrax, the Diamond Grip version. Mine were the Walk version. (The guy in front of me kept losing his, with me picking them up, as he didn’t even realise they had gone. He was OK once Heinz had shown him that he should make sure they came well up the sides of his boots!)

The walk was partly in the town and partly through forest. As the forest part was on a Nordic walking track, it was pretty well lit all the way. Heinz was full of anecdotes and information about Bronnøysund and life in Norway generally. He loves talking, and I should have loved to have asked many supplementary questions, but we had to get back to that boat!

It wasn’t as light as this – it was fully dark at 15.00.

It was neither as light as this, nor as blue as this…

It was a little darker than this but the main interest of this picture is that it is of the town’s sports hall and indoor football pitch. Every town in Norway has one, said Heinz. The town of Bronnøysund has only 5000 inhabitants, the municipality just 8000…

Much of Bronnøysund is water…

Brand new hospital, and beside it what I understood to be sheltered housing

The walk ended at this church, the agreed meeting point with the coach with the salmon visit people, which was to take us back to our temporary home.

At 19.30 I didn’t, for obvious reasons, go to watch King Harald V’s new year speech on one of the public television screens.

A five-course meal was served at the special New Years’ Eve dinner, and fortunately the portions ranged from tiny to medium, which meant one could really enjoy every one of them, right to the end.

At 22.00 we were invited to take a book we had bought from the shop to be signed by the main managers of the ship. I wondered whether my very modest purchase of this wonderful little paperback book was not a little too modest, but I saw that people were offering just postcards, or even leaflets, to be signed, so I hesitated no longer.

The book describes every town in detail, making you want to get off at every one of the 34 stops and spend at least a night there.

23.30. Heinz, Sigmund, and two others poured champagne in the Polar Bar. (There were about 450 passengers on board.)

At 21.00 we had arrived at a town called Rørvik, where normally the stop would have been for just 30 minutes. But it was celebrated for its New Year firework displays, from private houses that is, not a municipal show. So we were staying on until 00.30. The time would be caught up by a shorter stay at Trondheim.

The town’s display started gently, a few minutes before the turn of the year.

The redness is caused by flares set off by private individuals. They come down very slowly – as they’re meant to!

And then things went mad!

I understand that some didn’t retire to their cabins a for quite a while. I turned in around 00.30.

Happy New Year!

Norway 2022/23 – 2, Exploring MS Trollfjord

Tags

Alesund, Aurora Borealis, Dinner for One, Hurtigruten, Hustadvika, King Harald V, MS Trollfjord, Northern Lights, Queen Sonja, Torget, Trondheim

As mentioned previously, our stop in Ålesund was by far the longest of the entire trip. We didn’t move off until 20.00. After lunch, I declined the suggestion of the morning’s guide that I could go back into town and climb up to a viewpoint, and chose instead to explore the vessel that would be my home for the next 11 days. I started by walking all round the boat on the promenade deck, deck 6, and there and then resolved never to choose a cabin on such a deck, for reasons of privacy. Of course I didn’t actually look through the generous portholes there, and I guess non-one did, but I would not like people walking so close past my bedroom.

It was this dark at 13.45, though, as all week, my camera did not record light conditions exactly. It was just beginning to rain.

Imagine working in those offices and having a boat there, albeit different one, all day (from 09.45) every day.

Here the camera records blue which it wasn’t. As the trip went on, I tried to play, with occasional success, with its settings to adjust for this phenomenon.

Then I went up to deck 9. Most of this was open to the elements, which I didn’t brave in the rain. Much of the rest of the deck consisted of the upper part of a panoramic lounge, which seemed through the voyage by common consent to be respected as a space for just very quiet conversation or silence, as people read, knit, etc.

Part of external deck 9 slightly sheltered, and used for gatherings later on

Taken from a stairway between the upper and the lower parts of the panoramic lounge

Deck 8 had some cabins, and, in addition to its panoramic lounge, the bar,

a small library, and the excursions team’s domain, of which this is part. Each afternoon they put out a printed bulletin about the next day’s programme of activities and excursions, including instructions as to when to leave the ship for the latter.

On the wall were various reference posters, identifying birds, fish and marine mammals, and here one showing the types of ships used by Hurtigruten since its foundation in 1893. MS Trollfjord was constructed in 2002.

Decks 7 and 6 (apart from the external promenade, and lifeboats) were entirely composed of cabins. Deck 5 had none, and was where most of the essentials of daily living took place.

The main dining area, called the Torget restaurant

The shop

There were several small seating areas on both decks 5 and 8.

The main conference room

For a while I could not understand the need for a bistro on board, given all the wonderfully copious food available in the main restaurant. But I came to realise that those using the line for pure transport purposes, who might not even have a cabin, did not eat in Torget.

Deck 4 had many cabins, including mine. It may not have had the prestige of the upper decks, but I thought it was perfect. It was on the same level as Reception and the passenger exit, and my cabin was near but not too near a lift and stairs, and about 30 seconds via the latter to the restaurant on deck 5.

In reception was a list of those top ship people we had met at the initial welcome meeting.

Reception

King Harald V and Queen Sonja. Both will be 86 this year.

You didn’t get out or back without having your boarding card registered digitally. Thank goodness, as we were to find the next day…

The briefing in English was at 17.30. Some days we were told about the likely state of the swell to come in the next 24 hours or so. The redder on the map, the greater the forecast swell. Most of the time we were sailing between islands and the coast, so we were generally protected from the worst. But here we were warned that as we passed along the Hustadvika to expect 3.5 metres of swell. In the event, I found the gentle rocking as I lay in my bed to be quite soothing. What they didn’t tell us was that (to quote the Wikipedia article), ” This is considered one of the most dangerous parts of the Norwegian coast,^[2][3] and many ships have been wrecked along it.^[4][5]” I’m glad they didn’t.

We were told of two excursions, one on foot and one in a bus, to explore Trondheim the following day. Having booked all my excursions in advance, I decided to explore the town on my own, on foot. All I definitely wanted to see was the cathedral. (The excursions team provided a map for every place we stopped at for any length of time.) Perhaps I should have gone with a group…

Everyone was allocated one of five times for dinner from this evening on, and a table number. In my explorations I had identified my table, and that it was for two. I was a little worried about this, wondering who I might be stuck with for the rest of the voyage. It could be great, it could be disastrous. In the event, I found I was sharing with … no-one. Perhaps even worse. Or a blessing.

Two possibilities were available at 21.00. A showing of ‘Dinner for One‘, ” traditional viewing on New Year’s Eve in European countries such as Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Estonia,^[1] or on 23 December in Norway, and, as of 1995, was the most frequently repeated television programme in Germany ever.^[2] ” or a meeting for those travelling alone. Having seen the short classic once some years back, that was enough for me.

Only about 15 turned up for the solo travellers’ meeting, though judging from the number of people sitting alone when it was free seating (that is, at breakfast and lunch) I would say that there were many more than that travelling alone. Sigmund, the hotel manager, got us to say where we all came from. It turned out that there were 10 or so different nationalities atb the meeting, and he told us there were 42 nationalities on board.

We had already found ourselves in language groups. I was with four others: J, a South African of British heritage who had run a B and B in Wales and who was now living in Spain; A, a Brit who had lived in Australia for 35 years; H, an long retired Indian doctor who had practised in New York from the time he had qualified in India; and B, a Swedish businessman/engineer (I think) who had worked in both Denmark and the Netherlands (he was on his fourth Christmas Hurtigruten trip). And of course I a Brit, had lived in France for 17 years. We arranged with the staff to put us on a dinner table together for the rest of the trip. J and I agreed to walk together into Trondheim the following morning at 09.00…

Through my cabin window at 11.20. (In the light of later knowledge, I’m now wondering if that vague paler shading is the Northern Lights.)