Thursday 4 April 2013

Day 13 (Fri 22nd Mar) – Homeward bound and final thoughts

Suitably refreshed after a good night’s sleep (in a bed that was not rolling around and with no tannoy announcements to disturb us) we had a leisurely breakfast. Neither of us felt like a full English. So we both had a big bowl of porridge (some proper ‘comfort’ food to start the day!) before making our way home. And after a trouble-free journey down the M4, we arrived home just after lunch.
And to be honest, once we were home, it all felt a little strange. We were staying where we were. All our home comforts were around us. We had different rooms to go into, all of them bigger than our cabin! :o) There was no daily schedule to peruse. There were no excursions to think about. We didn’t have to get dressed in lots of layers of clothing before venturing outside. We could choose what we wanted to eat and when to eat. I’m not kidding when I say it took most of the weekend to re-adjust.
I have been back at work for almost two weeks and (apart from the Easter weekend) it feels like I am back into the routine of ‘normal’ life.
I took around 250 photos during the cruise and even now, I am still wading through them and sorting out the best ones!
Final thoughts? 
Seeing the Northern Lights was a wonderful experience – there’s something almost magical about seeing the lights appear and move around in the sky. Seeing a different country and hearing about the history of various places we visited was thought-provoking and interesting. Meeting people on the cruise and swapping experiences and thoughts and ideas was great fun.
And would I go on another cruise? I think despite the wonderful scenery and seeing new places each day, and despite the amenities on the ship, because I started to long for some different surroundings, the answer is no.

Day 12 (Thu 21st Mar) – Alesund to Bergen

In retrospect, going to dinner yesterday evening was a bad idea. The food was too rich and I suffered a recurrence of the effects of the stomach bug and was awake during the night. On the plus side, when I was awake at 2:45am and looked out of the window I saw the Northern Lights again. Margaret was fast asleep so I crept around the cabin to retrieve my camera and was able to take some more photos through the window without waking her.
We had been instructed that cabins had to be vacated by 10am and suitcases left near the closest lift. So an early start was needed to have time for breakfast and packing. Once we had left our suitcases near reception we found ourselves (along with most of the other passengers) trying to find somewhere we could wait until 2:30pm when we were due to dock at Bergen. We walked around on deck 5 for a while but eventually ended up in the café on deck 7 while all around us, crew members were busy cleaning up in readiness for a quick turnaround when we reached port before the next cruise started a few hours later.
It was a relief to finally reach Bergen and start the journey home but it was a long day. A bus to Bergen Airport was the first stage but this was followed by a long wait for the flight to Copenhagen at 18:10. In complete contrast, we only had 35 minutes at Copenhagen to make the transfer to the onward flight to Heathrow (we did make it but it meant a very quick walk between arrival/departure gates!). I’m sure it was due to being tired but it seemed a long wait for the courtesy bus to collect the car from Purple Parking. And when it did arrive, some people who had arrived after us tried to get on the bus first. Thank goodness the driver was on the ball, casually enquiring if they were first in the queue. The result was, we got on the bus and they had to wait .. in the rain (no, I didn’t snigger .. honest).
Even that short journey appeared to take ages - 10:30pm on a Thursday night and we seemed to be in a traffic jam! It turned out to be some temporary lights for emergency roadworks and by the time we had collected the car and were driving away the queues had subsided. I was completely worn out by this time so I was glad we had booked a night at the Premier Inn. And being a large hotel, we were able to drop our bags in our room and have a hot drink and something to eat. With all the travelling we had not had a proper meal earlier that day.

Day 11 (Wed 20th Mar) – Trondheim to Alesund

I eventually woke at 8am on the wed morning, feeling better than I had for the previous 36 hours. I felt well enough by then to get dressed and leave the cabin but wasn’t sure whether or not I was actually over the bug. I had a light breakfast (2 slices of toast) and then later on a light lunch (1 cheese roll). And having been cooped up in my cabin for so long, I felt the need for some fresh air so we went out onto deck 5 (promenade deck) for a while.
I still wasn’t really paying much attention to the ports we were calling at or the surroundings as I was still feeling weak. But I felt a bit better by the evening and decided to go to dinner.
Because some passengers were leaving the ship at Trondheim, the previous evening had been the ‘farewell dinner’. Jon & Mike (our dinner companions) told us about the special dessert they had been served which was brought out with lighted sparklers (they had been amazed the smoke detectors had not been set off). They also said a lady on the next table was celebrating her birthday – apparently the waitress had all come out dancing and waving Norwegian flags when the cake was presented to her. And they mentioned the bottle of champagne which we had missed out on!
I tried the starter (fish soup) and the main course but couldn’t finish either. But I did manage to finish the dessert! ;-)  As it was the last time we might all be together in one place we swapped email addresses so that we could keep in touch and swap photos at a later date.

Day 10 (Tue 19th Mar) – Ornes to Folda

Sad to say, the tenth day of the voyage passed me by without my seeing or doing anything.
Having gone to bed the previous evening, I felt more and more ill as the night wore on. It wasn’t sea-sickness and I knew by then I had come down with the stomach bug. I was awake during the night and I’m sure I don’t need to spell out why! I had no energy and spent most of the following day asleep. Although Margaret had caught the bug as well she didn’t seem to be affected as badly. She was able to leave the cabin occasionally and looked after me. She brought me a cup of tea during the afternoon but because I didn’t feel like eating, I spent the rest of the day surviving on a couple of sugar lumps, some Mentos and lots of water.
While I was laid in bed the only scenery I saw was what was reflected in the tv screen from the cabin window behind me. But to be honest, I had lost all interest in the scenery at that point. Various ports of call came and went, various announcements were made over the tannoy - but they all passed me by. Despite having been asleep for most of the day, I managed to sleep for most of the following night too.

Day 9 (Mon 18th Mar) – Harstad to Stamsund

Five hours sleep later and we were up and about getting ready for the day’s excursion – “A Taste Of Vesteralen”. This was a bus tour starting at Harstad and ending at Sortland where we would meet up with the ship again. After docking at Harstad at 08:15 and boarding the coach, the first place we visited was Trondenes Church and Historical Centre.
The original church on this site on a headland overlooking the harbour, dates from the 11th century. It was replaced in the 12th century and again in the 15th century from when the current building dates. As we entered the church we saw the MS Finnmarken leaving port on its way to Sortland and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one wondering what would happen if anything should make us late for our later connection at Sortland. In the church they held a short inter-denominational service for our benefit (with translations into German and Japanese for the benefit of other tourists) before we visited the nearby centre to read more about the history of the area.
After touring the exhibition we continued on our way. As we toured the frozen landscape, the guide explained amongst other things, how he has two cars .. a four-wheel drive fitted with winter tyres for when the snow is on the ground .. and an Austin-Healey 3000 that he uses in the Summer (presumably for just a month or two!). We travelled on along the coast via Kasfjord and Borkenes marvelling at the mountainous scenery until we reached a ferry at Refsnes.  On boarding the ferry, we were provided with drinks and nibbles in the shape of waffles and the local cheese.
After docking at Flesnes we continued on our way to Sortland via Sigerfjord. As I’ve mentioned before, the Norwegians are well used to driving in ice and snow with their (studded) winter tyres. But the surface must have been a bit worse than they are used to. The coach driver slowed down while driving through one village mentioning to the guide the road was a bit ‘slippy’. There was another point in the journey when the guide casually mentioned we had just finished passing an area prone to avalanches! The area was said to be good for spotting moose and sea eagles but we saw none.
The coach guide had been in touch with the ship during the tour to ensure we synchronised our arrival. In the event, we were a bit earlier than planned and pulled into a lay-by. But after a few minutes wait (and with no doubt the practise of having done the same thing many times over), we started to make our way over the bridge to Sortland as the MS Finnmarken steamed underneath, ship’s hooter blaring out and passengers waving from the decks (I think they had made an announcement on the ship as well).
Back on board, the previous late night and early morning start had taken their toll so I needed a ‘power nap’. So at 2:30pm in the afternoon I crawled under the covers, set the alarm and managed to sleep for a couple of hours. Later on at 18:30 we docked at Svolvaer where we took the opportunity to visit the gallery of a local artist who has some of his artwork aboard the MS Finnmarken. The artist (Dagfinn Bakke) has a collection of humorous cartoons on the ship – my personal favourite being the one of a man looking at a plan of the ship with a ‘you are here’ arrow pointing to one deck and a ‘your wife is here’ arrow pointing to another deck at the other end of the ship.
I went to dinner that evening and some of our party of six were missing having been struck down with a tummy bug. I started to feel a bit light-headed and queasy myself and feared the worst. We had just begun to cross a stretch of open water so I hoped it might be sea-sickness instead. I excused myself, skipped the rest of the meal and went back to the cabin to take a sea-sickness pill and to lie down. But instead of feeling better I gradually started to feel worse ..