Today we arrived in Kirkenes which is the point at which Hurtigruten turns back towards Oslo. Many people disembarked here and a new crowd joined us. Our new friends from Clarence Town near Newcastle (our dinner companions each night) disembarked but finished this part of their trip with a quad bike tour to the border. It was a cold bleak day so we didn’t envy them. In Kirkenes, many of the street signs are in Norwegian & Russian.

David had sat on his glasses & broken one arm off but a very helpful young lady in an optometrist here put in a new screw – no charge. We were wandering around trying to see if we could find an optometrist, peering at our map, as you do, when this elderly gentleman asked if we needed help. He then walked us to it. Very helpful. But the strange coincidence was that he was an electrical engineer worked all his life in iron mines!  His wife was an opera singer who had performed in our opera house. It was lovely to chat to him & we wanted to buy him a coffee so we could keep chatting but he had an appointment.

Talking to the locals wherever we are is my favourite part of travel. That’s how you learn about their lives & culture etc. That is why I’m finding this cruise disappointing in a way, as the other passengers don’t want to chat.  They stick in their little groups & getting a conversation going is like pulling teeth.
We wandered around the shops in Kirkenes but bought only coffee & cake. Kylie has always told us about the beautiful creamy Norwegian cakes, often coated in Marzipan. Well today we saw them in our coffee shop which doubled as a bakery.

Dinner last night was a highlight. A buffet with Alaskan King Crab – as much as you could eat!  And there were some leftovers put out for lunch today. It was very fresh, very sweet & we really enjoyed it. There was plenty of choice but how could you go past the crab? Tonight the main course is Spicy Roasted Reindeer. We had reindeer the other night too. Seems wrong to eat reindeer somehow but it is tasty & tender.

We are anxiously awaiting 8:30 so we can go to dinner & at the moment we are in Bâtsfjord which is the Norwegian port known for the largest fish catch.  Overall we call at 33 ports & a Hurtigruten ship leaves Bergen every day going north & one leaves Kirkenes every day going south so we have passed a lot of other ships going the opposite way to us. The ships run to a very tight timetable & seem to be on time or very close to it. Since they are picking up & dropping off people & freight all the way, that is important. By 10:45 tomorrow we will be in Hammerfest. We have been amazed to see how Norway is made up of so many islands. The charts must be excellent as there are thousands of small rocky outcrops.only a very small percentage of our travel is in the open sea which is great. It’s mostly very calm & flat.

It was a beautiful clear night, little wind, & not too cold out on deck. Just incredible to see. The sun sunk lower in the west as it came up on the east, so we had continuous sunshine. Wonderful!  We are above 70°.

This morning a celebration was held on deck to celebrate being in the Arctic circle (We’re in the circle for 4 days) & King Neptune visited. People who were silly enough to allow themselves to be baptised by having iced water put down the inside of their shirts were rewarded with a free shot of something Norwegian & alcoholic. We stayed well away.

This afternoon we went on an excursion into the countryside from the lovely city of Tromso to a place where you can go sledding with a team of huskies if you visit in the winter. The dogs are very friendly & love people & the puppies are georgeous. We could hold a pup – they were one month old. The woman who owns the place, Tove Sorensen, has raced in the famous Alaskan race, itidarod, in 2006. She has written her story; apparently it is an inspirational story. One of the other Aussies has read it.

We’ve now found 8 Aussies but I don’t think there’s anymore. The majority of people are Norwegian or German. Hardly any Americans, a few English but mainly, Norwegian & German. They don’t seem very friendly. You ask if you can share their table at breakfast or lunch & they’ll nod but it’s really hard work to get a conversation going. Of course, it would help if we could speak their language.

Over 250 huskies are kept, they are trained & in winter they take people on rides. It seems a very popular tourist attraction & I think a lot of locals go there too.

I’ve taken so many photos. It is so beautiful wherever you look. There’s a lot of snow in the mountains here & I think it looks so pretty. I love it!

Don’t we look elegant?

Very interesting rock formations:

This morning around 7:15 we crossed into the Arctic circle. The tour leaders made a bit of a fuss but it was a simply beautiful morning as you can see in this picture:

It didn’t get dark at all last night but tonight we are officially in the land of the midnight sun & will be for the next 4 nights. Everywhere we look, it is so pretty. There’s a great deal of snow on some of the mountains & it’s quite cold on deck but lovely & warm inside. This is the marker which signifies 66°33 minutes & the Arctic circle. We had early lunch today & then went on a great adventure which will be the focus of the next blog.

This morning we docked in Trondheim for a few hours & I really wanted to do the kayak tour but my shoulder is still sore from the surgery just before we left so I had to give it a miss, sadly. But I had to be sensible. Instead tomorrow we’re doing a rib boat tour so that should be fun.

We walked into the city of Trondheim which is Norway’s third biggest city with a population of approx 180,000. It is very historical & has some beautiful old buildings & a lovely river.

Hurtigruten is a coastal freighting company & passenger transport & our ship can accomodate just over 800 guests as well as 32 cars & freight. A lot of Norwegians use the ships as a way to travel between the ports to get home or go to the doctor etc. those in the little places we visit also use it as their local coffee shop & come on board for the 20 minutes or so that we are in port to grab a coffee. Our kiosk is open 24/7.

This afternoon we travelled through a narrow straight & the Norwegian royal yacht with the king & queen was anchored there. They are celebrating their 25th jubilee with a little holiday. We were asked to go up on deck to wave & cheer. Some of the staff of the yacht lined up on deck as we passed & perhaps the King or maybe the captain. Who knows?

We also sailed past a very quaint old lighthouse this afternoon.

We’ve been allocated the late dinner time of 8:30 which is very late for us, as you know, but with it being sunny until midnight, we go to bed late & sleep in so it’s all good.

I’m living on fish – most of it raw or smoked salmon which is delicious & I’m loving it – for breakfast & lunch. Dinner is a set menu – tonight the entree is fish something, duck for mains & rhubarb compote. They try to use all local product which they pick up from the ports we visit. David is not so keen on fish but there’s plenty of choice at breakfast & lunch. So we’re all good.

The scenery all day has been wonderful. The weather has been kind until about 5 but then it showered. We’ve had a lazy day, watching this beautiful world go past & reading our books.

Tonight the sun will set at 12:03 & rise at 3:15. It seems very strange.

The buffet breakfast & lunch are everything you could want them to be. Dinner is a set menu with no choice for any of the three courses. We weren’t impressed with dinner tonight but we did enjoy breakfast & lunch. We have a pleasant couple from Newcastle at our dinner table which is the only one which is set seating. Just the 4 of us!

I think doing Scenic River cruises where everything is included in the one-off cost has spoiled us for others. On this ship you pay for everything except your 3 meals & everything is expensive as you would expect in Norway. A cappuccino cost the equivalent of $8.

Here’s a couple of photos from today: the second one I took at 10:30pm. There’s lots of snow on the mountain tops.

We’re heading into Alesund. Everywhere I look it’s magical.

We had a lazy morning & then packed up again to prepare for our cruise. First we visited the Hanseatic Museum which was very interesting. The people of Bergen were part of a massive trading system.  Fish caught in the north of Norway was dried here & exported by ship to Germany & other parts of Europe. The fish was traded for grain which was brought back to Norway. The traders were mainly Germans who lived a very uncomfortable life as young men before returning to Getmany to marry & have families.

Because of the risk of fire in the old buildings which are now the coloured ones which are UNESCO protected, the traders could have neither heat nor light in the working quarters. The cooking was done in a separate area back from the trading area.

We boarded the MS Trollfjord at 4 this afternoon & we’ve had a very nice dinner – lots of beautiful fish, cooked & raw, salmon in many forms. It was delcious.

We’ve unpacked in our cabin, stowed everything away & we sailed at 8. Here’s a couple of views of Bergen as we left. It is, of course, bright sunlight now at 8:35pm. The maximum today was 15°. Snow still sits on the mountain tops. Very beautiful.

Lucky for me, I was so tired last night that I put my head on the pillow & I was asleep but the concert noise kept David awake. It has been going all day since around 10 this morning. We think it’s freezing at 12° tonight but the young ones are heading to the concert in mini skirts & light coats.

So we slept in this morning which was lovely. Our hotel has a really good breakfast with everything you could possibly want but the coffee was so very strong that I couldn’t drink it!

We then wandered up the street & into some lovely little laneways with shops selling all the beautiful knitwear, traditionally made here. Beautiful fair isle jumpers but way too heavy for Brisbane weather.

We took the finicular up to the top of Mt Fløyen one of the 7 hills surrounding Bergen where the view was spectacular.

We were wandering around back in town & came across a “Rock & Roll” cafe so we stopped for lunch. It was a bit of fun & we shared a milkshake for two

We wandered to the port area to see where we board tomorrow & saw one of the other Hurtigruten ships come into port & dock. She just backed in – no tug or assistance.
Our hotel is right beside the harbour & there are some very nice boats moored beside the footpath. Both afternoons we’ve seen many people on board these boats having drinks – some squashed in very close. They wouldn’t need their own music – the concert is loud enough. We could even hear it clearly from up on the mountain.

We board our ship tomorrow afternoon & are looking forward to the next stage of our journey.