Tuesday, 18 February 2025
Overnight we sailed past the mouth of the Sognefjord and Bergen so we are now sailing in waters that we have not sailed before during our northbound journey. This morning in glorious weather we started heading along the spectacular Hardangerfjord. While Bernie was in the shower I headed down to Deck 6 to snap some photos of the mountains in the last of the pink sky from the sunrise that had occurred about 40 minutes earlier. We have blue sky and sunshine BUT the temperature is at -6°C and as usual it feels colder.
We headed up to breakfast and chose a seat next to the window so that we could continue to enjoy the views. We sailed past a settlement with a blanket of snow around the houses and a fir tree covered mountain behind. I said to Bernie how lucky are those people to be living in a picture postcard view?
About 9.30am we arrived at our point of interest for the morning, the Furebergfossen Waterfall. A bridge carries Route 500 over the outfall of the waterfall. With the temperature at -6°C the waterfall was partially frozen so its face was a mixture of ice sheets with water trickling down in between. Maryann held the ship stationary in front of the waterfall for some time so that passengers could take their photos of the bridge and the waterfall and the fjord and the mountains. Plenty of spectacular and photo worthy scenery to record. And did I already mention … the sun was shining!
The waterfall was the furthest point that we sailed into the Hardangerfjord and it was now time to start heading back to the coast. After about half an hour we reached the beautiful village of Rosendal located on the southern shore of the Hardangerfjord. The majestic snow capped mountains of Folgefonna National Park loomed behind it. We were able to zoom in on the Kvinnherad Church, a white stone church, that we had been told dates to the mid-1200s. Such a pretty village, surrounded by so much spectacular scenery!
After rugging up for a couple of forays up to Deck 9 to take photographs, LOTS of photographs we decided it was time to relax in our cabin where it is so much warmer and we are still able to watch the passing scenery from our port side porthole. Even with the sun shining it’s cold on deck and it’s a bit draining to stay out for too long.
We made a point of having our showers and breakfast in good time to be ready to photograph the points of interest we were passing this morning. We were OK on deck in all our layers but obviously some people just come sort of ‘as they are’ when the announcements are made. One guy was up there in a huge puffer jacket but had bare legs and Crocs on his feet. What? Did he just roll out of bed, throw on his puffer and head on up? I saw another passenger in shorts, yes, shorts and Mark was up there in socks and sandals. How un-Australian we told him!
We can return to the dining room shortly for some lunch with a view and then we’ll be at Haugesund about 3.00pm. Fingers crossed that the weather holds so that we can explore the town in fine weather.
We sailed into Haugesund via what was once known as Nordvegan Strait which gave Norway its name. Haugesund has the nickname ‘Home of the Viking Kings’. We arrived right on time and the weather was still beautiful. So gorgeous in fact that we didn’t put our overpants on and we didn’t wear our mittens, just our lighter gloves to venture off into the city. As we sailed further south there was no longer visible snow on the mountains and the city itself is completely free of snow and ice so we left our ice grippers behind too!
We eschewed the shuttle bus and walked over the Karmsund Bridge into the city centre. Our first stop was at the Marilyn Monroe statue which Bernie had noted was in town when he was looking at Google Maps a couple of days ago. We didn’t know why there was a statue of Marilyn while we were viewing it but I had to find out why as I was writing this entry in the travel diary. The internet tells me that Marilyn’s father was a baker in Haugesund before he emigrated to the United States. The statue, created by Norwegian sculptor Nils Aas was unveiled in 1992, 30 years after her death in 1962.
Our next stop was at the Pink Town Hall of Haugesund. The town hall was designed by architects Gudolf Blakstad and Hermann Munthe-Kaas and was a gift of shipowner Knut Knutsen and his wife, Elizabeth. Opened in 1931, the pink building was once voted Norway’s most beautiful town hall. For us it brought to mind the Casa Rosada (federal government offices) in Buenos Aires.
We continued along today’s recommended walking route to the church, Vår Frelsers Kirke. Although we didn’t go in, today’s guide says that it is an aisle-less church in a cruciform design that was built in 1901. Onwards to Byparken Park where we found plenty of locals out with their dogs on such a lovely afternoon. Our city map says that the owner of the land, Ditlef Møller i Kronå went bankrupt in 1878 and the bank took over the large property. Fortunately for the locals the bank converted some of the land into a public park. The park features a picturesque pavilion that dates from 1923.
From the park we could see the spire of another church so we walked a little further to photograph Skåre Church. The church was designed by C.H. Grosch and completed in 1858 and is adjacent to the town’s oldest cemetery.
Next we made our way to the Harald Hårfagre (Harald Fairhair) statue that honours the first King of Norway. Harald is credited with uniting the numerous Viking kingdoms under a single ruler in 870. The sculpture was unveiled in 2013 and has become a popular attraction for tourists.
After our circuit around town we visited The Viking Planet. Hmmn, with no actual artifacts this ‘museum’ offers an immersive and educational digital museum experience that focuses on Viking history. Our guide says that the way The Viking Planet combines education, tradition and innovation makes it a world innovator in both the tourism and entertainment industries. They may strive to give their guests a unique experience to teach them about Viking history but, call us old fashioned, we’d rather see some actual relics of the period, particularly in a city that considers itself the ‘Home of the Viking Kings’!! The sun had set by the time we came out of the museum so the temperature had dropped considerably. It was still fine but chilly so we walked briskly back to the ship.
On the way back to the quay we photographed the bright yellow DolWin Epsilon transformer platform that dominates Aibel’s historic shipyard on the Smeda Sound. Originally a ship building yard the site is now building platforms for the petroleum and offshore wind sectors. The 80 metre long DolWin Epsilon transformer is destined for a wind farm in Germany’s North Sea sector. It will be converting electricity generated by 50 wind turbines from alternating current to direct current for transmission to land where it will be converted back to alternating current for transmission over the grid to about a million households in Europe.
We were back on the boat before 6.00pm so we were able to make our scheduled dining time at 6.30pm. The girls were eating dinner in the Brasserie Árran tonight so we enjoyed our meal in Mark and Claudia’s company. Another delicious meal with convivial dining companions. At the start of this cruise we said we were going to eat in the posh restaurant – Røst Arctic Fine Dining – at least once but, honestly, the food and the company in the Flora main restaurant has been so good we just haven’t gotten around to booking the fancy restaurant and now we have run out of time. On the plus side, a meal at Røst costs extra, it’s not part of the all-inclusive deal so we’ve saved ourselves some $$.
We cast off at 8.00pm but have only moved as far as the refuelling station on the other side of the sound. We’ll be refuelling for about two hours before we actually leave Haugesund for Kristiansand on the second last leg of our voyage. The smokers have been told that they are not allowed to smoke for the duration of the refuelling period.
Steps: 15,130 (10.18km)
