Saturday, 8 February 2025
Slept for eight hours but in blocks of three hours, three hours and two hours. I went back to sleep fairly quickly after I woke around 11.00pm. I struggled a bit to fall back to sleep when I woke just after 3.00am. When Bernie wasn’t snoring there was music and the noise of carousing patrons spilling out of the nearby nightclub. Eventually I managed a couple more hours of sleep, waking around 6.00am. Bliss to sleep laying down after that long haul flight and not too bad an effort at settling into the new time zone.
When we checked in yesterday afternoon the reception staff wanted us to book a time for breakfast. We said we didn’t know what time we would want breakfast because we did not know what time we would be picked up for our city tour. We were told that the Hurtigruten reps would be available later on to check those details. After we checked in with the Hurtigruten reps last night and learned that we would be picked up today at 10.00am we let reception know that we would like to book for breakfast at 8.30am.
So glad we did that!! We arrived in the foyer at 8.30am and there was a queue a mile long snaking towards the door of the restaurant. So many people trying to have breakfast all at the same time. So much for the staff trying to book people in for a time to try to manage the masses?? So we waited in the queue, inching ever closer towards the door and finally we were admitted to the dining room just before 9.00am! We had been chatting with an English couple in the queue behind us so when we saw that we were going to be seated at a table for four we said they should join us.
The breakfast spread was extensive with everything from fruit and cereal, breads and pastries to cooked options. We chatted more with Jeff and Liz who are from Chichester in the south of England. It took them just two hours to fly from London to Bergen. TWO HOURS!! Everywhere in Europe is so accessible. It was a rude reminder about just how far away Australia is from everywhere else in the world.
After breakfast we cleaned our teeth and finalized our packing in order to make our way to the foyer for our 10.00am pick-up. The coaches arrived and we were loaded up with our suitcases going into the belly of the bus. Today I was more alert and I caught the name of our guide, Morten, and our driver, Knut. I was too sleepy yesterday morning to note the names of our guide and driver, ha, ha!
We drove down past Rosencrantz Tower and continued around through the Bergenhus, Skuterviken and Sandviken areas of Bergen. These areas are very historical and many timbered buildings remain along the coast. From the west of the city we made our way back to the fish market. Morten was telling us that the market sells whale meat because Norway is still allowed to hunt whales. He was trying to make the eating of whale meat sound more acceptable by saying that they only hunt minke whales and they are only allowed to catch 700 whales annually and minke whales number around 100,000 so … it’s very sustainable. He said his family ate whale meat regularly when he was a child and it was once considered poor man’s steak. He encourages us to try some whale if the opportunity arises. Hmmn, I don’t think so.
We alighted from the bus adjacent to the ferry port and it was COLD. More cloud, less sun and a breeze contributing a wind chill factor to today’s temperature. Morten had us standing on the dock for about ten minutes pointing out landmarks and relating aspects of Norway’s history. Despite having my hat on I think my brain froze because I can’t recall many details, ha, ha. Lots of fires because the old city buildings were built from timber. They city burnt many time with the last fire in 1916 burning a huge area of the city resulting in the city council requiring rebuilding in stone. He also related some information about Germany’s occupation of Norway during WWII.
The tour continued along Strandgaten (I think) and we pulled up in a residential area to look at rubbish bins! The residents apply to the city council for a microchipped tag so they can access the bins. When they put their rubbish in the bins the waste is sucked along tubes for up to a kilometre to the waste processing plant. This is possible in large part because Bergen is a very compact city. Wow, no wheelie bins and no being woken at 5.30am by the garbage truck driving along your street.
We pulled up beside the statue of Henrik Ibsen where Morten talked about some Norway’s cultural treasures: Henrik Ibsen, of course, but also violin virtuoso and composer, Ole Bulls and composer and pianist, Edvard Grieg. Morten also related a brief history of Norway which I will summarize as: dependency of Denmark from 1536 until 1814 when it formed a Union with Sweden before gaining its independence in 1905. Although the Danes oppressed Norwegian’s culture for nearly three centuries, the Swedes were much more liberal about letting the Norwegians practice their cultural heritage in the lead up to regaining their independence.
From the centre of the city we drove out through Paradis, the posh part of town to the Fantoft Stavkirk. There are few of these traditional stave churches left in Norway and even this example is not ‘original’. It is has rather a chequered history. First it was going to be demolished at its original location but a businessman saved it and had it carefully deconstructed and re-built at this site on land that he owned. And there is was preserved for many years until the lead singer of a heavy metal band decided to torch it. It was burnt to a shell in the ensuing fire and, although the arsonist was not convicted of that crime due to a lack of evidence, he did do jail time for murdering the band’s bass player. In an interesting twist it was fans of the heavy metal band who had the church rebuilt. And that is why it now has a fence around it and CCTV cameras making photography difficult!
From the church we drove back to Bryggen where we were given half an hour to explore the area. Having walked through the flea markets yesterday we walked around the corner to photograph Mariakirken, a historic church dating from the 12th century, which we had driven past earlier and then completed a block around past Rosencrantz Tower and back to the bus.
With that being the final stop on our tour is was time to make our way to the Hurtigruten, specifically the MS Trollfjord on this trip that will be our home away from home for the next 13 nights. Yay, we can unpack our stuff and not have to re-pack until we arrive in Oslo.
We checked in at the desk and received an envelope of information and our ship cards. Upstairs we watched a safety briefing and then it was time to board the ship. All very smoothly handled. We made our way to our cabin which we found to be small but perfectly formed. It is compact but has everything that we need, including a porthole.
The original Trip a Deal price was for an inside cabin but we splurged a bit more cash and upgraded to an Arctic Superior cabin so that we would be able to view to the passing scenery. We are located in a short corridor that leads to the bridge so we figure it’s a pretty good spot at the front of the ship where it’s being operated from. The only tiny frustration is that while there are plenty of power points in the cabin, not one of them is at the head of the bed.
We attended a briefing session which included information about booking shore excursions and how to load the Hurtigruten App. After the session Bernie did that but couldn’t access anything so we headed up to see a member of the Expedition Team on Deck 8. Linus was able to advise that the wrong app had been loaded and showed Bernie the correct one to load.
Oh no, still having trouble accessing the app … like an old person. Back to see Linus who established that the problem is that the ship has recorded Bernie’s birth month as February instead of May? Linus says this sometimes happens when the passports are scanned. Since Bernie’s birthdate is the password he is just going to have to get used to being three months younger for the duration of the holiday. A shame it couldn’t have shaved a few years off, ha, ha. With all that sorted out we managed to book a couple more shore excursions during our northbound journey.
Our meal time has been designated at 6.30pm and, although tonight’s meal was free seating and at any time, we decided we might as well head to the dining room at the time we will be eating for the rest of our cruise. There was plenty of variety at the smorgasbord and hopefully everyone had clean hands. At the entry to the dining room there is a handwashing station with soap and water and paper towels and everyone is supposed to wash their hands before entering for their meal. Can only hope that everyone is doing the right thing. Fingers crossed.
After dinner we caught up a little bit on the blog before having another relatively early night. I managed to stay awake until about 10.00pm tonight so that’s a lot better than last night.
Steps: 7,412 (5.00km)
