Norway – Day 5

Monday, 10 February 2025

 This morning after breakfast we sailed under the Nærøysundbrua (Nærøysund Bridge) which carries route 770 from Marøya to Inner-Vikna before docking at Rørvik (pronounced sort of like Rer-vik, maybe Row-er-vik?) Although it’s hard to describe what that ø sounds like. We put our coats and hats on and went up to Deck 9 to photograph the bridge and then watched the boat dock.

We returned to our cabin briefly before rugging up again to head out into the port town of Rørvik situated on Inner-Vikna the largest of around 6,000 islands, islets and skerries that make up the Vikna Archipelago. The town and its surrounding areas have a long history with burial mounds found in the area that date back to ancient times.

Our first stop was at Kystmuseet Norveg in its spectacular contemporary building adjacent to the dock. The building was designed by architect Guðmundar Jónsson and was nominated for the European architecture award in 2005. The museum housed an interesting collection of displays and archaeological finds from the Ice-Age, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages through to the Viking Era and the Middle Ages. The second part of the museum – The Salmon Centre Rørvik – was devoted to the fishing industry and included information about traditional fishing methods and modern salmon farming techniques.

A short distance from the Norveg building we found Berggården a beautifully preserved old trading house established by Johan and Betsy Berg in the 1870s. The building was their place of business and their home and it remains preserved much as it was when the shop closed at the end of the 1960s. The ground floor consists of the shop and the living rooms and kitchen giving a good impression of how the family lived and worked.

On the first floor there were interesting displays about making and repairing fishing nets and ropes, a room preserving the equipment of a GP’s practice, woodworking tools and an old schoolroom. A series of interesting little time capsules. The volunteer showing us around today was the son of the GP who ran his practice in the town in the early 60s. He was a fount of information BUT very slow with his delivery. We have to confess to bailing out on his guided tour part way through the first floor

When we entered the Berggården the guy selling our tickets to us told us that our ticket entitled us to cross over to the library to visit another museum. We wandered across to the Bibliotek to find that the museum housed in the library building is the Telemuseet. This was fortuitous as Bernie had read about a telecommunications museum in Rørvik but hadn’t quite been able to work out where it was. Problem solved! The guy who sold us our tickets earlier was now in the Telemuseet and he was passionate about telling us of Norway’s involvement in the development of telephone technology. The museum housed an impressive collection of phones chronicling the evolution of the telephone.

We made our way up the hill to Rørvik Church. The current iteration of the church was opened in 2019. Rørvik’s first church was built in 1896 but its façade and tower were damaged by a bomb during WWII. It was rebuilt with a significantly simplified look and served the community in that form until 2012 when it was badly damaged by fire. Following this the church was condemned by the insurance company. A few pieces survived from the old church which explained why an old-fashioned chandelier shared the ceiling with more modern light fittings. Other inventory from the old church has also been incorporated into the new church including the church bell.  

We walked back towards the dock finding a supermarket on our way. We were still on the hunt for green tea tea-bags and chocolate! Very pleased to record that the tea crisis has been averted with the purchase of some Lipton Japanese Sencha tea bags. I also discovered some Twinings Spicy Indian Chai Tea in the dining room at breakfast this morning. I missed it previously because it’s not in the Twining’s Teas presentation box but in a separate container hidden to the side. I don’t like it as much as my favourite Madame Flavour ‘Sultry Chai’ but it’s quite pleasant. Phew, now I have green tea and chai to enjoy for the rest of the trip. And chocolate!

Back on the boat in time for lunch … along with everyone else who had been wandering around town this morning. We still managed to find a table and there was food left at the buffet. The leek (and we suspect potato?) soup was delicious. As I was serving myself the lady beside me told me that she was back to fill up her mum’s bowl for the third time!

After lunch we retired to our cabin to discover that our cabin had not been serviced yet. Oh well, we decided to catch up on the travel diary and the photos until they knocked on our door. When the staff arrived to make up the cabin we put our coats on and headed to Deck 6 to complete enough laps to reach our half and hour exercise goal. Hmmn, owing to some repairs being undertaken on the deck we couldn’t walk circuits, we had to walk an almost complete circuit but back and forth between the red and white tape barriers. Still achieved the same result!

At 4.00pm we ventured down to the Lecture Hall for a session with the ship’s photographer offering some tips on capturing images of the Northern Lights … if they put in an appearance during our voyage. Fingers crossed. Unlike others on the cruise we have seen the Northern Lights and that phenomenon was not our main motivation for taking this trip it will just be a bit of a bonus if they do happen.

Another delicious three-course meal in the dining room at 6.30pm with Meredith entertaining us with the unusual names that have been bestowed upon her grandchildren and Mark telling us a hilarious story about his first meeting with his German father-in-law to be.

 

Steps: 9,741 (6.51km)