Hurtigruten - MS Trollfjord - Day 7

We arrived in Kirkenes at 10am. This is is as far as we will go; the place were we turn around.
Ee are only a few kilometres from the Russian border, and we would love to get even closer? A few of us got on a boat and sailed towards the border, others took the bus. The Norwegians here and the Russians are on very good terms and have been for centuries. The Russian trawlers over there might look worse for wear, but from the side, they looked a lot better. Rusty sterns go with the territory.

First we drove to the old mine at Bjørnvatn. Abandoned, for now at least.

It is really huge and everything used there is humongous.

When the municipal authorities were about to give up putting up new sheds at a certain bus stop, one of the miners had an idea. It was so good that they decided to give him 10.000 crowns for it. A lot of money at the time, but probably less than a new bus shed would cost every time the youngsters tore one down. The miner said that if anyone could tear this one down, he would give them the 10.000. Seeing as it weighs 14 tons, I think his money is safe.

Then to Storskogen where there is a border station. Not one of my best moments so I am not sharing that photograph. Back to the boat and we head back to Bergen.

In the afternoon we spent an hour in Vardø and I just made it around to the other side of the harbour to take a picture of this “bird-habitat”. On the other side, the house is bright red, not much paint left on this side. Keep in mind, that Vardø is in the arctic climate zone, not sub-arctic as the area round. So the winds from the ocean are probably pretty rough, and that side of the house faces the ocean.

Being so far north, you wouldn’t think people have their coffee outside, but they do. Maybe inspired by the fact that here, you are actually further east than Istanbul, 31°10´10”East to be exact.

Hurtigruten - MS Trollfjord - Day 6

In a little while, we will be docking in Honningsvåg. The weather is fantastic but it is not really warm when you are this far north. So sitting out on deck, reading or smoking your pipe as Henry is doing here, means you keep your jacket on and maybe even a blanket.

It takes some pretty thick ropes to tie up a ship like this, and more than one of course.

As you can see, maintenance is taken seriously on board this ship, everything is in perfect condition.

When we passed Kinnarodden, the Northernmost part of the European mainland, I hopped in the jacuzzi on the sundeck. Being at 71° North has to be celebrated with bubbles.

A nice and quiet day and there is no way I can get enough of the midnight sun. 11pm and the colours are fascinating.

Hurtigruten - MS Trollfjord - Day 5

Early in the morning we met yet another ship from the Hurtigruten fleet, MS Polarlys. It is hard to describe the light, this photograph is more or less as it came out of my Nikon D70, no Photoshopping, only minor adjustments to the raw-file in Nikon Capture, and I mean minor. I just say this so anyone who reads this can get an idea of what the light is like far up north at 7:52am.

I did not take many pictures this day, not even in Tromsø where we spent a few hours in the afternoon. The weather continues to be better than I would have dared to hope for. Shortly after 8pm we ran in to a patch of fog, this is the beginning of it J. But it did turn into real fog - no visibility whatsoever. It felt like sailing in milk when it was all around us. Two hours it was gone.

We are pretty far north by now, above 70°north and this is what it can look like a few minutes after midnight.

Hurtigruten - MS Trollfjord - Day 4

At 7:22am we passed the Arctic Circle 66°33’north and I was there to catch the moment. Right through this little island it goes.

After that a good breakfast (as always) it was time to gather my camera bag and tripod because I was off for an excursion. We were picked up at 8:30, by a boat out at sea and then we headed towards Svartisen. It is a glacier called that, it means black ice. This is not a glacier from the ice age so the colour is a bit different than the colour of glaciers that are older. You can see the grey nuance when it is raining but we were luckier than that, the weather was absolutely perfect today too.

What I did get, was an opportunity to take a picture of MS Trollfjord as it sailed on. We would meet again in Bodø.

A few pictures from the 90 min. trip on a little boat with a guide that said everything in Norwegian, English and German. I was pretty tired in the end, hearing the same info in three languages.

The first one is a picture of a white tailed eagle, sitting there all by it's lonesome. The guide told us it usually sits there with what food it has collected, enjoying it. Sort of like us humans, we love to enjoy our meals and have a good view at the same time. I did miss my 18-300mm Sigma several times during this trip, this was one of those moments.

Then there is this colouful old abandoned factory. Good quality paint that has lasted so long. One of my faves pictures from the trip. Ansel Adams said that 12 significant pictures a year is a good crop. For me, this is one of mine.

This is one of the many fingers of the glacier, I think she said there were 13 in all, but I might be wrong.

A short walk from the boat to the lake in front of the glacier, we could not get any closer and I found that a little disappointing – I know from home how fascinating it is to be standing close to the ice, to see it for real.

But a charming place and they served coffee and hot chocolate and cakes of many different kinds.

Then back to the boat, over to the other side and there we were picked up by a bus that would take us to Bodø.

The one above is taken from the bus, not a quality shot, but I love they way it was in a way hovering over our heads.

We made one stop to get some refreshment at the local grocery store and we stopped at Saltstraumen too – nowhere in the world is there a stronger tidal current; 372 million cubic metres of water passes four times a day - a popular place for fishing and I have never seen anything like it - there were 10-15 people fishing there when we arrived and they were literally heaving them in. The picture on the left does not do the place justice, but I did want to try to capture the force of those currents. A beautiful place and one is always in awe at such power.

The ship was waiting in Bodø; we arrived there just before 3pm, after an interesting little trip.

It was that afternoon that I heard why the captain had blown the horn the day before. It WAS because of that little boat with the flag. An older couple that was travelling with the ship had been on holiday on Malta some years before and met another couple from Norway. The kept in touch and now that they were sailing right by, they decided to have a rendezvous at sea and the captain was kind enough to acknowledge the little meeting. So, I went to our cabin, took out the Canon Selphy CP400 printer that I had brought along and made two copies. Peter, who had met them, presented them with the postcards and they were very surprised. I guess the other couple felt much the same when they got a card in the mail – I know they sent it from the ship and I know for a fact that the mailbox was emptied every day.

There were so many things to see this day – at 7:30pm we came to Stamsund and from there on to Svolvær, both part of Lofoten. We strolled around Svolvær for almost an hour. I bought some dried fish, popular in Iceland too, but foreigners usually decline the offer to taste this wonderful snack. These two boats were in the harbour in Svolvær.

Here we meet MS Midnatsol (Midnightsun) our sistership in the Hurtigruten fleet. And both captains really blew their horns, repeatedly, almost a little contest they have going. There is a towelwaiving contest, but I'll get around to telling you about that strange thing later on, when we are further north.

And if we had not seen enough for one day, we sailed into Trollfjorden late that night; our ship must be named after it. It is not as long as Geirangerfjorden, but really narrow and turning around took some effort.

Just before midnight we sailed out of Trollfjorden again, long days indeed. And then they sailed into the sunset ... it's just that the sun does not set, it hardly takes a dip even, and is on it's way up again.

Hurtigruten - MS Trollfjord - Day 3

On th 3rd day we arrived in Trondheim just after 8 in the morning and were joined by three more family members - and now all 12 were here at last.
As we would be stopping in Trondheim for 4 hours, we all went for a stroll. Trondheim was Norway’s capital once and was actually called Nidaros. Nidar is the river that flows through this beautiful city and into the North-Atlantic. Most of the houses in Trondheim are built from wood and I managed to capture many of the older houses standing on the old Bybrua (Town Bridge) in this photograph - the river Nidar between the rows of colourful buildings.

In the afternoon, sitting in the Panorama room, the captain blew the horn. Curiosity got the better of me; I grabbed my camera and ran out on deck. Hmmm. Could not see anything special except for this little boat here were a woman was waving the Norwegian flag. I thought I might as well take a shot or two, but almost deleted them when I loaded the day’s catch into the laptop that evening.

Late in the evening we were heading towards a "holey" place in absolutely beautiful weather. We are getting closer and closer to the Arctic Circle so the nights are lovely and light. You can see it there, the mountain a little to the left of the center.

I was in merry company out on deck, among others some Aussies that were really having a good time.

We got there, the mountain is called Torghatten, and it is one of Norway's spectacular places - this hole is 112 meters over sea-level - it is 25-30 meters high and 12-15 meters wide - and the picture is taken just after midnight. We passed it again on our way south, and I took a picture then too, in daylight. The captain blew the horn once we were there and that horn never seizes to amaze me - so powerful.

Oh, I wished I didn’t have to sleep; I just want to see it all.

Hurtigruten - MS Trollfjord - Day 2

I was so tired after long day that I was not able to sleep for very long. The bed was not very good either, so I just got up just after four in the morning. Took my camera with me and went for a stroll. I had not inspected all the decks the night before and could do that now, or at least some of it. There were nine decks in all, our cabin were on deck 6.

Went and got myself a cup of coffee and then up to deck 8, the panorama room. We were in a little place called Måløy and I saw that someone got off the ship and a few new passengers got on board. The Hurtigruten ships are also used to get between towns on the coast. Richard With who started this adventure over 100 years ago wanted to do just that, make it possible for the Norwegians travel between towns in a relatively fast manner. Those fjords were not easy to get around as there were no roads in some of them. And in Måløy we met another sister ship, MS Kong Harald. There was no blowing of horns, as it was in the middle of the night and all but a few passengers were fast asleep.
The weather was so lovely the night before and the clouds that were there when I woke up started to scatter, little by little.
When we came to a small village called Torvik it was 7:30 and now the other passengers were up and running, some literally running - there was a marathon group that met on deck 6 every morning at 7am. If you wanted to run 1 kilometre, that was 4 rounds. I spent a lot of time out on deck 6 during the trip, but I didn't run, just walked a lot, taking pictures. This one is from that morning. I wish I could put into words how the light is, the colours - but I can't. Hopefully the pictures depict what I would like to be able to describe.
First breakfast on the ship and I found out that they of course had the Norwegian brown cheese that I love so much, and my breakfast every morning was two slices of delicious newly baked bread with cheese, yoghurt, orange juice and tea.
Just before 9 that morning we came to Ålesund - a beautiful town that burned more or less to the ground in 1904 and was rebuilt in Jugend style.
That afternoon we sailed all the way in Geirangerfjorden, breathtaking. These waterfalls were there, on each side of the fjord. The Seven Sisters on the left and The Suitor on the right. He is said to have proposed to all of them and got seven no’s all in all. After that, he took to the bottle.

You might see that The Suitor is divided and you can see a bottle there in the middle. We sailed all the way in and there some of the passengers were met by a little boat that took them ashore and they continued on a bus trip and met the ship in another town later that evening. The crew took the opportunity to take one of the rescue boats for a spin, testing the gear, probably trying to make sure that they know the drill, no matter what. Those boats can put in the water in a jiffy, should anyone fall overboard.
Everything ran smoothly on board and the crew was always ready and able to help out, and always with a friendly smile.

Hurtigruten - MS Trollfjord - Day 1

As I think I have said earlier, we were all invited by Gunnild who wanted to celebrate her 80th birthday with her spouse, with her children and their significant others and the two grandchildren of course.
We started out from Copenhagen in the early afternoon and flew to Oslo and from there to Bergen. We were a bit stressed in Oslo as we were late out of Copenhagen due to loading problems and had to fetch our luggage once we got to Oslo. Strange, as we were taking a domestic flight from the very same airport. Well, we had to take our luggage through customs and check in again. We had just under an hour to get this done and when there is a passenger in a wheelchair, you are asked to come to the gate early. Well, we managed it all and soon we were in the air again.
I had already contacted a taxi company in Bergen and ordered a big taxi for all of us, the baggage and room for a wheelchair. I got a confirmation both via telephone and email and thought everything would be fine. But there was no taxi. I walked around the parking lot and saw a big taxi from the same company. No, he was not the one. No, he was not busy. Yes, he could drive us to the ship. He just had to check with the switchboard. We had enough time, but I was disappointed the deal didn't hold. When I ordered that taxi, I had also ordered a taxi for July 7th. This guy Arild was so nice and helpful so we made a new deal with with him as he was going to be working that day and would be glad to give us an hours sightseeing in Bergen on our way to the airport. He said he would clear it with the company, and that he did.
Check-in was smooth and suddenly we were on the ship and it all seemed real now :)
We left Bergen at 8pm, Monday June 26th. The weather was fabulous as you can see, and as we are already a bit far north (60°22'N), there is still daylight.
That first night we got the general idea of how we might not fit into our clothes at the end of the trip. The food was amazing and stayed that way. Breakfast and then hopefully one meal a day is what I am used to. "Hopefully" because I tend to forget or just make sandwiches. Two meals are what I get when I am in Iceland, visiting family and friends and having lunch and dinner every day. Well. I tried for two days, holding back that is, and then I just gave up. I would eat my usual breakfast and come lunch and dinner, I would just go with the flow. Here you have a group photo that first night. We will probably gain weight and be bigger in that way, but we will also grow bigger in the sense that three more are joining us in Trondheim, two days from now.

Back again

Iceland was, as always, fantastic. Met friends and family, but not enough time to meet as many as I would have liked though. I stayed there for 7 days. Rain the first 4 days, then 2 days of sun and some clouds and then the last one a truly fabulous with lots of sunshine and the bluest of blue skies. I am not much for saying that Iceland is the best, the biggest and so on, but the sky somehow seems endless when the sun is shining.
I am trying to get some photographs ready from the trip to Norway and posting them on flickr, one day at a time. When I am done with Norway, and the few I took in Iceland, I will post something here on the blog from both trips.
Have had very little time to read these past weeks, just one who-dunnit, not much time to concentrate on anything else.
I am really tired after all this travelling and really do need some rest. I have a translation job that will probably last for a few months so I better get some rest the next few days in order to be ready for that job.

Off again

Just getting ready; photobag is packed, and a book, my ticket and lipstick. Ok, there's the toothbrush too, not to worry. I am all set for a week in Iceland. Photos and notes from Norway when I come back and hopefully some from Iceland too.

First shot from the cruise with MS Trollfjord, more to follow

Just a few minutes after we left Bergen on June 26th. More pictures on flickr already, but my blog will have to wait till after I've been to Iceland.

I'm back, for now

Really, really tired after a trip that was absolutely fantastic but difficult too. Can't seem to muster any energy for that trip to Iceland tomorrow. Anyone care to donate some energy?