Norway by Sea: Three Nights, Arctic Fjords and a Spoonful of Cod Liver Oil

I’m not a cruise person, but this little one was lovely. Peter and I were travelling with his sister Margaret. We three made our way to Narvik in Norway and spent a couple of days there. It’s a great place to visit, not too big but just big enough to keep the tourists happy.

The real problem for us was that we were there in Norway in September. It’s not full-on winter, so a morning temperature of +1° C was quite acceptable to the locals. Not being locals meant that we were so rugged up it was not a case of striding out, but sort of shuffling because of the all the clothes we had on.

Anyway, we walked around and found the main shopping centre. It was great. Plenty of places to see, all sorts of shops and things, and lovely cafes. When we left to go back to our accommodation the temperature had risen to all of +6° C. Wow, and it was only a couple of days into Autumn.

After two nights we made our way to a bus which was taking us to Svolvaer where we would board our Hurtigruten Cruise Ship. Well, a four hour trip on a bus, lovely, easy, plenty of scenery to look at until STOP. Our bus had decided it wanted to have a rest, so it had a flat tyre. You don’t just jack it up and change the tyre, you need a whole new bus.

The closest replacement bus was at Narvik airport about 30 minutes drive away. Luckily we could stay on the bus because the cold air didn’t appeal to a lot of us. The replacement bus eventually arrived, a little later than 30 minutes. But, we got on and it got us to the wharf.

Boarding the Hurtigruten Cruise Ship

We made our way to the boarding area and there was nothing there to tell us we were in the right place, or when the ship would arrive. I did begin to wonder if we were in the right place, but Peter (our trip organizer) said it was fine, don’t worry, just sit and be patient! We did find out that the Cruise Ship would arrive about 6.30pm and then sail at 8pm.

Well, he was right. Eventually the ship arrived and we got our bags and boarded it. They have a very streamlined boarding system, and we were checked on board, passports checked, cabin keys issued and we were off to drop our bags in the cabin and find somewhere to eat.

Freedom of Choice!

You can book to eat all your meals in the restaurant on board, but we didn’t want that. It wasn’t cheap and we like to have the freedom of choice when it comes to food. Plus, the cost was high. To be fair, Norway is an expensive place to visit. We thought that everything was about double what it is back home, but we found out that the wages are double too. So, their cost of living looked a bit like ours just higher all round.

Anyway, we made our way to the Bistro. It’s not big, obviously most people do the restaurant thing. But, the Bistro was excellent. On the first night we tried a Moose Sausage, and it was very good. We did have a glass of wine once we recovered from the cost shock. Basically, it came down to one bottle of wine costing about A$100.

A good meal, a nice glass of excellent wine, and it was time to get a good nights sleep. We were having an early start tomorrow and had to find the Breakfast Bar.

The early start involved being up on deck at the back of the ship at 7am! We went past the Arctic Circle Marker on a rock in the ocean which was interesting. But, for some reason, there was a special treat too. If you got in the queue and had a teaspoon of Cod Liver Oil, you got to keep the teaspoon. Well, what else would you do! We got the teaspoons.

Breakfast was on the top deck of the ship. There was a coffee bar style place with some excellent food and coffee. As we hadn’t booked the restaurant deal, this was our breakfast place, and I am happy to say we made the right choice. The food was lovely and so was the coffee. The wonderful thing about this Breakfast Bar was that you could get lunch there too. The only draw back was that it didn’t open until 10am, but they did make coffee earlier if you asked nicely.

During the days, the entertainment was by choice. The ship ran some ‘workshop’ style things, or you could find a comfy chair and watch the world sail by. As this cruise took you into every Fjord possible along the coast, there were some lovely views. Some days there was one long stop when you could get off and have a walk around the village/town, wherever it stopped. You could take a tour if you booked it with the cruise people.

You have to get off to meet the locals

We took ourselves off the ship and walked in the local area, and back when we had walked enough. We did this twice on the three night cruise, and it was just a lovely way to experience different communities. First time was a place called Bronnoysund where we checked out some interesting shops. The second walk was through Trondheim, and there were roadworks everywhere. Still, as we had started at 6.30am we found somewhere for breakfast and had a very good time in Trondheim.

Back on board, more of the same. Sitting in a comfy chair watching the world go by and seeing some lovely scenery. I’m not one for doing nothing so I had bought some crochet ‘cotton’ and a crochet hook in Narvik. I was making drink coasters to send to our cousins in Sweden. It was very pleasant sitting there, slowly sipping some wine and making some coasters. I made my own pattern as I couldn’t buy one in Narvik, they were all in Norwegian.

Over before your know it!

Departing was another interesting event. We had to leave the cabin by 10am, even though we weren’t leaving the ship for some time after that. But, it gave the crew time to get in to clean the cabins and get them ready for the next lot of guests who were joining the ship as we were leaving it. The comfy seats were hard to find because so many of the people were leaving!

By the end, I asked myself was the cruise worth it. My answer was yes. Lovely food, comfortable accommodation, meeting so many people and enjoying chatting.

We continued to eat at the Bistro, and each night we chose something different.

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