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| The inland passage, somewhere a little north of the Arctic Circle |
We don’t take cruises. We don’t go on tours. When it comes to travel, we like to “roll our own.”
But we did take a cruise recently. It was good. It was very good!
It all started with our wanting to see the Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights. We’d both seen them, long long ago, on our separate adventures in Alaska. And we wanted to experience them again. We considered a winter-time camp in Sweden, but COVID squashed that idea. More recently we found out about the 12-day passenger ferry that travels up the Norwegian coast…
Every day a ship leaves Bergen, in southern Norway, and makes its way north along the fjords, islands, and coast, arriving in Kirkenes (near the Russian border) six days later. Along the route it makes 32 stops—often for only 10 or 15 minutes—dropping off and picking up passengers, packages, and cargo.
When the Hurtigurten Line started this route in 1893 it was the only service available for the isolated coastal communities. Today larger cities have airports, and there is an extensive road network (we passed under many highway bridges!), but the ferry is still important part for these communities.
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| The territory: Norway. Each red dot is a town where we stopped, however briefly... |
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| Our boat, seen from a street near out hotel. Would we make it? |
Tourism has gained in importance, and the ferry is now a cruise-like experience. We chose the Havila line, a new service established in 2021. Havila promises a future free passage if no Northern Lights are seen!
(Spoiler alert: we saw the Lights!)
The big question was when to go? A ship leaves every day of the year. We wanted daylight to see the landscapes; we wanted night to see the Aurora; we wanted a taste (just a small sampling) of winter weather. Ah! The spring equinox, when day and night are equal. Perfect!
The logistics were a bit complex, but Paula sorted it out: we took the train to Pairs, spent the weekend wandering around, then flew to Bergen on Monday. We had all day Tuesday in Bergen before the evening departure. And as it turned out, having that extra time in Bergen was a Very Good Thing.
Because we arrived in Bergen to an unfortunate reality: I woke up at our hotel quite ill, with fever and chills.
What to do, when you’re traveling and get sick? It’s a problem we’ve rarely had to face, but we knew the best thing is to lay low and rest. Except, our cruise left that evening! There was no doctor on the ship; so, if I got worse, I might have to get off at one of those small towns to seek medical care. But the thought of returning home to Montpellier was unpleasant: Paula did a quick check, and a trip home would involve another day or two in Bergen plus a whole day in planes and airports. (Plus, of course, missing the whole trip!) What a terrible dilemma!
Then the lovely lady at our hotel suggested we see a “concierge” (private) doctor. Fortunately, there was one a few blocks away: Dr. Dropin; although as it turned out we had to make an appointment. But we did see the doctor, who did a quick blood test, asked me a lot of questions, and wrote a prescription for antibiotics. Then he walked us to the clinic door, pointed across the rain-drenched town square, and said, “There’s a pharmacy.”
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A private medical clinic, in Bergen, Dr. Dropin!
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A half-hour later we were enjoying a wonderful bowl of soup at the cute cafe next to our hotel. I was inexpressibly relieved: my dilemma was resolved. We had done exactly the right thing in seeking local medical care. We were going! And I will long remember the moment I unlocked our cabin door a few hours later to be welcomed by soft, warm indirect lighting—and a cozy bed.
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| YES! We got on board! |
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| What a welcome--and welcoming--sight! |
I was still sick, but I got stronger. I did spend a lot of time in that oh-so-comfortable bed. But we had a window, and we found the wide-screen TV in our cabin would display a navigation chart showing our current position; another channel showed the video from a camera on the bow. It wasn’t like being there, but we weren’t isolated!
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| Our Window on the World (without getting out of bed!) |
And so the days continued. I felt better and better. I missed the stops the ship made those first few days, preferring to rest, but Paula did get off to visit the cities of Alesund and Trondheim.
Alesund
The town has an unusually consistent style, thanks to a massive fire in 1904 that destroyed most of the buildings. Over the next decade it was rebuilt in stone and brick, in the Art Nouveau style.
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Street scene in Alesund.
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| Some buildings Paula photographed during her walk through Alesund |
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| The canal, Alesund. |
The stop in Alesund was long, 10 hours, to accommodate a supplemental fjord boat excursion that took eight hours. Paula had plenty of time to explore this picturesque city; I had plenty of time to rest!
Trondheim
The next day we stopped for four hours in Trondheim. Again, I rested; Paula went exploring...
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| View from Gamle bybro, the Old Town Bridge, in Trondheim. |
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| The Ørekonkylie ("Ear Conch") sculpture, downtown. |
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| Nidaros Cathedral, 1300: burial place of the patron saint of Norway, King Olav II. |
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| Paula and the façade of Nidaros Cathedral, the northernmost medieval cathedral in the world. |
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| A strange sculpture in Trondheim! |
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He Led the Way: statue of Leif Eriksson in Trondheim Harbor.
According to legend, Leif sailed out of this harbor in the year 1000 and founded Vinland, known today as North America. (The statue is a gift from the city of Seattle.) |
This is Part One of our Norway blog; Part Two, North of the Arctic Circle, will be along soon!
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Munkholmen (Monk's Islet) at the entrance to Trondheim harbor.
Today a tourist attraction, it has been a monastery, a fortress, a prison, and a WW II gun station. |
