Bonnetts Abroad Past Trips

Norway Cruise

On Fred Olsen's cruise ship Boudica, setting sail from Southampton.

We had an outside cabin, with two port holes, on one of the lower decks.

There was a bit of a smell of paint

On an earlier cruise the Boudica had lost power, this had been fixed temporarily by installing a massive generator on the top deck.

As this cruise had been arranged specfically for the eclipse there were two different astronomical tours on board. One tour had been arranged by Omega holidays, and they had some of the BBCs Sky at Night team with them, Stephen Lawrence, Paul Able and Jon Culshaw. The other tour was arranged by Eclipse of the Century, they had two scientists with them, Dr. Marek Kukula (Public Astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich) and Ed Gillen (University of Oxford).

Although we weren't with these tours, both teams gave lectures and presentations that could be attended by all.

The first full day at sea was lovely and calm, we could sea other ships in the distance, as well as some oil or gas rigs.

We thought that we would try and learn Bridge. We went down to the card room at the allocated time and we were paired up with another couple who were also novices.

The quality of the tuition wasn't very good, there was one woman running the class and she was distracted most of the time, so we didn't really know what we were doing.

That evening there was a beautiful sunset as we sailed north–west.

This developed into a force 12 of the coast of Norway

This evening it was the first of the Captain's cocktail parties, but the sea had been getting rougher all day.

We started getting ready for the party, but down in our cabin we were being thrown around quite a lot. Which unfortunately meant we didn't feel well enough to go.

As the evening developed we were being tossed around more and more.

At one point one of the ship's crew came into our cabin and screwed the metal covers over the portholes shut!

When we laid on the bed, we just slid up and down as the ship rolled from side to side.

The following day the captain announced that the storm had reached force 12!, That's quite windy.

Our first port of call was the lovely town of Alesund

We paid £70 each for the Islands of Giske and Godoy tour.

This was a four hour coach tour taking in some of the historic sites and scenery.

The island of Giske is reached by a series of tunnels and bridges that link all the small islands together.

The little stone Giske Church, dates back to 1150 and was once the Giske family chapel. Tora, one of the daughters, married King Harald Harfagre (Fairhair), who in the 9th century gathered Norway into one kingdom.

After the church at Giske, the coach took us via a tunnel to the island of Godoy.

Here we visited the lighthouse at Alnes, where we were served hot chocolate and cakes.

Afterwards we climbed to the top of the lighthouse.

The coach took as back towards Alesund and up to the top of Aksla Mountain. This was fortunuate for us, because the normal way up the mountain is via 450 steps from the town, and these were closed for repairs.

Very fine views over the town and surrounding mountains and fjords.

After the coach tour, we walked into the town of Alesund, a very pretty town, rebuilt after the fire of 1904, in an Art Nouveau style.

Where the Boudica is one of the smaller cruise ships it is able to get in close to the coast and to move through narrow fjords.

This afforded excellent views of the Norwegian scenery, including the Torghatten mountain.

This 846 feet high mountain has a hole 520 feet long and 66 feet wide through it, caused by melting ice during the last ice age.

Obviously ancient legends surround such a feature, according to which Torghatten was formed when the troll Hestmannen, disappointed in love, shot an arrow after the young girl Lekamoya who ran away from him. The Troll–King in Mount Somnafjellet saw this and threw his hat between them; the arrow went straight through the hat and formed the hole. The sun rose, and everyone was turned into stone.

A bit further up the coast there is the seven sisters, a chain of mountain along the shoreline.

From north to south the Sisters are Botnkrona (3,517 ft), Grytfoten (3,343 ft), Skjaringen (3,402 ft), Tvillingene (The Twins) (3,100 ft and 32,15 ft), Kvasstinden (3,313 ft) and Breitinden (2,985 ft).

On the tiny island of Vikingen is a marker positioned exactly on the Arctic Circle.

We watched it slide by from the aft deck, others were marking the occasion by drinking champagne in the Jacuzzi.

We were issued with certificates showing that we had crossed into the Arctic.

That evening, just as we were finishing our dinner, the Captain came on to the public address system and announced that the aurora was visible off the starboard side. A dining room has never been emptied so fast!

We stood outside for a while, but before too long we decided we had to go inside and get changed into something warmer. We were treated to a spectacular display of lights that evening that got steadily stronger as time went on.

Tromso sits on an island in the middle of a fjord, we approached through the fjords, passing under the road bridges linking the outlying islands.

This was an expensive tour, £130 each!

But worth it, the coach drove for an hour or so into the Norwegian countryside and took us to our viewing area in a dark valley.

The was a collection of huts and outdoor fires, also hot drinks and snacks were being served. Inspite of the fires there were plenty of dark places to set up camera. It wasn't long until a flickering of green light in the sky started to show.

We were witness to a very intense show, apparently the Northern Lights were so string that night that they could be seen from Northern England.

There were several coaches waiting to take us back. As people had enough they drifted back to the coaches and when each one was full, off it went.

The path between the coaches and the viewing area were very icy.

On the way back to the ship, we could still see magnificent auroral displays, even in the lights of Tromso.

Upon getting back to the ship we were given mulled wine.

Today we did the Arctic highlights tour, £60 each.

The first stop on this tour was over the Tromso Bridge to the the mainland and the Tromsdalen Church, known as the Arctic Cathedral, a modern clean looking church. We bought some post cards here.

Then we went to Polaria, a building that resembles blocks of ice thrown together. Here we watched several video and widescreen presentations before visiting the aquarium to look at the seals, this aquarium has a tunnel to walk through and the seals can be seen swimming from underneath.

Final stop of the tour was the cable car station.

The cable car goes to the top of the Storsteinen (Big Rock). A viewpoint overlooking the city of Tromso.

I had ice–grippers that fit over my shoes, so ventured away from the main viewing area up onto the ice, didn't feel safe even with the grippers. Plus, away from the main building, the wind was bitingly cold.

The coach didn't take a direct route back to the ship, but drove around the city while the guide pointed out interesting features and told us some of the history of the city.

The tour to Hammerfest cost £80 each and lasted about 8 hours.

After leaving Alta, we drove up onto the Finmarksvidda mountain plateau, the guide pointing out various features of interest on the way.

We stopped up on the platteau and everyone got out just to experience the emptiness of the place, and to take photographs.

On the way we passed many memorable features. We drove over the World's most northerly suspension bridge in Kvalsund.

We arrived in Hammerfest, not quite the most northerly city in the world, but the most northerly with a reasonably large population.

We had come to see the Meridian Monument, the last in a chain of survey triangulation points that stretches from the Black Sea, known as the Struve Geodetic Arc. The obelsisk marks the point of the original triangulation point, and is now on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

A very cold biting wind here.

Then it was time for lunch, we were taken to a Sami camp, Mikkelgammen, were Sami people dressed in there traditional clothes served us a delicious reindeer stew, while they sang traditional songs and spoke of their nomadic way of life, herding reindeer.

The Sami camp was on a hill overlooking the main town of Hammerfest, with views of the harbour and the bay.

Apparently the rock in the bay is the world's largest free rock, i.e. it isn't attached to the sea bed.

Last stop in the tour was the Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society, a museum with exhibits highlighting the tradiion of hunting and fishing within the Arctic Circle.

Today we visted the Igloo Hotel at Sorrisnova.

We had a good look around the outside, including snowmobile garages made from ice, before going inside.

The inside is decorated with ice statues and sculptures, even an ice chapel with altar and ice pews.

Even the beds are made of ice, covered in animal skins. Which did give them that damp animal smell.

People do stay here overnight!

A free alcoholic drink was included in the tour fee, not sure what it was, but it was certianly warming, quite welcome when the temperature inside the hotel is kept below –4 deg C.

We arrived at Leknes on the Lofoten Islands in the morning, the scenery was rugged coastlines and snow covered mountains

The parking slot was taken, so Boudica moored in the bay and we were tendered across to the shore.

First stop was at Borg to visit the Lofotr Viking Museum, build on the site of an ancient Viking farm discovered in the early 1980's.

The museum consists of three parts, an interactive audio/visual part with the unearthed, historic artefacts on display, then going outside there's a reconstruction of a Viking long house, here talks and demonstrations of the Viking way of life are given. Lastly on the way out there is an array of shops selling various different memorabilia.

We then proceeded to the preserved fishing village of Nusfjord, another UNESCO protected site.

Here we were given lunch, a buffet of hot and cold food, plenty to choose from.

We were then left to our own devices to explore the village and various properties within it, very picturesque.

The last stop was at Vikten to see Asvar Tangrand, the glassblower. In 1977, he ws the first in Northern Norway.

Unfortunately, the same storm that had tossed us around a few days earlier had passed up the coast and damaged his kiln, so we weren't able to have a glass blowing demonstration, but it was a lovely spot to be in.

A full day at sea whilst we traversed to the Eclipse viewing area

20th March, the day of the Eclipse, and also the spring equinox. I went outside at seven in the morning, it was snowing! The cloud layer was thick and dark, it wasn't looking good.

But as the Moon started to cover the Sun, the cloud started to clear slightly and we could catch glimpses of the partial eclipse through the cloud.

Then as totallity approached, the captian came on to the public address system and advised anyone who was standing up to hang on to something. A hole in the cloud cover had been spotted, the ship turned to starboard and arrived under clear sky just seconds before the first diamond ring.

The hole in the cloud stayed open, and the captain was able to keep the ship under it for the duration of the eclipse.

Shortly after the second diamond ring, the cloud started to return in patches and only glimpses of the remaining partial eclipe could be seen.

Punch and bacon sandwiches were served on the aft deck.

Later in the day three Fred Olsen ships sailed in formation for a while.

We were issued with certificates with the details of the eclipse on them

We paid for a tour of the Faroe Islands, and boarded the coach in the morning.

The guide for our coach was a very humourous character, and spoke extemely good English.

We drove north from where we were moored at Runavik, along the eastern bank of the Skalafjord. This was one of the bigger roads.

We soon left the main roads and headed up towards Funingsfjord, passing along the western edge, until we reached the village of Funningur, whereupon the road starts to climb the mountain in a series of zig–zags and hairpin bends. Entertaining when we met a coach coming the other way!

Where this climbing road met the main road along the side of the mountain, the coach stopped and we were able to admire the fine views down to the village of Funningur and the Funingsfjord beyond.

We drove a little further towards the village of Eioi, stopping before we got there so we could see the two distinctive sea stacks known as The Giant and The Hag, off the coast of Streymoy Island. The legend is that the giant and hag were going to take the Faroe Islands home with them, but while waiting for the witch to load the burden on the back of the giant, but they were too slow and the sun came up and turned them both to rock.

We passed through Eioi and headed up the east side of the Sundini sound, a narrow channel separating the islands of Eysturoy and Streymoy, we could sea fish farms in the waters below us. We crossed over the bridge to the island of Streymoy, the islands like to refer to this as the only bridge over the Atlantic.

We continued down to the village of Saksun where a wind spread waterfall heads down to the sea.

Close to Saksun there is Duvugaroar, an old farm that is now a National Heritage Museum. There are several outbuildings and the farm house that can be looked round.

There is also an old wooden church and graveyard here with lovely views of the sheltered inlet that made this such a good place to settle.

Overall this was a very enjoyable trip, the guide was informative and entertaining. He also passed cards round with information on the local flora, fauna and birdlife to help us to recognise what we saw.

We left the Faroes and the captain decided to head down the West coast of Britain down through the Irish sea.

We heard reports of dolphins being sighted but didn't see any ourselves.

We arrived back in Southampton and docked in the Ocean Terminal, our bags were taken from our cabin.

We disembarked and waited for our bags in the hangar like terminal building.

Bags were brought in by fork lift truck and deposited in the middle of the floor.

We eventually got our bags and went outside, I walked up to get the car and drove back to pick up Debbie and the bags.