Day 2 - Hurtigruten

On Friday May 29th we spent our first full day on the Nordkapp as we travelled from Bronnoysund to the spectacular Trollfjord. You can see Gwyneth in one of our 2 cabins – actually from the night before. Forgive me! The beds on the left folded up to the wall and the bed on the right converted into a couch. Everything in the room was cleverly created for efficiency and storage. (Things will change when we get on the Lofoten to come south, but more on that later. ) We started with a tag team assault on breakfast. Breakfast was a buffet that was included in our ticket offered between 7 and 10 in the morning. I went first with Jan and it mostly consisted of meats, cheeses, breads, fruits, dry cereal/muesli, hard & soft boiled eggs, and drinks. Next Nic & Gwynnie went and then I got the pleasure of going with Ethan. Ethan couldn’t really find anything that he wanted to eat and all he seemed to accomplish was spilling his milk everywhere.


The weather today was not great and while the scenery was spectacular I keep wondering what it would look like in good weather. We did cross the Arctic Circle today but it was at 7:05AM and I was the first to wake up at 7AM. We missed seeing the statue that marks the exact point however on the southbound trip the crossing happens in the middle of the day and so I hope to be awake and get a picture. We had a short stop in Ornes (30 minutes) – just long enough for me to get out and take a picture of the sign. It would have been much better if it was Ormes however! Upon boarding in Trondheim everyone was given a card with their name on it with a bar code. Then every time you get off the boat you have your card scanned and the same when you return. Many of the stops are 30 minutes or less so you can get out to stretch your legs and look around a bit, but not much more.

The long stop for today (2 ½ hours) was Bodo just after lunch time. (We had made ourselves some sandwiches from the lunch buffet and supplemented with some extra snacks that we had brought along.) We continued that pattern for the rest of the trip. The weather in Bodo was rainy and we opted for the optional bus tour of a short drive around town and then out to the Saltstraumen – the world’s strongest tidal current. It happens four times a day as 400 million cubic meters of water pour from one fjord into another through a passage way that is 150 meters wide and 3 km long. Does that sound like I copied it from the guide book? I did. We did not hit the tidal current at peak, we were about 2 hours away but there was nothing we could do about that! Even so, the water looked swift and there were many, many birds to look at. The picture shows Nic, Gwyneth, and Ethan forging their own path back to the bus.



Throughout the day we alternated between walking around the boat, watching the kids near the play area (most of our time was probably spent there!), and looking at scenery ….. in the fog. Nic & I participated in the Arctic Circle ceremony where we had the pleasure of having a large scoop of ice water dumped down our back (next to the skin) in order to get a shot of some rather bad wine. The picture show King Neptune getting ready to “christen” the guy who was closest to guessing the time we crossed the Arctic Circle – 7:05AM or there abouts.



We also go out at Svolvaer around 9:30PM. We were supposed to have an hour, but we were late and only got about 20 minutes. There was a Magic Ice museum that was open and had ice sculptures to look at but we didn’t have time. (It will turn out that we'll get a chance to go in on the southbound trip.) In addition, the kids were melting down a bit so in the end it was just Jan and I who hopped off. We were a bit disappointed about not getting time in the museum but we were treated to seeing cod out on drying racks as you see here! And we scored a couple of nice kid’s T shirts in the Magic Ice gift shop. We are finding that Norway is severely lacking the souvenir T-shirt category!

Around 11PM Nic and I went outside as we were approaching the Trollfjord with an extremely narrow passage that we were going to go through. Jan was in her pj’s, reading and watching the kids sleep for us. Nic & I found a prime spot alone under a ledge (raining still!) in the front of the boat. Remarkably we felt little wind as it was blowing hard but coming from behind us. We had to wait a while and kept wondering if we had passed it already but about an hour later we turned into this spectacular fjord. As we approached I couldn’t believe that we were going to turn into this fjord (given the size of our boat) but Nic kept saying we are going in. He was right! And by this time our spot was prime indeed and we were not alone. So we went in and somehow turned the boat around – we got so close to the fjord wall you wouldn’t believe it! (I will post that longer video on facebook).





Then we came out the way we went in and continued on our journey. Once we were turning Nic realized that this was rather special and that we should go get Jan, so she was able to catch a little glimpse of the fjord as we were leaving. All the waiting was worth it! (On the southbound trip will will go into the Trollfjord again, but during the daytime, and without rain.)

After the fjord, Nic & I decided that this was our time for our beer on the Panorama Deck as Jan was still agreeable to watching the kids sleep. Thanks Jan! While our next boat will also have a Panorama Deck it will be nothing like the surroundings/view on the Nordkapp. I'm glad we decided to enjoy the moment! Here are our beers at about 12:30AM.