On Board for Norway

 

Seattle to Europe sail past Mount Rainier

Mt. Rainier

I've never visited Mt Rainier National Park but I have flown past it many times. On Saturday I met up with my travel buddy Ila - the brains of the outfit - and we headed to Bergen, Norway with a short layover in Amsterdam. 

The MIRACLE of the tram ride 

The flight to Amsterdam was a breezy 9 hours 15 minutes. The Amsterdam International Airport is HUMONGOUS. Its gates are miles apart, I swear, and navigating that airport feels like one is on a death march. Just taxiing  to our gate took the jet almost 20 minutes. 

Once in the terminal I was instantly in panic mode because we couldn't find the gate number for our next flight on the monitor. Waving my boarding pass, I threw myself in the path of an oncoming tram. Instead of running me over the lady tram driver pulled up. 

I bombarded the tram driver with queries on the gate for the jet to Bergan. I looked - a bit -  as if about to burst into tears. Then a miracle occured, the lady tram driver invited Ila and myself on board. And... get this... she drove us to our gate! I was soooo grateful, having been  seriously worried that we wouldn't be able to hobble over to our gate in time to make our flight.

Whomever that lady was, to me she is an airport angel. 

Flight into Bergen - stripes are
stripes are shipping lane markers

The flight from Amsterdam to Bergen was just short of 2 hours. 

At Bergen Airport,  Reindeer (stuffies) & a media big screen, greeted us 

Bergen Airport walkway

Ila had wisely booked us a bus ride to the Hurtigruten dock, a 40 minute or so ride. There, we got ourselves checked in, our luggage was hauled to our cabin, and we were ushered to the passenger lounge to await ship boarding.

While waiting, passengers helped themselves to fresh, hot fish soup (much tastier than it sounds) and many different beverages. Then everyone had to watch a safety movie and once we all were deemed trained, we boarded the Richard With, our home for a dozen days. 

  

The Richard With, docked in Hammerfest, Norway

My little bed on the right was pretty comfy. 

Our cabin was... uh.. snug! As it turns out, it didn't matter how small the room was as neither Ila or I only used the room for the 3 Eses: sleeping showering and stowing stuff. The rest of the time we were out and about either in ship lounges or on off ship excursions but I'll get to that in future posts. 

The bathroom, as teensy, but serviceable. Every time I took a shower I flooded the bathroom floor. That didn't happen when Ila showered. I have zero explanation for that!

I signed up for 5 excursions on this cruise, with my primary goal to see... hope, hope, hope, the Northern Lights. So there were days when I didn't even leave the boat. What did I do when I was to be on board all day? I journaled, read, and spent a lot of time staring at the scenery the ship sailed past. 

Below is a view of the 4th floor lounge where I spent a lot of time in a comfy booth, writing or staring at the bypassing scenery. The art at the center of the photo is actually a large TV screen that mostly showed a Hurtigruten movie on the Aurora Borealis 24/7. 

The scene below is on the deck 7, the topmost floor of the ship. To right there is another lounge with a bar where you could get free coffee or tea or pay for alcoholic beverages (I bought a hot rum drink there one chilly night). 

And the scenery we sailed past? Awesome!
 

Typical scenery we sailed past daily

A little fishing village on one of Norway's umpteen islands

The ship moseyed along the Norwegian coast waterways headed north. There were many stops at various cities along the way. Most of the stops were short, perhaps 30 to 45 minutes, picking up or dropping off passengers. I had thought Hurtigruten was a cruise ship company. Wrong - it is a ferry system that services the coastal cities of Norway. People get on and off at the stops and the ship picks up its fresh food supply daily as it sails along. Didn't take much time to feel at home on the ship, and settle in. 

[UPDATE: Although Hurtigruten ferries along the coast of Norway, it also is a cruise ship company. There are Hurtigruten cruises to be had in Europe and all of the Americas. I hope to someday take their cruise that starts off in Colon, Panama (where my father was born) and then heads east along the northern coast of South America, ending at Bridgetown, Barbados, where my mother's family originated]