What to do during 'On Board' Days

Photo, taken above the Arctic Circle, where
the sun  never rises above the horizon, 

How wrong I was about life above the Arctic Circle! I've been north of it several times in Alaska. Those trips were during the summer, with 24/7 sunlight. So I 'assumed' being above the arctic circle means 24/7 dark. Nope. I was wrong. There are spots above the arctic circle that are in the dark 24/7, but generally I mostly just experienced very short spans of daylight. We were poised on planet earth, just at a point on the earth's axis that the sun, was just below the horizon. 

Oh... and the food... OMG! The food was served buffet style for every breakfast and every lunch. Dinners were different. Ila and I were assigned to table 47. Our dining time for dinner was between 6:30 and 7 o'clock. 

We got to know our table neighbors and our server Chris, all 6 foot 2' of him. Nordic men are as tall as Masai Warriors. Chris was quite friendly and didn't mind being bombarded with our questions. Some nights dinner too was buffet, it depended a lot on the number of passengers picked up and dropped off... I think. 

Every night our menu was based on a city we docked at that day, and the food picked up there. 

Here is typical shipboard dinner 'Mat' (food):

Starter:

The Entree:

Duck leg confit

And yummy dessert:

Looks weird, tasted like heaven on a plate

My favorite meal of the day is always breakfast and after the first day I had my routine down. Hot porridge topped with loads of cut-up fresh fruit, followed by a plate with fried egg, perhaps some potatoes, one or two of the many cheeses, salmon served every which way, i.e., smoked, peppered, and bread with fresh butter and a dollop of cloudberry jam.  Norwegian bread was to DIE FOR! So grainy and yummy! I must learn to bake my own grainy bread. 

I ate enough reindeer at the buffets to horrify my inner child

Up on the 7th floor was a gelato shop, where I purchased Beer Gelato, Brown Cheese Gelato and even Fish Gelato. The latter was way tastier than it sounds, even with the ensy fish bits in it. 

Alongside the gelato were amazing pastries which meant I tried to avoid the shop altogether so I could manage to still fit through the deck doors. 

Ah! But that wasn't the only opportunity to stuff one's jowls. Special events were held up on the 7th floor deck outside. A couple of nights I purchased drinks. The drinks were in adorable tiny tin mugs were dedicated to Norge Trolls, and filled with Aquavit,  a tasty liquor that is 95% potato. Another frigid night the tiny mugs were sold containing a wonderous spiked hot chocolate. SKOL!

Daily, there were presentations offered in English and German, to keep us updated on what was on for the day's excursions, but also to educate us on various topics. It was amazing to hear our presenters switching from English to German on a Kroner, plus of course they also spoke Norwegian. 

One of my favorite lectures was on the Sami people of northern Scandinavia. The Sami were the indigenous peoples who originally lived by herding reindeer. Many still do that, but many have taken on traditional roles. 

Reindeer herding by Sami people

I love the Sami clothing

Another day I was fascinated by a lecture on the similarities between Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and the Icelandic languages. The 4 languages are from the same branch of the language tree so all four language speakers can pretty much understand each other. 

But quirkily, Finnish is from a different, v-e-r-y different language family so it is the odd fellow out, and it is not understood by it's neighboring countries. Interestingly enough, the Sami language is of the same language family as is Finnish. 

"My Name is"  in 4 languages and you can see Finnish is the odd language out

I did a little 'Duolingo' studying of Norwegian (Norge) before the trip, but  as pretty much all Norwegians speak English, learning Norge was really not necessary. The most 'Norge' I used was "Takk" (thank you), "Tusen Takk" (A thousand thanks, aka many thanks) and "Takk for Matten" (Thanks for the food!). I wore those 3 phrases to shreds. 

How did we know where we were each day? There were occasional shipboard announcements, spoken in Norwegian, English, then German. After a while I was hallucinating that I could understand all three languages. There were also monitors strategically placed around the ship, that wised us all up on where we were, where we were going that day, as well as the current temperatures, and such.

Where the heck are we today?

On ship bound days (my choice as I could have disembarked but I developed a weird fear of getting left behind on shore). I spent my time journaling the trip in one of my many, many travel journals, and otherwise I watched the beautiful scenery skirting by. 

A Mountain that is likely named Mt. Ski Cap

A little Norwegian Fishing Village 

Cruising past a colorful Yule Fair

A quick look at a nighttime amenity offered to passengers on the top deck. 

Excursion Time: Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim Norway

Nidaros Cathedral, Norway

This morning I was up and finally, off the good ship Richard With. Ila and I were on a bus and off on an excursion to visit the town of Trondheim, with the Nidaros Cathedral as the main focus. The massive stone building dates all the way back to the cathedral's completion date in the ridiculously ancient year of 1300. It took 280 years for the cathedral to be deemed 'done'. Mind, the building has suffered many fires over the years, so bits of the cathedral have been destroyed then rebuilt. 

A host of saints line the front of the cathedral

Tiny bit of the Cathedral Interior 

The tour was lead by a knowledgeable & robed tour guide. The basics were the cathedral was founded when king, and later Saint Olav was buried on the site where the cathedral was placed. The build took a bit over 2 centuries to complete. I know! The second fascinating fact to me is the cathedral is open for use by any denomination. From Lutheran, to Protestant, Catholic and whomever: all locals can command use of the cathedral. 

Heads up - dizzying view overhead inside cathedral

Wagner Organ, with golden pipes above - circa 1741

Stone baptismal Font, circa 1905

Knock, knock... who's there? Meg! 

Marble flooring with medieval creatures of reality and fantasy

A beautiful building next to the cathedral, houses one of my favorite things - the gift shop! Once again I restrained myself, not buying anything because, well, I have enough 'stuff' to last for the rest of my life. 

Stunning Christmas ornaments for sale

Classy Toy medieval helmets, and weaponry

Facing the square in front of the cathedral was this glass window, featuring children's artwork, transformed into a striking stained glass whatchamacallit.

Detail...in case you doubt it is kid's artwork

At some point, after having tramped through the cathedral's back rooms, and after viewing the beautiful souvenirs, I realized, I couldn't spot anyone else from the tour. WTH? Yeah, I had missed the tour bus departure. In full panic mode I raced to the bus area - my bus was absent. I ended up in the gift shop where I was assured 'No big deal, you'll be back on the boat with much time to spare'.' That was true enough. The kindly lady clerk called a cab for me. As I was assured, made it back to the ship before Ila and the rest of the tourists returned. Don't tell anyone I told you that! Sooo embarrassing (and quite the adventure!)

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]