Hurtigruten is the company that runs daily coastal ships from Bergen to Kirkenes and back again. The idea of a coastal ship started in the late 1800s as a postal and cargo shipping service and was relied on by the islands, towns and cities along the route for supplies, but also for transporting their produce to the international port of Bergen. The company has around 12 ships which go up and down the coast and also do annual or seasonal trips to Antartica, South America, Greenland and Europe. The ships vary from the traditional, cosy boats built in the 1950s to the massive modern ships, such as the one we went on. But they do not have the formality, the heavily organised programs or the facilities of traditional cruise ships. Also, they are still very much used for carrying cargo and transporting locals from port to port and thus stop up to 8 times during the day and night at tiny ports along the way. The name hurtigruten means 'the express route' in norwegian (the -en suffix is 'the').
So, back to day 2. When we awoke, something felt a bit strange and as we got up we realised we were walking a bit wonkily. We gradually got used to it and set off to level 4 for our 1st breakfast. Wow. We were served a buffet breakfast with fruits, boiled eggs, meats, cheeses, breads, cereals and yoghurt (including yummy cherry drinking yoghurt to pour on your cereal), juices, tea and coffee and some hot items to keep the Brits happy (strangely enough, one of the hot items was chicken nuggets- not that I'm complaining!). As our package did not include lunch we grabbed some bread rolls, cold meats and cheese and put our sandwiches in napkins. Free lunch! We later found out the buffet lunch cost 275NOK if we wanted it, or lunch from the onboard 24 hr cafe (for those travelling port-port) cost 70-100NOK, so we did very well with our sandwiches!
The dining room on the ship had windows everywhere so we enjoyed the scenery and the beautiful sunny day as we ate a leisurely breakfast. We passed the west cape at one stage, which is as far west as Amsterdam or Marseille and went for a brief wander in a small town called Torvik during our 15 minute stop there. The rest of the morning we spent exploring the ship and reading in the panorama lunch, as well as taking brief spells of cold air on the deck!
At lunch time we arrived in Aalesund (Aa is the same as the A with the circle on top, pronounced a bit like the word 'awe'), which was absolutely stunning from the harbour, and only got better. Aalesund is a city built over several islands, with snowy mountains in the background. It was destroyed by a fire in 1904 and the whole of Europe got together and donated money for it to be rebuilt. It took 3 years to rebuild and it was rebuilt in an art nouveau style. Interestingly, the German Kaiser Wilhelm II (who had holidayed in the area) send 4 boats with temporary shelters and provisions to the town the day after the fire and thus a street was named after him.
Once we got off the ship, we climbed the 418 steps to a lookout on the Aksla mountain. The climb left us breathless, not only from the 418 steps but because of the beauty of the view the whole way up. In a 180 degree panorama you could see the fjord and Atlantic ocean with nearby islands, the snowy alps of Sunnmøre and the gorgeous colourful town with pretty bridges. Wow.
At the lookout at the top of the hill we had our lunch and looked at a map which showed us the location of the road tunnels under the fjord we were looking at. It also pointed out the location of the oil rigs nearby (famous for making Norway the rich country it is). Norway is full of tunnels and bridges that link small islands and coastal towns separated by fjords.
After climbing down the steps we strolled around the town and took in the art nouveau architecture, before heading back to the ship for a swim, spa and sauna, followed by another brief stopover in a town called Molde, which had a nice view over a nearby fjord. Molde is a modern town, as it was almost completely destroyed by WW2 and this seems to be common for many of the towns along the coastline.
After a delicious three course meal (clipfish salad, chicken and cheesecake) we retired to the lounge where they offered free tea and coffee (any other time during the day you had to pay for it) and a crooner from Bulgaria (who was quite good, singing old favourites such as 'what a wonderful world' and 'you look wonderful tonight'). We played Uno and then bridge and probably had 3 or 4 cups of tea each and enjoyed the night-time scenery.
At 10:15pm we pulled into Kristiansund (not to be confused with Kristiansand in the south of Norway) for a brief stop. It was magical approaching the town, and like a story book as we saw a little island (linked to the others by a bridge). The dominant building on the island was a church, surrounded by picturesque coloured houses. To complete the picture, a full moon was in the background, making it all look like a Christmas card picture.
Tired but happy after our day, we went to bed around 11, but got a surprise at 12:30 when the phone in our cabin rang. The previous day we had been told that we could register with reception to receive a telephone call if there were any Northern Lights to be seen during the night. We didn't expect this to occur so far south, but were thrilled to throw clothes over our PJs and race up on deck to see them. It was a bit cloudy so they were not as spectacular as pictures I have seen, in which the whole sky is green, but it was thrilling to stand on the icy deck in the pitch dark night, with the rush of waves 5 floors below us, and see these flashes of light in the sky.
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