Friday 20 October

What will/did you do on your 74th birthday? Cherrie and I boarded the MS Trollfjord in Bergen for an 11 day cruise up to the very most northern point of mainland Norway, and back again to Oslo.

This morning we caught up at breakfast with two newish but very dear friends from the UK who are joining us on the voyage. It was lovely to see Jeremy and Pat again – we had last caught up in Sydney just over a year ago.

It takes all of the morning in queues at the hotel to check out, check in to the ship, board a bus to the port, and receive the safety briefing. But we finally board at 12.30 and knock back a welcome bubbly.

Buffet lunch (utterly delicious) with Pat and Jeremy, a French Chardonnay (utterly delicious) and we have access to our cabin at 2pm. It’s roomier than we feared and there’s even somewhere to put clothes. This’ll do for the next 10 days.

We set sail at 2.30 and explore the ship. It’s a small one, in cruising terms, sleeping 500 passengers but we suspect it’s not full. It certainly doesn’t feel so anyway and is very comfortable. Neither of us has done a cruise before and we think we’re going to enjoy this one very much.

Dinner with Pat and Jeremy and lots of laughs. It’s delightful to travel with a couple of like minds and get to know them better. The on board briefing had filled us in with everything Trollfjord, including the public address system which ceases at 10pm, except in the case of a sighting of the northern lights. This will be announced at any time of night, directly to each cabin. We’re happy about that, because the lights are one of the main reasons we are doing this cruise.

We’re all tired so an early night, to our small but comfortable cabins. At 1.37am we are awoken by an announcement that the aurora borealis can be seen from deck 4. We scramble into clothes, beanies, boots, scarfs, puffas and race up – well one of us races, the other lumbers behind – and there it is.

It can’t be seen well at all through the naked eye, but through the lens of even a phone camera it’s is wonderful. Not bad for night one and so far south.

Back to bed, and a good sleep. I don’t feel any movement from the ship, so the very large bag full of seasickness medications has not yet been touched.

Saturday 21 October

We docked in Molde at 8am

The city of jazz and roses. Although the roses last longer than the jazz. There is an annual week long jazz festival every year and is one of the largest in Europe.

But the roses are still out in force. From horn to thorn perhaps?

We set off at 8.30am on a bus tour of the Atlantic Road. Who’s ever heard of that? But just look at it

It connects the mainland to a series of small islands over 8.2kms. And it’s a spectacular drive…a sort of mini Great Ocean Rd

We made it to the end of the road, unlike the looks of this car

And walked, climbed, a semi circular boardwalk which gave us more spectacular views

The vegetation around the walkway attracted the eye of our photo editor

The views are pretty good from the bus too.

She climbed a hill and took these shots while I remained anchored down

We return to town and wander around.

The sailing boats are out

We saw these and just quacked up

Back at the ship, we attend a Norwegian Kitchen. This is where those of us who care gather around the Head Chef and observe him filleting a whole halibut. It’s so easy. Why have I never done that?

That evening we celebrated my birthday (a day late, but hey….) in the fine dining restaurant on board with Patricia and Jeremy. It was a 7 course degustation meal of local delicacies but cleverly made palatable. Accompanied by 7 white wines. I was itching for a red but manner prevailed.

Sunday 22 October

We docked at Rorvik at 10am. A little town, but everything around here is so pretty. It may be the Aussie eye absorbing Norway perhaps, but we’re thoroughly enjoying everything we see and do.

Time for a comfort break

And then on to here.

You’ll never guess what this beautiful building houses. Go on, have a go.

A concert hall? No. A library? No. An Opera House? No. OK, I’ll spill the beans. It’s the Salmon Museum. Full of old fish. And stuff.

And so the sun sets on another great day

Tonight as we were returning to our cabin after a most enjoyable (and informative) post dinner game of Whist (it’s a card game for those of you who, like us, did not know it) with Pat and Jeremy we collided with another passenger who announced that the northern lights were visible once again. So up to deck 9 and blimey, she was right. This is a pretty cool cruise – in every sense of the word.

I have to try to keep up with the blog because we keep forgetting what we have done. These Nords are keeping us busy, but wow, what a way to busy oneself.