Friday 27 October

First up today is the town of Stockmarknes, which has little to see except for the Hurtigruten Museum.

We are passengers on the MS Trollfjord, which is the flagship of the Hurtigruten line. This is the town where it all started in 18 something. We choose not to give Hurtygurty any more of our hard earned cash so just wander the town instead.

But not a lot to see here, except for the decorative charging stations, which are throughout Norway. Not a lot of cars at these ones. Perhaps they ran out of ‘gas’ before arriving?

Back on board we travel through our ship’s namesake. The remarkable, glorious, amazing Trollfjord Fjord. Surely one of the most beautiful sights on earth. We stand on deck in absolute wonder

Miraculously the ship executes a U Turn, so we see all 2.4kms of the fjord again

before proceeding to Slolvaer, under a number of bridges.

Here we take an excursion to an old, and fairly original, fishing village Henningsvaer. Problem is, it was 4pm when we got there and the sun set within minutes. Our intrepid photographer braves the cobblestones and hot foots it (no mean feat in this weather) to the harbour.

The cod can look forward to the next drying season too

This must be one of the few villages, towns or cities in Norway which was not destroyed by fire in the early 1900’s. It’s become a mantra from every guide “this village/town/city burned down in …..”. I guess wooden houses in the age of open fires in cold Norway posed a danger.

The colour of these houses tells us who lived in them. Red were the fisherman, white the wealthy and yellow the middle class

As it’s now well and truly dark we note another Norwegian tradition. That of a light in the window. We have observed this throughout the country and it’s rather nice.

Our travelling companions Patricia and Jeremy, meanwhile, undertook a much more adventurous excursion. To see the sea eagles. This is a tour we would like to have signed up for but I was unqualified. Or at least my boot was. And my beloved companion is loyal to the bone and chose the fishing village with me over the birds. The reports are that their trip was wonderful. Here’s a shot of Pat on the inflatable speed boat. I confess to some envy, that hi viz yellow suits her so well – as does everything

We have enjoyed excellent food on board, all three daily meals. This evening we dined on some rare Norwegian specialties. Cod Tongue for Cherrie and Sodd Soup for me. Cherrie said the tongue tasted like fish finger (who knew fish had tongues or fingers?) and the soup was based on some of those I’ve worked with over the years I suspect. Both had after effects