Category: Scandanavia to Dublin via Hereford 2023

Wednesday 1 – Friday 3 November

It snowed on Monday – unseasonably heavy snow which took everyone by surprise. The public transport system was crippled because only 38 or 400 busses had been fitted with their winter tyres. The snow continued to fall lightly, which posed a tremendous challenge for walking. Cherrie found Oslo’s Mr Minit who had a rubber contraption with spikes, which when fitted to my boot made a big difference. We knew the forecast was for rain for the next two days so on Wednesday we planned the compulsory outdoor things. Which really boiled down to walking, albeit treacherously, to explore the city

My diminished physical ability is snow good for tennis

and taking a seat wasn’t really an option either

University students all round the world protest, eh?

May the Gourds be with them

We intrepid tourists finally arrived at our intended destination.

The Vigeland Sculpture Park, the life’s work of sculptor Gustav Vigeland, comprising over 200 sculptures in granite, bronze and wrought iron. It was worth the hike and the sculptures are just wonderful. So whimsical, humourous, almost alive. By the time we arrived the snow had stopped falling, as had the drizzle. We considered ourselves lucky, but it remained slow going on the ice and settled snow. The artworks speak for themselves, so you have (an all too brief) respite from my constant reporting

Little wonder this one is a freize.

Cherrie met a snowoman

And I celebrated

Continuing our orientation walk we decide that over the next two rainy days we will explore the Norwegian Opera House, which houses both the national opera and ballet companies, the Munch Gallery (and not just because we eat so much) and the Ibsen Museum. Regrettably the Nobel Peace Museum is currently closed. Not enough peace on earth to warrant its opening perhaps.

The Ibsen Museum

is in fact the apartment in which he lived, plus a 150 seat theatre.

I asked what the theatre was used for and the answer was “for Ibsen’s plays”. However, on further interrogation it was revealed that a theatre is quite expensive to run and so actually nothing happens there. Shame, it is a sweet space but I can’t imagine any of his well known plays being performed there. But of course the (Nancye) Hayes Theatre has proved me wrong on that front.

Ibsen and his wife, Suzannah who suffered from severe arthritis, moved to this apartment later in life. It was well heated and roomy enough for this frequently rowing couple to have their own space.

Henrik doesn’t have the weird eyes, or the dagger, here that he had in Bergen

Perhaps he’d come to terms with his marriage by now?

We had planned to watch the Changing of the Guard at the Royal Palace

but it was too cold to just hang around waiting. So we changed them ourselves

Dickens must be cursing he’s out of copyright. Where in the world is A Christmas Carol not being performed this year?

The Norwegian Opera & Ballet House is magnificent. Again, the result of an international design competition which was ‘blind’ – that is the judges were not aware of the nationality of the architects. How thrilled they were when it was a Norwegian company who won.

This building, unlike that in Sydney, is designed from the inside out. That is, it is as completely functional inside and it is beautiful outside.

The building houses both the Opera and Ballet companies, together with dedicated set construction workshops, costume, wig and millinery departments, paint shops etc. It’s magnificent backstage – we did a tour – and the stage is replicated in each rehearsal room (of which there are many). Oh, to work in a house like this.

Walking down the exterior side lane takes us past the wig and costume workshops, with glass windows. Must be like working in a gold fish bowl but they seemed oblivious to us and so maybe it’s one way glass?

A great way to engage with the public though. Clever design.

Who climbed the roof? It eventually got too slippery and she came back down. On both feet

Outside the Opera House, and as part of the design, is the most wonderful floating sculpture

And just behind the Opera House we spotted somewhere we thought we might have lunch

And we did, but not before exploring the artworks of Edvard Munch. We were both, of course, familiar with The Scream

Munch painted many versions and three originals, the oil, the pastel and the pencil are on display in rotation at one hour intervals. We caught two.

His other work was largely unfamiliar to us, and we enjoyed seeing it very much. Some are absolutely enormous, some portraits and self portraits and some wonderfully whimsical

We have not been blessed with good weather in Oslo, but we see the beauty of the city anyway. Finland tomorrow

Tuesday 31 October

Early this morning our boat docks at Farsund. It will then sail on to Kristiansand, but we disembark and hop (literally) on to a bus for a complete tour of the South Cape. We so loved the North Cape and fancy having a look at its anthises.

We know we’re on the south coast because this is where the holiday houses are. Each with their own boat house and for those not quite so lucky it’s a short walk to the marina. We vary between coastline and inland farms – again small but very well kept.

Our first stop is a world famous (even though we have never heard of it) restaurant, Under. This is an underwater restaurant and the dining room is 5.5 metres below sea level. It is an absolute triumph in design, both outside and in. One has the unique view of life underwater, and the interior lighting reflects the northern lights

The seating capacity is 40 and I’m planning on making a booking. Under has one Michelin Star and I’m sure the food is as miraculous as the surroundings. I’m happy to include 38 of our readers in the booking, so long as you BYOCC.

Under, like many famous places, is set pretty much in the middle of nowhere but reputation keeps it alive

From here, still in awe, we went to Lindenses, the south cape. You can see that we travelled from the Nordkapp to Sudkapp

This is the only full time manned lighthouse in Norway. Here it is

This is the lighthouse keeper’s house

And this is the lighthouse keeper

It was a long climb up to the lighthouse, but of course that wasn’t enough for Cherrie. She climbed to the top of the lighthouse itself. And took these

I managed to make it to the base of the lighthouse, which I must say was no mean feat. Especially on mean feet. She watched me all the way

We bunkered down on the way back, and played a spot of hopscotch. I mean what other sort of scotch could I play?

We proceeded on, heading east, and stopped at the town of Mandal, through which flows the Mandal River. This is famous for its salmon and a lucky angler recently hooked a 13kg salmon here. His forebear did too

And his missus danced with one

I know it’s hard to believe but, believe it or not, our next stop was a winery. Whodathoughtit? The wine didn’t taste quite as good as the vines looked

In better condition were the billsau sheep, although they ran away when an American woman yelled at them how beautiful they were. We also attended a basket weaving workshop, all of which was preferable to tasting more wine and made us feel less fleeced

We reboarded the ship at Kristiansand, on the south east coast of Norway.

Our final dinner on board tonight was shared with Jeremy and Patricia. We had made a booking at the Brasserie (rather than the fine dining or the bistro) and as soon as we entered we identified our table.

Now before you accuse the Nords of being ageist, take note that we had pre-ordered the dry aged beef. This has been hanging in the (presumably chilled) glass cabinet outside the restaurant since we boarded, right next to the glass tank the king crab was still trying to get out of. An order of the aged beef requires 24 hours notice, not sure why, and is a ‘big thing’. As a pair of big things ourselves, plus our British friends who are quite the opposite of that description, we fancied a flash beef meal to celebrate our wonderful journey and our friendship

And so the cruise on the MS Trollfjord comes to an end. Tomorrow morning at 8am we disembark in Oslo. It has been a magnificent journey and surpassed all our expectations. Very comfortable ship, wonderful crew, great food, smooth sailing, perfect weather and the scenery…oh the scenery. How lucky we are

Monday 30 October

Haugesund is nearly at the southern tip of Norway. We have by-passed Bergen on the return trip and pulled in here to refuel. There’s not a lot to this town, but we always enjoy the unpolluted fresh air which is bracing and must surely be good for us. Cherrie is very patient with me, walking slowly as I do, and we tend to take a different route than other passengers. We take the back streets

We walk over the bridge to town, or at least half the bridge to look at town. We see what we want to see from there

and so we turn back, and gaze through a wire fence into a very large factory. The worlds biggest off shore wind farm is being constructed here and boy, those turbines are big, at 260 metres tall. That’s twice the height of the London Eye and the same height as the Rockefeller Centre in NYC. Stage one has opened, in the North Sea off the NE coast of England and the farm will eventually power up to 6 million homes annually.

We also saw a giant oil rig being constructed, which particularly interested Cherrie, as she was the first woman in Australia to board an off shore oil rig in NW Western Australia in 1981. All in a days work.

We came across rehearsals at HATS, the Haugesund Amateur Theatrical Society for Maids of the Fjords and were coerced into joining in

We were, of course, triumphant and Hildegard, the Director, begged us to stay in town so we could be part of their extended season, 2pm and 6pm on Wednesday, but alas we were forced to turn them down. There just wasn’t enough cod in it for us.

But the best fun to be had was when we sat down with Pat and Jeremy

The day finished with another magnificent sunset

Saturday 28 October

This morning we docked in the very centre of Norway. And we can prove it

We had signed up for a Winters Walk and Concert Tour. The walk was more of a stroll, past the marble rock above and into the UNESCO Global Geo Park. Which is actually a very small room with a very ordinary display, possibly a primary school project. However, it tells us that this area has a geology so distinct and internationally significant that it’s geo-heritage is deemed to be of global importance. Off the coast of this town is the UNESCO World Heritage Vega Archipelago, comprising dozens of islands that bear testimony to the frugal way of life, based on fishing and the harvesting of the down of eider ducks. They are kept warm on those islands I suspect.

On then to the concert, which turned out to be a solo organ ‘recital’ in this old church

It’s actually very old. Here is the list of past preachers

The organ player reminded me of my typing teacher at Miss Hales Business College which I briefly attended in the ‘60’s. She had only three fingers on her right hand. On the way back to the ship we were treated to mulled wine and sweet bread in a weird sort of boat house, with weird sort of inhabitants. They do love their cod in this country

This building is under a heritage order and cannot be demolished, but it seems to be doing a pretty good job without assistance

Back on board for a Norwegian Kitchen, today raw salmon three ways

and they were all delicious. We are going to struggle to eat the Tassie salmon when we get home.

The moon looked pretty special that night too, with Jupiter close by

And then we had another visit, to top the day off

Sunday 29 October

Today we are in Aldesund, known as the fishing capital of Norway. The winters here are mild, thanks to the effects of Gulf Stream. Temperatures average 1-8 degrees. It’s a lovely town, built in the art deco period after being destroyed by fire in 1904 (just to keep up with every other town in the country)

We went on a bus tour to the Saga Islands, which are the two of major inhabited islands in the area. We drove through lots of farming country, saw large farms with up to 5 cows, small farms with one sheep and mixed farms with 2 sheep, a cow and a pig. I kid you not (and we didn’t even see a goat). It is the fishing capital, not the farming capital. But we loved the Saga Islands and the different landscape

Our last stop is the lookout and it’s a pretty special view.

It’s a big climb from town to lookout up a lot of steps, each numbered. Here’s the top step

and of course Cherrie decided to walk back to the boat. It was down not up but still impressive. This is what she saw

Another lovely meal on board, a glass or three of wine, a game of cards and great company

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