We’ve been driving our motorhome around northern Europe for several months, and got to Norway. Then after leaving our motorhome in Oslo, Norway’s capital, we went by train to Bergen, and then caught a mail boat for a cruise up the western coast of Norway to see some of its famous fjords.
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| Fjord scenery, Norway |
The cruise was operated by Hurtigruten, so in Bergen, we walked across town to the Hurtigruten terminal and boarded the “Nordnorge” for a 4-day cruise. The ship delivers mail and cargo along Norway’s western coast, and would take us to small villages and through fjords, into the Arctic Circle.
Our aim was to do the cruise up to Tromsø, one of the leading places in the world in which to see the Aurora Borealis also known as the Northern Lights. So, as well as seeing the villages and fjords, we had high hopes of also seeing the Aurora.
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| Leigh and the Nordnorge, Norway |
Upon boarding the Nordnorge, we went straight to our cabin on deck 3 to unpack. However, our cabin was in the bow of the ship and because of the curved shape of the bow, the portholes were round, small and deep like torpedo tubes! We felt claustrophobic there so asked for another cabin.
We were grateful that the crew was so good about it, and we ended up on deck 5 mid-ship in a cabin with a nice big rectangular window through which we could see the world going by. At 8 pm, we were off, headed out of Bergen harbour.
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| Marg on board the Nordnorge, west coast of Norway |
To deliver its cargo and mail, the ship made several short stops at small villages during the night. We went out on deck whenever the light allowed, to check out the spectacular scenery and colourful houses in these very isolated places.
At breakfast, we met our fellow passengers. The average age was probably 70 and we felt positively young! There were a lot of people from the UK, some Danish and German people, some Aussies and us. The ship takes up to 500 passengers but she wasn’t full, which was nice as it wasn’t crowded.
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| Hjørundfjord settlement |
Making our way up the coast, we turned into the Hjørundfjord at about 11.30 am and really enjoyed the beautiful scenery of majestic hills, small villages, and isolated little farms and houses in the middle of nowhere.
The Hjørundfjord is 35 kilometres long and is an arm of the larger Storfjord. It is deep and has a wide mouth but the further in you go, the narrower it gets with mountains dropping straight down into the waters of the fjord.
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| Us in Downtown Urke, Norway |
Deeper in the Hjørundfjord, we docked at a tiny village called Urke and disembarked for a walk around. It’s such a quaint little place of approximately 53 people, plus a few cabin owners who come and go.
The folks there seem to have a great sense of humour as we found our way to the 4 shops in the centre of Urke by following hand-written signs to “Urke Downtown”. The place was absolutely peaceful, pretty and precious.
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| Ålesund, Norway |
Our next stop was in Ålesund where we disembarked again. Ålesund (pop. 42,900) has been called Norway’s most beautiful city. It is a pretty fishing and ferry port with lots of pastel-coloured Art Nouveau buildings that were built in the early 1900’s after the original town was destroyed by fire.
Ålesund sits amid a cluster of small islands at the entrance to the Geirangerfjord, often considered the most beautiful fjord in Norway, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. So it’s had a head-start in terms of the beauty of the area.
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| Ålesund, Norway |
We walked around Ålesund, and really enjoyed the harbour area, architecture, squares, statues, and Jugendstilsenteret which is the national centre for Art Noveau. Ålesund is very pretty and re loved our walk around there.
Back on the ship later, we were feeling really tired after an interesting day of sightseeing, and looking forward to a good nights’ sleep. At 9:15 pm we sailed into Molde, but we were too tired to disembark and went to bed. However, at 11:30 pm, we received an unexpected wakeup call.
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| Aurora Borealis, Norway |
It was to see the Aurora Borealis. We’d been told to leave the cabin intercom on if we wanted a call so see the Aurora. As we were at the very beginning of the Aurora season, we thought we’d have to wait to get to Tromsø to see the lights – but there they were.
After a rush to cram ourselves into warm gear in the -2 degrees cold, and we raced outside to the front of the ship. There in the far distance were the amazing green lights! Wow! It was not a huge display but still impressive, as this is what we really, really wanted to see.
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| Historic warehouses in Trondheim, Norway |
The next morning, still reeling with the excitement of the previous night, we entered the Trondheim Fjord, Norway's 3rd longest fjord at 130 kilometres (81 mi) long, and docked at Trondheim. We had time to sightsee and soon spotted some lovely colourful wooden warehouses built on the river.
Trondheim was founded by Vikings over 1000 years ago and was the capital of Norway until 1217. It has many historic buildings, mostly found in the cobbled streets of the Bakklandet area, so we wandered around there for ages enjoying the historic ambiance.
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| Marg at the Portal of Happiness bridge, Trondheim, Norway |
We also enjoyed the vibrancy in Bakklandet with many of its old wooden buildings now serving as shops and cafés. From Bakklandet, we crossed the old city bridge (1861) with its red gateway known by the locals as “the portal of happiness”, to visit other parts of the city.
A favourite site was the beautiful Nidaros Cathedral (1070) which is the national monument of Norway and the largest church in Northern Europe. We also visited the historic Archbishop’s Residence, the huge wooden Royal Residence, and several churches before returning to the ship.
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| Marg and Kjeungskjær lighthouse, Norway |
Coming out of the Trondheim Fjord later, the ship passed the very quaint Kjeungskjær lighthouse built in 1880. It stands on a tiny island at the entrance to Bjugnfjorden, and is still in operation. Next, we headed into a very narrow sound.
This was Stokksundet which is surrounded by huge rocky outcrops and tiny villages with quaint houses. The landscape was becoming increasingly bleak by this stage, with the scarce vegetation looking like stunted scrub clinging to the rocks.
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| Settlement between Trondheim to Rørvik, Norway |
There was some farming and lots of fishing, but it must be a tough place to live as people are just so isolated. However, it also presents a stunning picture seen in autumn. We stayed above decks admiring the geography and flora for some time as we sailed through some very beautiful areas.
On the way, the ship stopped at the town of Rørvik to deliver mail and cargo, but it was only for 20 minutes which was not time enough to disembark and look around. However, Rørvik is in an archipelago of around 6,000 islands so there were plenty of interesting views.
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| Leaving the calm waters of Rørvik for the open sea, Norway |
By about 4:15 pm that afternoon, we came out of the calm waters of the islands into the open Norwegian Sea and found it to be extraordinarily rock-n-rolly. It had the effect of clearing the decks, and there was a noticeable drop in the passenger population in the lounge and dining room.
We had booked for dinner (reindeer steak), and considered cancelling it in case our stomachs didn’t like the rough sea. However, by bedtime, we were quite used to the ship’s movement, and found that it rocked us to sleep.
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| Vega Islands (UNESCO), Norway |
By dusk, we sailed past an interesting set of islands where they eiderdown has been harvested for over 1,500 years. It was the Vega Islands, A UNESCO World Heritage Site, because of the harmony between the islanders and the ducks. The down is drawn from eider ducks, who are bred in houses made especially for them.
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| Aurora Borealis, Norway |
That night, we got another Aurora call. So we wrapped up warmly to go out on deck and saw a much bigger display, which was fantastic. We felt that if we didn’t see any more Aurora displays, it would be ok as this one was great.
Back in bed later, we passed several small places that we that we didn’t see, but that was ok, because in the morning, we would cross the Arctic Circle. But you can read about that in the next blog.
This blog describes part of our 6-month motorhome trip around north-eastern Europe, which began in Prague.