Tag: Arctic Circle

The Retirees go Abroad – France Norway UK and Ireland – Trondheim

Next morning, we cross the Arctic circle going south. The ship holds its crossing the circle presentation which is a memorial spoon off which you take cod liver oil followed by a schnapps chaser. I still have the spoon. For the statistics buffs the Arctic Circle is at 66 degrees 33 minutes 39 seconds north latitude and we travelled to 70 degrees north (69 miles or 111 klm per degree means we travelled over 300 klm north of the Arctic circle). Caught up on my emails and continued reading a book from the library until we came to Bronnoysund where we walked through the town had a hot chocolate in the shopping centre and wandered back to the ship. Not much to see really until we got back to the wharf where I noticed the water was so clear you could see the fish swimming in it. Not just fish but clouds of fish and then for no reason that I could see many of them started jumping. Others stopped including a Dutch couple with a telescope and they consider that this was salmon. The gulls were also interested and we watched until the jumping ceased and re-boarded the boat

February 26 and we land in Trondheim again. We have made friends with the female tour guide “Ms Heindreksen”. We caught her smoking in the bus shelter the first time we landed in Trondheim and used this to leverage her help in calling a cab (city centre 20mins walk) so when the cab came the driver was looking for Heindreksen and would not take us so we caught the bus. On returning to the ship I checked her family name and sure enough it was Heindreksen and from that date forward she has been “Ms Heindreksen” and I have been “Gwen”. This time Kerry and I relished the walk but our friend gave us a few tips and we found a renovated dry dock area similar in concept to dockside. After that we walked down the old streets to “Dromadarie” (Camel) a tiny coffee shop where we enjoy a “kaffe choc” coffee and chocolate combined. Back to the ship and we set sail with our disembarkation instruction lecture shortly (Norwegians are a bit anal like the Germans about precision).

While walking through the village I came across the village notice board where some local girls were displaying their argument for renting of space. Very Scandinavian!

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The Retirees go Abroad – France, Norway, UK and Ireland – Trondheim, Bodo and aurora borealis

Third day on board started with a 5 klm walk around the deck on level 5 whilst the ship docked at Trondheim. Spectacular views of the harbour in the morning light. Kerry joined me for the first 20 minutes. This docking is becoming rather mundane. After breakfast we caught the bus to the city “sentrum” and walked up town finding interesting things like the hole in the road exposing a window below ground, the old town with its quaint timber buildings and note the steps which indicate the depth of snow expected yearly. Then the old docks redeveloped as a modern residential area and the old warehouses now redeveloped as residences.

We were making our way to Nidadros Cathedral. A Christian cathedral in medieval style. After the Norwegian reformation in 1524 it is now Lutheran. Most unusual to see such an ornamented stone building as a Lutheran Church. It is very detailed with many grotesques adorning the roof and windows. We started to walk back to the ship and found the Love Bridge adorned with the locks of lovers swearing undying love. As we made our way back we ran into this tiger – uni students raising money to save Sumatran tigers.

But we ran out of time and with the ship leaving on time – no excuses we caught a cab back and had a lazy afternoon watching the scenery, a very remote lighthouse, the sunset and answering emails. It was during this time that we sailed into the Arctic Circle. With the onset of the evening we passed the beacon marking the outer edge of the circle. We are in the territory of the “northern lights”.

Day 4 on board the boat and after half a dozen stops overnight we pull into Ornes to drop off passengers.

Then onto Bodo. Bodo is just past the Arctic Circle so the ship’s crew initiated everyone stupid enough to have ice poured down their back whilst in 0 degrees on the back of deck 7. There was a competition to guess the time the ship crossed the circle and I speculated 0712.00. The correct time was 0711.59 and you would not credit it but 3 kids from Israel won.

We sailed past an old volcanic cone topped with snow before tying up in Bodo. Bodo is an ordinary town but interesting to stroll around for the afternoon. We rugged up and then strolled past the “Spare ” Bank took a seat on the street furniture and visited a more traditional Lutheran Church.

The girls found a kitchen shop and whilst I cooled my heels I noticed some of the street art – it grabbed my attention.

Then we visited Svolvaer and an ice sculpture museum – a short visit as the ship only docked for an hour. As we sailed out of the harbour the fish dry racks were illuminated and looked like a modern church reflected in the waters of the harbour.

Back on the boat at 2315 to be exact. We enjoyed Norwegian fish cakes and mulled rum also on the back of deck 7. Temperature now -2 degrees. Got to bed about 24.00 nodded off to sleep and there is an announcement that the northern lights can be seen. Bolted upstairs (deck 3 to deck 7) in my night attire with a big coat over the top to freeze whilst looking at the northern lights (aurora borealis) and grabbed some photos. Back to bed and a sleep in before going on our wilderness adventure.

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