Up early today, really early, so early in fact that I was in two minds as to whether to go to bed or not! We stayed last night at an hotel near Bristol airport and this morning, at 2 AM, got a taxi to the airport for our flight at 6am. We planned to get there in plenty of time to get our flight – in fact we had too much time. I must remember that 3hrs before a flight is fine time-wise.
After a lovely, and I mean lovely, full breakfast we caught our first flight of the day. This flight took us to Amsterdam Schiphol airport where we would get a further flight onto Bergen and our cruise ship. After a long stop over at Amsterdam (our plane from the UK arrived at 8am and our flight to Bergen wasn’t until 12 noon) we made it to the Bergen flight and we were off on our expedition to the North!
We arrived in Bergen at 13:40 and walked through the airport to collect our baggage. The airport was a bit of a mash up between Aberdeen and Bristol airports – the long walks of Aberdeen coupled with the outside greenery of Bristol. At the baggage collection area we met up with some other ladies who were going on the cruise so we decided to team up and find the bus to the ship terminal together. At least that way if one of us got lost we all would be!
Picture 1 - Arriving in Bergen
It was actually quite easy to find the bus stop – it had Hurtigruten advertised all over it! The bus trip travelled around most of historical Bergen. It also took us under at least one of the seven mountains that surround the town – there was even a junction!
Pictures 2, 3 and 4 - Travelling through Bergen
Bergen is the old capital of Norway and was founded in 1070 AD. The 14th century Bryggen district at the harbour has a series of colourful Hanseatic heritage commercial buildings lining the wharfs and has been on the UNESCO list for World Cultural Heritage sites since 1979.
Picture 5 - Bergen Bryggen District
We arrived at the ship terminal just in time for the ship pass check-in to open so we didn’t have to wait around at all (apart from the queue to check in that is!). After a safety brief we were able to board the ship – it’s a lot bigger than the river cruise ship I went on in August!! Mum mentioned that it reminded her a bit of a cruise she went on to see the glaciers in Canada – not a glowing recommendation but we’ll stay positive and see how it goes. If all else fails we’re going to get to play with Huskies!!
We weren’t able to access our cabin until 6pm so we went on an exploration of the ship. There’s several eating places including a formal restaurant and a bistro. The fitness room looks really nice with large windows looking out – I’m going to enjoy exercising there! Then we found the panorama lounge……I can see this being our main haunt on our trip! Large windows and comfy seats. The only problem is that the seats at the front of the ship (the bow?) don’t have any lighting so it can be quite dark there.
Tonight the ship leaves dock at 20:30 and heads north along the Hjeltefjord, the same route that the Vikings used to take on their way home from a day of looting and pillaging in Scotland! Polar and Tiggy are on guard!
Picture 6 - The Night Watch!
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