Exploring Norway’s Fjords

Though we had touched on Norway before, visiting Oslo for a day as part of a Baltic Cruise, we wanted to see the coastal fjords. As we researched how best to see this part of Norway, we came across Hurtigruten’s Coastal Express – North voyage. Our ship, the Nordkapp, with a maximum capacity of 590 passengers, stopped at over 30 ports during the seven days (six nights) we travelled from Bergen on the southwest coast to Kirkenes on the north coast.

Though most of the passengers were cruising as we were (some were staying on longer to do the 12-day up and back trip), others used the ship as a commuting vehicle to transport passengers, cargo and the occasional vehicle from one small port to another along the route. Many stops were short, allowing only enough time for a quick load or unload of goods and people, while others were more leisurely. Cruise passengers were allowed to disembark whenever the ship was scheduled to be in port for more than 30 minutes. About 10 of the ports qualified but, practically, only six or seven were long enough stops during normal waking hours to make them worth getting out and exploring. Many of the shorter stops were still fun to observe from the decks, either for the scenery or to watch the goings-on in port.

Each day there were briefings about what we would be doing the next day, what to see in the towns we would be stopping at, and any available excursions in those locations.

Bergen

We arrived in Bergen on a delayed flight from Prague. Though we had plenty of time to get to the ship despite the delay, we had planned to spend at least an hour or two exploring Bergen before we embarked. The flight delay changed that plan. We felt quite lucky when the transport from the airport to the ship (booked through Hurtigruten) was a bus that made several stops in town, giving us an almost hop-on-hop-off experience of Bergen. I grabbed a few highlight pics through the bus window.

Hjørundfjorden and Urke

After visiting a couple of towns in the middle of the night (which we didn’t even notice), we made a quick stop in Ålesund and then carried on up Hjørundfjorden (we would return for a longer stop in Ålesund that evening). To visit Urke, the ship needed to anchor up an inlet past the village and then a local boat made several trips back and forth between the ship and the town’s dock. The boat captain was surprised that the ship captain chose to anchor so far away because each transfer took longer than expected and people were left waiting on the ship (to go to Urke) or on the dock (to return to the ship) for quite a while.

At the dock, there was a little pub with outdoor seating, and it was full and lively. We learned later that almost everyone there had participated in a race up the local mountain peak, Sunnmørsalpene, and back.

In Urke, we did a loop walk up a hill and back around to wait for our turn to return to the ship. There wasn’t much ground to cover, but it was pretty, the views were lovely, and it was nice to be out and about in the beautiful weather.

Ålesund

We arrived in Ålesund, at the entrance to Geirangerfjord, at 6:00pm. We were only there for two hours but the dock was quite close to town and it stayed light enough to wander about, so we were able to see a decent amount of the town in the short time we had.

Trondheim

Founded by the Vikings in the 10th Century, Trondheim is now the third most populated municipality in Norway with over 212,000 inhabitants. It was a popular port for people joining or leaving our voyage. We were in port for three hours, so we had maximum 2 1/2 hours to visit on foot. With the distance from the port, we managed to get a sense of the town, but we didn’t walk all the way to the Nidaros cathedral, the main attraction. It was a sleepy Sunday morning when we were there so many shops and buildings were closed. I expect Trondheim would be worthy of a couple of days’ visit during the summer to really appreciate all it has to offer.

Ørnes to Bodø

Ørnes was only a 10-minute stop, so we just enjoyed the scenery as the ship crossed the Arctic Circle and made its way around islands to get there.

Bodø, our next port up the coast, was a two-hour stop on our itinerary. The port was right in town so we had time to walk up the hill and explore Bodø’s architecture and murals.

There’s a mythical connection between the Arctic Circle crossing and a visit by the Norse God of the Sea (AKA a troll). Sure enough, we were called onto the top deck and a troll appeared on the roof above. We weren’t well positioned to hear the story that was acted out, but then those braver than us volunteered to have ice and ice water dumped down their backs in exchange for a nip of something warming. Not having spare coats or enough clothes to give the ones we were wearing a good soaking, we declined to participate (not to mention that it sounded quite unpleasant!).

Stamsund and Svolvær

Stamsund and Svolvær were both evening ports. We were only in Stamsund for 25 minutes, but the view from the ship’s deck of the giant rock was intriguing. It was dark by the time we arrived in Svolvær, and we were there for just under an hour, but we took the opportunity to dash out in the drizzle.

Aurora!

Our ship’s crew had been trying to ensure we had a chance to see the northern lights, and called everyone up to see them late one night. (We could leave our in-room speaker on if we didn’t want to miss the call, no matter what time it occurred.) We had both only seen this phenomenon once, briefly, in Calgary, and that time I could see the colours from the car window. This time, it was a little disappointing for me, since I could sort of make out waves or odd light formations, but the colours didn’t appear unless I looked at them through the lens of my phone camera. We were on a moving ship and I didn’t come prepared for long-exposure night photography, but I was still able to capture a bit of what we saw (or, rather, didn’t see).

Finnsnes to Tromsø

After visiting Svolvær, the ship made three port stops in the middle of the night. Again, we were completely unaware and slept through all of them. We got to Finnsnes at about 11:00 in the morning but didn’t stop long enough to explore. The three-hour route from there to Tromsø was beautiful as the autumn colours were beginning to show themselves.

Tromsø takes up one island and spills over across a bridge to the mainland. I had been most interested to see Polaria, the aquarium, for its unique architecture. It looks like concrete blocks that had been standing on end and then one fell over, knocking the others down like dominoes. I was a little saddened to arrive and find it under construction and behind fences, but we could still see the crazy design. Visitors in 2025 will be able to view the completed expansion.

Since we had plenty of time at this four-hour stop, we took the opportunity to quaff a beer (well, Ken did) at the historic Ølhallen brewery before crossing and climbing the hills to explore more of this picturesque town. The waterfront area has several unique museums and attractions like the Troll Museum and the Polar Museum.

Havøysund to Kjøllefjord

We spent the last full day of this trip at the very top of Norway including sailing past the North Cape, Europe’s most northern point for which our ship was named (Nordkapp is North Cape in Norwegian). Havøysund was just a quick stop but at our next port, Honningsvåg, we had more than enough time to wander about. It was raining when we arrived and we tried to wait it out for a bit. As soon as we headed out, we regretted it instantly as we got caught in a downpour with high winds.

Every town near or north of the Arctic Circle seemed to have a troll museum or troll statues about. This seemed like a good one to capture and share.

Kirkenes

The ship made five more short stops on our last evening and through the night, bringing us to our final port, Kirkenes, by 9:00 in the morning. We were taking a flight from Kirkenes to Oslo and then onto Amsterdam at 10:30, so we had no time at all to check out the town. A pre-arranged bus took us and many of the ship’s other passengers to the airport, thus ending this very different cruise experience.