Ms Trollfjord Bergen Honningsvag

Sunday, February 05, 2017
Bergen, Hordaland, Norway
Day 1
Medium overcast with small patches of blue peeking through patchy snow about 60m above water level
Alesund at noon where we had a bus to take us to aquarium saw diver feeding about 300 or so fish then on to Fjellstua lookout
Good view of town and ship . Area heavily fortified by the Germans during the War.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%85lesund

Ship has two jacuzzis on the top deck. In theory we need only walk about 8 metres in the cold to get to the hot water. 
Breakfast and lunch are free seating and a buffet.
Dinner however, there is a fixed menu three courses.

Day Two
Arrived Trondheim 6am clear cloudless sky. sun rose about 9 AM
Leith joined the group to walk into town just for the exercise since we are having two days sightseeing at the end of our trip. I spent the time relaxing- wondering how cold it is outside.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trondheim

Now 2pm and Leith & I are in the lounge having an after lunch coffee. Still brilliant sunshine but Dr Google tellls me it is -3C.
We have good WiFi. 
Around 11pm we got the call that the Northern Lights were visible. Leith got dressed and rushed out (-7d?) but it was only a faint glow.

Day Three 
Another cloudless sky we reach Bodo about 12:30pm where we get a bus to the Saltstrumen which are bigger and better than our Horizontal Waterfallls
https://www .youtube.com/watch?v=frJ-FvKrcMk

Another excitement was the cleaning of the windows.
Outside and about in the middle is a pipe which sprays warm water on to the glass. This doesn't work very well since the water either freezes and forms lumps of ice either way there are still streaks on the window.

We arranged an A La Carte dinner tonight. This was in a separate dining room (about 30 seats) and was about A$30 more each. This gave us a choice of about five dishes over the three courses. We both had the scallops and I had the Arctic Char and Leith the 'aged' beef. An excellent meal which meant that I went to bed but Leith had enough energy to go up on deck to see the Lights. She says they were mystical but not very extensive. I propose to stay up
tomorrow night

Day Four
A morning sailing. I sit in the forward lounge typing this blog. The sun is just peeping over the snow covered mountains it is 10:30am
Clear blue sky as it has been the three days!

The ship does not tell us the temperature but because I am using the iPhone I go into Dr Google type Weather Finnesnes (where we are just now) and it is -13C Still brilliant sun. Luckily it is warm inside.
Snow is now down to the water level but is not on the trees. I assume because it hasn't snowed for awhile.
We arrived at Tromso 2:15pm. 
Thin layer of snow/ice but not too bad since grit had been layered on .top.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troms%C3%B8

Still about 2hrs sunlight so we had a look at the outside of the Tromso Cathedral, drive along the longest road in Tromso, entrance to Botanical Gardens, Polaris Aquarium to see the seal feeding. All of these we had visited two years ago in the summer. The Aquarium had an excellent surround presentation of the Northern Lights plus a film of the wild life of Svalbard. Owen then organised a trip on the cable car to see Tromso by night - it is dark by 4:00pm then finally back to the ship with 30 minutes to spare.

After dinner we both went on deck and managed to see a white streak going across the sky. It wasn't rippling or changing colour but definitely not cloud. We went after about 30 minutes because we were getting cold. It must have been well below zero. Later we found out that if we had stayed it improved to show some colour but did not stay for long. We have about
three nights left at these latitudes .

Day 5
High cloud with the sun poking through. 
On looking at the photos on the laptop I find that using Picasa and enhancing the photos can be made to the Lights so not too bad.

Leith went for a walk in Honningsvag, we are here for four hours. I stayed in the warm, sat in the lounge looking at snow covered mountains with the odd boat zipping past.
Sunsets at 2:30pm today about 5 hrs of sunlight 
I am typing this on the iPhone (Calendar/notes section) which I transfer by email to the laptop and then to the blog.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honningsv%C3%A5g

Comments

Judith Slaughter
2017-02-10

Hi David
You might be cold there, but it is HOT here -38 and 39 the last two days. Make the most of it!

Judith

Louise Wilson
2017-02-12

Another wonderful trip. It's great to read your unique commentary & see your photos. But you didn't have to go so far to see 'the lights'. You can see the Aurora Australis from Geelong area on some nights - spectacular, just Google it! (Teasing you!) Love to you both, Louise

Stephen Ringe
2017-02-14

Lovely pics David, who is that crazy man in shorts???!
Had hottest day we've ever experienced on Sunday ... 44C at our place, 47C Port Macquarie's official high. Accompanied by 2 power blackouts.
Keep the stories and pics coming
Love to you and Leith
D & S

2025-02-10

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