Havila Polaris Postcard #2 – Bergen: Embarkation & Setting Sail

After a great night’s sleep, we enjoyed a hearty breakfast before setting off to see what we saw last night in the dark. The round trip took around 1 ½ hours and gave plenty of photo opportunities.

We were back at the hotel just before 12:00 to check out and were able to store our cases ready for collection later.

We then set off for more exploring, first thing was to try and get a decent photo of Hansakvarteret Bryggen

We achieved this from one side of the harbour and then by wandering past it on the way to Bergenhus Fortress where we did a quick circuit of the gardens.

On the way back we explored the inside sections of Hansakvarteret Bryggen which we weren’t aware you could do.

Behind the main facard there are lots of little retail units and we found a nice little gallery where we purchased a print for our travel wall back home. We enjoyed lunch and took a quick detour to see the ship before heading back to the hotel to collect our cases. Our hotel was a 12 minute walk from the terminal but much of the route is cobbled or uneven so we decided to get an Uber to save damaging our suitcases.

We arrived at 4:35 and joined a queue of about 80 people waiting to check in. After we had done all the passport, photo ID and credit card details it was time to go upstairs and get our dining time where we had to settle for our 2nd choice of 6:00. We eventually got onboard at 5:20 and found our cabin was ready for us.

Everything was a bit of a rush so we watched the safety information on the TV and did a quick explore. We missed the 5:15 welcome meeting so had to go to the second one at 7:15. Dinner was open seating from 6:00 until 8:30 and we were there for 6:00 and joined a very short queue that disappeared quickly. I was impressed with the offerings for the first night so I hope the trend continues. As tonight was a bit hectic, I will sign off and update you with more tomorrow including with how our day went.

A quick edit/update, we are on our way.