After a reasonable first night onboard the Havila Polaris, we have officially traded the urban bustle of Bergen for the rugged Norwegian coastline. By the time we were awake, the ship had already made two stops, neither of which I was aware of.
Sea conditions were a bit bouncy this morning which made for some staggering as we made our way for our first breakfast onboard. This is served in the Havrand Restaurant on Deck 6, and there are several dishes on a menu to select from along with a self-service buffet with an excellent selection. (I will try to remember to take a photo of the menu tomorrow morning and some photos of the buffet).
The restaurant opens at 7:00 and we were shown a print out using traffic light colours of when it was quiet and when it was at it’s busiest. All of our meal slots are early so we decided to get there first thing to try and maintain a reasonable space between eating.
After breakfast, we made the first stop that we were aware of in daylight, which was called Torvik. This was pretty much just a mail stop and lasted only 10 minutes. Nothing much there other than a large jetty but it was fascinating to watch a few items being loaded along with a few ferry passengers heading somewhere north.
Our second daylight stop of the day was Alesund which is the longest time we will spend in any port on this trip. During the summer months on north bound trip, the ship will make it’s way into the UNESCO-listed Geirangerfjord. But in the winter, it stays in Alesund all day but Havila offers a boat cruise to visit Geiranger as an excursion and this is what we opted to do.
We arrived at Alesund later than the scheduled 9:45 but by magic, our excursion managed to depart for Geiranger on time. We spent the next 3 hours cruising to Geirangerfjord with photo opportunities a plenty.
The scenery was spectacular, as we passed an array of peaks, sometimes covered with snow, sometimes not and sometimes just covered with cloud.
In the last 30 minutes we passed a not so active ‘Seven Sisters’ and the more impressive ‘Suitor’ waterfalls along with many other much smaller ones.
At 1:30 we arrived at Geiranger where we were bused to Flydalsjuvet viewpoint for photos. Every photo I have ever seen taken from this location has always had a large cruise ship slap bang in the middle but our little boat with it’s 86 passengers was the total number of visitors coming in on the water today. I did read somewhere that 11 weeks ago, the boat had to turn around because of the ice at the end of the Fjord so I feel very privileged to have had that experience today.
We were then back on the bus to Norwegian Fjord Center Exhibition where we watched a quick film before then making our way back to the boat via the Waterfall Walk which takes you along the lower part of the Storfossen waterfall.
It’s actually a very long metal staircase and walkway and we decided to do this rather than get the bus back. At 4:00 pm we departed from Geiranger on our way back to Ålesund, arriving at 6:30 where we made the short walk back across the quay to the waiting Havila Polaris.
I have taken loads of photos today so narrowing it down to share here has been a bit of a task. So many different views with changing conditions meant if you turned your back for a moment, things looked different when you turned back again.
Our evening meal slot was amended for tonight due to our participation in the excursion, we were allocated an open seating 8:30 slot which gave us time to kick back once we were back onboard and spent an hour in Havblikk Bar & Lounge, forward deck 9 where I have conceded that I need to accept the Norwegian alcohol prices or go without.
At the moment I am drinking a Norwegian draught beer called Dahls Pils which is coming in at about £10 for 400ml. I just can’t bring myself to pay an equivalent price for a glass of wine.
Fitbit Steps – 10,542
