Day one on the Cruise ~ Bergen to Kristiansund

Saturday, April 26, 2019

Which way to go?

I was jostled awake a little before 5:00 am when we departed from a short stop in Floro.  Somehow I managed to get cozy again on my narrow cot without falling off, and went back to sleep until 8:00.  Much more rested, I got up, and after making a cup of coffee with my little immersion heater, I got going on my day.  Since I'd skipped a shower at the hotel in Bergen, that was the next order of the day.  It was actually quite nice.  Fairly roomy, with a nice spray.  It's the little things. 😊

Even though I had a nice breakfast available in the Torget Main Dining, I opted to eat one of my granola bars from home as I got ready.  Then I went up to floor four for an early lunch.  By the time I was finished, we were just docking for a three hour stop in the city of Alesund.

Alesund Harbor

I had fully intended to stay on the ship and relax but as I passed through the open vestibule, a member of the crew encouraged me to walk through the town.  She told me all about the houses with fancy trim and flowers that were so unique.  So off I went, following her directions. 

Alesund Harbor and apartment buildings

Perhaps she was referring to something much further away than I had time to walk to.  The buildings were somewhat interesting but no houses.  She had referred to flowers painted on the buildings but I didn't find that either. 

One thing I've noticed is that every town has scaffolding on some buildings.  I started thinking about that.  If you're going to keep something for many hundred years, you have to take care of it. 

One thing that I've found a lot of in Norway is trolls.  Here's a couple of large ones at the entrance to a pharmacy.  I went in and bought some hand lotion.  One of the rules of the ship is that you have to use antibac every time you go in or out of the dining room and off and on the ship.  It gets very drying.

Spring has just arrived in this area of Norway and many cities have just planted spring flowers.  Here's a huge planter that I walked by on the way back to the ship.

Another thing worth noting is that in several areas where I've walked it seems that they allow their dandelions to freely grow.  I truly wish I could convince my neighborhood to do the same.

Bright yellow dandelions add cheer to green foliage.

I brought along a telephoto lens for my Canon camera.  It's a bit much to lug around but I took it out on deck for a while in the afternoon.  It's seriously windy at times up there so rather hard to hold steady.  Here's a village we passed.

It's been partly sunny most of the time but in the evening the clouds built up, making for some fascinating skies.

Passing ship

We arrived in the city of Molde a few minutes earlier than scheduled so we had enough time for a short walk.  From the ship I had spotted a church spire, so I headed off in that direction.  When I finally got there, the church seemed to be tucked behind another building so I couldn't see much.  I was intrigued by the spiral staircase going up into the bell tower.  On the way there I heard the bells chiming 6:00.

Throughout our journey we will pass 9 other Hurtigruten ships.  If it is during waking hours, they will make an announcement so people can go out on deck to wave.  Here's the MS Richard.

Hurtigruten ship ~ MS Richard

The sun set very slowly all throughout dinner but I have a seat assignment on the opposite side of the ship so I could just see the reflection a bit.  At 9:15 when I could politely excuse myself I went up on the deck to watch the final decent.

At dinner one of my table mates had brought me a cup of coffee.  To be polite, I drank it.  Thus, I was wide awake still when we pulled into Kristiansund at around 11:00 for a short stop.  As you can see, even that late there is a bit of daylight left.  Sleeping is likely going to get harder the further north we go.