Thanks to Richard Varr for this visitor publish. (Richard Varr is a contract journey author and a member of the Society of American Journey Writers (SATW). He’s a frequent contributor to Porthole Cruise and Journey Journal, Good Sam RV membership magazines, and plenty of different print and on-line publications.) All images by Richard Varr
Craggy cliffs tower over the narrowing waterway as Havila Voyages’ Castor slowly sails – seemingly drifting – via the nonetheless waters. We’ve got simply entered Trollfjord on the strait of Raftsundet, deep inside a crisscross of waterways and fjords chopping via rugged peaks, only one cluster of mountainous islands that outline Norway’s dramatic western shoreline.
Inexperienced patches shroud sharp ridges like moss clings to rock. Snowbanks cap extra distant peaks. A waterfall tumbles into the fjord, its forceful streams trying solely razor skinny when juxtaposed towards the mighty girth of the mountains only a stone’s throw from us. I’m taking all of it in, possibly a 30-minute sail that I want would final all afternoon.
“I at all times really feel a bit small as a result of this space is so majestic and dramatic,” says Eirunn Hatlem, Castor’s expedition chief who by my very own account is fortunate to repeatedly expertise crusing via the two-mile-long Trollfjord as simply one other day on the job. “It’s sort of like respect for nature,” she says. “Persons are attempting to be right here and be crammed with that majestic feeling.” And that’s precisely the case – silence and awe. The LNG fueled Castor is now working on quiet battery energy, including to the expertise.
It’s Day 3 of my Havila cruise from mainland Norway’s northern edges to Bergen. I boarded Castor in Kirkenes, a small metropolis alongside the Finnish and Russian borders and approach north of the Arctic Circle, the place the solar by no means units from mid Could to late July. I’m cruising in mid July, the place the white nights add distinctive moments to our itinerary: a midnight live performance in port of name Tromsø, a four-hour, late-night drive via the Lofoten Islands chain, and a 7 a.m. tour of the quiet streets of Trondheim, Norway’s third largest metropolis. That, with an early morning go to to Trondheim’s Nidaros Cathedral, one in every of Scandinavia’s foremost medieval buildings courting again to the 14th century.
All through the cruise, 24 hours of daylight slowly yields to twilight step by step rising when crusing south, thus experiencing Norway’s mountainous island chains and fjords at nearly any hour.
Not a typical cruise
Cruises alongside the Norwegian fjords are fairly completely different from the main cruise strains crusing the world. Each Havila and competitor Hurtigruten observe the identical route, established in 1893, and serving not solely as sightseeing adventures however as modes of transportation. Driving on roads alongside Norway’s rugged terrain and across the straits and fjords will not be at all times time environment friendly and handy, particularly in snowy winter months.
“We’ve got an obligation to the general public of transporting folks and cargo alongside the coast,” explains Hatlem, as Havila and Hurtigruten cease at 34 cities and cities from Kirkenes to Bergin. The stops in any respect hours of the day and evening differ from as little as 10 minutes to a couple hours, with the longer calls providing alternatives to additional discover the ports or be part of an tour to close by points of interest, cities and pure wonders. Well-liked roundtrip 12-days cruises begin in Bergen, or you possibly can sail a method in six or fewer days.
Havila sails 4 related ships constructed from 2021-2023 and all fueled by environmentally cleaner liquid pure gasoline and at instances battery energy. Every is 124 meters or 407 toes in size with a capability for 640 passengers, with inside lounges and eating places and loads of on-deck house to gaze upon the northern lights in winter and pure splendor year-round – wispy cloud bands hugging snowcapped mountains, sunlit glows off the deep blue seas, or seemingly nightlong golden and amber skies when the everlasting solar dips low however doesn’t set. In contrast to different main cruise strains, there aren’t any casinos or nightly leisure exhibits, however as a substitute lectures and meals tastings.
“What separates us from an strange cruise ship is what’s occurring exterior the ship, not onboard – the character and nation itself,” says Hatlem. “You have to style Norway and really feel it as a result of the id of this nation is discovered exterior and never inside.”
Ports of name: witch trial historical past to arctic exploration
We depart Kirkenes at 12:30 pm on a very calm Barents Sea, so surprisingly nonetheless that I might most likely skim rocks throughout the water. A couple of hours later, we arrive at our first cease in Norway’s easternmost city of Vardø. We’re there hardly an hour, however it’s simply sufficient time for a brisk stroll to a 14th century fortress with its grass-roofed buildings as soon as used for interrogations in one in every of Scandinavia’s most infamous 17th century witch trials.
On Day 2, I discover the encircling barren mountainous terrain is altering with extra inexperienced patches dotting the cliffsides. Stopping in Hammerfest, I be part of an tour for a mountaintop view of one of many world’s northernmost cities (70.7 levels latitude) and surrounding fjords. “The image of Hammerfest is the polar bear as a result of expeditions to the North Pole that began from right here,” explains native tour information Janne Pusch. Our go to on this present day simply occurs to coincide with town’s 235th birthday celebration within the city middle. “A very long time in the past, there have been no borders up within the north, so tax collectors got here from Russia, Finland, Sweden and Norway,” she provides.
Again on the ship, we sail previous the dramatic mountain peaks of Stjernøya island, indented by a number of fjords chopping via it. On the map, Stjernøya seems to be like a hand with a thumb and fingers, a very good instance of fjords fashioned by glacial exercise. “Fjords are like cul-de-sacs,” explains Carl Skoglund, Castor’s assistant expedition chief. “Glaciers are transferring ice that drag with them numerous stone and grit that works like sandpaper. What you search for is a despair between the mountains and if it’s sufficiently big, it goes all the way in which all the way down to the ocean.”
By the point we attain Tromsø at 11:45 p.m., we had already sailed from the Barents Sea to the Norwegian Sea. We disembark for the midnight live performance within the Tromsø Cathedral, a well-liked summer season occasion, the place piano and trumpet soloists accompany a vocalist singing conventional Norwegian music. A statue of Arctic and Antarctic explorer Roald Amundsen stands in an adjoining sq. amidst a cacophony of squawking seagulls underneath the late-night solar’s golden tones. Again on the ship, I peek via my cabin window to see the solar teetering on the horizon at 2 a.m. But it surely received’t be setting at this location for one more week or so.
Don’t let 24-hour daylight preserve you up at evening!
I quickly understand one of the best ways to maintain a semblance of regular hours in everlasting daylight is to have darkish curtains (which Havila cabins have), put on a watch and wake with an alarm if crucial. But a midnight or in a single day stroll on a sunlit deck with chilling arctic breezes is an everlasting and invigorating reminiscence.
Sticking to a meal schedule is simple as properly. Breakfast begins at 7 a.m. whereas lunch and dinner hours are regular instances in Havrand, Castor’s foremost restaurant. Breakfast features a buffet in addition to an ala carte menu, whereas lunch and dinner alternatives can change each few days relying on what area the ship is visiting. Lunch and dinner gadgets embrace the likes of sautéed reindeer in porcini sauce, poached halibut, sashimi from Norwegian rainbow trout, and fish stews with scallops and mussels.
Regional dessert-favorite cloudberries in bitter cream options the raspberry-like, ripened yellow fruit that thrive in chilly northern climates, notably in Scandinavia. The usually-scarce berries develop in acidic soil in mountainous moors and bogs.
Ghostly ambiance and bohemian vibes
On Day 3, I awake to our continued streak of sunny arctic climate. It’s the day we sail alongside Trollfjord, talked about earlier, and in addition a night tour of the Lofoten Islands. Earlier than that, Castor passes alongside the Vesterålen archipelago and stops on the fishing village of Sortland generally known as the “blue metropolis by the sound” due to its blue-hued waterfront buildings.
I disembark throughout our one hour cease in Stokmarknes the place Hurtigruten launched its first ship in 1893, with a fast go to to the Hurtigruten Museum adjoining to the port. The museum’s spacious shell with glass facades homes the 1912 steamship MS Finnmarken that sailed till 1956. Key to the ship are the Victorian-style lounges restored to when it first sailed – possibly a bit just like the Titanic – now with background recordings of passenger banter and laughter making a little bit of a ghostly ambiance.
Within the early night, I be part of a bus tour in Svolvær, the Lofoten Islands’ largest city with its landmark Svolværgeita mountain outlined by the rock formation resembling two goat-like horns. The gap between the 2 peaks is just one and a half meters, says our tour chief, so some daring hikers bounce from one to the opposite.
We cross bridges linking just a few of the seven foremost islands and cease within the fishing village of Henningsvær, now with a bohemian really feel due to its bars, artwork neighborhood and galleries. “Henningsvær grew to become a hipster space the place numerous younger folks got here and began companies. Solely 500 dwell within the city and the locals are actually shut,” says Victoria Bach, supervisor of Galleri Lofoten. We meet the ship within the subsequent Lofoten port of name, Stamsund, and depart at 10:30 p.m. In a single day, we sail beneath the Arctic Circle into the North Atlantic.
‘Spoiled with the sunshine’
On Day 4, a morning announcement urges passengers to view the Seven Sisters, a mountain vary fashionable with hikers with seven peaks reaching greater than 3,000 toes. However what a disappointment after I step on deck: dreary climate with the mountains shrouded in fog. “That is the true Norwegian climate,” chirps Hatlem. “You’ve actually been spoiled for the previous couple of days with the sunshine,” she says. “Within the clouds we’ve some fantastic mountains and you need to come again in and see them within the sunshine.”
Blue skies, nevertheless, start to poke via by the point we attain Torghatten, a granite dome with a gap in it – simple to overlook as you possibly can solely see it at a sure angle. I miss it from the ship however see a tiny speck of sunshine via the mountain when reviewing my images. Havila gives a considerably vigorous climbing tour to Torghatten, the place up shut the opening is definitely from 65 to 245 toes excessive and 525 toes via the mountain.
At this level, we’re far sufficient south the place dusk has returned. The spotlight on Day 5 is my early morning tour of Trondheim, with a stroll alongside the pastel-toned warehouses of the Bryggen wharf district on the banks of the Nidelva River. We cross the red-framed Previous City pedestrian bridge to our morning tour of the Gothic Nidaros Cathedral with greater than 50 stone statues of saints embedded in its large entrance façade. The cathedral is the ultimate resting place of 11th century Viking King Olav Haraldsson, Norway’s patron saint.
Discovering your ‘inside Viking’
Taking a 12-day Havila Voyages roundtrip cruise from Bergen gives alternatives to sail via two different dramatic fjords alongside the northbound path to Kirkenes – Hjørundfjord and Geirangerfjord, the latter a UNESCO World Heritage website. Greater than 40 excursions vary from biking, climbing and hen watching to horseback using, ice-bathing with sauna and studying in regards to the indigenous Sámi tradition.
Day 6 brings an finish to the cruise, however my journey continues as I spend 4 days in Bergen. I discover the historic Bryggen warehouses now crammed with outlets and eating places, a few of The Scream painter Edvard Munch’s artworks within the KODE Museums, and a trip up the Fløibanen funicular to the highest of Mount Fløyen for huge and beautiful views of town and waterfront.
“An essential a part of the id of the Norwegians is to be exterior,” I recall Hatlem telling me just a few days earlier. “You have to discover your inside Viking and do because the Norwegians, to be exterior in every kind of climate and to really feel it!” # # #
Cowl picture: The Havila Castor, credit score Richard Varr
Browse Cruise Ships and Cruise Strains
Ed. Notes: CruiseCompete and its member journey advisors present many curated cruise and land offers, gives and facilities on over 50 cruise strains with over 500 cruise ships crusing all around the globe.
Shore Excursions – Ports, Day & Weekend Journeys
