Category: Norway

Narvik day 2

An enormous amount of iron ore mined in Sweden is exported through Narvik. From our hotel window we can see the trains carrying the ore from Sweden to the port of Narvik. It is pretty darn impressive.

The facility where the ore is offloaded from the trains and loaded into the ships.
The brown cars are the ore cars. They go into the concrete tunnel to unload.

The Germans attacked Narvik in April of 1940. Narvik is the first place that they attacked in Norway. They wanted the Swedish iron ore.

This morning we went to the Narvik War Museum. It was fascinating and very well done. The land and sea battles in and around Narvik are explained in the museum. Duke and I watched the movie Narvik before we left home. That made the museum even more interesting.

Map and audio visual display explaining the battle of Narvik

While I was waiting for Duke to finish going through the museum. I talked to Anne, an American Norwegian woman. She met her husband in Chicago and moved to Norway in 1955. She is 92 years old!

Anne and I by the museum entrance

This afternoon we walked to the train station to see where it is. We were on the platform when an ore train went by.

Train carrying iron ore

For dinner we went to a restaurant called Fiskehallen. The name means fish market and the restaurant is in the restored fish market building.

The Fiskehallen restaurant
Duke had a whale burger
I had fish and chips.

They were each very good.

Tonight is our last night in Norway. Tomorrow we take the train into Sweden.

Bergen Day 2

Please note that starting tomorrow night for the next four nights we will be cruising north along the coast. It is unlikely that I will be able to post anything to the blog until we get off the ship.

It rained quite a bit here in Bergen today. We looked it up. The average annual rainfall in Bergen is 88.58 inches. Bergen is considered one of the rainiest cities in Europe.

This morning we played cards for a bit. Duke and I learned to play hand and foot. When the rain let up for a while around noon we went for a walk.

Playing cards while it rains
Going for a walk

But then it started to rain hard. When it started to hail we took shelter.

Sheltering from the hail

Then Gayle and I saw the yarn store across the street. We took a run for it. It was a great store and we enjoyed browsing. Roger and Duke did some more exploring. They found a grocery store and learned that in Norway you can only buy wine at government monopoly stores, Vinmonopolet.

Wonderful yarn store
One of the streets the guys saw when they were out exploring.

For dinner we intended to go to Enhjørnngen but we couldn’t get in. They suggested a sister restaurant a little farther down the side alley. We had a great meal.

At dinner
Duke’s Monk Fish
Gayle coming out of the restaurant.

Oslo to Gudvangen

This morning we got on the Oslo to Bergen train at 8:25. The scenery was gorgeous.

Getting on the train in Oslo
The view from the train as we went over the top of Norway

We didn’t go all the way to Bergen. Instead we got off at Myrdal and took the Flam Railway to Flam. From Flam we took at bus to Guvangen where we are tonight.

Getting on the Flam railway
On the Flam Railway
We saw at least 100 beautiful waterfalls
The train was packed. This cruise ship was docked right where we got off the train in Flam
Our room in Gudvangen is in this building

We had an excellent fish dinner overlooking the fjord.

The 4 of us at dinner. Note the heaters!
My halibut

After dinner we walked along the waterfront a bit and over this pedestrian bridge.

That’s Roger, Gayle and Duke on the bridge

The end of our Hurtigruten trip up the Norwegian coast.

Today was the end of our Norwegian Coastal trip on the Richard With. It was a wonderful trip. I would recommend a Hurtigruten Norwegian Coastal trip to anyone who likes adventure. The service was excellent as was the food and accommodations. The expedition staff who provided information about the land we were sailing through really added to our enjoyment of the trip. They were not only very knowledgeable but they seemed to have a true passion for the country, it’s culture and history.

We arrived in Kirkenes about 9 this morning. From Kirkenes it is less than ten miles to the Russian border and we are further east than Istanbul. We stored our luggage at our hotel and went for a walk around town.

We had dinner tonight at our hotel, the Thon. We started with scallops and then I had salmon and Duke had char.

Day 6 Aboard the Hurtigruten, Richard With – Today we were at the Highest Latitude in Continental Europe and got off the ship in Finnmark County.

Today was our last full day on board the Richard With. We are now sailing eastbound in the Barents Sea. This morning we got off the ship briefly in Havøysund.

We made a longer stop at Honningsvåg. The Såmi people graze their reindeer on the island in the summer. The reindeer swim the channel to get to and from the island. From the boat we could see reindeer grazing on shore in the distance.

In the town we hiked first to the church and then to a viewpoint overlooking the town. During World War II the Germans burned everything in the town except the church. After the war the town was rebuilt.

After leaving Honningsvåg the wind came up and we were bounced around the most we have been on this trip. We actually couldn’t stop at two of the harbors we were scheduled to stop at because of the wind.