This was to be our new home for the next four days. The ship is fantastic and a lot bigger than the one we saw yesterday. As soon as arrived at the harbour a porter took our luggage and brought it to our room. Our cabin had a nice sea view and was ideally located right near the check in desk. Morten and Berit came onboard with us to have a look around and we were all impressed with what we saw. There are several lounges, a couple of bars, a library area, a cafe, a fancy restaurant, a gym, sauna and a couple of Jacuzzis on the sun deck, there’s even a landing pad for helicopters.
There was even time for a cup of coffee before we sailed off. The boat set off in spectacular style; the captain managed to crash into the pier! Luckily nothing was damaged and we sailed away, waving to Berit and Morten on the pier until they were just little dots on the horizon.
Guess who else was waving them goodbye? Yes, our Danish friends!
Our first stop was Vardø, which is very reminiscent of Iceland. It is the most easterly town in Norway and the Americans used it for their spy bases against the Russians.
The Vardo area was also amongst the worst in Europe in regard to the scope of brutal witch hunting. Just before Vardo is the mountain Domen. At the foot of the mountain is a cave, formerly known as ‘the Gateway to Hell’. It got its name from “witches’” “confessions’” stating that they’d socialised with the Devil and taken an oath to him at Domen. He was also believed to live in the cave.
The next couple of ports we entered were the ports of Båtsfjord, regarded as Norway’s largest fishing community, and Berlevåg, yet another fishing community! Three guesses as to what they liv off up here in the North! When the Germans retreated from Northern Norway at the end of the war, they were ordered to burn everything to the ground (houses, livestock etc), with the result that everything of course was left in ruins. When they had to rebuild the villages, to speed up the building process all the houses were built the same, but to make them different from each other the owners painted them in different colours, hence the rainbow houses we see today. There was however one German commander in one little village who refused to follow his orders since he didn't see the point in destroying everything. He survived the war and when he returned to this village after the war he was welcomed with open arms. We were here in more pleasant circumstances and it was lovely to sit out on the sunny deck watching the spectacular coastal scenery glide by.
We hadn’t booked a table in the fancy restaurant for the early sitting for dinner, and that turned out to be a problem, it was fully booked! A top tip: if you’re going with Hurtigruten and like to eat early make sure you book in advance! However the restaurant manager managed to find us a table in the bow of the boat, which turned out to be the best table. We had a lovely three course meal and a fantastic view to the sun shining on the water. The midnight sun should be amazing tonight!
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