Norway - An epic adventure

Following on from my last post on my experience of cruising I thought I would write a bit more about the places we actually went in Norway.

Norway only has a population of 5 million (that's less than the amount of people who live in London) and of those only 2% live in the Northern regions. I absolutely loved their laid back attitude and how welcoming they were to tourists. Every Norwegian we met told us how happy they were we had chosen to visit their country, and they're right. It’s absolutely incredible. The further North you go the more wild and mountainous the scenery gets. 

Ålesund was our first port of call and reminds me a lot of Prague. This is probably because most of it was burnt down in a disastrous fire in 1904 and then rebuilt in an Art Nouveau style. It’s a really pretty place with its pastel houses along the water. We climbed up to the view point by the observatory in order to look out over the city. There are over 400 steps (plus plenty of steep ramps) to the top and I had a really chesty cough so probably wasn't the best decision I've ever made but the view was worth it. There is a land train that you can take if you don’t fancy the climb which is run by a hilarious Aussie. My Mum, Grandma and 2 of my sisters opted for this and they also went on a bus tour round the city. 

Tromsø is commonly referred to as the Capital of the North but it’s really not that big by UK standards (68,000 people). The city is spread over both sides of the fjord connected by a large bridge that comes out by the Arctic Cathedral. The shopping here is pretty good and we picked up some nice souvenirs. The best part of our trip was it had just snowed and it was our first chance to properly wrap up and experience how people live in this part of the world despite weather conditions that would bring the UK to a halt within an hour. We walked over the bridge and back to have a look at the Arctic Cathedral and just generally have a bit of a wander about. As we were sailing away from Tromsø that evening we saw the best Aurora of the trip from the back of the ship which was an amazing sight. I’m so glad we managed to see them as there’s no guarantee with this kind of thing so we were very lucky. 

Honnigsvag is one of the most northern cities in the world, yet has a relatively mild climate due to the Gulf Stream. Lots of people visit here to see the North Cape but we booked a quad biking safari through the snow that took us up one of the mountains that overlooks the city (again only a few thousand people live here). This was excellent fun (despite some scary driving from my Grandma) and we got the chance to see the incredible scenery as we drove round the fjord and up the mountain. We also went through a 4km tunnel before stopping for a hot drink. We had such good weather for this as it was cold, but very clear and bright so the views were amazing. 

 

Alta was my favourite place we visited. We stayed two days here and packed in a lot of adventure activities. On our first day we went husky sledding, which was unbelievably cold (I thought my face was frozen solid) but so interesting. As fun as the dog sledding was, I almost enjoyed learning about it more. The guides explained to us how they train the dogs and the dynamics involved in dog racing. Our team of dogs took us on a trip through snowy woods and alongside the frozen Alta river. How I stayed on that sled I don't know as there's nothing to hold onto over rough terrain and the dogs are more powerful than you think.

That evening we went on an Aurora chasing trip but although we did see some they were weaker than we had seen from the ship previously. The Northern Lights are tricky to see and a lot of luck is involved, but as we had already seen some fantastic ones in Tromsø nobody was too disappointed. We spent most of the time stargazing and soaking in the enormity of the Arctic night sky. We were lucky in that it wasn't too cold (about -10) and we were quite sheltered from the wind as I don't think it would have been as enjoyable otherwise!

The following day we went Snowmobiling which was so exciting. I've never driven one before but they're very straight forward and no harder than a quad bike. After blasting round their snowy track (and managing to find some bits where we could let loose) we had a chance to look round the Igloo Hotel. The whole place is entirely made from snow and ice and we had a shot of Antifreeze from an ice glass. The whole place is pretty surreal and although you can see these sort of places on TV its nothing like seeing it in real life. If I ever go back to Norway I absolutely want to stay in one of these places as according to the owner it’s not that expensive with rooms starting from £240 including breakfast and dinner. They also have a chapel where people can get married and then stay in the bridal suite which had a bed made entirely from ice.

Kristiansund is an unusual city as its spread out over 4 islands all connected by various bridges and is Norways fifth largest town with around 80,000 people. We went to visit one of Norways Stave churches here combined with a road trip along the Atlantic Ocean Road which connects a whole string of small islands with roads and bridges draped along the coast like spaghetti. The Kvernes church seems small and unremarkable from the outside but inside a lot of the original features remain, with the whole inside painted and one of the biblical paintings from the 1600’s still remains. The pulpit was imported from the Netherlands by a wealthy local who also paid for all of the rest of the interior. A small detail I really liked was the pulpit was designed to feature the four evangelists and Jesus. However because it was built abroad they hadn’t factored in that it wouldn’t fit in the church without the wall obscuring one of the figures. So they took John off and moved him so that he now sits up on the wall overlooking the rest of the church. One of the local women who looks after the church performed some traditional songs for us which was so ethereal it made all the hairs on my neck stand up. When she stood up and said she was going to sing for us I was hoping it wouldn't be too cringey (you never know when people say they can sing) but it was one of the best moments of the whole trip.

Åndalsnes was made even more magical by when we arrived it started snowing. A LOT. It was like being in a Christmas card. Jared and I went on an excursion on our own to see another Stave Church. The Rødven Stave church (built around 1300) is smaller and less ornate but still had the original door which was tall and thin to keep the devil out but allow the angels to still come in. The Crucifix dates from medieval times which was pretty remarkable. Churches in Norway feature a ship, which signifies the journey from the cradle to the grave which I thought was really interesting. Some of the other people on the trip were saying that had seen similar things in Norfolk back in the UK. On our way back we made a stop at the Troll Wall which is the highest vertical cliff face in Europe. However the snow was so bad by this point we couldn't see a thing. This was to become a bit of an ongoing thing as after we returned we had an afternoon trip with the rest of my family on the Rauma railway. This starts at the top of the valley and then travelled all the way back down to Åndalsnes (quite the feat of engineering with the use of turning tunnels inside the mountains) crossing many bridges and waterfalls. So out of three attempts to see the Troll wall we didn't see it once! Not that it mattered because the rest of the journey was incredible. I felt like I was on the Hogwarts Express when they go home for Christmas as it was so snowy and magical. The Romaldasfjord is interesting as well because unlike most fjords it often freezes. This is due to the freshwater input from the river and the runoff from the mountains that surround it. The freshwater is less dense than the saltwater of the fjord so forms a layer on top. As freshwater freezes at higher temperatures than saltwater they often have a frozen layer of ice on the fjord which our guide tells us people skate on and race their snowmobiles. It was just starting to freeze over while were there, not sure if it froze enough for any of that though. 

Bergen was one of the ports I was most excited to visit. This is Norway's second biggest city with a population of around 280,000 people. It’s well known for how often it rains here (on average 200 days of the year) and it managed to be a combination of rain and sleet with a howling wind blowing it horizontally into our faces. Lovely. Jared and I went off to explore on our own here and went souvenir shopping in the historic Bryggen district. We also went and explored the local farmers market and the fish market. I was really impressed with this as its made of glass so you can look out across the harbour. You could choose your fish, watch it being cooked and then eat it in the restaurant. As much as we wanted to try it, everything in Norway is very pricey and main courses were around £35 each which was a bit out of our budget! The weather was so rubbish we didn’t go on the Funicular that takes you to a wonderful view point as we didn’t think we would be able to see anything but if we ever go back that will be on our to do list. 

Out of all the places we visited I think Alta was my favourite. I’d love to go back and do lots of winter activities with more dog sledding and snowmobiling. Maybe a longer stay there would mean lots more chances to see the Northern Lights which was the absolute highlight of the trip.