Introduction
There is a movie
It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium about a coach tour of Europe. On this trip one could say "it’s 00:45 so this must be Mehamn, it’s 02:45 so this must be Kjøllefjord" and so on through a total of eight ports in 24 hours This example is from the
southbound leg of the cruise which we did not do but
the leg we did do was equally hectic involving 36 stops in seven days. For what it's worth, I got photos at 30 of these 36 stops although several are just a shot of street lights seen from our cabin port hole.
This may be a cruise to some incredible scenery but it is also a working ferry: at every stop people, cars and goods get on or off to do just part of the voyage.
Gatwick → Bergen
I am still trying to find the purpose of the semi-circular causeway at the centre of this picture
Bergen
These satellite dishes seem to be pointing almost horizontally. In fact they are at 30° above horizontal that is because Bergen is at 60° North and geostationary satellites are above the equator.
Florø
Måløy
Torvik
Storfjorden and Sunylvsfjorden
Geiranger
Ålesund
Kristiansund
Trondheim
Hurtigruten MS Midnatsol - guess what that means in English!
Nedre Bakklandet, Trondheim
Seen within yards of each other - perhaps one is
Nynorsk and one is
Bokmål! The Bokmål Wikipedia spells it with two kks:
Nedre Bakklandet. Claimed to be the longest street of all-wood houses (in the daily guide on the boat - not in Wikipedia)
Trondheim: Gamle Bybro, etc.
Trondheim: most northerly tram, etc.
Garnhuset Trondheim AS, Fjordgata 62
Fairytale Souvenir Shop, Fjordgata 52
possibly Spaceworld Soundgarden, Fjordgata 34
Trondheim to Rørvik
On board
When this ship was built in 2002 the designers said "we will provide a space with a few computers so people can check their emails". In 2018 the computers have gone because anybody who wants internet access has brought an access device with them. And good quality Wi-Fi is available throughout the ship.
Before we went out I had bought 35G bytes of internet data access via the GSM network (mobile phone to you). I was very impressed with the mobile coverage considering we were out at sea and passing some very sparsely inhabited country.
Only once in the entire voyage did I notice a loss of GSM availability and that for about fifteen minutes only. Interestingly the on-board internet failed at the same time suggesting that the ship's internet is provided via GSM - I had assumed it came via satellite.
Builders' drawing of Trollfjord dated 2002. Note a transmission shaft running astern - perhaps the idea of generating electricity and using that to drive the propellers came later.
Rørvik
Hurtigruten MS Nordlys (Norwegian for northern lights) southbound at Rørvik
Sandnessjøen
Ørnes
Bodø RIB Safari
Deck 8 forward lounge
approaching Stamsund on Lofoten
Stamsund
Meet the Vikings
Sortland
Risøyhamm
approaching Harstad
Harstad
(Harstad) Even if you are only stopping for 15 minutes, you still need to be moored properly and if you are stopping eight times in 24 hours, you get pretty slick at the mooring process
Hurtigruten MS Polarlys (Norwegian for polar lights, also known as northern lights or aurora borealis) southbound
From Harstad on Lofoten to Finnsnes
Finnsnes
Meet the huskies
The preceding nine photos are all low resolution due to a "technical issue" - the photographer did not realise the camera was set on video mode
Tromsø
Mack Mikrobryggeri, Storgata 4. On the ship I was drinking Mack beer and when I drink real ale I like to get the brewery up on Google Streetview. In this case we got to drive past it in the coach
Polaria is the world's most northerly aquarium
If this was one of those "idiot drivers" videos that I like to watch on YouTube, the fork lift driver would push a bit more and the top pallet would fall into the water! But this is real life and the driver called for assistance to get it pushed properly on to the forks.
Skervøy
Øksfjord
Hammerfest
Havøysund
Having done a circuit of the promenade deck, this guy came ashore for our thirty minute stop here.
Wikipedia claims that
Havøysund Bridge in the background is the world's northernmost bridge of any size.
Honningsvåg
Bamse a dog with a bus pass fondly remembered seventy years on
Kjøllefjord
Mehamn
The quay is made of wood and possibly fairly fragile so the mooring hawser is attached to a chain which goes through an hole in the quay to the shore where it is firmly anchored.
Båtsfjord
Vardø
Vadsø
Kirkenes
I think the blue tint on these six pictures is because they were taken through the windows of the Deck 8/9 lounges.
It is called
Jenny Lind - a name we know well. She is remembered in Sutton.
Note "Passport control" in Russian - we are just 18km from Russia.
And about 30° E: the same longitude as Istanbul but it does not seem so far. At the equator 1° of longitude is 111 km but at 70° N like Kirkenes 1° of longitude is only 38 km.
Oslo
Seen from inside the terminal building of Gardermoen Airport. Improbably tall control tower and
curious sculpture of man throwing paper dart.
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