Sometime you dream. Sometime you dream you have gone to another dimension. Sometime your dream is true!

Welcome to Norway.

Bergen is a wonderful city. Easy to walk around and explore the many shops and restaurants. There are some hills toward the harbor and other areas. But if you love walking that should not be a problem. Bergen is well worth exploring by foot and visit the local shops, bars and restaurants.

The many scenes from picturesque Bergen. I especially liked the telephone booth that doubles as a library.

We had flown from Copenhagen ( København ), Denmark to join MS Nordkapp one of the merchant ships in the Hurtigruten family, that serve the towns and cities along the Norwegian coastline up to Kirkenes. The round trip from Bergen is eleven days, however you have the choice to book the trip one way, thus making Kirkenes your last stop and from there you fly home or to your next destination. I would recommend the round trip. More about that later on!

We stayed at “Det Hanseatiske Hotel” which was wonderful, right in the middle of “Bryggen” in Bergen and an easy walk to the Hurtigruten pier.

The hotel was reasonably priced and included a wonderful breakfast buffet. Here is the URL if you want to read about the hotel’s history http://www.dethanseatiskehotel.no

After a couple of days we we walked to the Hurtigruten terminal. It takes about ten to fifteen minutes to get to the terminal. The great adventure of seeing Norway at winter time was about to begin. MS Nordkapp is one of several ships in the Hurtigruten fleet of ships bringing supplies to communities along the coast as well as picking up goods from one community to another.

The following are pictures of the coastline taken from the cruise. Just for your information all pictures are taken by an iPhone 13 Pro using a Beastgrip with the Beastgrip Pro Series 1.33x anamorphic lens. None of the pictures have been color corrected.

The coastline of Norway is breathtaking.

I mentioned earlier that I would recommend the “return trip” the reason for that goes back to, that Hurtigruten is the supply line for all the communities along the coast up to Kirkenes. That means on a trip from Bergen, the ship stops an average of 17 times on the voyage. Some towns are visited going North and then again going South. One visit is in the middle of the night for perhaps 20 minutes and in the opposite direction it might stop for several hours, so you will have the opportunity to visit. With that in mind the ship does stop most nights, ones or twice to unload goods or take on freight for other ports. Beside it is always interesting to see the world around you in a forward motion as well as backward!

On the way to the Arctic Ocean we took advantage of disembarking at Tromsø. A delightful town with everybody being friendly and in good spirit.

Although it is in the middle of March, snow and ice is everywhere but nobody seem to mind. For us it was delightful as long as you could keep your balance.

Before reaching Kirkenes, MS Nordkapp made a scheduled stop at Honningsvåg.

From here there were several cruise tours visiting a couple of fishing villages, but most importantly a visit to the Arctic Circle. We chose to disembark and find a local driver that would take us around. We found a driver with a large minivan and with six passengers included us we took off on the icy road. Going about 100 kilometer on the ice road, I casually mentioned to the driver that he must have some good studded tires. His response was a flat: “No, the tires are almost bare!” Then he added:” I have been driving on this kind of road since I was ten!” That was a great comfort.

The Arctic circle is marked by a giant globe as seen in the middle picture, however the actual circle is marked by an obelisk as seen in the picture with a woman sitting in front of it. However to make things more complicated the Arctic Circle moves depending on what time of year it is!

Part of that trip was visiting a small fishing village. The white bags in his van are full of cods. When we arrived a boat had just unloaded its catch and this fisherman is trying to sell a cod to one of the tourists.

Next “stop” Kirkenes

Of course when visiting Kirkenes it is a must to visit the Russian border. You cannot actually cross the border which requires a day pass which Norwegians take advantage off to buy Russian vodka. We had to contend with visiting the little hut ( pictured above ) where Russian souvenirs were for sale.

I have recently learned from the tour guide, that Americans are not allowed, by order of the US State Department, to take the tour to visit the Russian border. Needless to say that affects a lot of people and they are now out of work.

On the way back to Bergen we missed a stopover in Vardø. The ship had stopped here on the way to Kirkenes, but that was in the middle of the night. So we had decided to visit on the way back as the ship would now be there in the middle of the day. Well that did not happen. A storm had come up and the waves were so huge that the ship could not go into the harbor and Vardø was passed by.

Going North as well as going South we sailed under several bridges, much like the one in the picture. Just recently you are now able to drive from Oslo to Kirkenes, a journey you could only make by ship. Of course you could also choose to fly if you are pressed for time.

We must say goodby to Norway but Norway will always live in our hearts!