B511 Britannia review - Norwegian Fjords

[kikki21]

 

Views like this were what this cruise was all about - I took so many photos!

 

We decided to go casual for dinner tonight and went up to the buffet - it was quiet!

 

 

I decided I may as well have a cocktail to celebrate the views and had a Strawberry Daiquiri - mmm nice!

 

 

It was Italian night in the buffet and I just put loads of different stuff on my plate!

 

 

I am sure that we visited the casino yet again after our dinner! We do enjoy a dance but we had walked loads in Bergen and quite a bit in Olden and my various ailments don't let me party like I used to - besides which the sea air totally makes me zzzzzzzz which is a good thing! We didn't have to be up early in the morning as our train ride in Flaam wasn't until 11am! Yippee!

[kikki21]

One of the things we never did on this cruise was have breakfast or lunch for that matter in the MDR - another thing to do for next time!

 

We had pre booked our tickets to do the Flaam railway on line and the confirmation you print is your actual ticket and all you do is present it to the staff when boarding the train and away you go - the train station is literally a 5 minute walk from the ship dock - in fact everything in Flaam is really close together! We were glad to DIY this option and it was fun too!

 

 

Again another small cruise dock but so handy!

 

 

The trains are rather old fashioned looking but that added to the charm!

 

 

I said afterwards to the Mr that you actually need to do the whole journey to Myrdal and back twice over - once there and back to actually take in ALL of the sights and then again to take all the photos!

 

 

It was literally the journey of a zillion waterfalls and tunnels!

 

We sat on the right hand side of the train going to Myrdal and kept the same seats going back again (on the same train)

 

 

You have to be quick with your camera - the train doesn't go fast but tunnels come up quick!

 

[kikki21]

Apart from a few passing points, the rail way is a single track. You can see the railway construction road zig zagging up the hill in this photo.

 

 

At about half way to Myrdal - the train stops and you can get off to take photos at this waterfall - it is VERY wet - we were at the back end of the train and got off in the tunnel and the spray was still coming through!

 

 

Getting wet!

 

 

When we came out of the tunnel - we were just about on the snow line which was weird to see on the ground in July!

 

[kikki21]

 

The train was quite long for this relatively short journey!

 

 

and then we were up in Myrdal and more snow!

 

 

The train stops for a few minutes in Myrdal so you can get off but I decided to save our seats and stay on board besides which the step to get off the train was enormous!

 

The scenery on the right hand side didn't seem so good on the way back apart from a few areas!

 

 

Like this - and the promised sunshine made it out which totally transformed the day and it was actually really quite warm!

 

[kikki21]

 

All too soon, the fab railway journey was coming to an end - here we were coming into Flaam with the church in view.

 

 

By the time we had come back - the sun was out and another cruise ship had joined us, anchored in the small bay area - this was Hapag Lloyd's Europa.

[kikki21]

 

The Europa was tendering her passengers to shore.

 

 

We had a little walk so we could take better angled photos of Britannia and happened across a small cafe and stopped for some well needed refreshments!

 

 

The RIB boats looked like great fun!

 

 

Britannia's lifeboats were given a spin!

 

 

I don't know if anyone did this walk to the waterfall from the ship but there seemed to be quite a few hiking paths from Flaam that you could do.

 

[kikki21]

Another train waiting to go!

 

 

The area next to the cruise ship dock was filled with shops and we eventually got souvenir shopping after a bit of a slow start!

 

 

We were walking around the ship seeking out best vantage points for the sailaway as this was one that I really wanted to do - it was a gorgeous sailing away to Classical Music sounds - very fitting for the scenery!

 

[kikki21]

 

Gorgeous blue skies and sun!

 

 

Enjoying the sun!

 

 

The Sognefjord ahead - I am going to try and get some sleep now - I have a whole set of photos from the Flaam sailaway which are in an album of their own - I really want to get some canvas prints done of some of the shots but I don't know how we are going to choose which ones to print out!

 

One of my favourites is of Britannia at Olden with the dramatic clouds :)

[kikki21]

This sailaway was just stunning - it was hard to take your eyes off the scenery but first we had to get out of Flaam and the Europa did not make it easy for the Captain of the Britannia as we had to reverse out and then swing round and the Europa was not budging!

 

 

It was a strange ballet dance for sure with some horns to amuse us!

 

 

We made it with quite a lot of room to spare actually - it's hard to believe just how these massive ships can turn on a sixpence!

 

As we sailed away, there was an abundance of waterfalls!

 

 

The scenery kept changing as did the waters, one minute green, the next blue.

 

[kikki21]

Apart from the RIB boats, small ferries and pleasure boats, we didn't see too much other traffic on the fjords.

 

 

The waters were very calm once again!

 

 

I think we just chilled out on our balcony for the sail down the Sognefjord until it was time for dinner!

 

[kikki21]

I know there are a lot of bridge roads in Norway in the fjords but we only saw this one!

 

 

The landscape started to level out signalling the end of the fjord and the journey back into open seas for our final port of call - Stavanger!

 

 

It was certainly strange having sunset at 11pm though!

 

[Bronte30]

I'm loving your photo's. Bringing back memories.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Presto2]

Thank you so much for this amazing review. We have never really thought about a cruise to Norway but these photos are stunningly beautiful. We loved Kotor in Montenegro on our last cruise and this looks very much like lots of 'Kotor' moments! I think we will be looking for a cruise to the Fjords now thanks to your review. :) :D

[kikki21]

We had another very enjoyable dinner in the MDR again - we have to say that we were happy with the quality and the amount of food that we had on the ship!

 

No doubt we were off to the Casino again after dinner - the Mr tried the Blackjack tables on occasion and had varying success - our level to be fair are the 30p slot machines lol! :D I call myself a safe gambler!

 

So it was onto Stavanger - we hadn't prebooked anything - we just intended to walk around and see what was what so we weren't knocking ourselves out to get out of bed and get ready! Good job really as we woke up to this!

 

 

Docked right next to the old town - Gamle Stavanger - you can't beat these ports to just docking right in the centre!

 

We had a leisurely breakfast in the Horizon buffet and saw that 2 other cruise ships were in port - The Disney Magic and the Pullmantur Empress.

 

 

Complete with Goofy on the back!

 

 

She's so long, i can't get her all in! :cool:

 

[kikki21]

I'm loving your photo's. Bringing back memories.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Thank you very much - it was such a lovely cruise - just went far too quickly! :)

[kikki21]

Thank you so much for this amazing review. We have never really thought about a cruise to Norway but these photos are stunningly beautiful. We loved Kotor in Montenegro on our last cruise and this looks very much like lots of 'Kotor' moments! I think we will be looking for a cruise to the Fjords now thanks to your review. :) :D

 

Thank you so much Presto2 and you're in for a treat sailing on this ship - wanna swap lol!? :D

 

Funnily enough, one of the next cruises on my list is actually an Adriatic cruise as I really want to visit Kotor as the scenery is very like Norway and the fjords and I want to go to Dubrovnik again as I really enjoyed it there! :)

[Presto2]

Thank you so much Presto2 and you're in for a treat sailing on this ship - wanna swap lol!? :D

 

Funnily enough, one of the next cruises on my list is actually an Adriatic cruise as I really want to visit Kotor as the scenery is very like Norway and the fjords and I want to go to Dubrovnik again as I really enjoyed it there! :)

 

We're already booked for Oceana next August - may see you there ;)

 

Kotor is stunning - Oceana had the Great British Sailaway from Kotor in April and whether you love it or hate it, it was an amazing sailaway. :)

[kikki21]

 

Street art in Stavanger - we were pleasantly surprised by the streets in between the wharf area and the Petroleum Museum, they had some great shops in them for a start and it was great to have a wander - we weren't feeling all that energetic and it was quite a warm day!

 

 

The small Marina and Petroleum Museum.

 

 

Very pleasant streets - we found a fabulous cooking and baking shop packed with lots of goodies and things to taste so we bought some to take home!

 

 

this just needs to add and to go on lots of cruises! :D

 

[Triplalot]

We're already booked for Oceana next August - may see you there ;)

 

 

 

Kotor is stunning - Oceana had the Great British Sailaway from Kotor in April and whether you love it or hate it, it was an amazing sailaway. :)

 

 

Have to agree loved the Kotor Sailaway in July, albeit no flags flying (or very few anyway). Other memorable parts of my cruise are also the Dubrovnik Sailaway (and sail in) and the stunning the sail in to Venice. Hopefully you are doing the 2 weeks back to back so that you can experience all of these :).

[kikki21]

There were some familiar shop names in Stavanger which was a surprise - we pottered round the streets and had a drink in a bar and decided to go back towards the Gamle Stavanger part of town as I was on a mission!

 

 

The Disney Magic ship was just leaving......

 

 

Anyone who has seen a Disney ship leaving knows that they play a special tune when they go - well the Disney Magic played one feeble blast of it and that was it!!!! Felt shortchanged :eek: as I had built it up to the Mr and he laughed at me - so we had to go and have a traditional Norwegian waffle in the Maritime Museum cafe very close by - they were LUSH!

 

 

Here's the wharf area not blocked off by a ship now!

 

Ah I mentioned I was on a mission!

 

Well I sell jewellery as part of my business but I am also not averse to buying it on my travels but I hadn't actually bought anything or even seen anything I liked in Norway (yes I am fussy!) until we found a jewellery shop near the port entrance in Stavanger and I did find something - photos of that later!

 

For now we had a bit of Gamle Stavanger to explore!

 

[kikki21]

We're already booked for Oceana next August - may see you there ;)

 

Kotor is stunning - Oceana had the Great British Sailaway from Kotor in April and whether you love it or hate it, it was an amazing sailaway. :)

 

Mmmmm you never know!

 

We are booked to do a Caribbean cruise trip at Easter so not sure if we will cruise later in the year, depends if we can find a bargain! :D

[Presto2]

Mmmmm you never know!

 

We are booked to do a Caribbean cruise trip at Easter so not sure if we will cruise later in the year, depends if we can find a bargain! :D

 

Or win the Lottery eh ?! :)

[kikki21]

Or win the Lottery eh ?! :)

 

 

Well we can live in hope about winning the lottery that's for sure and if we did - that would be sweet! :)

 

I'm so lucky that the Mr loves cruising as much as I do!

[kikki21]

 

Gamle Stavanger was very pretty to have a wander round and of course it was very close to the ship!

 

 

I think I read somewhere that this is the world's largest area of wooden houses - it was pretty empty on the day we visited!

 

 

This was how close the ship was to it all.

 

 

We were on B deck and our cabin was underneath the round bit sticking out - so we had a mix of both sun and shade on our balcony which I used a lot!

 

 

After our stroll around, we went back on board for a bite to eat - we were pretty fond of the grab and go area on the Pool deck where there wwre fresh chips, pizza and salad to go - yummy!

[kikki21]

All too soon, it was time for our last sailaway! :(

 

We went to the Sunset Bar for that one, it was still sunny but rather windy and some of the local people we encountered in Stavanger had joked to us that this was their one day of summer and that storms were forecast for later!

 

 

We needed a cheeky Mojito for sailaway!

 

There looked to be some lovely places to live around Stavanger

 

 

And then we were off!

 

 

Beautiful aft views - we will have an aft cabin one day! :)