Port Review - Norway & Spitsbergen

[kaisatsu]

Although this review is very late in coming (I blame work), I thought I might as well write it anyway, since it might be helpful to future cruisers (assuming the board's search function is working)! I apologize in advance that it’s extremely long.

 

Ours was a two-week cruise up the Norwegian coast in early June on the QE2. I won't address the ship herself, since she won't be sailing beyond this year, but I will start by explaining how we chose this particular itinerary.

 

From Hurtigruten to Cunard - Choosing Our Cruise

My husband and I moved to Norway in 2007, and as we're never sure how long an international assignment will last, we wanted to make sure we saw as much of this beautiful country as we could while we have the chance. The natural choice, and the one touted to us by all of our colleagues (Norwegian and otherwise), was to do a coastal cruise on the Hurtigruten coastal ferry. I began researching the trip in spring 2007, but the summer sailings on the nicer ships were mostly booked, and we decided to plan the trip for 2008 to have the most options.

 

I began serious planning in January. We knew that we wanted to sail during the summer, and after pouring over the calendars and the deck plans, I narrowed it down to a late-June sailing on the Midnatsol. It seemed nearly perfect. It’s one of the newer ships with a few of those cruise-style amenities we're used to, and the northbound sailing from Bergen ended in Kirkenes on the summer solstice, so we'd have plenty of midnight sun and maybe a few festivities to celebrate the solstice.

 

We were probably within one week of actually booking the trip when I got a mailing from a cruise agent we've used in the past. They were advertising Cunard's 2008 sailings, which included a few very comprehensive Norwegian coastal itineraries. The shocker was that the price was practically the same as the Hurtigruten. This meant that we could do a 13-night sailing with Cunard for the same price as just 6 days on the ferry!

 

Compared to the Hurtigruten, traditional cruises are by far a better value for money. The thing that had originally kept us from booking a regular cruise over the Hurtigruten was that most cruises lasted just one week and therefore didn’t have very comprehensive coverage of the coast. We'd already been to Bergen and Flåm, so they didn't hold the same draw for us, and we really wanted to visit Geirangerfjord and the Lofoten Islands as well as getting way up north to the top of the country. It's hard to do all that in a week, and I didn't see a lot of two-week Norwegian itineraries in 2007.

 

Cunard was offering a cruise that included Nordkapp, which seemed exciting, especially since it was on the shiny new Queen Victoria, but in the end we opted for the Queen Elizabeth 2. Not only was this the last chance to sail on this iconic ship, but the itinerary was unbelievable. We would have to give up Nordkapp, but in exchange we would get to visit the beautiful Lofoten Islands and (the clincher) the Arctic region of Svalbard!

 

So, we booked our cruise for the first two weeks of June and got ready to answer the inevitable questions from our British shipmates about why we flew to the UK just to sail back to Norway! (Once they got an eyeful of the prices in our first port, this made a lot more sense to them!) It took quite a change in mindset to go from expecting the casual no-frills ferry environment to an ultra-formal Cunard cruise. Based on the Cunard board, I was a bit worried that we'd be frowned on for dressing for the environment and our active port adventures, but thankfully most people took this into account and on port days the typical passenger attire was leaning much more towards jeans and fleece pullovers.

 

Embarkation

We planned to fly to London and take the train to Southampton. When I booked the flights, I chose an airline that had a relatively low fee for a second bag, and we were thankful for this when we started packing. With activities ranging from hiking in the mountains to four formal nights we needed a huge variety of clothes (and we still tried to pack light and use the laundry)! We had a few days in London beforehand, so we stopped by Waterloo Station the day before to get the train schedule and bought our tickets then. The one-way trip cost £28 each. We had considered ordering discounted Megatrain tickets in advance, but we didn't finalize our pre-cruise plans until quite late. We traveled on Monday morning, and the train wasn't very crowded, so we had no problem finding space for all of our luggage. The wait for a taxi at the station was about 5 minutes, and the fare to the ship came to £7.80.

 

Bergen

After a sea day our first port was Bergen. We were prepared for Bergen's usual weather (rain), but the weather was unbelievable: 24°C and perfectly clear blue skies. Cunard's free shuttle dropped us downtown at Festplassen on Christies gate, at the edge of the city lake. This was very near the central pedestrian shopping street and 5 minutes' walk from the fish market. This was our second visit to Bergen, so we skipped the historic Bryggen waterfront and the Fløibanen funicular. Instead, we headed to the bus stops in front of Bryggen and asked about a bus to Gamle Bergen, Bergen's outdoor historic museum. The bus dropped us about 5-10 minutes' walk from the museum, and we followed the road signs the rest of the way.

 

The park grounds are free admission, but we paid 50 NOK each for the guided hourly tour, which allowed us to see inside a few of the buildings. It was much more interesting than just wandering the grounds (which were quite pretty), and we learned quite a bit about Bergen's history. For our tour, there were the two of us and two English-speaking college students. Since a school group arrived around the same time, they called in a second guide to conduct our tour in English.

 

Next we decided to visit composer Edvard Grieg's estate at Troldhaugen. We caught the bus back to downtown and made our way to the bus station to find platforms 19 or 21 and a bus to Hopsbroen. Since bus tickets are valid for a one-hour period, we confirmed with the driver that we could use the same tickets we bought on the bus back from Gamle Bergen and saved ourselves an extra bus fare (23 NOK each).

 

Thankfully we had asked the bus driver to let us know when we should get off, because the closest bus stop is along the nearby highway. We left the traffic and noise behind and followed the signs to Troldhaugen about 20 minutes away. After paying the admission fee, we explored the small museum and enjoyed the fact that all of the exhibits included English translations of the information. We skipped the A/V presentation, since the small theater was filled with very young school children. The grounds were lovely, especially in the good weather, and the guides at the house were very knowledgeable and friendly.

 

On the bus to Troldhaugen, we had passed what looked like a Scottish castle. We asked about it and found out that it was Gamlehaugen, the royal residence in Bergen. Since we had plenty of time, we decided to follow the bike/pedestrian path back towards Bergen so that we could stop and have a look. It took about 45 minutes, and at Gamlehaugen it seemed that half of Bergen was sprawled on the grassy lawn sunbathing. From there we caught a bus back to Bergen along the highway. To wrap up the day, we headed to the fish market for a snack and took advantage of the afternoon sun and blue skies to take some photos of the colorful Bryggen waterfront from across the harbor.

 

Unfortunately, trying to catch the shuttle back to the ship was a bit difficult. We needed to meet the bus along Olav Kyrres gate, which was fairly quiet in the morning when we arrived. However, at 5pm the road was crowded with city buses and local commuters. It was difficult to track down the Cunard shuttle (marked only by the little paper placard in front) among the dozens of other buses. We did manage, though there was quite a rush of returning passengers and not much room to wait after full buses departed.

 

Trondheim

The next day we arrived in Trondheim to more fantastic weather. My officemate attended university in Trondheim, so I had asked him for recommendations on what to see. He spoke very highly of the organ recitals in Nidaros Cathedral, but unfortunately they don't begin until mid- June, and we would be there a week too early. He also suggested the Ringve Museum, for its collection of musical instruments and for its botanical gardens.

 

The shuttle dropped us on a small side street near Nidaros Cathedral, so that was our first stop. We decided to buy the combined ticket to the cathedral and to the adjoining Archbishop's Palace, because I wanted to see the Norwegian crown jewels. The cathedral is impressive; especially considering it's in Norway, where this kind of grand stonework is not particularly common. The archeological exhibits in the Archbishop's Palace were interesting, though not particularly noteworthy. The Norwegian crown jewels are basically just the few crowns themselves and are far less spectacular than those of Denmark (or certainly the UK). I enjoyed them nonetheless, mostly because I'm interested in the Norwegian royal family and the history of the monarchy.

 

After that we walked a few blocks to the Gamle Bybro bridge to see Trondheim's colorful wooden waterfront, and then wandered back to the center of town to find a bus to the Sverresborg Trøndelag Folk Museum. We love the outdoor folk museum in Oslo, and since Lonely Planet described Sverresborg as "one of the best of its kind in Norway," we decided to check it out. We found the stop on Dronningsgate for the #8 bus towards Stavset, and bought our tickets on board (30 NOK each).

 

When we paid our admission and got a map of the park, we asked about the timings of the next guided English tour. We had some time to kill before the tour, and we started by exploring the museum in the main building. It had quite a few exhibits outlining various stages of life in Norway, but there was very little information in English so we didn't stay long. Outside we headed to the park's "downtown" city area and explored the exhibits there before deciding to climb up to the peak in the center of park to see the view. We headed back to the visitor's center to join the English tour. The tour was extremely informative and certainly worth the wait. Our guide took us inside the park's stavkirke as well as the other wooden church and a few of the homesteads. She explained a lot about the architecture and the history of the buildings.

 

After exploring the park, we took the bus back into town. We stopped to take a few final photos of the cathedral, since the afternoon light was better, and then caught the shuttle back to the ship.

 

Lofoten Islands (Gravdal)

Gravdal was our third port in a row, and the only place that we had booked an excursion through the cruise line. I did all the planning to organize another day on our own. The local buses were too infrequent to get very far on our own, though it did seem possible to catch a bus to the closest fishing village of Ballstad. Instead, we planned to rent a car and drive south, visiting a few of the more picturesque areas of Flakstadøy and Moskenesøy, including Flakstad, Reine, Nusfjord, and Å. However, considering we might need to take a taxi to the rental car offices at the Leknes airport, when I added up all the expenses, it ended up being cheaper to take the all-day ship's excursion that visited the same places.

 

This was the first of our tender ports, and the ship anchored near the small town of Gravdal. The tenders took passengers to a pier about halfway between Gravdal and the larger city of Leknes, where we boarded our excursion bus. We headed north on the E10, and as we drove, our guide began explaining some facts about Lofoten. I believe our guide was a native of Lofoten (something that's becoming more and more rare these days), and he was extremely knowledgeable about life on the islands and the local fishing industries (cod fishing and salmon farming). From talking to other guests, it seems that we were lucky and the guides on some of the other buses were less than great.

 

After passing through the tunnel to Flakstadøy and around the inlet, we arrived at our first stop, the small, wooden, onion-domed Flakstad church. There wasn't a lot to see, but the stop stretched longer than the guides intended, since the small bathroom facilities proved extremely popular. The next stop was the blacksmith and fishing museum in Sund, where we enjoyed watching the young blacksmith turning out a few small pieces for the crowd.

 

From Sund, we began a particularly long drive down to Å i Lofoten for lunch. Along the way we drove past some of the fantastic scenery of Lofoten: tall snow-capped mountains dropping straight down into the sea, narrow coastlines lined with bright wooden houses and charming fishing boats, and harbors with water so crystal clear that you could see the bottom even from a moving tour bus. We also saw the wooden drying racks lined with the season's cod stockfish that would be packaged and shipped in the next week or two. In the distance, we could just make out the hills of mainland Norway in the distance and the small islands of Værøy and Røst beyond the tip of Moskenesøy. Lunch was the only thing on the itinerary for the stop in Å, and it consisted of a buffet of characteristic Norwegian fish dishes including various types of salmon, prawns, and fish cakes.

 

On the drive back, the buses made a photo stop near Reine, and the sun began to peek through the clouds, illuminating bits of the mountain backdrop. From there we backtracked past Flakstad as the skies began to clear, and we had some lovely views of the white sand beaches near Ramberg and Flakstad. At Flakstad, we turned south along the base of some of the taller mountains, and eventually arrived at the postcard fishing village of Nusfjord. By this time the sun was out in full, and the scenery was splendid. While the bulk of the crowd explored the closest areas, we headed straight out to the lookout point on the far side of the village to take a few photos before the place became completely overrun. From there, we explored the village as we made our way back towards the bus.

 

Nusfjord was the last stop on our excursion and probably my favorite for its charming scenery. From there the bus headed back to the tender pier. We chose to enjoy the sunshine a bit longer and climbed the hill next to the pier for some shots of the harbor, the hills, and the QE2 at anchor in the distance.

 

In retrospect, I'm glad we ended up doing the excursion at Lofoten. If you include admission fees, it was certainly a good deal, even at $139 each, though I wasn't particularly impressed with any of the stops on our tour besides Nusfjord. The big draw in Lofoten is the scenery along the drives. Although it would have been nice to have the flexibility of a rental car, so that we could stop for photos whenever we wanted, riding on the bus meant that we could both enjoy the scenery without having to watch the road. Also, I found the commentary and information provided by our guide to be well worth it.

 

Midnight Sun

Lofoten was our first port above the Arctic Circle. Although it was still early June, the night after leaving Lofoten was the first that the sun did not set. The ship arranged a Midnight Sun party out on deck to enjoy the lingering twilight, although the cool temperatures still made it particularly chilly outside while we were under way. We stayed up until midnight watching the sun as it dipped towards the horizon. Then, knowing that it would actually be at its lowest at 1am (thanks to Daylight Savings Time), we headed to the Lido buffet for a late-night cup of tea and watched until it was on its way back up an hour later.

 

This was the first of five consecutive nights that the sun wouldn't set, and it was very disconcerting to open the curtains in the theater after the late show and have the sun shine in at 11pm. We didn't mind booking an inside cabin on this trip, since we knew it would be easier to sleep.

 

Longyearbyen, Spitsbergen

After another sea day, we arrived in the Arctic islands of Svalbard. The ship anchored in Adventfjorden off the small town of Longyearbyen on the large island of Spitsbergen. Longyearbyen isn't as rainy as the Norwegian coast, and we had clear sunny weather. The temperature was average for early June at around 2-4°C, but a strong breeze meant the wind chill was certainly below freezing. The tender to the pier was particularly chilly, but we opted for the exposed topside seats to enjoy the views. The summer tourist season doesn't fully pick up until later in June, but I thought the scenery was enhanced by the snow at the top of the surrounding hills.

 

When we received the pre-cruise shore excursion information, I very was surprised that the ship wasn't offering any organized excursions for the port. Because of the threat of polar bears, you aren't supposed to travel outside the settlement without a rifle and someone trained to use it. Longyearbyen is quite a small town, and we were very keen to get out and see some of the wildlife and scenery that Svalbard is known for. Early in the planning, I began looking at excursion companies that operate in Longyearbyen. We ended up contacting Spitsbergen Travel, which is a travel agency located in Longyearbyen that handles booking for many of the local excursion outfitters. I emailed them directly to find out which tours would be operated in the time frame that we would be in port and we ended up choosing a kayaking trip across the fjord.

 

Since I didn't know how easy it would be to get into town, I arranged to have the outfitter meet us at the pier. We were on the first tender of the day, and we had no problem finding our guide, who was right on time. She had been worried about finding us in the sea of cruise passengers, but it turned out that the pier was quite empty that early in the morning. Although the walk from the pier into town was no more than 20 or 30 minutes, the ship's staff dissuaded passengers from disembarking early in the morning, since the shuttle wasn't scheduled to start until around 9:00.

 

A few other CruiseCritic members on our cruise weren't as lucky. They had also booked trips with Spitsbergen Travel, but apparently they ran into problems and in one case, the tour company never met them at their designated pick-up location. Since we were in port on a Sunday, they weren't able to reach the travel agency either. This made me very glad that we had confirmed everything and kept such a steady dialog leading up to the trip.

 

Our excursion turned out to be incredible! We picked up four more people from Denmark who were staying in town and then headed to the outfitter's equipment shed. We loaded ourselves into dry suits, and I was glad to be wearing some warm layers, since our thick jackets wouldn't fit under the suits. We also got rubber boots to wear instead of our shoes. I was glad we had opted for kayaking instead of the nature hikes I was considering, because much of the ground was incredibly soggy from the melting snow.

 

Once everyone was suited up, we walked down to the beach and loaded into the kayaks to set out into the fjord. Having never kayaked before, I was glad to hear that one of the Danish pairs hadn't either. We didn’t have too much trouble, and it was about 30 minutes of paddling to reach the other side of the fjord. We didn’t see much from the water, though we did surprise a small sea bird. On the way back, one of the other pairs spotted a seal in the water nearby, and I just caught a glimpse of his head before he disappeared.

 

On the far shore, we had some warm drinks and then dined on a typical Norwegian trekking lunch (thick pouches of dehydrated stew mixed with hot water). It was very low key, but tasty and warm. After everyone finished eating, we explored the old buildings of the abandoned mining village. Our guide did indeed carry a rifle with her, and although polar bears don’t usually come so close to the settlements, she told us that a pair of Norwegian tourists had been killed only a few years earlier, and the bears were still a very real threat.

 

The shoreline was littered with old scrap metal, abandoned mining tracks, and other remnants of its days as a mining area. While there are still active coal mines around Longyearbyen, Adventfjord never really took off and has been abandoned for decades. Rather than moving it to a new location, much of the equipment was just left to rust. Our guide explained that the local opinion is that “It’s not junk; it’s culture.” One of the most exciting bits of “junk” was a pile of scrap metal that turned out to be a German plane that was shot down during WWII (apparently both sides had weather stations in Svalbard). Another high point of our explorations was finding a few clumps of purple saxifrage huddled alongside the old rail ties. Apparently they had just started blooming in the last week, and it was impressive to see such vibrant flowers blooming in such an extreme environment.

 

Eventually we headed back to the kayaks and started back across the fjord. The return trip was a little more difficult since the wind was against us, but it wasn’t too bad. After climbing out of the dry suits, the outfitter gave us a ride back to town, because we opted not to go back to the ship right away.

 

Even though it was Sunday, the tourist shops were open, and we picked up a few souvenirs and postcards. I was able to buy stamps from one of the shops, and we made sure to post our cards in town. Unfortunately, despite the widespread promise that we’d get a special postmark, the one we sent to my officemates just had a plain mark that could have come from anywhere.

 

After our shopping, we headed over to the small museum, which housed displays about the wildlife and history of Svalbard, including the mining operations, the WWII activities, etc. Although the museum was interesting, we didn’t stay very long, since we were a bit tired from our morning adventures. We walked back to the ship and stopped for some photos by the polar bear road warning sign near the pier.

 

The captain announced that due to the good weather, we’d sail out relatively close to the shore, and despite the chilly weather, the decks were quite crowded as we sailed out of Adventfjorden and through Isfjorden. The scenery was quite dramatic, and we got a great look at the characteristic flat-topped mountains and erosion patterns as well as some beautiful views of the snowy mountains on the far side of Isfjorden.

 

Bjørnøya (Bear Island)

During our sea day heading south from Longyearbyen, our route took us past the small island of Bjørnøya. Unfortunately, the weather was quite foggy and we couldn’t see much of the island. According to our Norwegian destination speaker, this was quite normal as he’d sailed by the island two dozen times and only been able to see it a few times.

 

Tromsø

I didn’t have particularly high expectations of Tromsø, but I was pleasantly surprised. We had another day of amazing weather with clear blue skies and relatively warm temperatures (high around 20°C). The Cunard shuttle dropped us on the far edge of downtown, at Kirkegata and Kaigata, near the bus terminal and the Hurtigruten pier.

 

We started our day by walking back through town past the Tromsø Cathedral and Catholic church. We wanted to visit the Arctic Cathedral, so we walked all the way back to the bridge and over to the Cathedral. The walk from the shuttle drop-off to the Arctic Cathedral is about 2km, and given the good weather, many people from our ship opted to walk it, stopping to take photos from the bridge on the way. The cathedral was quite pretty inside, but given its small size, it didn’t take long to visit.

 

From there we walked on to the cable car station (about 15 min) to head up to the view from Mt. Storsteinen. Because of the cruise passengers, the cable car was running non-stop instead of its regular 30-minute schedule, so we were able to head straight up. The view from the top was incredible with the city of Tromsø stretched across the island below and the mountains surrounding us on all sides.

 

Some simple hiking paths head farther up the mountain from the cable car station, and we opted to do a little hiking up to some higher ground. We set our sights on the wind vane higher up on the mountain, and the uphill walk took us about an hour. At that time of year, there was still some snow on the ground, and I wished I had worn hiking shoes as we had to go quite far out of our way to get around some of the snowy patches. With no trees around, the views were marvelous, though not significantly different from those near the cable car station. Although the paths continued much higher, we had other plans for the day, so we settled for the sense of accomplishment of reaching that point and headed back down (much faster).

 

We planned to take a bus back to town from near the cable car, but we found some fellow cruise passenger waiting at the stop, and the bus was apparently late. Instead, of waiting, we walked back to the main road near the cathedral (watching for the bus behind us), and caught a bus to the sentrum from there for 24 NOK each. Our afternoon plans started with the 1pm tour of the Mack Brewery. I found the tour interesting, though fairly typical. Of course we appreciated the samples at the end (doubly so, given the normal price of beer in Norway).

 

Our last stop was the Polaria Arctic center, which we very much enjoyed. The panoramic film of Svalbard wasn’t quite so dramatic having been there a few days earlier, but the exhibits and aquariums of marine life were great. The highlight was certainly the seals, and I highly recommend timing your visit for one of the seal feedings if possible. To counter the boredom of captive life, the seals have a daily training program, where they practice playing ball, performing lifeguard duties, etc. We had to drag ourselves away to get back to catch the last shuttle.

 

According to fellow cruisers and to another couple on the brewery tour with us, the Polar Museum is well worth a visit as well, and I wish we’d had time for it. Housed in a historic harbor building, it covers the history of the Arctic explorers, such as Roald Amundsen, and is said to be quite interesting.

 

Hellesylt / Geiranger

I was on the fence about what to do in Geiranger. I really wanted to experience the sail-in, since Geirangerfjord is renowned as the most beautiful in Norway. However, I’d heard great things about one of Cunard’s overland excursions from Hellesylt – a hike along Flofjellsvegen. After much deliberation, we decided that we could do similar hikes elsewhere in Norway another time, and we were more interested in the views of the fjord. We would sail in to Geiranger and do some hiking on our own there. It turns out that the overland hiking wasn’t offered on our sailing after all, and after very early meeting times, the overland excursions from Hellesylt ended up running quite late.

 

The sail-in was great, though we could indeed have gotten the same views during the sail-out at the end of the day. With views on both sides of the ship, most passengers were crowded at the bow of the ship or on the top decks where they could easily switch sides. Unfortunately our good weather streak didn’t extend to Geiranger, and the weather was overcast. It didn’t rain during the sail-in, but there were some light showers later in the day. In early June, the melting snow meant that even the smaller waterfalls were quite active, so there was plenty of great scenery through the fjord.

 

We were one of three ships anchored in Geiranger that afternoon, so the tender pier was swarming with cruise passengers. We immediately headed up hill towards the trail head behind the Hotel Union, following the road most of the way, but using the pedestrian shortcut below the church to skip the road’s switchback.

 

The trail to Westerås Farm behind the hotel was clearly marked with a wooden sign, and despite the swarms of visitors in the town below, we found ourselves on our own. Given the weather and the season, the ground was a bit wet, but the route up to Westerås wasn’t particularly muddy. I would guess it takes between 45 and 60 minutes at a good pace to reach the farm, and we were already quite impressed with how high we’d climbed. The farm has a small café and offered walking sticks to borrow (or purchase as a souvenir) for onward hiking.

 

We weren’t sure whether we wanted to hike to the overlook at Løsta or to Storseterfossen, the waterfall that you can walk behind. An employee at the farm recommended Storseterfossen, and we set off. We knew that there was a Cunard excursion to hike to the waterfall from Westerås, and only a few minutes into our hike, we were astonished that the ship offered this excursion, because the route was unbelievably wet and muddy. It was hard work trying to avoid both the mud and the dung from the farm’s large herd of mountain-roaming sheep. The excursion group had gotten a late start, but they did indeed make the trip, as we actually overtook them on the way up to the waterfall. Along the trail, there were some wonderful views of the surrounding mountains and hillsides and of the stream tumbling its way down towards the fjord. It was fun getting to climb behind the waterfall, but though novel, the view from the back of a waterfall is pretty much what you’d expect.

 

After taking a few photos with some friends in the excursion group (who had now reached the waterfall), we headed back down to the farm. We still had some time left, so we decided to try to hurry and make it to Løsta. The view from Løsta was superb and certainly worth the trip, and considering the fjord itself is the big draw in Geiranger, I would probably recommend it over the hike to Storseterfossen. Unfortunately, we were rushing and weren’t as careful about avoiding the mud this time. By the time we reached the lookout, we were soaking wet and filthy! We still enjoyed the view, and it turned out that the hike down from Westerås went much faster than we expected, and we had plenty of time left when we reached the pier again.

 

We caught a tender back to the ship and headed straight back to the cabin to try to rinse the mud out of our shoes and socks. Once we’d done the best we could, we changed into swimsuits and headed up to the deck to sooth our hiking-weary muscles in the hot tub. The cool, overcast weather meant that most people on deck were bundled up in jackets, but the hot tub was quite comfortable. Since we’d taken plenty of photos on the way into the fjord, on the way out we enjoyed the scenery from the comfort of the hot tub. With the fjord walls towering over us, it was a really great way to experience the sail-out. A few other passengers agreed that it looked like a great idea and opted to join us, and we were all enjoying the scenery long after many others had gotten cold and gone back inside.

 

Stavanger

Our last port was the southwestern city of Stavanger. We originally wanted to try to visit the landmark overlook of Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock), but after doing the research on how to get there (a ferry, followed by a bus, followed by a 2-hour hike), we felt like it was a bit too risky to do during a port day (we nearly missed the ship after an adventure on our last cruise). The next plan was to head straight to one of the sightseeing cruise companies and book tickets for a cruise on Lysefjord.

 

However, we were a bit fjord-ed out after Geiranger. We’ve found that there’s only so much of the magnificent fjord scenery we can admire before we find that we’re not appreciating it as much as we ought to. So we chose to save Lysefjord for another trip and just explore the city of Stavanger at a leisurely pace.

 

We started the morning in Gamle Stavanger, with a stroll through the cobbled streets and white houses with their colorful flower boxes and gardens. Afterwards, we found ourselves at the Stavanger Cathedral, which was worth a brief look inside.

 

Our next stop was the Petroleum Museum, which was actually one of the things I was most interested in seeing in Stavanger. Despite working in the oil and gas industry, I didn’t know a lot about oil-industry operations in the North Sea. I found the museum very interesting, and some fellow cruise passengers we talked to later said they did as well. It had a lot of interesting hands-on exhibits and a lot of details about the construction and operation of the high-tech offshore platforms used in the North Sea environment. This seemed like another option that would be appealing to children, as we saw quite a few enjoying themselves with the interactive exhibits, the 3D introduction film, the demonstration rig escape net, etc.

 

We spent the rest of the day just wandering around the city. We visited the Valberg Guard Tower, where we admired the view, and then settled into a café at one of Stavanger’s colorful wooden waterfront buildings to enjoy a few beers in the sun with a local friend. Stavanger is another place that’s very well-known for its dull and rainy weather, and while the morning had started that way, the afternoon was clear and sunny. It was a very relaxing way to end our final port day.

[kaisatsu]

Resources

 

Guidebooks

We have two Norway guidebooks, and we carried them both with us on this trip: DK Publishing’s EyeWitness Travel Guide: Norway, and Lonely Planet Norway. Between the two, I highly recommend the Lonely Planet book for a cruise around Norway.

 

Normally when we travel around Europe, we love the EyeWitness guides, because they contain so much detail. In places with sprawling museums and intricate architecture this can be invaluable. We also like the images in the books, because they can sometimes help us decide which sights we’d most like to visit. However, we’ve found in the past that Norway doesn’t particularly lend itself to the EyeWitness format. This was indeed the case as we explored the coastal ports. In Norway, the must-see is the nature, and there isn’t a lot that the guide can do to illustrate it and point out often-missed details the way it can with more traditional historic sites. We found it useful in exploring Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim, but didn’t get much from it for the rest of the trip.

 

On the other hand, we’ve had some bad experiences with Lonely Planet books in the past, where they seemed to recommend anything and everything whether it was worth it or not. But in the case of Norway, the Lonely Planet guide was much more helpful, and we found ourselves referring to it in almost every port. In addition to the detailed city maps and sightseeing listings, the Lonely Planet book contained a lot of information about how to get around. It had so many details such as bus numbers and stop locations that it made it very simple to explore on our own, even when it meant leaving the center of town. A few of our friends on board also had the EyeWitness guide, and more than once when we explained our plans for the next port, they’d say, “What?! That wasn’t in our book!”

 

Other Resources

Of course, even the greatest guidebook will only get you so far. Thankfully, CruiseCritic and the rest of the internet contain some fantastic additional resources. These are a few that I found particularly useful:

 

Bergen:

• VisitBergen.com – The official tourism site for Bergen. In particular, there is a map of the city center, and a large collection of downloadable brochures (including the complete Bergen tourism brochure, the Meeting Point Bryggen guide with an explanation and self-guided walking tour of the Bryggen area, and the Cruise Brochure).
  
• Rick Steeves’ Bite of Bergen – A very brief overview of Bergen’s sights by CruiseCritic’s favorite travel guide

Trondheim:

• Trondheim.com – Tourism site for Trondheim
  
• Trondheim Havn – Trondheim port information, including annual Cruise Ship schedule
  
• team-trafikk.no – Trondheim bus information

Lofoten:

• lofoten-info.no – Tourism information for the islands of Flakstadøy and Moskenesøy
  
• lofoten.info and lofoten-startside.no – General tourist information about the Lofoten Islands, including the Lofoten Guide and lists of transportation information and other services.
  
• 177nordland.no – Lofoten bus timetables in Norwegian, including routes between Leknes and Ballstad, Å i Lofoten, and Svolvær.
  
• Leknes Taxi – Booking information and itinerary suggestions
  
• Lofoten Car Rental: Europcar, Hertz, Avis, (Leknes airport code: LKN)

Longyearbyen:

• Svalbard.net – Official Svalbard tourism company. Information about the area, excursion information and names and contact information for individual tour outfitters, detailed map of Longyearbyen
  
• Spitsbergen Travel – Travel agency and booking service
  
• Spitsbergen Geology – A basic guide to the geology of the island of Spitsbergen
  
• Svalbard Webcams – Including views of Longyearbyen Harbor
  
• Governor of Svalbard – Detailed information on the environment, government, and other aspects of life in Svalbard, as well as various downloadable brochures

Tromsø:

• destinasjontromso.no – Official tourism website for Tromsø, including maps and brochures
  
• Port of Tromsø – Port information and cruise ship schedule

Geiranger:

• VisitGeirangerfjord.com – Official tourism website for Geirangerfjord, including cruise ship schedule and fantastic hiking maps for both Geiranger and Hellesylt
  
• Geiranger.no – Another tourism site for Geiranger that includes a different hiking map with estimated one-way hiking times

Stavanger:

• RegionStavanger.no – Official tourism site of the Stavanger region, including event listings and companies offering fjord cruises
  
• Rick Steeves’ Stavanger – Short summary of Stavanger sights and activities, although Steeves did list Stavanger as one of Europe’s “dullest places.”

[ilovhywd]

Fabulous and very well-written review! Should be posted on this board as a permanent reference!

 

Thanks for taking the time to write it!

 

Ilene

[RachelG]

Great info as we will be doing a Norway cruise next year and visiting several of these ports--particularly since we like hiking.

[MightyQuinn]

Fabulous and very well-written review! Should be posted on this board as a permanent reference!

Kaisatsu - You show such great commitment to the Oslo threads with your helpful comments & now you're doing the CC community a huge service with this excellent review. I sure hope we get to travel to these unique ports.:cool::cool:

 

I agree you should consider posting these comments in the Member Reviews so it can be a permanent resource. Many thanks indeed.

[anchorage1977]

My mom and I went to Longyearbyen (on Spitsbergen in Norway) with in August 2007 on Holland America's Prinsendam and LOVED IT!

 

 

 

Here is a link to my travel blog with our photos and story...

 

 

 

http://happyalaskan.blogspot.com/2009/02/spitsbergen-edge-of-planet.html

Or you can find it at happyalaskan.blogspot.com

Happy Travels!

[Seattitude]

Wow what a lot of great detail! I printed out all 12 pages and will be using it to make decisions on our upcoming trip to Norway on the Norwegian Jade in June. I love reading about all the first hand experiences. I am trying to make decisions on when to do the expensive ships shore excursions and when to do things on our own. Your report was helpful even though we don't have all the same ports. Thanks again for all the work you put into this.

[EJNutz]

Thanks for the information. I am booked on a similar cruise next year. This is real big help for me.

[kaisatsu]

I'm glad to hear that it's proving useful! And if you have any questions, please feel free to ask! I'll happily do my best to answer!

 

-Meg

[anchorage1977]

Geiranger has at least 2 great options I can recall. Close to town, you can walk up to the Norwegian Fjordcenter for interactive displays, movies and a gift shop. The highlight of the city for us though was the bus we hopped on to take us up 5,000 ft Mt. Dalsnibba. Here you will find really great views down into the fjords, nevermind the lovely scenery along the drive.

 

Here's a post I recently did on my travel blog with photos of the last option if you're interested:

 

http://happyalaskan.blogspot.com/2009/03/geiranger-norway-fairy-tale-fjords.html

 

Happy Travels.

[EJNutz]

I'm glad to hear that it's proving useful! And if you have any questions, please feel free to ask! I'll happily do my best to answer!

 

-Meg

 

Thanks I just might bombard you with some questions as we start our planning.

[leonard123]

Kaisatsu, do you have any information on how I would find out about the hike that you mentioned along the Flofjellsvegen from Hellesylt? I am thinking about doing an excusrion on my own in Hellesylt/Gerianger and wanted to hike in from Hellesylt, see the Losta viewpoint, the Storseterfossen waterfall, Mt. Dalsnibba, and then enjoy the views of the fjor donboard the ship on the way out. Is this plan feasible or is there not enought time? I arrive in Hellesylt at 7:00AM and leave fom Geiranger at 5:00PM. I have really enjoyed reading your reviews of Norway. Thanks!

[kaisatsu]

Kaisatsu, do you have any information on how I would find out about the hike that you mentioned along the Flofjellsvegen from Hellesylt? I am thinking about doing an excusrion on my own in Hellesylt/Gerianger and wanted to hike in from Hellesylt, see the Losta viewpoint, the Storseterfossen waterfall, Mt. Dalsnibba, and then enjoy the views of the fjor donboard the ship on the way out. Is this plan feasible or is there not enought time? I arrive in Hellesylt at 7:00AM and leave fom Geiranger at 5:00PM. I have really enjoyed reading your reviews of Norway. Thanks!

 

You can probably get the info about Flofjellsvegen from the Norwegian trekking association (http://www.turistforeningen.no/).

 

We were covering ground very quickly and barely managed to fit in Løsta (we were at the overlook for about 5 minutes before half jogging back down to the ship) after the hike up to Westerås Farm and on to Storseterfossen.

 

I'm not sure, but I think the hike from Hellesylt to Geiranger takes a full day. I don't even think the excursion groups hike the entire way. I think they catch a bus for a good part of the distance. You may be able to hike the full distance in a port day (not sure), but I seriously doubt you can do both. We spent a full half day on our hike just in Geiranger.

[leonard123]

Great, thanks. I think the safer bet will be to plan on the Losta viewpoint, Westerhas farm, and Storseterfossen fo a hike in Geiranger. I have heard the views of the fjord from up above are just amazing and perhaps the hike up to Mt. Dasnibba is too risky unless the weather is perfect. I agree that it now seems the hike in from Hellesylt to Geiranger would be too long to do in one port of call day. Thanks!