Fridays sea day went smoothly. Some time during the day the cabin steward bought around a Crossed The Arctic Circle certificate for each passenger. Evening Formal Night saw most people partake again.
Saturday was Honningsvg for the North Cape. On arrival we had a 4 hour morning tour with Blue Puffin Tours, organised privately rather than a ships tour.
A really great tour. Excellent guide, very knowledgeable, very enthusiastic. The tour included the tour guides fishing village, a king crab fishing village and 1.5 hours at the North Cape, as well as a photo view and a reindeer photo opportunity stop too.
On the way back to the boat our tour guide handed out samples of air dried reindeer meat - an acquired taste which Pip decided she didnt wish to acquire.
The guide also remarked that reindeer eat for 4 hours then sleep for 4 hours, rather like passengers on a cruise ship. ?
We spoke that evening to someone who had done the afternoon ships tour. The ship was late pushing off that day because of issues with that tour. Apparently on the several busses to the Cape they had been instructed to catch
any bus back, last one at 4.30. Surprise, surprise too many waited for the 4.30 and they had to send out another bus to get them. Hence our +30 minutes late departure.
Also that ships tour wasnt guided - no photo stops, nowhere else visited. Essentially just a shuttle to/from the Cape. And nearly the same price as the full guided tour that we had with Puffin.
AND its not the most northerly point on that island. A different peninsula a couple of miles to the west is more north by around 1.5 miles, but has no road access, only a 18km round hike from the nearest parking space - which was rammed when we passed in the tour coach.
was also a brewery pub in the town, but theres one of these on Svalbard which is much closer to the N Pole.
The return cruise past the North Cape on Saturday evening, in the bright evening with a Hans Zimmer concert on the screen behind, was magical. And enhanced by spending that hour watching several pods of whales passing by between us and the shore. No noticeable breeches, but dozens and dozens of activity.
1 - the port is 4.5 km from the city centre, so around an hours walk, if you walk. Given the make up of this cruise that would be too challenging for many.
Princess provided a constant supply of shuttle buses but they wanted just short of $20 pp for the day. That seems a bit outrageous. There was a normal bus service nearby, approximately every 30 min on a Sunday.
2 - We were in Tromso on a Sunday. Norway, mostly, doesnt open shops on a Sunday. Very few shops were open
in Tromso centre, not even coffee shops. It was just full of cruisers looking for somewhere to fill their time.
We walked in. Having been to Tromso before, for a winter Northern Lights holiday, we had no plans to do any of the major sights in town.
Just across the road from the port though was the Arctic Botanical Garden, the worlds most northerly. And it was an absolute delight. Stacked full of flowing alpine plants. We were there around 1.5 hours and would have happily stayed longer. One of the best gardens we have visited.
Back on board, push off from Tromso was 40 minutes late again. Looking down to the port from our balcony a late Sightseeing Tour bus return was again the problem.
Weather has continued fine but cool, low double figures for temps. No rain though for a few days. However, around 2 hours out from Tromso the captain used the ships horn because of the dense sea fog.
Overnight the captain announced that because of some routing problems we would be 2 hours late arriving into the Lofoten Islands today / Monday.
the first, and only, that we have on this cruise where we have to use a boat shuttle to get from boat to land. Manoeuvering around 3000 passengers onto shore by boat is quite an exercise, but the ships tenders (its lifeboats) hold over 200 at a time.
We had a minibus tour here.
