Cruise To Norway

18^th July - 25^th July 2015

Itinerary: Bergen - Åndalsnes - Olden - Haugesund

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Angie and I took a week long cruise to the Norwegian fjords on board the new P&O ship, Britannia. The ship was very nice, but we both agreed that there were no 'wow' moments anywhere on board. The weather wasn't very good at all for most of the cruise. It was cool when we boarded and stayed cool for all of the cruise. There were also a couple of wet days. In Åndalsnes we had only been ashore for a short while when the heavens opened and on our way to the Briksdalbreen Glacier it threw it down too. Despite that, we had fun.

20 July. Bergen. We were off the ship early and went straight to the funicular railway that went up the Fløyen, a mountain that overlooks the town. We only had a short queue to board the Fløibanen, but when we arrived back down the queue was enormous. On top of Fløyen, there are some great views of Bergen and we saw both Britannia and MSC Orchestra down below. Then we walked along Bryggen (the old harbour) to the Bymuseet, which is a museum that contains Rosencrantz's Tower and Håkonshallen (Håkon's Hall). Then it was back to Bryggen for lunch and a visit to the Fish Market. After that, we strolled around the town where we saw a statue to Edvard Grieg (who was born in Bergen and then visited the Johanneskirken, one of the parish churches.

21 July. Åndalsnes. This is a funny little place and I'm not really sure why we visited it. It's a tender port and we were fairly late in leaving the ship. We started to stroll around and it pelted down, so we went to a cafe. After the rain eased off, we wandered around a little more and visited a hotel and then went to the local station, where a train was waiting to take people on a scenic trip. We hadn't booked and so didn't take it. This is not a port I'd hurry back to.

22 July. Olden. I was here a couple of years ago. It's a tiny place with a population of around 500, but it's in a spectacular setting at the head of the Nordfjord. We were booked on our only ships tour of the cruise, to Briksdalbreen. This is Europe's largest glacier and I visited it on my last visit. This time, however, we went to a different arm. We travelled along Olden Lake and then we had a steep climb to a small lake at the foot of the glacier, which has retreated a long way since 1870. It rained while we were walking to the glacier, but it was well worth the trek when we got there. Although the weather didn't play ball, a good port day.

23 July. Haugesund. Originally we were supposed to visit Stavanger, but about 6 weeks prior to departure it was changed to Haugesund, a place I've never heard of! In fact it was a maiden port for both P&O and Britannia. I wasn't expecting much. The dock is on Risøy isand. We decided to walk in, rather than take the shuttle bus. This involved walking over the Risøy Bru (Risøy bridge) into the town centre. There we visited Vår Frelsers Kirke, a church in the centre of town and then went to the Karmsund Folemuseum. This had a strangely weird but oddly interesting collection of artefacts. The ticket included a second museum, the Dokken Friluftsmuseum (Dokken Open Air Museum) on another island by the Smedasundet. The museum is a collection of old houses and buildings and was really interesting. You could go into some of the houses and the difference between a widow's apartment and a ships pilot's house were noticable. After that we had a late lunch by the Smedasundet before ambling back to the ship and the Great British Sailaway, which is always fun. As we entered the dockside, we were each given a certificate commemorating the visit.