Last full day aboard - Ålesund

It feels very end of term-ish with our last day taken up with the disembarkation meeting, packing and a celebration dinner for Hurtigruten’s 130 years. But last night we stayed off the sauce, determined to approach the day with a clear head. Dinner was rather spoiled by a loud Hurtigruten employee holding a table of VIPs in thrall as he told them the wonders of their planning and what great chaps the senior people were. Not a great look, frankly, but he obviously thought he was doing a great job. However, he couldn’t pronounce the names of Norwegian cities properly! Honnigsvag, according to him, whereas it’s Honningsvåg and, as we all know, the å is pronounced “o” as in “olive”. Still, he was evidently very pleased with himself …

That was not allowed to mar a very gentle day though and we went to bed (early), proud of our achievement in shunning the demon drink. We woke to rain, grey skies and a gentle trundle into Ålesund (remember the “o”!). The picture on the headline of the Norway and Svalbard category page of this blog shows a commonly photographed view of the town, but taken in the depths of winter in 2014. The weather meant that taking that shot again would be little improvement. Nonetheless, the place didn’t disappoint: clean, neat, and colourful with the marina reaching right into the heart of the town. And a very nice mocha too.

Before we went on our visit though, we went to the disembarkation information meeting and, if you’re looking for some amusing confusion, this was it. Essentially, our bus leaves for the airport at 9am from the quay. That’s simple. No problem there. Our flight is at 1pm so we’ll be in plenty of time. However, if you are unlucky enough to be leaving on a jet plane after 2:30 pm, there’s no dedicated bus for you, madam. You need to use the local Flybussen service - remember that from our arrival? And to catch it you have to find a tiny roundabout that has no bus stop sign on it (and is apparently barely a roundabout) and hail the bus … but you don’t know in advance what it looks like, nor where the imaginary “bus stop” might be. There’s no bus stop sign and the driver will only stop if you raise your hand, otherwise, he’ll spin round and head off again without you. And the buses are only once an hour. Not surprisingly, some people were rather baffled - and so too was the presenter who said she really needed to take a photo of the roundabout and the bus, to help future cruisers. Essentially, we’re glad we’re not doing that because it sounds chaotic. Just like the arrival.

The presenter concluded by mentioning that the weather on disembarkation day would be rain. “So, be prepared to get wet when you get off the ship,” she said. “And here’s a map showing the quay, the airport, the town centre of Bergen with the Fish Market …”. “And the roundabout?” queried one of the guests. Cue everyone collapsing with laughter.

Off the ship we went to visit Ålesund and immediately noticed that, right next to us on the quay was Aurora, the ship on which we did our marathon cruise around South America. We wandered through the town, easily identifying people who were from Aurora and those from Trollfjord. Eventually, we had to ask one couple who was the Captain. It’s Simon Love, the person who did our Renewal of Vows on the South America cruise as we were travelling towards Montevideo. It would have been nice to have seen him again, or indeed any of the other staff, but we didn’t happen across any of them. Now that would have been a good story!

And so to Hjørundfjord for beautiful scenic meandering, admiring the towering mountains and the waterfalls. The scenery here was just jaw-dropping and we stopped packing to go outside and watch.

We were supposed to collect passengers who had left us to go on a trip from Ålesund at the fjord but confusion ensued as they were dropped in a place where the lifeboat could not collect them. Their buses were transported across the fjord to another landing stage and we drifted gently in their general direction. The lifeboat had been deployed, made a very noisy circuit and then returned to the ship and so we waited to see the fate of this unhappy band. Eventually, a launch came across to the Trollfjord from the landing stage carrying the first of three sets of passengers. This at about 4:30pm to 5pm and many of those would be on the early turn for dinner which that night was to be a special celebration night … and had therefore been booked to begin early! The rest of the night should be very interesting indeed.

In and amongst, I’ve been noticing signs around the ship that are a source of amusement. I’ve actually thought of starting an Instagram account to showcase the bizarre signs I’ve seen around the world and at home. I really must consider it. Here are some examples:

My personal favourite on the hairdryer in the bathroom:

Thought there were laws about this:

Why would we be looking for medicine here?

Is this a standard lamp as used by your elderly aunt?

Only one pie allowed per person