Norway
This is a (selective) photo-journal of a trip on the Hurtigruten ship Midnatsol, showing some of the places and things that caught our attention, along the way from Bergen to the northern tip of Norway, then back to Trondheim, where we took the train to Oslo.
Hurtigruten has provided a dependably regular postal, cargo and public transport service between coastal settlements in Norway, for over a century. A ship departs daily from Bergen at 8.00pm and, weather permitting, it will visit some 40 ports during a 13-day round trip to and from Kirkenes, on the northern border with Russia, scarcely varying from its published timetable.
Ships call at some ports just long enough to deliver and pick up mail, or perhaps to make a small cargo delivery, and allow passengers to join or leave the ship, while other travellers watch the dockside goings-on but cannot disembark – our favourite off-load was 2 kayaks and a washing-machine, delivered in the Lofoten Islands! In other places the ship may dock for several hours allowing time to leave the ship and explore the port, or to join an excursion, which may include leaving the ship at one port and rejoining it at another.
Hurtigruten has provided a dependably regular postal, cargo and public transport service between coastal settlements in Norway, for over a century. A ship departs daily from Bergen at 8.00pm and, weather permitting, it will visit some 40 ports during a 13-day round trip to and from Kirkenes, on the northern border with Russia, scarcely varying from its published timetable.
Ships call at some ports just long enough to deliver and pick up mail, or perhaps to make a small cargo delivery, and allow passengers to join or leave the ship, while other travellers watch the dockside goings-on but cannot disembark – our favourite off-load was 2 kayaks and a washing-machine, delivered in the Lofoten Islands! In other places the ship may dock for several hours allowing time to leave the ship and explore the port, or to join an excursion, which may include leaving the ship at one port and rejoining it at another.