Norway

The 'Ocean Countess' made good headway down the Tyne past Admiral Collingwood and out to sea; 36 hours later it nosed its way up the fjords to villages on these post- glacial arms of the sea; June was good timing as meltwater from snow, above the fjords, filled waterfalls (hanging valleys) such as the Seven Sisters and the Twins (where water flow divided into two crystal clear rivers below the foss.)



Unfortunately and somehow I lost my camera at Gerainger! Was it the thrill of 37 X 180 degree bends in a coach- and another 11 on the 'sky' road up to the Dalsnibba viewpoint? Maybe I dropped it on the coach or on the tender?



Appreciating the scale of these glaciated fjords, pyramidal peaks, aretes, corries (still snow filled) and majestically high U shaped valley sides was difficult particularly on a photo so I had tried to include a feature to offer some idea of scale- Has H1 on the photos he has emailed across to me in order that I can illustrate this blog?



Being in the Land of The Midnight Sun over the summer Solstice meant we danced on deck after midnight in the light!



We were amazed, after our awful Costa cruise, to find the Countess crew were as a man (or woman) efficient, friendly and hardworking. H1 has gained 8 lbs as a result of delicious food!



The Flam railway via Myrdal to Voss, provided wonderful views and we even encountered a troll; the coach return journey's hairpin bends were indeed hairraising.




Bryggen, Bergen's old quarter, bore testament to the power and wealth of the Hanseatic League; it illustrated the links with places like Newcastle; here they traded Baltic flour, timber and coal but there the Norwegian Lofoten archipelago provided fish oils and naturally dried cod; the latter could be reconstituted eg for Lenten Fridays in a then Catholic Europe.



Norway's staple diet is still freshly caught as there is little flat ground to provide arable land along the fjords. The market in Bergen was filled with fish stalls- we think the whale meat was provided by Inuit hunters who may have a legal ok to breech the international moratorium .



Then we travelled on.......