Saturday 16th June

Were up latish before a great breakfast. We heard about all the family's activities from our friends & had a lovely lazy morning before walking down to a local pub for lunch. The garden was set between two streams of a fast flowing tributary of the Test flowing through Winchester.

Gareth then drove us to Southampton where we boarded the ship at about 3.45 & by 4.30 we were off down Southampton water sailing out of Spithead between the Isle of Wight & the mainland.

Had a fine dinner & d*** went to bed whilst Jane went to see the floorshow.

Sunday 17th June

Woke up to a fine calm day at sea. Went to a couple of talks on the ports in Norway we are visiting, a recital of piano pieces & the evening show by a Welsh singer comedian. Dinner was a black tie affair & d*** was extremely grateful for his loaned dinner suit.

Monday 18th June

At sea on our way north. Luckily it was fairly calm & we made good progress.

Tuesday 19th June

Today we arrived at Flam, a tiny settlement at the end of the long Sognefjord, 115 miles inland, at about 6.30am. We had deliberately been up early as we had been told that the only train seats on the spectacular railway were available for the 7.30 run. As usual we hadn't bothered to plan or book so we just hoped. At about 6.45 the captain told us that due to 45 knot winds he would be unable to berth the ship there, so all shore events had been cancelled & we would stooge around the fjord for the rest of the day before moving on to the next destination.

Oh joy!! As it was cold, gusty & wet so we didn't feel we were missing too much, although most of the other travelers were a little put out.

So, yet another hard day fjord watching in dreary conditions. The cliffs & the waterfalls are spectacular & we did see the occasional habitation but otherwise it was business as usual

Wednesday 20th June

Today we arrived at Geiranger at the head of the Geirangerfjord, a branch of the Storjfjord & tied up on buoys about 30m from the quay. Here again there were a few problems as the floating walkway to the quay wasn't available due to gale warnings so we were ferried on tenders to the quay side. As with Flam the fjord walls are spectacular & the waterfalls abound everywhere so that with the snow still on the mountain sides the place is truly a picture.

We walked up & took the world's shortest Hop-on-hop-off bus ride, about 4k of hairpin bends to a site about 800m above the fjord, offering 3 stops including the quayside. True to reports, the price £30 per head, was at least as spectacular as the view but this really was the cheapest acceptable option as the other was walking along the road with hordes of motorhomes, motorbikes, cars, buses & trucks sharing the route.

Having taken shots of the view from the 3rd stop & walked to an old farm on the hillside we re-boarded the bus & descended to stop 2 to visit the Fjord museum which turned out to be better than expected. All the farms were abandoned over the years as life became too hard even for these very tough people although some land is still tended to collect food for sheep & goats. The surprise to us was the danger in living in the area from tsunamis created when huge rock slides occur into the fjords. One caused a wave of +60m to wipe out a village in the 1930s. Luckily these are rare & they monitor cracks in the rock walls to try to predict when such events will occur. We were so glad we had our puff jackets & long johns on as it was about 8C & the wind was from the north but we were impressed with the magnificence of the scenery.

At stop 2 we also inspected the little 1842 built, octagonal wooden church with its lovely internal balcony similar to the interior of the Methodist halls, its little chandelier & its carved & painted pulpit & altarpiece. Presumably it is a Lutheran church but it was strangely Catholic in some aspects. Walking down the road we returned to the quay & were tendered back to the ship by 2pm.

After dinner & a show we watched a film & at 11.30 we walked on deck still in daylight, see Jane's photo.