Got up early today to start the usual housekeeping - washing so our clothes will be clean when we get home, email checking to see how the children are. We organised ourselves at a leisurely pace then went out on deck to look at Bergen. We enjoyed watching the working dock - particularly the crane on wheels that manouvred and moved the containers as if they were matchboxes. It was a hot day (25 degrees C) - so we sat ourselves on the shady side of the ship, loo...

When we awoke we were motoring along a beautiful fjord, so we had breakfast in the Lido - it was really pretty. Our tour today (7 hours) left at 9am - we were put on coaches, driven to a pretty village for photos and souvenirs, then taken further up a mountain that was so steep - at the steepest part the people at the front of the bus were 1.5 m higher than the back of the bus!! We were then taken to the Stalheim Hotel - a beautiful hotel furnished with antique...

This morning we crossed the Arctic Circle, southbound, which means that the sun will set tonight (but not for long). We passed the time going to enrichment lectures, cooking demonstrations talks on the Norwegian culture, and DVD viewings, as well as sitting and reading on the back deck. We had lunch in the Lido and then checked out Seat Guru on the internet for better seating on our horrible Airbus return flight. Before going to dinner at the Caronia we had c...

This morning we anchored at Honningsvag. We had a big brekky because we will be away from the ship for lunch. We tendered ashore and were taken by coach to Nordkapp, stopping at a Sami camp and souvenir shop along the way. There were a lot of cars and campervans at North Cape. We went down to the globe of the world and took photos. It was beautiful sunny day. After buying postcards and souvenirs, we wrote on the postcards and posted them immediately so they wou...

A day of housekeeping interspersed with being on deck to watch us go around Bear Island. Bear Island has no bears, only 8 people living on it. They were very excited to see us - it was the first sunny day since April (it's usually shrouded in fog). They let off a flare by way of greeting us. We spent 3 1/2 hours sailing around 3 sides of the island. Tom went to an enrichment lecture on historic ships and we met up at the Golden Lion pub at 12 noon for the triv...