Excursions...and the absence of snow.

Needless to say, I was expecting several things on this trip to the far north of Norway, the first being sea-sickness as part of the cruise experience, and the second was snow...lots of snow, and ice, and blizzards and freezing conditions. None of these expectations has been fulfilled, although I am thankful for the absence of mal de mer.

The brochure describing the onshore excursions is mostly helpful, but full of the usual marketer's language, especially when it proclaims that "on today's excursion a hot drink and freshly baked cakes will be included". As it happened, we were on a four hour jaunt through the Vesteralen area of Norway from Harstad to Sorland and crossing a fjord on a car ferry when we were invited to have a luke warm, weak-as-water coffee from a thermos jug, and a cold waffle with a slice of delicious brown cheese. Not quite what I was expecting. Brown cheese, incidentally, is a local delicacy made with caramelised milk, The scenery was however as spectacular as promised, and made this excursion a very memorable one.

After another buffet lunch back on board where we were forced to eat much more food than we really needed, we went off on another excursion, this time in search of the legendary sea eagles that supposedly swoop down from the sky and snatch fish from the hands of the unsuspecting deck hand on a small boat fully loaded with tourists and cameras. The sea eagles at least lived up to their end of the bargain (as did several thousand sea gulls) and thousands of happy snaps were taken. Again, the scenery inside the fjords was amazing and made for a gratifying end to a long day of getting on and off buses, boats and ferries, as well as up and down from the lunch table, and dinner, and an afternoon cuppa with a biscuit or two.

Despite the absence of snow, it was bloody freezing outside and several warming drinks were needed after the sea eagle safari to get the blood moving in time for dinner.

D2