Category: Marco Polo

One of the first things someone said to us at breakfast this morning was “did you see the lights last night?” Apparently, at around 10:30pm, they came out again, in all their glory, mostly visible at the back of the ship, for about 15 minutes… grrrrrrrrr! After breakfast, we listened to the story teller, Doreen, telling a few more funny...

Today, we arrived in Narvik, where we were asked to escort an excursion featuring a train journey.   There were four coaches in all, picking up four groups; two would be taken to the railway station to get on the train whilst the other two groups would be taken by coach to the end of the line, to be brought...

Today, we arrived in Alta. All of these Northern Norwegian ports are starting to look the same. The days are short, with the sun rising at something just gone 8am and setting at around 2:30pm, which has a subtle effect on the brain (namely – it just makes me want to sleep all the time – no change there then…)...

Today, were were escorting non-guided transit coaches to the North Cape; the most northerly point in Norway (rather like Lands End in Cornwall, or John O’Groats in Scotland). We were asked to make some brief announcements over the coach microphone pertaining to times (last coach back at 11am), and not to leave stuff on the coach because they wouldn’t necessarily...

Today, we arrived in Tromso. We weren’t supposed to arrive in Tromso; we were supposed to be heading for Alta, but a Captain’s announcement told us that we would have to stop at Tromso for a full inspection of the hull of the ship, as decreed by the Norwegian Authorities. What that was all about, frankly, no-one really knows, but...