Category: Norway and The Northern Lights

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...

Today, we arrived in Leknes, what appears to be a beautiful place in the Lofoten Islands. I say ‘appears to be’ because, despite the time coming up to 11am, no-one has left the ship yet. An announcement was made quite early on telling us that, due to strong winds, we would not be able to tie-up alongside the quayside; instead,...

The Marco Polo does seem to have a habit of drawing attention to itself. Within an hour of it being confirmed that we’d managed to go and get ourselves embarrassingly stuck on a mud bank, a helicopter flew overhead and, by all accounts, local residents were driving down to the harbour to have a good ol’ gander at the stricken...