Day 12 - Magdalene Fjord

Entering the fjord

Today was one of those mornings where we just had to order breakfast in our cabin.  We were scheduled to enter the Magdalene Fjord at 8am, and we didn’t want to miss a minute of it.  This is the main reason we chose this cruise itinerary, to see the fjords.  Breakfast came a little after 7AM and we were just finishing our coffee went the show began.  We spent the morning out on our veranda, taking pictures of the snowy mountains, snowfields, glaciers, and bergy-bits floating by.  It was a majestic sight.

Glacier in Magdalene Fjord

We were very lucky with the weather.  Although chilly, it was a beautiful day, with the sun peaking through the clouds.  I don't think it got below the 40's.   

When we got all the way into the fjord, the crew lowered one of the life boats and went out closer to the glacier than the ship could get in order to capture some glacier ice and bring it back for everyone to see up close.  These were put on display up by the pool and Ray went up to get a picture.  They weren't the blue ice that we could see on the glacier, but the crew had fun hunting and netting these little icebergs.

Bergy-Bits brought back by the crew.

After leaving the fjord, we could still see these snowy mountains along the coast as we traveled south. We continued back towards Svalbard and dropped off the pilot at about 7pm  before heading south into the Greenland Sea.

Snow field between the hills

This afternoon I played bingo again, then after lunch we went to hear Terry Bishop’s next lecture.  It was billed as “The Vikings Are Coming, Part Two”, but it was mostly about the battle for Britain with King Harold defending against William the Norman (who may have had Viking ancestry)coming from France, and a Viking named Harald who partnered with King Harold’s brother and attacked from the northeast.  The lecture had a few light moments, but was mostly drier than the previous talks. It also was more abut Britain than the Vikings.

There was nothing else of interest to us until dinner, so we went back to our cabin to read and nap for the afternoon.  Tomorrow should be another quiet day.  Ray is on his 4th book so far this trip and I’m on my 2nd.  I’ve also been spending time listening to some of my backlog of podcasts  while working a small needlework project.  I think we both relax more on a ship than any place else.

Day 11 - Longyearbyen, Norway

This morning we arrived in the town of Longyearbyen, on the west coast of Spitsbergen.  This was originally a coal mining town, established by an American business man named John Munro Longyear. He set up the Arctic Coal Company to begin mining here in 1906.  There is still an active mine here, but most coal mining has moved to another location on the island.  A university, research, and tourism are now becoming the primary industries here.  Although technically part of Norway, it is covered by a treaty that makes it more international .


We didn’t have a tour scheduled until 1PM, so we took advantage of the open morning to have breakfast in the restaurant for a change.  After breakfast we went into the lounge to read, in order to give the cabin stewards more time to make up our room.  When the cruise director announced a crew safety drill around 10AM, we went back to our cabin to get out of the way.

Conveniently, the locals had a large tent set up just off the pier with a big sign “souvenirs”, so we went shopping once the crew drill was over.  This was one of the best set up souvenir shops I’ve seen - a good variety of desirable tourist items, postcards, stamps, and a mail drop as well.  We got a few postcards and had time to write them and bring them back to the mail drop before our tour.







The tour was very good for such a small town.  First stop was to the edge of town where we were shown the Polar Bear warning sign.  Anyone going outside the town limits is warned to take polar bear protection such as a rifle and a flare gun with them.  Although they rarely come into town, this is their country.

We then visited a place where they raise and train arctic dogs.  These are not all huskies - many are mixed breed.  It is run by Carl and his wife, and they have been doing it for over 30 years.  Carl talked to us about how to train a dog to be good with children as well as adults and encouraged us to pet the dogs as part of their socialization. They were beautiful animals, 2 or 3 to a cage and a few out in the compound for us to interact with directly.  It is also a sanctuary for the Eider duck.

Carl's wife treated us to Swedish pancakes and a wonderful berry tea as well.

Next we drove up to the old mining building and saw the pulley system used to carry the coal ore down the mountain.  This spot also was high enough to provide a great view of the bay.

As we drove around town, our guide, Chris, told us about the town’s history and present culture. He pointed out many significant sites, from the original mine on the side of the mountain and the pillars remaining from the original settlement, to the administrative, church, and cultural buildings.

 Our final stop was to spend an hour at the Svalbard Museum. This is an excellent collection showing the history of exploration in the area, as well as the native plants and animals.  It is designed in a circle, with photos and explanations on the outer wall, artifacts on the inner circle wall, and the center set up with taxidermy animals from the area and other life-size exhibits.  We were required to either remove our shoes or place disposable covers on our shoes before entering in order to protect the wooden floors.  Our guide said the university is set up the same way, with everyone required to remove their shoes inside.



There was a shuttle bus running between the ship and town so a few people on our tour asked to be left off in town.  It is a very small town, so we just came right back to the ship.  We were planning to go for a coffee in the coffee cafe, but it was full.  I guess everyone was looking for something to warm them up. 

No satellite service today, so this will get published a day late.

Day 10 - At Sea

Today was a quiet, albeit foggy, day at sea. The ship entered fog last night and didn't fully emerge until about 5pm tonight.  Since we have been traveling open seas, there hasn't been much to see anyway.

We attended another enrichment lecture by Terry Brooks this morning. This one was titled "The Vikings Are Coming - Part One".  I guess part 2 will be on the next sea day. This lecture explained how the Vikings came to be established in the Scandinavian countries, Iceland, and Greenland. His talks are not only informative, but also very entertaining. He has a great British sense of humor.

Cream of Crab Soup

Duck a la orange

After the lecture we were able to reclaim our passports.  I think the main reason that security held onto them was for Russian immigration to stamp them both on entering and leaving Murmansk. We are getting quite a nice collection of stamps in our little blue books!

Bingo was at noon again. No winnings this time, but I did come within 1 number in the final game.  A couple I met yesterday at Bingo, Jack & Barbara, won a share of that pot, but it wound up being split 5 ways so they didn't get a whole lot. Maybe enough to cover the cost of the cards. 

Wonderful Salmon in an orange sauce

 On the way out we stopped to look at the restaurant's lunch menu. It looked very good, so for the first time we had lunch in the restaurant instead of going to the buffet. Then we spent a nice quiet afternoon back in our cabin reading (Ray) and doing some cross stitch (me of course). I don't usually do much cross stitch, but I had found some cute small kits on the free-be table at Happy Stitchers a while ago and decided they would be nice small projects to bring along. The finished products will probably wind up on a fidget quilt or some other charity project.

Fresh Norwegian Char fish

 We had a very nice dinner last night. I know I've got to be gaining weight this trip, the food is so lovely to look at as well as great tasting, and great varieties. I don't care though. I'll get back to dieting when we get home. For now I'm enjoying the gourmet menus and the pampering. (Since I don't have any other photos to share, I'm including pictures of some of the lovely dishes that have been placed in front of me!)

Petite Fours are offered after every dinner

I'm not sure whether I mentioned this before, but want to make a note here so I don't forget names again.  We have run into several crew members on this cruise who were also on our Asia cruise in 2013. The amazing thing is that they remembered us.  This includes the security officer as we came on board ( I will add his name when I am able to catch it on his name tag), two waitresses (Ley and The'), and one of the restaurant maître'd s. We also ran into Bebe, who is the wife of the chief engineer. She comes on cruises with him when she can, and just happens to have been on the last 2 legs of our Asia cruise and is on this cruise as well. We ran into her on one of the tours.  Regent cruises are somewhat like a large family and it's very nice.

Mont Blanc dessert in dark chocolate cup

No Sugar Added Limoncello Souffle Crepes

Day 9 - Hammerfest, Norway

After the brief stop in Russia, we are glad now to be back in Norway.  Murmansk was depressing. The ship arrived here in Hammerfest a little before 1pm.  We got a good night's sleep with the 2 hours we got back last night.  I did a load of laundry before dinner last night and a 2nd load first thing this morning, so we are set for the rest of the cruise. It's so nice to have laundry facilities available on each deck for guests to use instead of having to send clothes out to be washed.  It makes packing for a 2 week trip so much easier.

Ray was feeling achy today after days of walking, climbing, and trying to sleep when the sun never sets, so he opted to take the day off.   We closed the curtain but some light gets through.  I have been wearing a sleep mask over my eyes, so it hasn't bothered me as much.  I just found a 2nd one buried at the bottom of my backpack, so I've offered that to Ray for tonight.

Ray's panoramic shot of Hammerfest, from our balcony

Hammerfest is now a nice town, with the main industries being fishing and oil.  Just like most of the places we are visiting, this area was completely burned by the Nazis at the end of WWII.  The tour I took today was to the Reconstruction Museum.  This museum tells the story of what happened to the Norwegian coast during and after WWII.  This is stuff I never learned in history class!  All the residents were evacuated south on overcrowded ships and then all the buildings were burned as the Nazis retreated.  They left absolutely nothing standing.  The people were told they should bring extra clothes and 4 weeks food with them, but many didn't have time to prepare and the ships were so crowded that there wasn't room to bring much.  They lost everything. After the war the government sent pre-fab houses north and allowed men with building skills to return first, in order to rebuild the towns.  Now that the oil industry is thriving here, young people are coming here to work and the town is thriving again.

After the museum tour we drove around town and up to a lookout point.  Our guide pointed out this lovely church recently built along the harbor and I took this photo of it from the top of the hill.  She said the architectural style, with the tower reaching up to the heavens, is coming back in Norway and many churches are being designed like that.

Some of the other tours offered were to visit a Sami camp.  As it turned out, this was right next to the lookout point we stopped at.  Our guide gave us plenty of time to walk around, so I was able to take photos of these huts as well. We couldn't go inside because it was not part of our tour and the other tour groups were there.  When we were at Honningsvag a few days ago we had stopped at the camp of a reindeer herding Sami family.  Today I found out that only about 10% of these people still keep reindeer. The rest are mainly trappers and fishermen.

We are scheduled to leave port about 6pm tonight. Tomorrow we have a day at sea, so we both get to rest for the day before we arrive at our next port.  Although Honningsvag claims to be the northernmost city in the world, our next stop is further north.  It just isn't classified as a city!

Day 8 - Murmansk, Russia

Feeling a little sleep deprived from the additional 2 hours we lost last night, we got up and out for our morning tour of Murmansk.  Russian ports are a little more complicated for disembarkation. Officials came on board when we docked to check all our passports, which the ship's crew had collected when we first came on board. That took about 2 hours.  Then they began calling tours. We were in the second tour - "Murmansk and the Museum of the Northern Fleet". Once called, we picked up our passports, got our bus assignment, showed our passports with the bookmark at the page where it had been stamped to the officer at the exit, and finally left the ship. On the way back on board we had to show the passport with the bookmark to a Russian officer again, then give it back to the ship security officer for safe keeping.  Being a small port and a relatively small ship, at least this was not as time consuming as when we visited Saint Petersburg.

The city really shows it's age. You don't see private homes, only large apartment buildings from the 1950's with very worn facades. The guide talked about new ones being built, but I only saw one of these.  I saw a total of 4 people doing modest maintenance as we rode around on the bus. 2 men were repairing some plaster on the outside of a building at street level, and later I saw 2 women painting a metal street barricade.

Our first stop on the tour was to take pictures of a building called the "Palace of Culture".  This was one of the first buildings in Murmansk, build by the Tzar in the early 1900's.  Our guide said this was the start of Murmansk and is now a club.  I am a little confused by her concept of a club, but it sounds like there are clubs for people of various occupations that provide training, libraries, and social events.  At the end of the tour she pointed out a Seaman's club with similar functions. She also mentioned there is a children's club where they learn arts such as singing and dancing, and which is also daycare.

Next we visited the "Memorial to the Defenders of the Kola Land."  This is a giant statue of a soldier that stands on one of the highest points in Murmansk. We had a great view of the harbor and the city from there. The statue was rather plain artistically, but it's size was impressive.

From there we headed to the main destination of the tour, the "Museum of the Northen Fleet."   A local guide explained the displays in Russian and our guide translated.  This made the tour a little longer than most people expected.  Since all the text around the exhibits were in Russian, we couldn't read things on our own. Without her explanation we would have been looking at objects with no context.  However, it was obvious that some of the women were bored and they just found a place to sit in the hall while the rest of us followed the guides from room to room.  The museum was not spectacular.  It was mostly ship models, photos and memorabilia, with a few artifacts added in.  I think it was good as local museums go, but I know I would have appreciated it more if the texts were at least in our alphabet in some language. I can usually figure out a little German, Spanish, Italian, etc, but I'm list when it comes to the Cyrillic alphabet. 

The last stop was to visit  a Russian Orthodox Church.  Everything I can find about the church says the name of it is St  Nicholas.  However, our guide called it something like "Savior of the Sea".  It is an active church, so although we went inside, we did not take any photos inside.  It was filled with beautiful icons, as one would expect in any Russian Orthodox church. The soldier statue we visited earlier can be seen from this church.  

Also, there are about 80 steps down from the church leading to a memorial to sailors lost at sea, in the shape of a lighthouse.  To the left of the lighthouse is a piece of the Kursk, the submarine that sank on a training mission off Norway in 2000.  In case you don't remember this tragedy, I've included a wikipedia link.  There was a small display in the Northern Fleet museum commemorating this as well.  I will withhold my opinions on this, deferring to the wikipedia entry, and just add my prayers for the 118 men who died on that ship, now as I did then.




Back on the ship we rested a bit for the rest of the afternoon.  At 5PM Ray watched the ship's sail away while I went to bingo.  I don't think I mentioned it before, but I have not missed a bingo game on board yet.  I don't usually play bingo at home, but I do enjoy playing on cruises.  The games tend to be light-hearted and fun.  Yesterday I actually won the 2nd game.  They always play 4 games, usually around noon on sea days, but they scheduled 5pm games yesterday and today.

Now we will be at sea until 1pm tomorrow, when we arrive at Hammerfest.  At least we get our 2 hours back tonight, as we head west again.

Day 7 - Honningsvag and the North Cape

We got up early this morning to go on the bus to the North Cape.  The ride there was very nice.  The landscape is very pretty and we got to stop at the camp of one of the indigenous Sami people on the way.  This was done up for tourists, with the head of the family dressed in traditional costume and posing with one of his herd of reindeer.  There was also a gift shop there with a combination of handmade and production souvenirs.  However, these people do come to the island of Mageroya where Honningsvag and North Cape are located to graze their herds of reindeer every summer.   There are estimated to be about 5,000 reindeer on the island in the summer.  We saw several groups of 10-20 grazing along the road as we drove.  The guide said they are not afraid of people or vehicles, and sometimes have to be nudged off the roads.  They have to be careful not to hurt them however, or they will have to pay a fine to the family that owns them.

Our guide was very good.  She is a native of the area, attending college and coming home to work as a guide during the summers.  She told us all about the Sami people, the lifestyle of the Norwegian people who live in this remote area, and a little of the history.

We were a little disappointed when we got to the North Cape.  The fog had settled on top of the hills so thick that we could not see anything.  The visitor's center was nice though.  They had a good panoramic film and various exhibits showing the history of the discovery of the area.  There are a lot of arctic birds that nest in the area and there was a section in the visitor center talking about them.  We saw some of their nesting islands from a distance on the bus ride back.

Ray took this picture as we left port this afternoon.  It shows pretty well the fog we were in at the North Cape.  It was perfectly clear below, but a cloud sat on top of the plateau like icing on a cake.  


All aboard was supposed to be at 1:30PM so we could leave port at 2PM. Shortly after 1:30PM there were 3-4 announcements at 5 minute intervals asking for 2 passengers with Russian sounding names to contact guest services. The last announcement was in both English and Russian.  I believe we left port without these two.  Later at dinner, we overheard people at another table saying that the pilot boat brought these people out to the ship after we had cast off and were making way out of the bay.  I hope that's true.  Otherwise they are having big trouble.

 

One last picture for today.  Ray took this panoramic shot of Honningsvag as we sailed out of the bay.  (He was very happy to have figured out how to use the panoramic feature on his camera.  :-))

We are on our way to Murmansk, Russia now, and are scheduled to arrive in the morning.  The tough part is, we have to set our clocks 2 more hours ahead for the next 2 days to be on their time zone.  Norway is already 6 hours ahead of the U.S. eastern time zone, so we will be 8 hours ahead tomorrow.  We're skipping the show tonight so we have a chance of walking up in time for our tour tomorrow.

Day 6 - At Sea enroute to Honningsvag

Today was a nice, peaceful day at sea.  We managed to wake up on time for breakfast.  Actually, I woke up too early and unintentionally woke Ray earlier than he would have liked.  After breakfast we actually made it to the theater on time for today's lecture - "The Northeast Passage Explorers - Gateway to the Indies Through Russia's Ice and Snow."  We learned about the explorers who ventured through the Arctic over Russia - something we don't hear much about in U.S. history classes.   After that we had time for a much needed nap before the noon bingo game.  I enjoy going to bingo on cruise ships.  Usually the bingo callers make it fun, but this time they had dancers from the shows doubling as bingo callers.  These girls need a few lessons in bingo enthusiasm!  (I will continue to play anyway - it's a good way to pass an hour at sea.)

We skipped lunch and only had a coffee-and this afternoon, because we had a reservation at the French specialty restaurant "Signatures" for my birthday celebration tonight.  The meal at Signatures was excellent.  I had a different but very good appetizer - crab sandwiched between layers of avacado.  We both had cream of crab soup and duck a la orange. At the end of dinner they surprised me with a little birthday cake, just enough for the two of us. Combined with a nice glass of port, it was excellent.


When we got back to our cabin I got another surprise.  The cabin stewards had decorated the room with balloons, a happy birthday sign, and a towel elephant wearing my headphones.  How did they know my favorite animal as a child was an elephant? 

We docked at Honningsvag, Norway at 7PM tonight.  A lot of people went out on tours tonight, but we opted for a tour to the North Cape tomorrow morning instead. More about that tomorrow.