As before, the land of ‘The Midnight Sun’, but now inside the arctic circle and even though they have more sun than NZ, it was colder than any Auckland winter’s day. I think that overall, there is no doubt whatever that NZ’s climate is more to our liking. Today, Honnigsvag and for some, a planned trip to the actual North Cape, the most northerly part of Europe.
Ship berthed on the port side.
Simple walk ashore, no ID required.
No HoHo or tourist bus.
We looked out of our window when we woke to see – not a lot. Honningsvag really is tiny and there is virtually nothing to see in the town itself. Some took an ATV tour up and over the hill opposite and there was a zodiac type boat doing trips. The ship’s tours were expensive (most are in Norway) and not too exciting, but at least the day was dry, but rather nippy..
We strolled as slowly as we could around the harbour as this is the longest day ashore of the whole trip. Rather ironic given that the shortest day ashore will be Bergen.
There weren’t any places selling decent bakery items to attract us, so a cheapo day ashore and back on board for a warming bowl of pumpkin soup before relaxing in the cabin – again. We have done a lot of relaxing on this trip. At least the short days mean this blog is up to date, but Paula is missing her dancing/exercise and neither of us have ventured into the gym or the pool(s).
We surfaced in time for quiz and managed 16, but we should have got more, as the ones we got wrong, we have heard before. My memory recall for trivia answers isn’t what it was. So much for the fish being brain food, as I have eaten plenty.
As we wrap up well, half our cruising friends are Alaska bound and the other half are enjoying the sunshine in the Med.
We missed the ‘Sherlock Holmes’ Murder Mystery’ on the Baltics and as is often the case on this ship, scheduled times do not really favour the 8pm diners. Just to complicate matters, they had the chicken tikka masala on the dining room menu, so having checked the buffet menu and there was no curry there, we made a decision. We’d abandon our regular 8pm fixed dining and headed for the deck 5 ‘anytime’ dining restaurant at about 6:30pm, so that we could get a seat for the 9pm show.
We were happy to share; no queue and on a table with two Americans from Wisconsin and two English people from Lincoln. It all worked very well, even though it was a large table (for 10) and there was a large gap. A double helping of chicken curry and we shared a black forest gateau. Nice!
Off to the Explorer’s Lounge in plenty of time for a seat, as planned.
We’d obviously seen this way back in 2011 with Alana being the narrator and then it was one of the funniest shows we’d seen. I’m not sure why, but this wasn’t quite as funny and the parts of Sherlock and Watson were played by female entertainment staff members.
Afterwards, we headed for the theatre for the 10pm show – Tony Lewis with a Robbie Williams tribute show. Not being Robbie Williams fans and never having seen him perform before, we could only judge him on the show itself. It started a bit slow (for me) but then it ramped up a gear, especially with a couple of ladies from the audience on stage, then 4 guys taking off the initial group that Robbie Williams was part of.
Obviously the overall audience loved the show, given the ovation at the end and it was a very professional presentation. The orchestra, sound and light were also top notch. The orchestra seems very well balanced. It is in the theatre that the more modern ships score so well over the smaller, older ships.
Although there was a deck party that started at 10:3pm, scheduled to go beyond midnight, we opted for the warmth of the cabin instead. We must be getting old.
Sunday tomorrow and one of the larger towns on this trip – Tromso. We purchased shuttle tickets at $5 each way and the shuttle is scheduled to begin about 9:30am so no doubt, there will be huge queues first thing. No need to set the alarm - again.
We are now physically heading towards home, having reached the turnaround point, so already, our thoughts are drifting towards actually being home – and winter – and decent coffee. Maybe a little warmth on the way too.
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