We settled into our small, but comfortable cabin. The bath has a heated floor! Yes! The first night featured some decent rock and roll seas.

And so the voyage begins.  Our first stop was Kristiansand on a gloomy, foggy day.

It was not actually raining but our color photos look black and white! Visibility was not good but it was most atmospheric.  We wandered the town, visiting the oldest wooden buildings in Norway and discovering by accident a wonderful cafe/bakery.  We could not take photos inside the church as there was a service, but we peeked in.

Our second stop was in Haugesund.  A former Viking center, it is also an important oil town.  We did not leave the ship.  The stop was very early in the morning (from 7 to 9.30 AM) and it was pouring with rain.  We did make some soggy deck circuits on the walking deck as we left.

Åalesund saw a great improvement in the weather. (Å is pronounced “Al” as in “alley.”) We actually saw the sun!  It was a lovely town, rebuilt in art nouveau style in 1904 after a major fire. 

We enjoyed our walk through town, finishing with a visit to the Art Museum.  Part of this was housed in a lovely building which had formerly been a chemist shop. 

The furniture displays were interesting as was the art. The spare Scandinavian style that we think of today was not the mode at the beginning of the 20th century.

Sailing into Brønnøysund, the ship detoured to view the Torghatten, a granite dome with a hole through it. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torghatten ) As one might imagine, there are lots of legends!

Brønnøysund was an interesting place. The town is named after the small island Brønnøya (Old Norse: Brunnøy) since it is located on the island. The first element is brunnr which means “well” and the second element is øy which means “island”. The final element of the name is sund which means “strait”, referring to the strait of water that flows alongside the island and town. Islands with freshwater wells were important for seafarers. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brønnøysund) (And the ø is pronounced a bit like the British “oy!) or the French “oeil.” We’re learning.)

A much smaller town than Ålesund, we wandered through the shopping mall and were amazed by the variety of shops and what they contained. The kitchen store would be a find in the DC area.  It might help to like fishing but one could live quite comfortably in Brønnøysund. We visited the Trollfjell Geopark, with its displays of the geology of the surrounding area, the Vega Archipelago. (https://trollfjellgeopark.no/index.php/en/ )

When we last saw our heroes, they were planning to drive the length of the Norwegian coast. On further consideration, we decided that we had had enough of one lane roads in Scotland and so cancelled the visit to Norway and rebooked as a cruise with the Hurtigruten company.(https://www.hurtigruten.com/en-us/about-us/voyages/north-cape-line) With luck, we might get to see the northern lights and would not have to worry about trying to stud the tires, etc.

After cancelled flights and rebooking, via telephone calls to India, we set off, in February, from Dulles with British Airways. We had a pleasant flight to Oslo, via a painless connection at Heathrow. With three suitcases of both winter and summer gear, and bits for the camper, we splurged for a very expensive taxi to the hotel. in downtown Oslo. The hotel turned out to be lovely and right in the middle of the shopping district – a good thing as Fred had neglected to pack his light gloves or his knit cap. We dropped into a shopping mall and asked about gloves in a store. A lovely young lady wearing a sunn (o))) t-shirt directed us to a sporting/camping store. Want to feel old? Back in the ’60’s, Fred had, and still has, a sunn amplifier, but now, the same logo is used by a drone/drudge/noise rock band that use sunn amps for ear numbing feedback. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunn_O)))) The gear store was excellent and hands and ears are now warm!

Downtown Oslo is quite compact, with an interesting mixture of modern buildings and a few of a more classic, European style.

We hopped a bus to the open air folk museum. A bit like the Weald and Downland Museum, Colonial Williamsburg, and others, this is a collection of relocated historic buildings. (https://norskfolkemuseum.no/en) The stave church was especially interesting as we had actually visited a stave church in, of all places, South Dakota. (https://diplostrat.net/2019/07/07/going-to-the-devil/)

Fred, of course, was most taken by a museum cat who was out enjoying the sun.

The national museum of cultural history, down town, was a surprise as it was highly themed/concept, and not historically or chronologically, arranged. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Cultural_History,_Oslo) Exhibits ranged from Ice Age geology to a model of Temple Grandin’s slaughter house. (!!) It did include the oldest known Viking helmet and other Viking grave goods. 

The Viking Museum, with its complete ship, is currently closed for renovation. Bummer, but we had seen ships last year in Denmark.

The following morning we were given a short bus tour of Oslo, courtesy of Hurtigruten. We had expected that the “tour” would be a simple drive to the pier, but it turned out to be much, much more. We started up at the skiing complex with the Olympic level ski jump, which was totally scary! 

We then went to the Frogner Park, which includes the Vigeland Sculpture Park. https://vigeland.museum.no/en/vigelandpark) This is hundreds of nude granite and bronze statues, all based on the Circle of Life theme.  An additional group of statues surrounded a huge fountain, which was obviously not running. Vigeland himself appears to be a most interesting, misogynistic soul.  A rather dead rose garden surrounded the fountain – it would be a joy in summer. 

We joined our ship the MS Tollfjord and  celebrated our departure from Oslo that evening with a small Sail-away toast. Skoal!