We continued up the coast but unfortunately a norovirus had been brought aboard our ship. There were multiple announcements about the danger, but, after a life in challenging countries, we were confident that our personal washing/sanitary regime would be adequate. We were careful, but we were wrong – it was not enough.

Fred succumbed first.  And Denise a couple of days later.

Crossing the Arctic Circle there was an announcement that the northern lights were visible. We joined the crowds on deck admiring and trying to get a photo. The best northern lights photos are time lapse images taken with a tripod on solid ground. Hand held on a moving ship is not going to get you much. But “not much” is still quite spectacular.

The Lofoten Islands are where the world’s larges cod catches are made between January and April of each year. Denise made a visit to Henningsvaer in the Lofoten, a fishing village about 12 Km southwest of Svolvaer.

 A brief film in an Art Gallery set the tone and a wander through the village completed it. Quite interesting are the racks upon which the fish is dried before being shipped all over the world.

The village is known for having a flat full sized soccer field – a real challenge in mountainous region. Teams come from all over to play there.

We continued to Stokmarknes, where there is a most interesting Hurtigruten Maritime Museum. The company was founded in 1893 to facilitate postal service to northern Norway. The history of the company was also shown.  The Museum includes a full sized ship, MS Finnmarken, which retired in 1956. (https://www.museumnord.no/en/our-venues/hurtigruten-museum/)

Arriving at Tromso, Denise took a cable car trip up to Storsteinen.

There were amazing views of the town below from the viewing area. 

She then visited the Arctic Cathedral, a quite spectacular modern church.

Our next stop, Honningsvag, should have enabled us to visit the North Cape, however, by now, we were both self isolating due to sickness. Sorry, no photos.

By the time we stopped at Alta, we were able to take a walk in the town and to visit the Northern Lights Cathedral. 

This is another really spectacular modern cathedral with an exhibition showing how Alta became the epicenter for research into the Aurora Borealis between the 19th and 20th centuries.  We also enjoyed the short film about the Northern Lights.  The visit to the town was also interesting. It was very modern and amazingly clean.

We also took the opportunity to walk in the towns of Lodingen and Rorvik, interesting coastal towns.

Lodingen was tiny and we enjoyed a snowy walk.

In Rorvik we visited the small Maritime Museum, which included a fascinating exhibit by a local salmon farm company. We learned all about salmon farming and how Norway has perfected it for maximum sustainability. The fish live in special netted areas known as “acuatraz.”

Unfortunately our visit to Molde was cancelled due to rough seas and we sailed to Bergen using as many inland waterways as possible to reduce the possible damage to passengers!

Waves were projected to be as high as 16 feet. And they were.