Norway #2: Slow Travel, a.k.a. Boat Time

We left Bergen on the evening of September 1 aboard the motor vessel "Kong Harald" (King Harold), one of the coastal ferries of the Hurtigruten company. In considering that we needed to, at a minimum, get from Bergen to Mo i Rana, I had looked at various options of "planes, trains, and automobiles," and yes, boats, to accomplish that. We wanted to see the coastal landscape, and not being particularly interested in having to concentrate on driving, we discarded the ideas of flying and car rental. We finally settled on a Hurtigruten package that would give us one hotel night in Bergen, two nights on a coastal cruise from Bergen to the city of Trondheim, and a hotel night in Trondheim.  From there the Nordland train line could be booked to Mo i Rana.

The Kong Harald awaiting its passengers in Bergen.

Departure from Bergen was at twilight, so it wasn't very long before the coast was swallowed by darkness. Not being quite ready to return to our small cabin with its twin beds and up-close view out the window of a lifeboat, we settled into some comfortable chairs in the main lounge for reading and web surfing.

Cruising aboard a Hurtigruten coastal ship is a hybrid experience--yes, the boats have passenger cabins, and lounges, and a dining room or two, but they also carry freight--and sometimes local passengers--between stops along the coast. Most of the stops are no more than 10 or 15 minutes (some of which occur during the wee hours of the morning), but some stops are two or three hours long to allow passengers sightseeing opportunities, either via expeditions booked with Hurtigruten or independently. These are not boats with thousands of passengers, casinos, or nightclub-like entertainment. That was a "plus" as far as we were concerned, as we're not fans of cruising on the big passenger ships.

Coming in for a brief stop.

We had the morning of September 2 to enjoy cruising by the mountainous terrain, which included a "side trip" down the Hjørundfjord, a 22-mile long body of water surrounded by the steep mountains of the Sunnamøre Alps. The mountains are so steep that there isn't much room for farms or villages, although a few have managed to plant themselves near the water's edge. At midday we reached our first extended stop of the day, an anchorage near the village of Urke. We passed on the organized tours and simply took a tender ashore for a walk around the village.

The back deck had decent views, but it could get a bit windy
and cold.

Ferries are a common sight. For some of the villages, they are the only way in and out.

Warm coat--check. Gloves--check. The clouds were coming
and going, and when they were present it was rather brisk
being out on deck.

Things took on a whole new look when the sun was out. Up
to this point our good fortune with the weather was holding.

A public building in Urke with a traditional sod roof. The roofs
were actually constructed with watertight birch bark, and the sod
holds the birch bark in place. It was a common type of roof in
rural Norway and elsewhere in Scandinavia until the late 19th century.

Looking toward "downtown" Urke.

There was some flat area for grass and possible agriculture, but not much.

The Kong Harald at anchor; surprisingly, the recreational boats in the
local marina were not being used on a nice Saturday.

Can you say "isolated"?

After a 3-1/2 hour stop we backtracked out of the Hjørundfjord and at 6 p.m. arrived at our second extended stop of the day, the port town of Alesund. It benefits from being close to some of Norway's most spectacular fjords, but its main claim to fame is its Art Nouveau architecture. Most of the town had to be rebuilt after being devastated by fire (of course) in 1904. Funded by German Emperor Wilhelm II, who had spent many vacations in Alesund, German craftsman and architects rebuilt the city in stone and brick within a space of three years. It is claimed by some to be "the most beautiful town in Norway", but that's a conclusion that I will leave to those who have seen more of Norway than I have. We only had two hours to see what we could of Alesund, so we started by climbing 418 steps (plus some additional steps and steeply graded sections of path and road) to the top of the hill known as Askla for a viewpoint over the town.

Looking down on part of the climb. The builders of the stairs
were nice enough to occasionally insert a number to let us know
where we were with respect to the 418 stairs. It gave us hope.

It was quite a spectacular view of the Alesund peninsula,
even while I was still heading for the top of the hill.

Lon is standing on an overlook that extends over the
hillside below it. The overlook was at about the halfway
point of the ascent.

The view of the town was actually better a bit down the hill than it was from the top of the hill, where the vegetation was somewhat overgrown. What was interesting on the hilltop were the remains of some German bunkers from WWII, consisting of a portion of a battalion headquarters bunker and supporting bunkers, including a kitchen bunker.

The bunkers were accessible to entry, but we didn't have
the time for that kind of exploration.

Funny thing, but our climb back down the steps didn't seem to take nearly as long as the climb up. We still had a bit of time before Kong Harald would leave without us, so we set off at a fast pace to walk to the central part of town for an impression of the architecture from ground level. Nice buildings, clean, very quiet, but it didn't necessarily say "most beautiful town" to me. 

Looking down the canal from the canal bridge.

While walking we encountered some fellow Hurtigruten passengers from Edina, Minnesota. We were having a nice chat as we strolled the town streets when our weather luck ran out. A few drops prompted us to turn around and start back, and then it started raining much more heavily. Our walk-run couldn't prevent us from being soaked by the time we reboarded the boat. The rain continued into the night hours, and it was raining when we woke up the next day.

On September 3 we were scheduled to leave the boat when it docked at 9:45 a.m. in the city of Trondheim. We had to check out of our room by 8 a.m., which was a little annoying, but only a little.

We both felt a bit relieved when we disembarked from the boat to try for an early check-in at our Trondheim hotel (which was successful, thank you Clarion!) It appears that we really are not cut out for the cruise ship life. There was certainly nothing wrong with the ship--it was clean, the food was good, and the staff was friendly. However, the whole concept is just too structured for the way we like to travel, and we felt like a captive audience with too many other people around. After a couple of hours in the hotel waiting for the rain to stop, we were ready to see what we could of Trondheim in the remaining hours of the day.