Cruising Southern Norwegian Fjords with Hurtigruten

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My parents wanted to meet up with us during our year of travel and eventually picked a week cruise along the Norwegian coast. We met them in Bergen to begin our journey with Hurtigruten, a company that has been transporting people and cargo along the Norwegian coast for over 100 years. They have thirteen ships with daily departures from all the ports they serve. Now Hurtigruten also provides cruises through the beautiful Norway fjords to paying passengers as well as transporting cargo to the far reaches of the north. Our voyage on MS Nordlys (Norwegian for northern lights) was from Bergen to Kirkenes.

Day 1: Bergen to Floro

Hurtigruten Cruse Itinerary Ports of Call Through Norway FjordsIn Bergen, Hurtigruten has a large facility for embarking passengers and cargo onto their ships. We checked-in which included dropping off our bags for transport to our cabin and setting up our “cruise card” to make onboard purchases easy. We proceeded into a small conference room where a safety briefing was shown in Continue reading →

Hiking in Bergen, Norway

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After an overnight train from Oslo, we arrived to a rainy Bergen. We walked the few blocks from the train station to our hotel, Clarion Hotel Admiral, where my parents spent the night. We figured they were probably jet lagged and still sleeping at 7:30 but I didn’t feel too bad waking them up as we knocked on their hotel room door. As expected, we were greeted with two sets of tired hugs, but it felt great to see them again after seven months. We chatted and caught up in the hotel room until it was time for breakfast. The hotel included breakfast and it was easy to join them even though we had not yet checked in. The restaurant was packed with hotel guests and I could see why – the spread was astounding. There was several kinds of fish, freshly baked loaves of bread, a muesli bar, cold cuts, and even the classics like eggs and sausage. After eating as much as possible, I made sandwiches for later and then we tried to check into our room. I can see why Clarion has such good reviews because it kept getting Continue reading →

Six Hours in Oslo, Norway

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Royal Palace – unique in that the grounds are completely open to the public during the day

Leaving Copenhagen, we had a long journey ahead of us to meet my parents. There were two trains to Oslo, then a planned 6 hour evening layover, followed by an overnight train to Bergen. While looking at possible stops to make on our way north, we learned that Oslo is considered the most expensive city in the world so we figured a layover was the only way for us to experience it on our budget. In fact it seems like all of Scandinavia is surprisingly expensive. During our short visit I made a short video about how Continue reading →

Unwinding in Copenhagen, Denmark

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Passing another ferry while crossing Fehmarn Belt

I was excited for the train from Hamburg to Copenhagen because I saw it’s one of the last places in Europe where a train is put on a ferry for part of the journey. As we secured our seat reservations, we learned that part of the scheduled train line was down for service so we would be transferred to a bus. Unfortunately, we were put on busses before the ferry across the Fehmarn Belt so we just boarded with all the other vehicles. The trip was still neat and it was nice to be able to walk around the ferry as a break from traveling.

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Our bunks at Generator Hostel

Surprisingly, the bus arrived at the train station right on time (seems a lot of bus trips take longer than scheduled). After a bit of a walk, we arrived at the Generator Hostel where we checked into a dormitory room with 8 beds. We haven’t had to stay in a hostel since Singapore because hotel rooms are usually Continue reading →