0
0
We were heading back to civilisation today – we crossed the Arctic Circle again! The weather couldn’t have contrasted more with the crossing on the way up. Snow storm. You could just about see the Globe on the rock marking the Arctic Circle, but it quickly disappeared from view.
Hurtigruten mark the crossing southbound offering everyone a spoonful of Cod Liver Oil (you get to keep the spoon!) – Jon quite liked it – I was just glad the taste didn’t last long!
Afterwards, we headed back up to the Explorer Lounge to chill – by the time we’d reached the lounge, we’d sailed though the blizzards and the sun was shining brightly, showing off the scenery we were sailing past.
With the sun now out, the run into Nesna was stunning with the freshly fallen snow on the surrounding hillsides.
The Gathering was early today – at 11.25am. They recapped today’s Arctic Circle Crossing and ran through the highlights for today and the next two days. This afternoon after sailing out of Sandnessjøen, we would pass the Seven Sisters mountain range – the Excursions Team would be on hand to tell the legend behind the mountains (although according to Robin, it’s apparently more dramatic to regale the tale in German than in English!).
The main stop for today was Brønnøysund – we were docking here around 3.15pm for two hours. Brønnøysund is the midway point of Norway – 840km to Nordcapp and 840km to the southernmost point of Norway at Lindesnes. We docked and it was obvious the town had had particularly heavy snow overnight. People were clearing boats of snow so they didn’t capsize.
We weren’t the first people to leave the ship today – and we were glad we weren’t! We easily found the halfway marker and our fellow passengers had trodden a path in the snow to the marker. There were a handful of people waiting to have their photo taken. Jon offered to take photos of the couple in front and they returned the favour. Jon still took a selfie!
We then headed down the main street by the harbour to see what else the town had to offer. It was very pretty.
Slowploughs were in action clearing roads and parking areas; householders and shopkeepers were clearing the snow from their steps and front of shops, making it as easy as possible to return to work on the Monday. It was a very pretty little town.
In summer Robin had recommended a walk around the lake – it would take about 30 minutes. The lake was pretty much frozen apart from one small patch. Not sure Jon trusted me to stick to the paths and worried I may end up in the water. With all the snow, you weren’t really sure if you were on the pavement or road.
Robin also mentioned a church in the town. It had been struck by lightning three times and burnt down …. so last time they rebuilt, they rebuilt it out of stone instead of wood. With the snow piled up on the ground and branches of the trees, it looked really pretty. I should add, the snow around the church was knee-deep as I found out whilst trying to get a photo!
Back onboard and we watched the sail out of Brønnøysund from the deck until we sailed under the bridge. The slope up to the bridge was arced and very different to all the other bridges we’d passed.
We needed to get showered and changed for dinner. Tonight was the Farewell Banquet as a lot of passengers get off in Trondheim. The Head Waiter welcomed us into the Dining Room with a glass of Prosecco and all the senior officers (including the Captain and Chief Engineer) were lined up to greet us.
Once everyone had sat down, all the officers and waiting staff were joined by the head chef, and they raised a glass to all the passengers with the Norwegian for Cheers – Skol.
We really enjoyed the food tonight – it was a four course meal tonight. Starters was smoked salmon with little crispy bits that just melted in your mouth. We’d cleared the plates before we remembered we were going to take a photo!
A traditional Norwegian Pea Soup was next – this was really light and totally delicious. Talking to one of the staff later, he said a lot of passengers had said the soup was the star of the show tonight.
For mains, I chose the Beef Cheek and Jon the Skrei (wandering cod!).
For dessert, we had a traditional Ice Cream Cake with Cloudberries. That was actually really nice – reminded us of the Arctic Roll we used to have from Iceland (the shop!) when we were younger.
We decided we would eat in Kysten again tomorrow night as it was our last night. Table booked for 6.30pm and I am looking forward to having reindeer steak … and the prawn and sea urchin starter I missed out on the previous visit.
At 9pm, the expedition team were showing the movie/photo compilation of the Coastal Explorer voyage so far. Still a day to go so more will be added. You can buy a copy of the video and all the photos they’ve taken of the voyage for NOK400 which we’ve done. There’s also all the menus and other bits of information that is nice to have.
We were both feeling really tired – we hadn’t really slept well the last two nights so decided to have an early night ready to make the most of our final full day onboard.
