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| A Tourist not a Viking! |
Despite writing about Harald Hardrada, the King of Norway in
1066, I had no intention of visiting the country of his birth; it was all my
wife’s doing! Not that I was given reason to complain, I have been interested
in taking a cruise for a while now but I had also been thinking of warmer
climes. It was coincidence, or serendipity as my wife likes to call it, that
proved to be the deciding factor. She saw an advertisement in the local paper
announcing that the MV Azores would be sailing from our home town of the Port
of Hull to Norway in July and booked us a cabin.
It is perhaps fitting for an author of historical fiction
that the MV Azores is, according to extant records, the oldest oceangoing
passenger ship afloat. She was launched in 1946 as the Stockholm and came into
service in 1948. She is can carry 550 passengers in reasonable luxury and is
equipped with 2 restaurants, a bar, an auditorium that also doubles as a
cinema, a nightclub, a casino, a show lounge, a library
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| After the Collision in 1956 |
(where copies of my
books now reside), a boutique, fitness centre, sauna and beauty spa. The Azores
has a colourful history having sailed under the flags of Sweden, East Germany,
Panama, Italy, and currently Portugal. She has also had 9 names and will change
to her tenth, ‘Astoria’, at the end of the 2015 cruise calendar. In 1956 the
Azores, under her original name of ‘Stockholm’, collided in thick fog with the
Italian liner Andrea Doria off the coast of Nantucket. The Italian ship sank
and 5 crewmembers of the Azores were killed but greater loss of life was
averted due to the prompt response of other ships in the area. Despite
suffering severe damage the Azores assisted in the rescue and managed to sail
under her own steam to New York. The last notable event that the Azores was
involved in was while she sailed the Gulf of Aden in 2008 and was attacked by
pirates! The crew defended the ship with high-pressure water cannons and was
assisted by a US Navy P-3 Orion maritime patrol craft and she completed her
voyage unharmed.
I have to admit to feeling quite privileged to be travelling
on board such a vessel, even more so when we discovered the BBC filming the
embarkation process! There was a time when many such ships sailed from the Port
of Hull but they are few and far between these days, mostly limited to
P&O’s North Sea ferries that sail to Zeebrugge and Rotterdam. My father was
an engineer in the Merchant Navy and remembers even the cargo vessels he sailed
on being equipped with passenger cabins that were more often than not occupied
on voyages to West Africa. I think our cabin 316 on Atlantic deck was better
appointed however.
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| MV Azores at Eidfjord |
Setting sail on Friday 17th July we reached
Norwegian waters on the following day and began our exploration of Scandinavia with
a ‘technical’ stop at Ulvik. From there we began the actual cruise of the
fjords heading for Eidfjord. The landscape was breathtakingly beautiful; even
with low lying mist and light rain. At Eidfjord we went ashore and visited the
impressive Voringsfossen waterfall at the top of the Mabodalen valley.
As we sailed round to Flam (pronounced flom) we
enjoyed a reception dinner with the ship’s captain. I had practiced tying a
bowtie for prior to this event and, I believed, become quite proficient in the
art but on this inaugural dinner suit event the little bugger proved most
recalcitrant. It took a bit of swearing, sweating and numerous attempts before
I managed to subdue my bowtie and present myself with my beautiful wife, who
had not experienced any difficulties in getting ready whatsoever, for
photographs with the captain.
Visiting Flam was fun, not least because the Azores’ berth
was still occupied by an Italian liner that had been impounded by the Norwegian
police who were busy investigating a suspected murder on board! As a result we
had to be ‘tendered’ by lifeboat to shore. This was the one and only occasion
where we took part in an organised excursion ashore, the main reason being that
we were guaranteed a seat on the very popular Flam railway; Flamsbana – The
Most Beautiful Train Journey in the World as it is advertised. It did not
disappoint.
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| One of the Most Beautiful Train Journeys in the World |
The Flamsbana has a steep gradient of 1:18 or 5%, 10
stations, 20 tunnels, and a bridge. It terminates
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| The View from Vatnahalsen |
at Myrdal but today we were
going the stop immediately prior to that, a place called Vatnahalsen where we
were to have coffee and waffles. Along the way we stopped at Kjosfossen to view
the spectacular waterfall and listen to the enticing song of the huldra,
singing female trolls! Vatnahalsen was a place of contrasts. We walked around
in t-shirts enjoying warm summer sunshine and trying to avoid the attention of
mosquitos some 2662 ft. above sea level. Snow was present and not just on the
nearby mountain tops but also within reach. I was attacked with a snowball by a
huldra who looked suspiciously like my wife but fortunately she threw like a
girl and I was able to dodge the icy missile.
Flam proved to be a very entertaining place to visit, a fact
demonstrated by the large number of tourists who had to be dodged like huldra
thrown snowballs wherever you went in this small but beautiful town. However,
the cocktail of the day was waiting for us so we tendered back to the ship and
another wearisome evening of good food, good company, and surprisingly good
entertainment in the show lounge.
Our next stop was the village of Olden situated 61° north,
the closest we were to come to the Arctic circle and representing our best
chance of seeing the Aurora Borealis. Unfortunately it was overcast and rainy
so we never did get to see the Northern Lights; maybe next time? On
disembarking down the gangplank I was accosted by a young Norwegian boy trying
to sell me tickets for a sightseeing trip on a tourist land-train. Sadly my
Norwegian was as good as his English so we totally failed to talk to each
other. We did buy tickets for his train, however, and it proved an entertaining
ride simply because the English commentary was unintentionally funny what with
the narrator telling us how his teeth shiver in winter!
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| Magical Fjords |
Although Olden is not very large it is set once again in
stunning scenery, surrounded by snow-capped mountains that form the Oldedalen
valley through which the Oldeelva River flows. It is subject to severe winter
weather and has suffered several fatal avalanches. A survivor of the last one
who lost his father and brother still lives in the village.
Next came Bryggen, better known to us English as Bergen, a
beautiful former hanseatic port with friendly people and the most expensive
beer that I have ever bought! Bergen has a population of 278000 approximately,
which puts it on par with Hull, but it is frequently inflated by the presence
of pesky tourists; like ourselves for example. England has a bit of involvement
in the history of Bergen, none of it respectable unfortunately. In 1349 an
English ship called at the port and unwittingly unloaded a cargo of Black
Death; the first instance in Norway. A few years later in 1665 an English
flotilla chased a Dutch treasure fleet into the port and attacked it believing
that an agreement allowing for this action had been reached between King
Charles II and King Frederick III of Denmark-Norway, sadly the orders for the
garrison commander, Claus von Ahelfeldt, were a bit tardy in arriving and when
the English attacked he decided to help the Dutch; he must have felt a bit of a
ninny when he discovered 6 days later that he was supposed to be helping the
English? The battle did not go well for my countrymen but we never held it
against the Norwegians!
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| Beautiful Bryggen |
After a tour of the famous Bryggen and fish-market we
retired to a bar on Rosenkrantzgaten that was disappointingly decorated in
Union Jacks although mostly on the furniture. This was the hostelry where I
spent the equivalent of £40 on 2 rounds of drinks! Well it had to be done. No
one comes to Scandinavia without buying an expensive drink so that they can
brag or complain about it when they get home.
A slow walk back to the ship ensued, mostly because my wife
had not yet given up on doing some shopping. High tea on board the Azores gave
me time to rest my weary feet and another cocktail of the day helped me forget
the price of the beer. As the ship set sail for England we enjoyed a last
formal dinner and this time I won the fight with the bowtie at the first
attempt; it was my wife’s turn to suffer a sartorial struggle, but she won out
in the end.
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| Putting on the Ritz |
I have come to the conclusion that I like cruises. The MV
Azores may well prove to be an exceptional ship in that she has such a long
history and stands out against the floating hotels that are currently in vogue,
the kind of ships that just do not appeal to me. Having visited Norway do I
feel any closer to King Hardrada? No, not really. Too much time stands in
between us. The Norway of the 11th century is very different to the
Norway of my day. It is still a beautiful land and I will wear my ‘Moose of
Norway’ t-shirt with pride but this expedition was neither a fact finding
mission nor an attempt to understand a historical personage any better, it was
just for fun and we had a ship’s load of that!
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| MV Azores anchored at Bryggen |
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