Saturday, June 27, 2015
Day 2 with no shipboard Internet on Nordkapp. No
announcement has been made but this morning I heard others complaining about it
and how long it might be out. We are off at 2:30pm or so, I guess that is how
long it will be out for us. Until then, no published blog posts or photos. I’m
still writing and Clay is still photographing.
I am sure I haven’t talked about it, but it became clear
right away that Norwegians eat whale meat. I think I first saw it on a menu in Oslo.
I saw it for sale in the fish market in Bergen. It was on the hotel buffet in
Bergen. Clay claims he never noticed it. Today on Nordkapp we watched a film
about historic Tromso and it was followed by a discussion and justification for
whale hunting, and meat consumption. Minke whales were specifically mentioned.
I have no idea what kind of whale meat I have been seeing offered but if the
Norwegian tour director says Norwegians hunt and eat minke I have to believe
it. We have still seen absolutely no sea life except birds. Last night and this
morning we passed a cluster of small jumping fish and birds feeding on them but
again that was mostly birds. This morning at 4:15am a whale watching excursion
left Nordkapp. I don’t know at what port they have or will rejoin us, but we
figured wherever they are watching whales, we should be able to spot some too.
So far, no joy.
Clay got off alone at an early stop, Harstad. I was in the
shower. We both got off briefly in Finnsnes. Sadly, an ambulance came to the dock
while we were there and 2 EMTs went inside Nordkapp. They left with an elderly
woman. She looked like she had been in bed and not like she had been up and
injured. They took her and her husband off empty-handed with just the clothes
on their backs. No coats, and she was in her nightgown and bare feet! I know
when she feels better she is going to be upset about her purse and her shoes if
nothing else. We wish them the best. I am guessing she was just severely
dehydrated and IV fluids and some water will make her better. What kind of business
denies customers water?!
We checked out of our room about 10 of noon by removing our
luggage to the luggage room on deck 3 by reception.
We had our final meal at lunch. Originally that last lunch
after our noon checkout deadline was not included. The guy that took Clay’s
credit card to take our payment for the meals told Clay he needed to buy 2
dinners and 3 lunches so he did. Those meals were adequate but not worth the $43
or so per person per meal that Hurtigruten was charging and then the 25NOK for
water.
We found a new place to sit inside on deck 4 forward of the
elevator and stairs. It is a lounge between the tour desk and the conference
rooms. There is also a small quiet library there! We hadn’t seen this area
before! There were big windows and you could see out both sides (though not the
front). We had been through here the first night for the information meeting
but it was so jam packed to get in the conference room that we didn’t see
anything. We went back to the conference room this morning to watch a film
about the history of Tromso and found this great space. Tromso and Bodo
actually are spelled with o’s with slashes through them. The slashed o is
pronounced kind of like er and it means island. Who knew?
After lunch, this is where we sat. It was better than
Panorama Lounge as several people came in and commented. As we sat there, the
tour director came on the loudspeaker and told us we were in a strong current
with a name. Sorry don’t know what it was. The other thing he told us was that in
a few moments on the starboard side we would pass an island that was serving as
a research facility for musk animals. I assume he meant musk ox. Clay stayed
put with our stuff since there was a lot of traffic through there and I walked
to the other side and found a window by the hallway. As soon as I got to the
window we started to pass the island, but at the first point of land was a flat
grassy area with 3 large brown hairy lumps lying down. I assumed they were 3
muskox. The tour director came up beside me and nudged me over asking where are
the musk animals. They were almost out of sight but I pointed them out and told
him what I saw. His eyes got big and he couldn’t believe it. He told me he had
been making this announcement for years and then running over to this window to
look but he thought they’d be standing around grazing or chewing like cows and
he never looked low on the grass. I replied that cattle lie down all the time.
He guessed so but was still amazed that it was the first sighting he’d had. Of
course, next time they probably won’t be laying there!
We got off our usual 15 minutes late. We walked off pretty
quickly in the mob and right at the end of the gangway was our taxi driver with
our name on a sign. Speaking of gangways… Kudos to Hurtigruten on the automatic
gangways! They are the bomb! A single person can operate them remotely and they
just open and unfold in moments all on their own. I cannot comprehend why every
ship running who has to get passengers ashore isn’t using this technology!
The driver took our bags and walked us about 15 steps to his
taxi. He drove us about 3 minutes to the Clarion Collection With. When we
arrived there were people from Nordkapp that had been waiting to get off with
us that were walking along the waterfront in front of the hotel. We went that
way later and you could see Nordkapp maybe 100 feet down the wharf. There was another
Clarion Collection hotel between Nordkapp and the With. We think someone
screwed up when they did not order transportation in Bergen and instead ordered
it here. It was a smooth level and short walk even with luggage. The taxi was
ridiculous.
We checked right in and our room 516 was ready. We were
offered waffles at 3 to 6pm! We each had one. We were offered a complimentary
dinner from 6 to 9pm. It was equivalent and very similar to the dinners we’ve
been having on Nordkapp. They also had a bucket of ice cubes with a water
dispenser and 2 pitchers of fruit-infused iced waters. Amazing! The hotel is
conveniently located. We have no view and there are probably some rooms with
spectacular views so that is a little disappointing but it is a big comfortable
room with basically 3 meals and TV and internet and endless ice and cold water
so we both feel like we died and went to heaven. We’re happy to have the
2-night break here.
We set off after waffles. It was clear and the sun was
mostly out after a couple of cloudy and rainy days so we decided to get out and
see somethings. We got money, bought 24-hour bus passes and headed out after
checking our plan with the front desk gal. She had suggestions and we followed
them. We went to the Narvesen store and bought our 90NOK pp bus passes then
walked back downhill to the bus 26 stop to wait. The bus came only twice an
hour so that was a bit problematic since we just missed it as we were rounding the
corner from buying the passes. Bus 26 left downtown at 10 past and 40 past
during most of the day and hourly at night. So, we left and walked through the
market square and past the city hall and library and down to the waterfront to
see the Arctic Cathedral from across the fjord. We got back a few minutes
before the next bus. Per the desk girl’s advice we took the bus all the way to
the furthest point on its loop route to the Fjellheisen Cable Car. We walked up
and had the misfortune of bad timing. There were 2 tour buses already there and
as we were buying our tickets (150NOK pp) another group passed us and got in
line as their guide got behind us to pay for their tickets. We had to wait for
about 30 minutes to get up and back down again. As we were leaving the cars
were running empty or nearly so. If we had been 30 minutes later, we’d have had
a much more pleasant experience. There were 3 cruise ships in Tromso today,
plus Nordkapp for 4 hours. It is a university town and large by the region’s
standards at 70K but still 4 ships of passengers was noticeable. Per the hotel
girl’s advice, we walked down hill to the Arctic Cathedral. She said there were
signs to direct us, but that wasn’t true. Clay used his phone’s GPS and it was
further than the phone said but it was all downhill and we had just missed the
bus again so rather than sit and wait a half hour we walked in that time.
Arctic Cathedral charges 40NOK pp for entry and has no brochures about the
building. It was making noises in the breeze as we walked around it from uphill
to enter the front. No idea why because they weren’t informative and had no
literature to offer. It was an interesting and stark building. We walked to the
closest bus stop we had seen an inbound bus stop at as we were walking downhill.
It was the bus 28 stop and it ran at 01 past and 31 past. We had about 7
minutes to wait for the 01 past bus. We got back to the hotel in time to hear the
Nordkapp blowing her 5 minutes to departure horn and then her departure toots.
I told Clay I would have been afraid to do what we had done in the 4 hours
Nordkapp had scheduled, but clearly it was doable as we had checked into a
hotel and eaten waffles and killed 30 minutes wandering town first. So, I guess
that is something good to know.
Clay has been drinking Mack beer onboard Nordkapp. It is
brewed here in Tromso, or was. There tagline is the world’s northernmost brewery
and it was until they moved it south of here and another brewery opened in
Greenland. They have kept the tagline even so. They still have a pub at the old
brewery facility and they offer tours. Clay had known he wanted to go and we
checked after getting back and sure enough they were closed on Sunday. That
meant that after our complimentary chicken buffet dinner that we walked about
20 minutes away to get Clay a $15 beer! So after all of our bitching about the
high prices on Hurtigruten he was paying 74NOK for a 0.4 liter beer onboard and
at the brewery’s pub he paid 155NOK for 0.5 of a different beer. It was a lot
better, but he says none of it was worth what he paid for it. It was
extravagant. The t-shirt was a deal!
It is past our bedtime again, though it is not after
midnight tonight!
We have our sights on a bunch of museums tomorrow.
