Norway Fjords/Sweden - Day 10 - Hurtigruten Cruise

During the cruise today there were two stops, I did not do the first one (Urke) as it was rainy, the second one was Alesund which I visited.

The night was a little disturbed but not too much. There was a call about seeing northern lights around 10 pm and I had changed to my pajamas, but I wore my jacket over it and went out, but did not see anything. Some people did see some though. 

Today is a rainy day. Thank God I have some little windows to peep out of my cabin or it will be hard to get any bearing. I think deck 1 is without windows. I am deck 2. I still feel like Jack on Titanic. But with wifi and drinking water - LOL.

The bathroom and the room itself are quite comfortable. There is ample hot water and soap etc. Cabin is designed well for two people. I ate my left over pizza bun and an oatmeal bar for breakfast. Had some mildly warm tea (made from the hot water from the tap - hehe).

Outside is raining, but the scenery is something else. If the clouds were not there, it would have been fantastic. Many islands on the way, small villages on the main land and islands. We were now going through the Hjorundfjord to get to Urke and then we will come back to Alesund. The scenery was just amazing! High mountains, lots of waterfalls, snow topped mountains, and some houses on these islands main land. I think some of these houses are not occupied, but a lot of them at electric power lines. I could see roads and some cars moving along. At one point we some some small whales jumping around....wow! It was hard to capture them on camera, but fun to watch.

Today I think I can really say that I have felt that I have seen the nature of Norway that I had pictured in my head. Although it turned out to be even more beautiful! 

The stop at Urke was at 12:00 pm for two hours but I did not get off to tour. It was raining and I did not have good shoes. I don't think its that exciting to see a small village. Came to my cabin and took a nap. Then ate my fried rice I had gotten packed. It was actually quite good even cold. Went to sit up on the 7th floor, then roamed on the 5th floor. Now we were going through the fjord again to get to Alesund. We got to admire the scenery again and I took more photos. At 4:30 there was a short presentation on Norway and the program for tomorrow. They had a really funny video on Norway! 

Had a cup of coffee and croissant ...had to. I was feeling cold and a bit hungry. Both were okay.

At 6 pm we stopped at Alesund. I was going to take a walk here since it was not raining anymore. Actually it was drizzling a bit but stopped after 10 mins or so. The cruise staff scanned our cards and gave us a map to walk around. It is a small nice town. It's amazing that it is so developed. There are looks of Bergen and modern buildings too. I walked about 15 mins to the city and came back. It was a nice walk. Not too much going on but nice buildings.  There was public transportation, and here also I saw some middle east immigrants, and of course a Thai and Chinese restaurant! It was cold though and since the ground was wet, my shoes and socks were getting a bit wet. I was definitely not ready for winter touring. I really need to buy some waterproof shoes.

Came back by 6:45 pm. We were to stop here till 8 pm as there was also an excursion going on. I spent too much time on X and Threads and YouTube today. I downloaded some podcasts also for my train journey from Trondheim to Oslo. 

At 8:15 pm the crew showed a documentary on northern lights. It gave a nice background and explanation of how they are formed and of course how and where to see them. God willing someday I will see them. I think this time it may not happen. It is a bit early for it and also cloudy.

Not much else to do so I am back in my cabin.

This Hurtigruten cruise is interesting. It is a small ship so it can go through fjords, but it can hold I think about 400 passengers. It is a transport ship also, so it stops at many ports for just 5-10 mins to drop off or pick up goods. It is very comfortable. Staff are all nice. It is expensive though. At this time there are about 300 passengers on board and most of them are above 50 years of age. It seems more like an adults only cruise. Really the major age group is 60-80. Any one who I talk to said, if not now then when? True. And that this is their dream cruise vacation and of course to see Norway. Well, I am glad I got to do it now at my young age of less than 60. There is still more to see in Norway, but I think I have done more here than most people generally do.