Hurtigrute 2 Day Cruise Christmas vacation has arrived, and I'm on my way north, to Harstad. My chosen method of travel is by boat, like I don't get enough of that.
This boat arrives at Trondheim at 8 and departs at noon. It goes all the way up the coast of Norway, and I mean all the way, taking 12 days to complete a round trip. My travels will only take 2 me days.
I was impressed by the size of this thing. It was once the 'mail boat', started in the 1800s to move stuff around, it was the country's only highway. In the last 10 years or so, it's become popular with the tourists, and the Norwegians have accommodated. This ship was huge: 700 passenger capacity, 11 thousand tonnes, and 120 meters long. And decked out for cruising with 3 restaurants, 2 bars and several lounges. I was traveling in style.
I chatted with one of the staff at the reception desk who, as most do, speaks perfect English. I was after some inside info in case my parents decided to do the typical tourists thing in the summer.

me: 'Yea, that room I have seems a bit noisy... back there in 380..
     um...sometimes the bed shakes'
him: 'Ha Ha! YES! That's right over the engine, can get quite noisy!
    Especially when we need extra power to fight the wind! We had
    very much wind last night!'
me: 'Yea... that fits with my experience... where are the good rooms?'
him: 'Class J, Obstructed View on deck 6. Slightly more
     expensive then your room, but very quite!'

So I'm learning a lot about big boats here. Like they rock. Despite their size relative to any imaginable wave, sea sickness is a problem. Even I, a seasoned old salt, begins to feel a bit queasy near the end of our first leg, the part that has 'much wind'. The biggest effect the size of the boat seams to have is the frequency of the rocking. On a boat this large, it rocks very slowly. But not so slow that it's easy to walk when the boat really gets going, and we travel like this for 5 hours. Not overly pleasant. But I was warm and dry and getting seasick, and that was SO very much better then being cold and wet and getting sea sick. I was traveling in style!
The second day of the trip is much nicer. With almost no bad sea and little wind, I slept well. Until getting up at 6am to get off the boat. That was not so good. But much better then other cities to which the boat arrives to at 3am. Everyday. 3am. If you live in one of these places you have to deal with your best transportation device working at 3am. Ug. So 6 isn't so bad.
The food is good. I have 3 eateries to choose from, one is way to expensive, the other is a buffet open when I'm not hungry, and the other is a 24 hour Frozen Dinner In The Oven joint. I ate there several times, and breakfast at the buffet. I set 2 alarms to ensure I make that breakfast, and boy, is it worth it. Fired egg sandwiches! bacon! toast and jam! OJ! coffee! cereal! I eat for an entire hour. So good to taste non school food. (school food is good, mind you, but it's always the same food).
Traveling this way gives a good feel of what Norway is. A bunch of small coastal villages. The Perpetual Night is upon us up this north, and watching the islands isn't so interesting after a while, but watching the light houses is neat now that I know how they work. Always exciting is how fast the captain weaves this huge boat between so many islands so fast. I'd never dream of doing some of these stunts if I was driving. Which is, maybe, why I'm not driving... I mean we get close to some of these rocks, and we don't slow down, the boat just veers at the last second. Ah, what fun. I think I'm looking forward to this journey on our small wooden boat, we take 2 weeks up and 2 back instead of 2 days, so we get to see much more detail of the coast, and I'll get to drive around these island right, dammit. Posted by byron at December 22, 2002 11:05 AM