Viking Sagas & British Isles 2023

Day 1

31st July

We are on our way. The wheels have just left Auckland runway.

Lunch was served after take off. Unfortunately Book the Cook failed and we had to choose a main from the inflight menu. This was our Appetiser. Smoked Tuna and Nicoise Salad.

For main I chose Baked Chicken Thigh With Mushroom Cream sauce.

The steward talked me into accepting the Mixed Fruit Bowl and the Cheese Plate. After lunch I used the complimentry inflight WIFI to upload theses photos.

Sunset on the first day.

Copenhagen (Denmark)

1st August

Singapore airport. On our way to the gate for our flight to Copenhagen we saw these flower plants.

Breakfast before landing.

Flightradar track of our flight as we skirt round Ukraine.

8:30am view from our hotel room.

Our hotel has been built inside an old warehouse.Our room has these original beams in it.

There were crowds of sightseers at Copenhagen's Little Mermaid. I took this photo from a distance.

Our hotel from across the water.

A couple of photos from our balcony taken in the afternoon when the weather was better.

Sea Day

3rd August

The first day of the cruise and we are at sea. We do not have far to go to our first port, Oslo, So we are travelling slowly at about 7 knots. It is strange travelling at this speed there is hardly any wake.

Not long after I took the first photo the speed increased and we had a wake. After this short burst of speed we slowed down again.

Oslo (Norway)

4th August

Oslo waterfront ferry port.

Akershus Fortress castle built around the late 1290s by King Haakon V. We are heading there to visit the Resistance Museum.

Part of the castle.

Internal castle wall. The museum is through the arch.

The Resistance Museum. Inside part of the display is about the 'Shetland Bus'. The nickname of a clandestine special operations group that made a permanent link between Shetland and Norway during WWII.

Our ship docked in Oslo.

Kristiansand (Norway)

5th August

Early morning ferry leaving Kristiansand.

Today we have an excursion on the Setesdal Vintage railway. At Grovane we waited half and hour for the train and then told it was not coming and to board the coach back to ship .

Once we were all back on board the coach. We were told that the train would be here in 10mins. We made haste and found a couple of seats on the right hand side facing forward.

I'm looking worried because Colleen was having trouble taking the picture.

A couple of views from our carriage. We were to have a steam train but for operation reasons we had a deisel car instead.

These hikers are walking along a race that was once use to carry logs when there was a forestry industry here.

A bridge carrying the race across the river.

This is the reason for the race. The dam reduced the flow on the river so the race had to be built to carry the logs.

Some photos taken along the line.

Royknes. This is the end of the line

The deisel car that pulled our train.

And the carriage we rode in.

The deisel has been moved to the front of the train ready for the return trip to Grovane.

As we passed Grovane on our way back to the ship we saw the train had beaten us there.

Looking back at Kristiansand as we sail away.

Eidfjord (Norway)

6th August

Sailing in the Hardangerfjord to Eidfjord our next port of call.

The Hardanger suspension bridge is Norway's longest suspension bridge.It crosses the Eidfjorden branch of the Hardangerfjorden. This bridge replaces a ferry service between Bruravik and Brimnes.

In Eidfjord we took this 5.3km round trip walking track to see Iron and Viking age burrial mounds.
7-9 on the map.

We started the walk along the river.

Lake Eidfjord.

Looking back down the steep path up from lake Eidfjord to the plateau where the burial mounds are.

One of the burial mounds.

The plateau just before we head back down into town.

Nieuw Statendam from a lookout on the way down.

Flam (Norway)

7th August

We are off on our Best of Flam train rides. The weather is overcast and drizzly.

Our first train journey from Flam to Myrdal is single track with a passing loop at Berekvam. We had to wait here for the train to Flam to pass.

Looking back as we make a turn.

At Kjosfossen the train stops between two tunnels so that passenger can alight and take photos of the waterfall.

Kjosfossen Waterfall.

The red shape next to the ruin is a Huldra. A mythical Forest Spirit who lures men. She is dancing to loud Norwegian Folk music. (Apologies for the quality I only had my phone camera).

At Myrdal we changed to the Oslo to Bergen train for our next journey to Voss.The train made many stops before Voss.

This Church in Voss was built between 1271 and 1277. At a hotel across the road from the church we had Norwegian food for lunch.

After lunch we boarded a coach to take us back to Flam. On the way we had a short stop at the Tvindefossen waterfall.

Next we had a 45 minute stop in Gudvangen. Due to the weather Colleen stayed on board and I whipped off for a couple of minutes to take a Photo for the record. Altogether an interesting day out but not one for exciting photos. Part of the short trip from Gudvangen to Flam was through two tunnels one 11km long and the other 5km.

Copenhagen 2 (Denmark)

9th August

After a miserable night we went to the medical centre this morning for a Covid test. We struck the jackpot. We both have Covid and were escorted back to our room by security. The view from our balcony. With this weather we probably would not have gone ashore anyway.

Before she was sold this ship used to be the Prinsendam. We did our Kiel Canal and Baltic cruise in her.

A string of turbines seen as we sail away.

Home Made Rustic Lasagne. My dinner, Colleen didn't want any dinner.