In the 1890s the Norwegian government supported the formation of a regular coastal steamship service to connect ports north of Bergen. The service, now known as Hurtigruten, and until recently as Norwegian Coastal Voyage, serves over 30 coastal towns between Bergen in the south-west and Kirkenes near the Russian border. Originally a regular ferry service for freight and passengers, it is now being adapted also to provide pleasure voyages. We (Martin Evans and Janet West) booked a round trip lasting 12 days. These notes and pictures are our purely personal comments on this voyage, made available for any of our friends who might be interested in knowing more.
The ships.
The Hurtigruten service is a daily one. As it takes 12 days to complete a round trip, a number of vessels are used. For various reasons, we chose to sail on the MS POLARLYS leaving Bergen on Thursday 7 September. This vessel suited us well. She was built in Tromsø in 1996, grt 11,341, loa 123 metres, draft 4.9 m, and fitted with stabilizers. She has 479 berths in 225 cabins, and can take 737 passengers and 45 cars in total. Her cruising speed is usually 13-14 knots, but much slower in some narrow channels. She has 6 accessible decks and is one of the medium-sized ships of the fleet. Other similar ships are the NORDNORGE, NORDKAPP, NORDLYS, RICHARD WITH and the KONG HARALD. There are evidently strong crew and passenger loyalties: several crew members stated that the POLARLYS was the best ship in the fleet, and for the next voyage after ours about 150 doctors had booked for their annual conference afloat - always on the POLARLYS.
The FINNMARKEN is a slightly larger ship, and the recently-built MIDNATSOL and TROLLFJORD are large cruise-style ships with more passenger facilities than the medium-sized ones. There are also some older, smaller, vessels in the regular fleet: VESTERÅLEN, NARVIK and LYNGEN which would appeal specially to those who like traditional working ships. The smallest, the LOFOTEN and the NORDSTJERNEN, are older ships used for limited voyages. All the older ships have been refitted relatively recently. (We met the LOFOTEN on September 14th near Havoysund - there is a photo of her in the "Images of vessels" page.)
Our experience on POLARLYS: (click for photographs) We booked a low-priced half-board round-trip package. We were allocated our cabin on check-in before embarkation at Bergen, as the package did not permit any specific cabin to be reserved. We were very pleased with ours, a 2-berth outside cabin on the starboard side of deck 3. It had a double-glazed window with curtains. There was ample storage space, including a dressing table unit. A small moveable round table and a chair were provided. A well designed cubicle held a shower, toilet and washbasin; also a hair-dryer. A cabin telephone incorporated a public announcements facility and radio, which could be turned off. The cabin lighting was good. Only liquid soap is provided, so bring you own tablets if you want real soap. Towels are changed on demand. The bed linen is primarily a duvet, but rugs are available for those who do not like duvets.
We think that the outside cabins on deck 3 cannot be bettered for value. The window gives a reasonable view. On the port side this will include the wharf areas when docked. The starboard cabins have better privacy in harbour. There are a few inside cabins on this deck and a few in the bows without view. There are 3 cabins for disabled passengers on this deck, as well as a public coin-op laundry, an open store for baggage and the general reception desk. Except in Bergen, one disembarks/re-embarks from this deck. The deck below has a few slightly cheaper cabins with round portholes, but is primarily a car deck.
Deck 4 is devoted entirely to restaurant, children's play room, bars, café, shop, nightclub/lounge-bar and a conference suite. The desk for booking shore excursions is also here. A number of cased ship models decorate various places on this deck and there are modern pieces of sculpture and decorative art. Television sets here show Norwegian programmes or CNN news. In various parts of the ship television screens show the location of the ship in relation to the land, constantly updated by g.p.s. There are several notice-boards, with weather forecasts, summaries of international news, and details of excursions. A notice- board near the excursion manageress's desk is updated each evening, with the programme for the following day and usually a town map and other information about next day's main port of call.
Deck 5 has an open walkway all the way around, and is a favourite deck for passengers to get outside for a view, a smoke, or just to be in the sunshine. The cabins on this deck have standard square windows, and most are priced slightly more than the deck 3 equivalent, but they have the open deck between them and the side, so they are liable to have passengers walking or standing in front of them much of the day, especially when approaching port or some point of interest. It is also the deck for embarkation/disembarkation at Bergen, and for access to the lifeboats in emergency.
Deck 6 has similar cabins. However, the midship ones have their views restricted or blocked by the lifeboats that are slung inboard at this level. The ones at the bows and stern have excellent views, and include some one- or two-room luxury suites with double bed, TV and refrigerator. The navigation bridge is at the bows on this deck.
Deck 7 is an observation deck, with a large panoramic lounge at the bows, an open deck area at the stern, and amidships an observation lounge, bar and small library. Above it there is another smaller deck, but not open to passengers.
On the POLARLYS there are lifts (elevators) and stairs to all decks. The decoration is modern and mostly tasteful. Motifs based on ancient Nordic rock-art are used freely and there are modern paintings and sculptures. The architectural décor in the big public rooms might seem a bit over-the-top for those with ascetic tastes. The whole ship was very clean, with a high standard of décor. The crew were invariably cheerful, helpful and friendly. Virtually all spoke English fluently and some spoke several European languages.
Our impression was that most of the passengers on this voyage were British or North American, who had booked either for a one-way trip between Bergen and Kirkenes (either northwards, or southwards) or a full Bergen-Kirkenes-Bergen round-trip. At the time we travelled, in mid-September, the age profile was mainly of retired people: my impression on checking in at the Bergen terminal at 17:00 was of a sea of white hair! Norwegians naturally made up another major fraction, and these included some who were taking a pleasure voyage while others were port-to-port travellers making traditional use of the coastal ferry (some with their cars). A number of Norwegian teenagers travelled to Tromsø, where there is an important university. Other nationalities were aboard, usually as part of an organized tour: some French passengers were on a one-way trip northbound, and an Italian group joined us on the return leg. We met several Australians at one time or another.
Meals.
We had booked a half-board voyage, so we did not take the lunch. The breakfast was buffet-style, with a very large selection to cover Scandinavian, British and general European tastes. A few North-Americans seemed to find the food unfamiliar. There was a wide range of cereals, fruit juices, yoghurt, eggs in various forms, cooked bacon or small sausages or other meat. Fresh fruit, cold sliced meat, cheese and fish suited the Scandinavians. A range of jams included good marmalade for the Brits! Sliced bread and rolls, with butter or margarine ad lib, and a toaster (which was one of the few unreliable items because someone had tried to force a bread roll into it). Good strong coffee ad lib, and hot water with teabags to make "English" or herbal tea. Skimmed and standard milk (but unfortunately no hot milk for those who like a very milky café au lait). Breakfast was available from 07:30 most days (07:00 if there was an early shore excursion) and one had to leave the restaurant by 10:00 for the staff to start getting it ready for the lunch (generally 12:00 – 14:30). We found that with plenty of time and food for breakfast, one did not really want anything significant for lunch, and half-board suited us well. Port-to-port passengers who wished to eat breakfast were charged 120 Norwegian Krone (NOK), lunch cost 275 NOK and dinner 325 NOK.
As breakfast was buffet-style, one sat at any table one liked. We met a number of very interesting people and often found ourselves chatting to them later in the voyage, even though we may not have shared a table with them again.
Dinner was slightly more formal. In the first place, one had to sit at the table that was allocated to one at the initial check-in in Bergen. There were usually two sittings, at 18:30 and 20:30. In our case, we were very lucky, as we found that all our table companions (a couple from Cumbria and a couple from Surrey) were delightful company and we had very merry dinners together, and also ashore in Bergen after the voyage. One cannot count on always having such good company! Nobody really "dressed" for dinner, though most of us changed into slightly tidier clothes and the ladies usually turned out looking very attractive. The suggestion was for "smart casual" clothing, which different people interpreted in various ways. Shirts with neckties were probably in the minority. It is possible that dress on the larger cruise-style ships is a bit more formal or stylish. Dinners were set-menu, waitress served. One had the option of ordering filtered or tap water, draught or bottled beer, or wine by the glass or bottle. The first course was often a soup, and these were delicious. The main course could be fish or meat. Roast reindeer was served once or twice, and was tender and tasty. A very nice sweet course followed. Servings were not very large, but were well cooked and attractively presented. Sometimes we were offered (and almost invariably accepted) a second helping of the main course. As there were two sittings for dinner, coffee was usually taken in the forward lounge, where there was also a bar and, on our voyage, live music provided by two musician-singers. There was no other organized entertainment.
On one evening, before we arrived at Kirkenes, a special buffet dinner was provided. This was a magnificent spread which included half-lobsters, huge prawns, steak, reindeer meat and a selection of salads and other foods.
Purchases.
As we had booked a voyage to include meals, we need not have spent anything further. However, beer, wine or any other drinks had to be paid for.
Alcoholic drinks are very heavily taxed in Norway, as in other Scandinavian countries. A 400 ml glass of draught beer (little over two-thirds of a British pint) cost 53 NOK (about 4.40 GBP). Wines were expensive: the ship restaurant prices ranged from 295 to 545 NOK per 75 cl bottle (about 25 – 45 GBP); the lower end of the scale included new-world wines that are on sale in British supermarkets in the 5 – 6 GBP range (or 4 – 5 GBP when "on offer"). Duty free drink is not available, as the ships are always within Norwegian waters. Ashore, beer and wines cost similar, or slightly dearer, amounts. Filtered bottled water, either still or gassed, was also charged for on board. One could ask for "tap water" which was not charged for. A special package was offered, in which a cabin could have one bottle of wine (selected by the chef as appropriate for that evening's meal) every dinner. The cost, which also included bottled filtered water, was 3025 NOK for the 12-day round-voyage (about 250 GBP).
Snacks are sold in the café on deck 4. Prices seem a bit high to UK passengers. For example, various styles of coffee cost 20 – 36 NOK, soft drinks are in the same range, sandwiches or filled bread rolls cost about 20 – 60 NOK, and an omelette is 88 NOK (say 7.50 GBP). These prices are in line with those ashore, and we know of people who would come aboard for a coffee, when one of these ships was in their home-town port for any time.
One can pay for these purchases with Norwegian Krone, or with a credit card, but a convenient way is to have one's bar-coded plastic boarding pass (issued at check-in) set up as a ship-board credit card. It must be backed by a valid international credit card. It can then be used for all on-board purchases, from drinks to postcards and postage stamps in the shop. One is presented with a full account the evening before disembarkation, when the total is debited from one's usual credit card account. At the time of our voyage the exchange rate was about 12 Krone to one Pound Sterling.
The cost of purchases ashore naturally will depend upon one's tastes. However, Norway has a high standard of living, and everyday costs can seem high to British visitors. As well as the alcoholic drinks, which are similarly priced ashore as aboard, we found that light meals were expensive. A group of us had an evening meal together on the day we returned to Bergen. We chose a pizza restaurant by the harbour, one of a well-known Norwegian chain of pizza outlets with standard prices. Each of us had a medium-sized pizza (well cooked and very tasty) and a large beer or soft drink. The average cost was about 250 NOK (say 20 GBP) per head, including a small tip. A one-course "Mex-Tex" meal with a 400 ml draught beer cost over 500 NOK for the two of us the following night, but the view over the harbour at sunset was worth it. A lunchtime snack at one of the university student cafés near the Maritime Museum cost 46 NOK for a generously filled bread roll and a large coffee (listed as "medium sized" – I have no idea of how huge a "large" coffee would be). The ordinary shops stocked some inexpensive clothing (probably made abroad) and consumer hardware seemed comparable in price to British shops. The surprise, to us, was the widespread distribution of luxury goods. Shops selling top European fashion clothing, perfume, watches and jewellery abounded, not only in the centre of Bergen, but even in many of the smaller ports. The flower shops are very well decorated, with a wide range of sometimes exotic plants. Hairdressers are everywhere and most towns have camera and electronic gadgets shops. When we found ourselves running out of digital camera memory in Kirkenes, we had no difficulty buying a 512 MB Fuji card at a well stocked camera shop in this small frontier town of 5000 inhabitants.
Excursions.
One sign of the shift towards leisure cruising is the adaptation of the sailing schedule to allow for shore excursions. At some ports, especially those visited during the night, the ship might only stop for 15 minutes to embark or disembark a little cargo or a few passengers. At other places the ship often stays at the wharf for a half or one hour: long enough for a quick walk ashore, especially as many of the smaller towns are just a few minutes walk from the quay. On most days, the schedule allows one longer stay, usually accompanied by an optional excursion ashore. On the northward leg we had over 3 hours ashore at Trondheim, Bodø, Tromsø, Honningsvåg and almost 3 hours at Kirkenes. The main stops on the southward return trip were shorter: typically 1 or 1½ hours.
Many round-trip passengers booked for the shore excursions. These had to be booked on board the day before, and included visits to glaciers, tours of the larger towns, or a coach trip to the North Cape or Russian border. Some passengers booked for almost every excursion. We chose instead to go ashore on foot at most daytime stops and explore the neighbourhood in a leisurely way, depending on the length of stay. The schedule allows a wide range of choice, catering for active as well as sedentary passengers.
The disembarkation and re-embarkation arrangements are very efficient. The plastic boarding card that one gets at check-in can be read by a laser scanner at the gangway head. In this way a stream of passengers can disembark without any hold-up, merely passing their cards under the scanner as they leave the ship. This records the name of each passenger who goes ashore, and again registers his or her re-embarkation before the ship leaves dock. One is requested to be back on board 5 minutes before scheduled departure, but there were many instances of passengers returning only 2 minutes before the gangway was raised. I do not know what would happen if a passenger was registered as still being ashore, and not re-boarded by sailing time. I doubt whether the ship would delay its sailing significantly unless circumstances were exceptional.
Passengers may request a visit to the navigation bridge. It must be pre-booked, at the Cruise Manager's desk on deck 4. Visits usually seem to be at 10:00 am, a day or two after booking, and last for about 20 minutes. The bridge is heavily automated, and the officer in command necessarily has to divide his attention between his duties and talking to visitors.
Comfort.
The POLARLYS is a very quiet ship. The twin 3970 Kw "Bergen" diesel engines were barely perceptible; only occasionally did one become aware that engine speed might have dropped as we approached a narrow or twisting channel. The main vibration came when the bow and stern thrusters came into action when coming alongside a wharf, and when leaving. Sometimes during the night one would wake to the noise of the side-thrusters and know that we were arriving at or leaving a brief stop.
The passenger quarters seem to have been well sound-proofed. When we were in our cabin we were scarcely ever aware of noise from other passengers. Just occasionally we might hear a nearby cabin door close. One couple commented on being able to hear their neighbours, but in their case there was a (locked) connecting door between the two cabins, and judicious use of a damp towel at the bottom of this door reduced the problem.
POLARLYS, like most of the recently-built ships, is fitted with stabilizers, but the seas were so calm for most of our voyage that they probably had little work to do. This was partly because of the good weather that we had for much of the voyage, and partly because most of the coastal ferry route is close to the mainland shore and protected from ocean swell by the many offshore islands. Cruise passengers are given an excellent booklet, that includes charts/maps of each day's route. One can see that there are islands to the west of the route more than half the time, and there are only two or three occasions when the ship is in open water for more than an hour or so. The booklet also describes each place of interest on the route, often with a brief history. There are illustrations, and maps of the larger coastal towns are very helpful.
The public areas of the ship were very comfortably equipped. We found the chairs in most of the observation areas well shaped to support the back, and many passengers could be seen fast asleep in them, with a book sliding off their lap! Temperature aboard was pleasantly warm – though due to the good weather the heating was never really made to work hard. Each cabin has its own adjustable thermostat.
The voyage.
It would be pointless to churn out endless superlatives to describe the visual experience. We provide some images taken by us on the voyage, as an indication of the spectacular scenery of the Norwegian coastline. Neither of us had previously appreciated the abundance of islands, many with high igneous mountains, that frequently passed on either side of the ship. Some parts of the route are deservedly famous. The trip from Ålesund into the Geiranger Fjord and back is unforgettable. These trips are not made after mid-September. On the southbound voyage the passage down the Raftsundet, between Stokmarkness and Svolvær, is an equally spectacular one with high rock faces on either side. If the weather permits, the ship makes a turn into the blind- ended Troll Fjord, at times seeming to pass almost within touching distance of the volcanic rock walls. The good weather that favoured our particular voyage allowed the captain occasionally to take short cuts through channels that seemed unbelievably narrow. It was a demonstration of the steepness and depth of many fjords that the ship, with a draft of nearly 5 metres, seemed sometimes to be within 10 to 20 metres of the rocks.
Bergen The voyage begins and ends in Bergen, and many passengers spend a night here before going home. It is an attractive city: clean and efficient, with a good public transport network and many shops and restaurants. The old Bryggen area, on the north side of the main Vågen harbour, is a world heritage site. The Hurtigruten company accommodates passengers at several hotels in the city, but many British passengers stay at the Strand Hotel. We were very satisfied with this arrangement, and stayed on for an extra two nights, in order to visit some museums and other attractions in the city. The Strand Hotel has a conveniently central location at the eastern end of the harbour, overlooking the daily "fish market" and near many shops, restaurants, banks and the Information Office. It is a comfortable middle-grade hotel, with 88 rooms (most with harbour views), well used to handling Hurtigruten travellers. The hotel displays many large photographs of yachts, sailing ships, and lighthouses in rough seas, mainly the work of the French maritime photographers Philip and Guillaume Plisson. The hotel has a web-site for further information: http://www.strandhotel.no
Unfortunately, the good weather that we had enjoyed for most of the voyage did not last through our stay in Bergen. There was frequent rain, sometimes with thunderstorms, and only occasional periods of sunshine during our three days there. The city does have a rather high rainfall record. As G.A. Ersland puts it: "It is not exactly true that it never stops raining in Bergen, it is more a case of never being able to tell whether it is going to rain or not. The sun might be shining as you peer out the window, but the vaults of heaven may well have opened by the time you reach the front door." (A Short History of Bergen; 2005).
Maritime museums. Bergen has over 20 museums and galleries and almost as many other buildings and places of interest.
There are two museums of particular maritime interest. The Norwegian Fisheries Museum is near the north-western entrance to the Vågen harbour, located among industrial fishing organizations. It has an impressive collection of fishing boat models, displays on fishing gear and netting methods, sprat/brisling/sild processing, cod curing (for Bacalao), whaling, and the economics of the Norwegian fishing industry. It is open daily in the summer, Sunday to Friday in winter. It was fairly quiet the day we visited, and the docent kindly gave us a detailed tour of part of it, when we asked about the development of different fishing techniques along the Norwegian coast. The museum is very well laid out, clean and tidy as one came to expect of all Norwegian institutions, and well lit except for some valuable old Russian prints showing fishing near the Sea of Azov. Some of the labelling is in English as well as Norwegian: one can only hope that dual-language labelling will be extended when time and funding permits. Web- site is http://www.fiskerimuseum.no
The Bergen Maritime Museum is located south-east of the city centre, near the University Library (where there is a convenient café). Spaciously laid out on 2 floors, it leads from the Old Norse and Viking periods up to modern times. There are very fine models of the Gokstad, Oseberg and other Viking burial ships. An anchor dated 800 AD looks remarkably similar to 18th Century anchors. The displays continue with a large range of later ship models, prints, artefacts and photographs of modern shipping, including some disturbing images from the Second World War. There are displays about polar exploration and the search for the North-West Passage, and a nice recreation of a steamship's navigation bridge, complete with radio room. As usual, everything was very well displayed and lit. The whole museum, build around a little grassed courtyard with pond and fountain, was spotlessly clean and tidy. It is open daily in the summer; in winter the hours are limited to 11:00 – 14:00, closed Saturdays. Their web-site is http://www.bsj.uib.no
We paid a short visit to the Polar Museum in Tromsø, a few minutes walk from the quay where the Hurtigruten ferries tie up. There are displays on hunting in the Arctic, especially commercial sealing and trapping. Archaeological finds from some early Arctic settlements, with an account of the struggles to survive the extreme conditions, are shown downstairs. There are special displays about the life and expeditions of Roald Amundsen, and a bit about Dr Nansen. Photographs of famous trappers such as Henry Rudi and the woman trapper Wanny Woldstad illustrate the life of trappers on Svalbad and Greenland in the first half of the twentieth century.
The ferries stop for three and a half hours at Honningsvåg, to allow for an excursion to the North Cape. There is a good North Cape museum in the little town, with material about tourism to the Cape, and about the local inshore fishing industry. There are model fishing boats, photographs, and a gaff-rigged traditional small boat from this northernmost part of Norway. There is a project to build one of the world's longest undersea tunnels (6.8 Km) to link the island with the mainland.
There is a Hurtigruten Museum in Stokmarknes, and the earlier Hurtigruten ship FINNMARKEN is being preserved ashore next to the museum, but we had problems locating the entrance, which was not well signed, and failed to gain access.
In Rørvik, the Berggården has a collection of local boats, but the ferry stops there rather late in the evening, on both the northbound and southbound voyages. The museum will open for visitors off the ferry, but lighting limitations make it impracticable to see the boats except in the long summer evenings.
These are our personal, anecdotal, comments on one particular voyage of 5050 kilometres (2727 International nautical miles) in September 2006. It was one of our most enjoyable holidays, which reflects well on the pleasant efficiency of the Hurtigruten personnel. It was, of course, enhanced by the good luck of fine weather for much of the voyage, and the companionship of particularly nice people.
The web-site for the Hurtigruten organization is:
http://www.hurtigruten.com (for the Norwegian website)
or
http:// www.hurtigruten.co.uk (for the English-language London branch)
Because the small images are actually the full images compressed by the browser to fit the table cells, each page is slow to load over a conventional modem, although the full images will then display quickly.
I work on a 1024x768 screen, but have tested the files at 800x600. The html 3.2 code seems to work OK in my current MSIE, and with a recent version of Opera, and even in old Netscape 4.7 though with some limitations. Modern browsers can be toggled to display full-screen images with the F11 function key.
This web-site is not intended to stay up for very long, so the html code is a bit rough-and-ready. There are no direct links from the photos back to the photo index page, nor to this text. So you will have to use the "Back" button of your browser to get back.
--- Martin Evans and Janet West. 2nd October 2006.