Sunday 7th July 2013 +1hr BST : Heading Home On A Flat Calm North Sea

As Andrew Murray won Wimbledon as I was watching a whale and dolphins in a flat calm North Sea on a hot afternoon with a heavy sea fret and an oily, delicately rippled water surface to the sea and reflecting on yet another enjoyable and fascinating cruise.  The weather had been just wonderful for the last 15 days, my table companions had been great fun and I had enjoyed some great sights and wildlife watching.

The high points:

·      Crossing the tidal race at Bodø in the Zodiac

·      Basking in the Midnight Sun

·      Life’s little coincidences – learning about the renovated makeshift cabin to the James Caird (The boat that Ernest Shackleton sailed from Elephant Island to South Georgia) and seeing the graves of the men from the Durham Light Infantry who fought alongside the Russians to prevent the Germans extending their Eastern Front, in the cemetery at Archangel.

I hope you have enjoyed this Blog.  My next adventure will be at the end of January 2014 when I will be joining Balmoral on the two middle sectors of her Round the World Voyage from Dubai via Sri Lanka, Burma, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and Hawaii to San Diego.

So its “Goodbye” from him (Greig’s mascot troll) and its “Goodbye” from me until the next time!!  

Saturday 6th July 2013 +1hr BST Bergen, Norway: A Fishy Lunch on the Bryggen

You can’t come to Bergen and not have lunch in the famous fish market!  So after a panoramic tour of the city on the return journey from Troll Hill I made my way back into the city centre, a walk of about a mile in brilliant sunshine.

The fish market was bustling with tourists and the stool holders inviting you to sample all kinds of fresh fish including whale – the flesh was almost black but I’m reliably informed that it is very tasty.  I opted for a huge open sandwich of fresh cooked prawns and smoked salmon and a beer – all delicious!

The photo is from a previous visit back in 2010 when I took shelter in one of the fish market tents from heavy rain and ate a similar lunch and watched the local sparrows feasting on the leftovers.  Not quite as romantic as in the Galapagos Islands watching the local finches fly in and out of the open fronted hotel restaurant snatching macadamia nuts from your plate if you were not careful!  Again if you want to read more see my Round South America Blog – look under Mt Profile at the top of the Blog page.

I sauntered back along the Bryggen (Norwegian for the Wharf), which is a series of Hanseatic commercial buildings lining the eastern side of the fjord coming into Bergen and named as World Cultural Heritage sites by UNESCO in 1979.

The Bryggen is the oldest part of the city and as I explained in an earlier posting on Bergen around 1360 a Kontor (Foreign trading post)  of the Hanseatic League was established. As the town developed into an important trading centre, the wharfs were improved and the buildings of Bryggen were gradually taken over by Hanseatic merchants. The main goods traded were fish from northern Norway, and cereal from Europe.

Despite the many fires that Bergen has experienced, around a quarter of the current Bryggen buildings date back some time after 1702. Today, Bryggen houses a plethora of very expensive souvenir gift shops, and restaurants and pubs.

So ended a sunny day in Bergen, my first in three visits!!