Sailing in Scandinavia

The Ship

I have to go back several days when we took an Uber from our hotel in Copenhagen to the cruise ship terminal. I’m starting to write this final chapter while we have been on board the ship for a few days already.

Although it was just a few kilometres away, it took almost 40 minutes to get there as getting just 10 blocks out of town was a challenge with all of the pedestrians traffic but mostly the number of bicycles on the road that I talked about earlier. We found out later that two large cruise ships had arrived that morning and accounted for the significant increase in people in the area around our hotel. Nonetheless, we made it to our ship with plenty of time to spare.

The on-boarding process is always an exciting time. While there’s a certain amount of waiting around, in this case as soon as we exited the Uber we were standing in front of the ship and within 20 minutes we were called and walked up those familiar steps to enter the ship for the first time. Compared to the cruise ship we went on last October, which had the sails, this ship is larger in every way but still very small in the grand scheme, just over 300 passengers.

No matter how we describe it, we are now cruise ship people.

The Cruise

As it’s now Monday, we’ve been onboard our ship for three days. While we stopped at another town in Denmark and yesterday our first destination in Norway, everyone is excited for the next few stops inside the fjords of Norway.

Monday also marks the halfway point of this Scandinavian trip.

Barb and I are getting familar with all the locations of the different facilities on the ship. There are a variety of small private spaces as well as the many locations on the ship where one can go to be with other people.

As our ship continues to head north, we have noticed that the sun is setting later and later. Last night, it was still light outside close to 11PM. I suspect that in a few days when we reach our most northern destination that the sun won’t set until after 11PM. Luckily, our cabin has thick curtains which block out the outside light so it doesn’t affect our sleep.

Today is an at-sea day so we won’t be leaving the ship until we arrive at our next destination tomorrow.

Tunnel in Arendal, Norway, leading to the lookout elevator

At just about every destination we stop at, we’re constant told how unusually warm the weather is and that rain is almost always expected this time of year in Norway. In most cases we head off once landing in a new place wearing several layers expecting it to be cooler but in every case I end up regretting wearing too much and carrying my jacket in my hand. In our last stop yesterday, I wore just a short sleeve shirt with my light jacket and walked around most of the day without the jacket. The only time I actually felt underdressed was yesterday when we took a tour to the top of a mountain at 1500m elevation.

Our cruise was a mixture of sailing in open waters and then inside calm passages within the fjords. Once in open waters as we are now the ship , it’s normal for the ship to be rocking back and forth over the waves, which takes some getting used to. Barb and I brought a supply of motion sickness patches which we have used on many other cruises but I haven’t used the patches as much, preferring to rely on Gravol which for me had fewer side effects. For both Barb and I, not using some kind of remedy for seasickness is not an option.

As I write this section, our ship is on its way to Bergen, Norway where our cruise will end. We’ll have one full day in Bergen to see the city before we disembark the day after. Yesterday we spend the day in Geiranger which had the most spectacular views of any place we’ve been to. There was one other ship in port while we were there so the small town was crowded with people.

The other ship in port had over 3000 people and it appeared that a lot of them were out exploring in the town. We’ve found that when our ship is alone in any port, which has occurred several times on this voyage, we can explore a small town and only run into a dozen other people from the under 300 people on our ship. Everyone on board who we’ve talked to has a similar view of choosing a small ship as the overriding reason for choosing this line.

Our ship at the fjords of Geiranger, Norway

I’m writing this final section in a hotel near the airport in Bergen. Barb and I disembarked the ship several hours ago and early tomorrow morning we begin our flights heading home. Our cruise was relatively short but it’s always sad leaving the ship as we’ve gotten to know many of the other passengers and several of the crew. Once the suitcases come out from under the bed as they did last night we start preparing ourselves for just a few days where we will be back home.

And finally …

This Scandinavian trip has allowed us to see a part of the world we’ve never been to before and experience some of the most stunning places and take home a lot of great memories. We’re both very much liking the small cruise ship format and see that we will continue doing cruises in various parts of the world in addition to our normal self-directed trips. We have two more cruises planned for 2026, the next one almost a year away.

But it will only be about 3 months until I’ll be writing about our next adventure, this time with one additional person. The other significant factor is that this trip in October will be my last one before I retire. I’m pretty sure I’ve made this claim before and have changed my date several times so few people believe I’ll stick to my current, planned retirement date.

By now I’ve uploaded all photos from this trip on to my photo website here.

All the best,

Baden