The Ship
The main purpose of our trip to Norway was to take the
Coastal Steamer (aka Hurtigruten ships) up the coast of Norway. The Coastal
Steamer is what you get when you cross a small cruise ship with a large ferry.
The interior of the ship looks like a normal cruise ship, but as a ferry it
stops at all coastal ports delivering or picking up passengers, cars and cargo.
Our ship was the Trollfjord. It
carried 822 passengers.
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| Pat looking at Geirangerfjord |
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| Nidaros Cathedral |
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| Coastal Steamer dwarfed by the mountains |
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| Map of Norway with port stops indicated |
The Cruise
We opted for the round trip, 12 day cruise starting at
Bergen. Although there are many routing options, this is the most popular. Our
breakfast and lunch were buffets and open seating, dinner was a fixed menu and
assigned table and time. Despite our initial fear that we would be eating
pickled herring and smoked meats at each meal, we found plenty of options at
the buffets and the Norwegian dinners were excellent. Except for daily excursions
there was minimal entertainment on the ship. The best free entertainment was
enjoying the scenery and the passing of the various towns along the way. This
entertainment was available 24 hours a day thanks to the Midnight Sun! The
docking and unloading was always interesting to watch. A forklift driver would
be rushing to unload/load the ship while absent minded passengers/bystanders
would get in his way and practically get run over. After a while you started rooting for the
forklift driver.
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