After a slow cruising night at sea, out of the fjord of Olden, we went back in, into the Fjord of Alesund. Although not very much inside as Alesund is located at the entrance of a fjord. Not just a fjord, but Alesund forms the entrance  to the Storjorden Fjord system, which includes the Geiranger fjord system and the Hjorund fjord. (that is the one with the steep cliffs and waterfalls).  So apart from being a port and destination in itself it is also the gateway to a lot of other destinations.  Hence there is a large pilot station just outside Alesund which provides pilots for all the (cruise) ships going in.  In the past a cruise ship would pick up the pilot at a pilot station somewhere (Bergen has a north and south pilot station and there are a lot more, like Alesund) and then keep them on board for the duration of the cruise. Through the years that became very expensive as these pilots had to be paid, as if they were working even if they were not working. So, when the ships were  docked,  the cruises were adapted so that the pilots came on for the day and then left at the end of the day. The ship would then spend the night at sea and then pick up the next pilot up the next morning. The pilots of course did not like that very much, they way too much enjoyed life on board, but their managers of course did, as they had many more pilots available for ships and did not loose any idle piloting hours.

Air photo from Alesund. This photo comes from my 2018 blog when I was there with the ms Koningsdam. The red line is the regular cruise route sailing in

This cruise the captain kept a pilot on board when travelling up the coast because of the bad weather. If the weather is too wobbly outside, the pilot cannot board and the ship cannot go in. It is very seldom that they allow a ship to sail in a few miles themselves to get into the shelter to make a lee for the pilot boat. The coast is very dangerous. I will point that out when the ship gets to Bodo. Then the option is there to get a pilot on board and keep him/her for the duration of the time when the ship is travelling in one pilotage area. That made is possible that the ms Aurora was not that much affected by the bad weather on day 2 and 3 of this cruise.

So by 0800 hrs. the ms Aurora was docked at the Alesund cruise terminal, a berth we shared with the ms Aida Nova. That ship is 180.000+ tons with 6000 guests on board so considerably larger than the ms Aurora. The most outstanding thing is that this ship has on board, is a fully operating brewery, and a Fahrrad Meister or bicycle boss as the ship carries about a 100 bicycles for tours. That gives rise to two funny observations, When I talked to the captain of another Aida ship, he explained how the brewery worked; and in the distilling process there is a critical moment, when the brew in the copper tanks has to be as motionless as possible. That gave the Brau-Meister as the only crew member on board the right to call the captain directly and ask him to slow down. change course or whatever was needed to prevent any motion.

With the Fahrrad meister is was something else, I saw this myself when in 2018 I was as Fleet Master visiting one of our ships that was docked next door in Bergen. Walking over to see how their gangway operation worked, I arrived at the moment that these 100 bikes were carried ashore. This was done by a trained crew of 10, who worked on a highly drilled system that got the 100 bikes out in 10 minutes over the gangway without hindering each other, lining them up perfectly on the dock side (60 cm. apart) and giving them a final check. When asking I found out that this routine was developed to ensure that the gangway was not blocked any longer than was absolutely necessary.  This was not just a group of crew carrying some bikes ashore, no this was a “eins, zwei, drei” drill routine, preparing for a German invasion of Bergen by bike.  I wonder if they still do this, as it was really impressive and professional to watch.

One of old Alesunds main streets. Cobbled stone and Jugend Still Houses. Courtesy of the German Emperor

 

Alesund has another German connection. Most of the town, made of wood,  burned down in January 1904. The German Emperor Wilhelm II had (as most Germans have) a deep love of the Norwegian fjords and took his yacht their often for holidays When he heard about the catastrophe  (over 10.000 people were made homeless) he sent a number of  ships full of aid. food, medicine and building materials and also specialised labour. Very quickly the whole town was rebuilt in  German Jugend Still / Art Nouveau style. As a result most of Alesund does not look like a Norwegian town at all, but a German town from around the turn of the 20th. century.  While Wilhelm II has not gone down in history as a very popular person, as he more or less started World War I, in Alesund he is very fondly remembered with a street named after him and a monument. Also when we walked into town, we saw his photo in several areas.

We decided to go ashore  in the afternoon as it was dry by then and also because we expected that most of the 6000 Germans of had returned to the ship. Alesund downtown area is not that big, so 6000 extra people make an impact.  So before we went for lunch in the Lido.  I think that the alert readers of this blog have already noticed that the food on the Aurora (and also on the other P&O ships) is not as distinctive as with other company’s.  Our visit to the Lido  at 12noon confirmed that. I am getting the impression that P&O is spending more on the entertainment which has been more than excellent so far than on  food. It is not that the food is bad, it is more the sameness and the lack of choice. The only positive thing I can say about it, it helps me from putting on too much weight. Which is a real challenge with the Lido’s of Holland America, Princess, Celebrity and to a certain extent Cunard.   No more said about it. What did amaze me, with all the British around, that there were more then enough crew members to clear tables, but here was not a single bar waiter around to sell drinks. Is there a secret that British suddenly do not enjoy a drink with lunch anymore ? Who knows.

The cruise dock is about a 10 minute walk away from the gangway, with the tour coaches, sightseeing trolleys, and local buses all lined up directly at the main bus stop just outside the Gate.  The “downtown” area of  Alesund is then right there. We first ended up in a small shopping mall which gave us the idea of the local prices; about double of the prices in an English supermarket, and then walked into the street, which there where a large number or Real Estate agents congregated. No reason to buy a house or apartment in Alesund, expensive for regular size dwellings and very expensive for the large stuff. We saw a mansion for sale, which came to £ 28 million but would have gone for about £ 5 million in the UK. But that is maybe because the UK has a lot more mansions than Norway. And then there seemed to be a lot of secondary taxes to consider as well. Let’s say you do not move here for a cheaper housing market. But then Norway is one of the richest countries in the world.

When back on board, we stepped in what I call Life On Board Surealism. We had already found out that there were officers on board who were reading my blog and up our return two gentlemen in white popped up shortly after we were back in the cabin. They were there to inquire if we were enjoying ourselves and if everything was ok. It seems that they were alerted by my remark about table cloths some days ago. So we had a good conversation and I ensured them that the Butler was doing great and the cabin stewardess was doing great as well.  As is nothing easier for a supervisor to do but to blame something on a crew member.

So I managed to get the conversation on the fact, that P&O Office (brochure, website) is very vague about what the duties of the Butler exactly were, as there is nothing on paper. The brochure even talks about an “optional butler”, whatever that is.  After I explained that other crew had spoken to me in confidence (it is amazing how fast word travels around of who you are) that one Suite Cabin on a cruise before had taken advantage of this, to the extent that other cabins were suffering (luckily the other cabins understood and banded together with the crew to make it work) a light bulb went off.

Then I said if I can ask the Butler anything, can I ask him to paint our balcony ? That got  them off the butler topic  and on to painting. And then they explained, which is the same with every  company, that there is a balcony maintenance program on board but it is very hard to get permission from the guests as they do not want have the sailors coming through the cabin. So I offered them, to do our balcony and we will be out early and work around them for the day.  Then at least they get one balcony done.That was very well received and we will now wait to see what the Staff Captain can plan.

Miss Abbie Edwards with the tribute “Adele Express” performing in the Carmen’s lounge.

Then it was time to think about cocktails. With the 3 show rooms on Deck 7, it is hard to choose where to go, but today there was a 19.15 hrs. performance by a lady who was a tribute to the singer Adele (well known from the title song “Sky-Fall” of the same named James Bond Movie). In was in the  Carmen’s lounge where there is Bar service during the show and thus we could combine both. This was an English Lady, called Abbie Edwards, who had boarded today, had never been on a cruise ship and was thrown directly into the deep. But Oh Boy, was she good. She sounded like “Adele”, could belt out the songs like Adele and even looked like Adele.  She was already booked for more P&O ships in the rest of the year, and I think P&O is on to a winner here. She was very good.

That ended just on time to make dinner. Tonight service was more relaxed again than yesterday and this time I clocked  1h. and 20 minutes.  There were Indian dishes on the menu and that made the dinner not so bland. We are dealing with an English crowd here, and the English kitchen is not known for food with a bit of a zumpf. But this way it was nice.

Then we had made sure that we made it on time to the Show Lounge (This lounge does not have Bar service, as the chairs are too close together in a cinema set-up) to see the next show. Tonight we had an Electric Harp player called Rebecca Mills.  Nice songs and she also explained how an Electric harp (called a lever harp) works. It goes a bit like a piano where you can change the length of the piano wires for the black  keys.

Mrs. Rebecca Mills in concert together with Harpo Marx.

The highlight was when she played together with Harpo Marx. Harpo was the 3rd Marx Brother who did not speak but communicated by musical instruments. She showed a recorded small Movie called “the Big Store” where he played the harp (and the cello and the violin) So she played along with him on the movie screen and it was very good, and very intriguing to watch and listen.  They do have some very good Entertainers here.

While we were in the dinning room 20.30 hrs. the captain came on the tannoy, to announce he had to go back to Alesund (we left at 18.00 hrs.) because there was a medical evacuation. So he was going back to the pilot station and do a boat transfer. As it is a slow speed run to the Lofoten (Port of Leknes) the deviation was not going to affect our arrival time. I calculated that he would be back at the pilot station around 22.30 hrs., make a lee lower the tender platform and do a quick transfer. Something must have happened as by midnight, the Aurora was just again leaving the downtown area of Alesund. I just hope the patient is ok. Hopefully there will be an announcement.

Coming back to the cabin, we found two sun glasses in the cabin for observing the eclipse of tomorrow evening. We are not inside the full eclipse band but we should see a partial one. Whether we will  see something remains to be seen, as it is expected that it will be fully overcast but hopefully I will be wrong.