Today we have our first of the two days at sea to get back to Southampton. We have all night sailing on a nearly 180o south course and we will stay on that course until  we merge with the Traffic separation scheme near Hull on the British coast.  The arrival in the separation scheme means that we will see a lot more traffic, being the main reason that the separation scheme (A sort of motorway on the seas with the separation zone in the middle between the lanes) has been created there. More about that below.

First of all thank you to several readers for answering my question about the mysterious door at the foot of the mountains. I had never heard of “Google Lens” but it seems that if you put a photo in that system, Google looks for the meaning of it.  Impressive, but also scary in a way.   But it came up with the answer.   I will give the most extensive answer as collated by Mr. Ruud van Deventer. (Son of the late HAL captain H.L van Deventer, see biography on this website)

One of the many similar “doors” giving access to a power station carved out of the mountain.

The door is the camouflaged mountain entrance to an underground water power station of the Norwegian, state owned, energy company Statkraft.  They can be found everywhere and anywhere in the Norwegian landscape.  Hence I saw three of these doors during our train excursion.

The front door covers the entrance to a long access tunnel, leading to a Turbine and Generator Hall cut out of the mountain rock.  The front entrance is heavily protected against falling rocks, avalanches and un-authorised access. The access gate is wide and high enough to allow for heavy traffic for maintenance.

The water collected at the top  falls down in pipes into the Turbine Hall which drives the turbines that generate the electricity.  Where we rail-roaded by on the train, the mountains were on average 1.2 km high, so water going down in the pipe under the influence of gravity, gain quite a momentum before it hits the blades of the Turbines. Keeping everything inside the mountain stops the need for having ugly pipes and generator buildings dotted over the scenery.

As we still saw lots of waterfalls and other places where water was cascading un-checked over the mountain side, I do not think that Norway is going to run out of power very fast.  As a matter of fact Statkraft just announced that they are going to spend 80 billion NOK for more Wind, Sea and waterfall energy generation.So they will be digging for many years to come. I do not know how many electric car load stations they have in Norway, but it seems safe to say, that if you take your electric car to Norway you will not have much of a problem getting your car charged.  Petrol / Gas for a regular car is still about 10% dearer than in the rest of Europe, even with the current high prices, everywhere, caused by the rumblings in Iran.

One leg of the VanderBilt card room. The other leg is slightly shorter but not much.

As we had following winds, it was quite pleasant on the outside decks and many guests found a sunny space to enjoy at least one day of having a “cruise” experience while being on board. For the rest everybody was out in force, all lounges filled (at those that were open for service) and that left only 2 relatively quiet spaces on board, The Crowsnest (drinks service starting at noon time) and the Anderson cocktail lounge (2nd Cocktail making lecture starting at 13.00 hrs.).

So we have 3 major distinctive groups on board, first are the card players. This ship has a very large card room on board, the “VanderBilt” located on Deck 8 and L shaped and positioned around the Midships Lift Staircase. On port days it is a haven of  tranquility with a few people trying to complete one of the many puzzles laid out on the tables. On sea days, the place is almost completely taken over by the Bridge Players. There is a Lady on board who directs it all, with a lecture in the morning, and then the rest of the day it is full time play.  This is ideal for longer cruises when company’s like P&O and Cunard always have larger groups of Bridge Players on board.

Apart from the regular bar area, the pub also has booths in the windows and these are highly sought after and also full all day. (This photo was taken in port in the mid morning when all were ashore. The little gold looking displays in between each booth are full of small figurines that  belong to the Art Auctioneer and are for sale.

The 2nd distinctive group huddles all day in “champions”, the Pub. This Altar devoted to Bacchus opens up at 10 am. and then apart from being plied with drinks from then on, one can spend the day quizzing.  The first quiz starts here at 10 am. ,  the next one at 12.15, the next one at 14.15 hrs.,  and then all have to shift to the Masquerade Lounge for bingo at 16.15 hrs., as on sea days the Pub is too small for this. But you can be back by 17.30 for the next quiz, followed at 18.30 by the “Busker” singer/ guitarist, followed at 19.30 by the next “pre dinner” quiz, then the busker returns at 20.15 hrs. Followed at 21.30 for an “Evening at the races”, followed by the busker again at 22.30 hrs. until late into the night.  For those who do not like Horse Racing (it is played on a large monitor with real horses racing and you bet on the end before it is shown) there is the option of yet another -group- quiz in the VanderBilt cardroom.  So with 10 distinctive features, and at 1 pint an hour, you can have a very happy day. British pub life is split between those who drink Cider and those who drink Beer and it looks that this cruise the split is almost 50-50.

The “Curzon Theatre” names after an Director of P&O from the good old days. I estimate it seats about 500 and has excellent line of view everywhere.

Then there is the 3rd distinctive group who are not into quizzes but follow all the lectures. We have two lecturers on board, one is specialises in Viking History this cruise, and another one who is a bit more over the place with topics but held one today about the British “Shipping Forecast” . This is the weather forecast system for the mariners that in its 100 years of existence has never lost its importance. These lectures are held in the Curzon Theatre where also the main shows take place. It is one of the better ships theatres we have experienced, good elevation to look over the rows in front, the chairs staggered with the row before, so you can see between the heads and a fair amount of leg room to stretch out or let people pass by. I have not seen it as explicit on other ships as here, but for some reason, the end of row chairs are always first occupied. And then those people then have to get up several times to let later arrivals in. I think it is to be a able to make a quick run to the toilet, or to be first out when the show ends, I have no idea. Or maybe they like the exercise of standing up and sitting down 10x in short succession. We always try to arrive a bit early, as Lesley with her proclivity for shows, likes a center view. But we are still beaten by the “end of row huggers” on many occasions.

Deck 7, walk around deck

We have now taken up a daily walk in the afternoon. In the morning there is a large contingent out there, worrying about the weight they are putting on, but we avoid that as with so many out there, it is hard to keep a regular pace, and then there are the joggers trying to overtake. The main problem here is, is that the Promenade Deck is only wide in the center at the lifeboat embarkation stations. Then goes very narrow at the bow (3 feet / 1 meter) when curving around the “Curzon” show lounge, and is also somewhat narrow (1.4. meters) when it curves around “Carmens” show lounge. In the afternoon all this people seem to disappear and one can make the rounds at a much brisker pace. 3.2 times around the deck is a mile so it works quite well to get some steps in.

Tonight was our final formal night of the 3. We brought a separate outfit for each night so tomorrow I have to try to get it all in the 3rd suitcase we brought for this occasion. Normally I do not like to travel with 3 suitcases as it is just harder to handle three at airports but as we are with the car, it does not matter too much. And dressing up is part of the fun. The ship is doing its best to get the guests out as much as possible and gave each guest a voucher for a free glass of sparking wine, I do not know what sort of sparking wine they serve but as it is on the sweet side, so we let it go. The result was that the waiters were run of their feet in the public rooms with getting as many champagne glasses out, having them washed between sittings and then ready for 2nd sitting cocktails. This was the time this cruise that I had to wait longer than 3 minutes before a waiter popped up to take our order.

For this occasion we returned to the Crowsnest as a musical trio was playing there. I was keeping an eye on the gentleman’s formal jackets as I wear different colours for each Formal night. It was heartening to see that “Male England” is also slowly moving away from the “penguin” standard. A lot of older gentlemen will be members of the “Masonics” and still have “full penguin” attire ready for use, but there is a shift.

So tonight I clocked out of about 50 male guests in the crowsnest: 4 x white, 1 x green, 1 x grey, 1 x red velvet, 1 x kilt (of an unknown Clan as the tartan was dark grey/ lighter grey and dark brownish (?) cross stripes, it came closest to the “grey Watch, but I am not sure) 1 x  dark blue. Then a large number of black jackets, but where the owner had been splashing out on a multi coloured bow tie.  (*) And then the regular plethora of lounge suites.  And ONE T shirt. This evening the ships complement did not have time to enforce the dress code and one slipped through, or overstayed  from pre cocktail time. Most British are very good at adhering to the dress code so most T shirts and shorts were tucked away in the Lido restaurant and the Pub. (People wearing shorts indoors really seem to like quizzes……..)

(*) The shops on board sell formal attire but the peculiar thing is that although they have a considerable range of multi coloured and multi patterned bow ties,  they only have Bow tie & cumberbund in Red, White, Black and Blue. I was quite interested in some of the more extravagant bow ties but without a matching cumberbund it is not worthwhile the purchase. This concessionaire, Hardings, also has the concessions on Cunard and Fred Olsen, where the Formal collection is identical. So the hunt is still on to find a cumberbund that goes with a light golden patterned bow tie that they sell. Maybe next cruise.

Dining was another experience tonight, with a special menu designed by the world famous Chef Marco Pierre White.

The festive dinner menu for tonight. Instead of Blue, it was printed in red.

He had some fancy names dishes on the menu, but I think that it did not come out of the Galley, the way it was intended. Most likely due to the speed with which everything is being served. That does not gives much chance to attention to detail.  So again it was good, but not excellent or outstanding. And we were out again after 1h. and 17 minutes.

The trio The Knights in action.

Tonight we had the show of the 3 gentlemen that had it made it to Andelsness on time, while “Blondie”did not do so. It turned out that the group called “The Knights” referred to the “knights” of singing such as Sir Elton John, Sir Tom Jones and Sir. Rod Steward, plus a few others that had been ennobled through the years. They brought a very good show and all the guests liked it. They seemed to have come from Cunard as they named the orchestra “the Royal Court Orchestra” and that is Cunard speak.

P&O does not do turn down in the evenings (except in the suites) but there are no towel animals. Except on the first formal night when this little fellow popped up.

A wise looking “P&O” schnautzer doggie. Which is partly towel and partly added things like ears, nose and eyes.

Tomorrow is our 2nd day at sea, and we are expecting the same weather, same seas and same temperatures as today.  By the early morning we should be coming closer to the British Coast and then zipped though Dover Straits by early evening and this all at a warp speed of 16 knots.