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Ocean Liner History and Stories from the Sea, Past and Present. With an In Depth focus on Holland America Line

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2026 August 18; At sea sailing towards Southampton, England.

August 19, 2026 / / 3 Comments

An Electronic chart overview of our whole voyage. These screen shots come from the Navigation channel which has kept me up to date the whole cruise, Although not as good as the real thing, it is good enough to get a good overview.

Today is our 2nd sea day. We have now left the Norwegian Sea behind and have entered the North Sea. By 08.30  the ship joined the Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS) off the port of Hull and we will remain sailing in these “highways” at sea until we arrive at the Southampton Pilot Station. Even when sailing through the Straits of Dover, we will be in the Traffic separation zones.  The English channel was one of the first area’s where a TSS was implemented as it is one of the busiest channels in the world. It is and also one of the most chaotic ones, as apart from the North – South  traffic and vice versa, there is also the cross channel traffic, the fishermen and a lot of coastal traffic that stays away from the TSS, but can still come very close.

Entering the TSS on the English side near  Hull.

When looking at the more detailed chart, it looks like it has contracted a bout of measles. The purple lines are Traffic  Separation Schemes, with one on the English side (dark purple). then one in the middle which is especially for the deep drafted tankers,  some of them with a draft so deep that they would run aground if sailing in one of the others. And then there is the 3rd one, which follows the Dutch Coast and is primarily meant to keep the traffic to the Dutch, German and Baltic ports away from the rest of the North Sea.  The blue dimples are depth marks , with water depths less than the standard chart reference which is normally 10 meters.  Most of the time these bumps are wrecks of ships, airplanes  and materials dumped during a long forgotten past. It is not advised to drop the anchor here as it might hit something and blow itself up. Or when retrieving an anchor having a complete 2nd world war lorry hanging on one of the flukes. (That happened to me once, when I was ordered to anchor off the Thames pilot station). Then the sea bed is full of purple wriggly lines, which are communication cables, anchor chains from oil rigs and pipe lines often inter connected between oil wells, still in use, but where the oil rig above water has already been removed.

This 3rd screen shot is what the navigator will have on his screen. Here we see the Aurora approaching the TSS with the intention to join. The Rules say, that when you are going to join a TSS, you should approach it under the smallest possible angle. So that other ships are not confused about your intentions and the Rules of the Road are simple to apply. When crossing, it should be done under a 90o angle or as close as possible to it.

The routes of the TSS, and there where the TSS turns direction are normally marked by a buoy. All ships now have Electronic Charts which come up on the radar screen, so the radar picture (that picks up most of the traffic) shows these buoys on the screen but a secondary confirmation of your position, by looking out of the window is always handy. Last week one of the Saga cruise ships reported that Russia had disturbed their GPS satellite signal so much that they could not enter their scheduled port and had to go to another one. Most ships do not have plan alternative B anymore = paper charts= and rely on a plan B which consists out of an Electronic back up with independent power of the same equipment. When you have such an electronic back up system, paper charts are not required anymore. That is fine during a black out , but not when Putin starts playing around.  If there is an (up-to-date) paper chart on board, then you could resurrect old time navigation again by looking out of the window and taking bearings of land marks and even buoys if necessary.  During the Koeweiti war when Allied forces removed Saddam from power, the President of the United States almost decided to stop the GPS system (which is a USA system) as the Iraqi tanks all had GPS as well for their desert navigation. However when it was realised that the Allied Forces would have been up the creek as well, using the same system, the plan was abandoned.   The Russians have their own GLONASS system and Europe is working on their own Galilei system. All to bring redundancy and to stop one world power from flipping the Big Black Switch.

I did not need GPS to find meyway around the ship today but it would be nice to have a gadget to help with packing. Apart from 4 bottles of Gin (savings, over £100,–) we have not bought very much but for some reason it is always harder to get the clothes back into the suitcase, than you put them in at home. I wonder if there is somewhere a professor out there who has a developed after much testing (packing suitcases) a convincing theory for this.  Without GPS we walked the ship as it is always interesting to see what the guests get up to on the last day. The pub “champions” was well filled with lonely men, most likely turfed out of the cabin by the good wives who were packing.  The Curzon theatre was full for the two lectures, one about the big freeze of 1947 and one about how Viking and Nautical Words have seeped into the English Language.  Most interesting was the shops, who were doing a roaring trade. Since the invention of “On Board Credit”, the shops in general have seen an upswing in sales on the last sea day, compared to the times before.

The Sindhu lunch menu. We found it money well spent.

We had booked lunch in the Sindhu, the Indian restaurant which is also the breakfast place for the suites. We had done a dinner years and years ago on the ms Arcadia of P&O. We had looked at the menu and it did not seemed to have changed very much. But as we were still interested we decided to go for lunch. That costs £ 11.90 a person and brings three courses.  They serve Kingfisher beer, the 650 cc Premium version, so I was directly in heaven.

The ms Arcadia is the 5th. Vista class ship that was pushed over when building, by Carnival from the “Holland America Brand” to the “P&O Brand”. At the ship yard the hull was much modified and then Holland America incorporated those changes in the ms Eurodam and ms Nieuw Amsterdam, being the Signature Class.

Traditional Goan Beef Vindaloo dish. Simple in setup but extremely tasty.

The space of serving, although the food still comes very fast out of the kitchen, is somewhat slower than in the dining rooms and also the waiters have the time for a little chat.  The taste was excellent but they had tuned down the “heat” somewhat as there will be many guests visiting who are not familiar with the dishes. The average British person is very familiar with ordering an Indian Take-away, but the restaurants have little “red pepper” markings next to the the dish, but otherwise they tend to play it safe. so my “Beef Vindaloo” was not as hot as I was expecting it to be, but if the spices are right, it will taste very good, and indeed it did.

And then there was the rest of the afternoon, my struggling to get 3 suitcases packed with aim of getting them packed in the same way as they came to the ship. Should make it easier to get everything back in the correct ward robe when we get home.   We received our “landing papers” and that gave some confusion again as it did not state that we could have Breakfast in our suite restaurant, the Sindhu, only that we could wait there 30 minutes before disembarking (08.10). However our butler confirmed that breakfast would be served. Why not just list all the venues? At 5 pm. the Cruise Director came into the cabin via the P.A over ride to explain the disembarkation process and also forgot to mention that the Lido was open for Breakfast and not only the dining room.

Accumulated pop-up cards in the cabin. It took me two days to realize what was different to this cabin compared to others. It was the number of pop- up notification cards everywhere. No fixed signs, no stickers.  Bathrobes for use, hours forward / back. Flushing the toilet. Don’t take the Bose speaker home and also not the Handwash bottle in the toilet. We later also go a hard copy bill statement, instead on an electronic copy mailed to our Email account,

On other company’s many of these cards have been replaced by fixed signs so the amount of paper used is reduced. P&O, at least on the Aurora has not gotten there yet. Also as the T.V system is very antiquated.  (There is no TV movie library either only 2 streaming channels with movies, but they are not in synch with the TV program and they often do not run on time)  BUT: the captain announced that P&O will start investing in the Aurora so it will be ready for the next 10 years. And that is good news. This is a very nice ship, and excellent for longer cruises. so an update of the T.V system, a spruce up of the public areas (I hope they do not decide on a complete revamp, as that takes some of the ambiance of the public rooms away) would all do the ship very good.

And finally now I have to reveal the real reason  why we are on board.

  • We were asked by Gemma, Lesley’s Chiropodist to take a cruise on the ms Aurora to meet her favourite Cruise Director who had promised her an Aurora-teddy bear.  How could we refuse, any excuse to make a cruise, is a good excuse. Hello Gemma, we have the bear , we are going home tomorrow and you will your teddy bear at your next appointment.

Gemma’s Teddy Bear.

After final cocktails in the Crowsnest and dinner in the dining room it was also time to go to and see the final show. Another performance by the ships cast, the Headliners called “Applause”. This time a compilation of the best known and most successful songs from Broadway and West End musicals.

The Headliners in “Applause”.

This was another very good show and they received a standing ovation at the end. This was their most  high powered & fast costume changing show of all, so quite rightly most of the audience stood up. (Some were beyond getting up, due to age) Maybe also partly as there only had been regular applause during the previous shows.  This is cruise number 5 this year and although the cast of the ms Sky Princess was very good as well, this was the best we have seen this year. The number of shows they can do (eight of them) and also the quality and high octane performance of the group was extraordinary. COMPLIMENTS,

Tomorrow morning the ship will at the Southampton pilot station at 03.00 hrs. and should be docked by 05.30. Then self disembark will start at 06.30 followed by us at 08.30 hrs. If all goes well, we should be home around 17.00 hrs. tomorrow.

As is normal routine, then the day after tomorrow my final blog will be posted: Review and Verdict with the total overview of the cruise.

Weather for tomorrow: Overcast with 22oC, so it should be good driving weather.

.

2026 August 17; At sea sailing towards Southampton, England.

August 18, 2026 / / 2 Comments

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.

 

2026 August 16; Andalsness, Norway.

August 17, 2026 / / 7 Comments

It is about 40 NM. to sail into Romsdahl fjord via Isfjord. The ship docked at Tinderkaia and from there everything is close by for the tourist. To the lower left you can see the red (course) line out of Alesund. So the ports are not that far apart, there are just these high mountains in the way.

The ship is working its way slowly southbound again and today we are in Andalsness, As we are now used to, it rained again on arrival, and it did not change very much during the day. Rain off and on. Luckily there was no wind so it was chilly but not as cold as it could have been.  The ships dock is located where the old ferry dock used to be and the new ferry dock still is close by. Because of the old ferry connection, the train station is right across from the dock. With the train you are connected to the national rail network of Norway and travelling to Olso from here takes about 6 hrs. including one transfer. First with the regional Rauma Line, which we will partially travel this afternoon with the ships tour, then change at the end of that line (Dombas station) and then it is one other train ride to Oslo with several stops including Lillehammer, well known from the Winter Olympics fame of some years ago. A beautiful ride through the Norwegian landscape and often more reliable than the flights from the little local airport.

Andalsness. Overpowering the dock side is the Norwegian mountaineering centre with a sort of rock wall inside. To the left is the “Gondola Hus”  from where the Romsdal cable car leaves.  Just visible behind it  is the “Golden Train”, called so because the carriages are looking -gold-shiny on the outside. This is the tour train up the mountain. The Red roofed building is the regular Bus and Train station. The small town itself is further to the right.

The ship suffered from that rain and cloud as a new entertainer act was supposed to join today. A tribute act to “Blondi”, but her plane got delayed from England and once on Norwegian soil, the connecting flight to Andalsness was cancelled. So no “Blondi” show  this cruise but another “Westend” act, The Knights of Music” made it to the ship and we will find out in the coming two sea days what they will have to offer.

From the Gondola Hus a cable car (approx. 20+ people in each cabin) goes up to the top of Romdalseggen. From here you can have breath taking views of the area. Today it was mainly looking at Norwegian clouds more than anything else.

 

 

The rain did not stop our Guests, grown up with and trained in the English weather, and thus feeling right at home. As it was Sunday, the town was closed except for the Train & Bus station (with souvenir shop) and one (large) stand alone souvenir shop at the edge of the main street.  Thus most guests were on one tour or the other; up to the top of the mountain with the Gondola, or with the Golden train up the mountain, or with the bus for a 3 hours journey to the troll road (with a lot of 180o twists and turns) and the Troll-Wall, which is the highest cliff -mountain-face in Europe. Because it was Sunday, the Customs Officer who was supposed to come to the ship in the afternoon, to refund VAT charges (The UK is out of the EU) did not come and thus guests who had bought things and had VAT receipts did not get their money back.

A corner of the Medina restaurant with Moroccan tiles and tapestry on the wall.

We decided to mentally prepare ourselves for our afternoon invasion into Norway by catching up on emails with the on board wifi connection. We had bought a one device for the 12 days. you can still use it for another device, you just log on and it throws the last user off. It is very fast, unless a 1000 go on line at the same time, which happens occasionally around 1700 hrs. This time we took advantage of the “fast serving” of the dining room service by going to the open seating in the Medina Restaurant for a quick lunch. As expected it was very quick and thus we could easily make our excursion with the train on time.

The Golden Train at the Bjorli train station. This train station is 575 meters above sea level so the locomotive has quite a pull to get it all up the mountain.  The Diesel locomotive also changes position here. There are toilets (with long lines as nobody wanted to go on the train, being afraid of missing a highlight like a troll running by) but no Station Buffet,  just a pop up. – see below.

The ship had blocked 2 carriages with the other 2 also being also full but with independent travellers. Although the train carriages are new, their outside tries to make it look like a throw back to the days of Pullman carriages but the inside has a regular train layout. So if you are sitting forward facing up the mountain, then you are back facing when going down the mountain.  The only thing that changes location is the diesel train which at the end of our scenic trip “up” moved around to pull us “down” again. This happens at a train station called Bjorli, which is where the tour turns around The regular train service stops here (there are a lot of small (ski) resorts around here) and then continues to the end of the line.

The diesel locomotive changing location at Bjorli. While all railroads in Norway have been electrified, the Rauma line has not although there is more than enough electric power available in the area. The tour guide was a little vague about the why but I think that at certain locations it is just too difficult to get the supporting pylons in place. There is also a regular train travelling on these tracks, connecting Andalsness with the rest of Norway, and is also a Diesel train.

When boarding you receive a “Golden Ticket” in exchange for you tour voucher and then it is a scramble to find a seat as only 2 people can sit at the window. Through out the trip, there is a running commentary but as the narrator is sitting somewhere away from the passengers, he has never been able to update his story with questions asked by the passengers. He narrates all the main stuff, but you cannot ask a detailed question about something he does not explain. See the end of this blog.

Our “Golden Ticket”. I just felt like Charlie and the Chocolate factory when I got mine. But it is a nice souvenir.. The tour which lasts 3 hours, cost about £100,– a person. You can try and book your own, cheaper (about £65,–) but today the train was fully booked. So you would have had to do it way in advance.

The first part of the  journey up the mountain goes  by the Trollstigen, the steepest  cliff – mountain- face in Europe and the train comes quite close it, making it not so easy to take a photo. Plus today there were a lot of interfering Norwegian Clouds around and that made it even more challenging.

I lifted this photo from the Golden train website (thank you) www.thegoldentrain.com, to show what the journey is all about. This is still in the lower part of the valley, where the incline is still quite small. But it shows the Trollstigen cliff wall.

The below photo was my feeble attempt, hampered by the height of the mountain cliff is it is anywhere between 1000 to 1700 meters, so hard to get done from a train. Also the Norwegian rain clouds were not helping. The tunnel at the foot of the wall is for the regular road which also runs through the valley of the river. Apart from Norwegian cars it was mainly Dutch cars coming by,

This is this cliff wall “Trollvegfen”(it runs for quite a distance, see the photo above).

The train follows first the valley of the Rauma River and works its way up the mountain which means it crosses the river bed and then goes through a tunnel, making an 180o loop to keep the elevation of the track reasonable while going 570 meters uphill.

The valley is quite wide and thus full of small farms busy with harvesting during the short Norwegian Summer. This is a shot taken about halfway up the mountain. We saw cows and sheep but to our amazement no ducks in the clear water ponds on the sides of the river. Maybe the water is too cold for any food to grow in.

The biggest danger of living in the valley is the constant threat of avalanches. The mountains are constantly moving and thus eventually rocks come loose.  Last year they had a big one, with a large rock slide of 1.2 km.. from the top of the mountain all the way down the valley reaching river level. It made the train journeys inoperable for a quite awhile.  A house near the train line was spared as the avalanche stayed about 10 feet clear of it. Some people are lucky,

Avalanche path, left over from last year. The horizontal line in the landscape is the Rauma train line and the vertical slit under it, is a newly installed drain works to deal with the water that now comes down the newly created bare rock face path..

We made it without any mishap to the top of the mountain ridge at the station of Bjorli where we had 20 minutes to stretch our legs, visit the toilets and inspect the small museum attached to the station. This museum describes the 1940 derring- do of the Norwegian Army when they managed to get 50 tons of gold just in time out of the Norwegian Central bank in Oslo. It was taken by truck and this train to Andalsness and from there by ship to Gr. Britain; and from there to the USA. By the time they had loaded the last gold on the trucks, the German Army was marching into Oslo, hurrying to the Central Bank.

A re-creation of the way the soldiers guarded the gold while waiting for the train. Simply by sleeping on top of it. Must have been an interesting experience of sleeping in a bedroom worth billions.

My interest went more to the “station buffet” set up outside the train. All the train stations along the route are unmanned (Bookings go by an app on the phone) and thus there is no exsurberant waiting room with refreshment in Biedermeyer style or Jugendstill from the days that the stations were built.  So the train people had a “pop-up” buffet set up. And they sold a lot of coffee (40 NOK a cup)  for those who felt the need to drink coffee on top of the mountain.

The world famous Bjorli train station “pop up buffet” buffet. And being served by somebody in a train uniform.

In the mean time the diesel locomotive went to the other side, now becoming the head of the train, to pull us down the mountain again. So after getting the last guest out of the toilet, we left after 20 minutes. As we now knew what to expect it was a lot easier to be ready for taking a good photo and the Train driver also slowed down twice to make it even easier. (Slowing down while going down hill, is a lot easier than doing it going up hill).

Withso much rain and snow around, there are waterfalls everywhere, including this spectacular one cascading more than 1000 meter down hill.

So we made it back by 15.45 hrs. and were advised to visit the local souvenir shop where you could buy train souvenirs (baseball cap, handbag, and some other trinkets) and who does not listen to the Tour guide ?  The rest of the shop sold exactly the same stuff as the other souvenir shops we visited along the way. Troll, Troll, Troll. The only one I had not seen yet was a fridge magnet with a troll on a motor bike.

The cast show in the smaller venue of “Carmen’s which brings it closer to a cabaret performance.

Back on board it was time to upload yesterdays blog and to get ready  for cocktails. The Headliners were performing again in Carmen’s, and here they have drink service, so we could combine cocktails with some more culture. Tonight’s show was “Top of the Billboards”. Which turned out to be a musical journey of some of the highest scoring songs in the hit-parades. Again a great show. We have not finished the cruise yet, but if this high level quality of performance continues, then this will be the first time that we have not seen a Cast show, in a series of shows, that did not have a dip. Compliments.

Cocktail pianist Paul Cassidy, performing in Charlie’s. The doors into the cocktail venue “Andersons” are wide open, so the music also reaches in there. Same goes for the venue’s around the Atrium.

We had our second dinner in “The Beach House” but as we had to move it from last night, as it conflicted with the Captain’s “Repeater Party”, we had the same menu again. It changes here on a 3 day cycle, so we lucked out. But there was enough variation to still have a very good meal.  I also have to correct myself about my comment, why were we not offered, coffee or tea last time; it says on the menu “please ask for our coffee’s and tea’s”. Why you have to ask, I do not know but it is not volunteered. On the way down I finally managed to get a picture of our so far elusive cocktail pianist.

When arriving back in the cabin, I saw us passing Alesund pilot station again. Andelness has (or had) its own pilot station, so what was the ms Aurora doing here? Pilot or another Medivac? I do not know. Maybe we will get an announcement tomorrow navigational update. During the Captain’s repeater party, I asked one of the nurses about the patient that was disembarked in Alesund some days ago, and he reported that the person was doing fine. .

Tomorrow we have a sea day. Weather should be a lot better than today, maybe even with some sun and as we will have following winds i might be even warm enough to sit outside. As soon as the ship is clear of Alesund it will be  a straight line down from Norway, until about coming abeam of the town of HULL in England and then veer slightly towards the British Coast to follow the shipping lanes to Dover Channel.

I am posting below photo as nobody could tell me what this is for, a door in the bottom of the mountain. I saw at least 3 of them during the train ride. It does not look like that it has anything to do with Electricity generation and our Tour guide did not mention it. So my guess is a: storing equipment for keeping the roads open in the winter or b: military depots as with the terrain it is not easy to get military equipment from A to B.  Anybody any ideas ??

A mysterious door in the bottom of the hill. What secrets could it hide ?

2026 August 15; Trondheim, Norway.

August 16, 2026 / / 3 Comments

Today we are in Trondheim which lays about 40 miles inland, when counting the steamer distance from the pilot station, but it is a fairly open fjord called “Trondheim fjord” so  it does not feel as if we sailed between the high cliffs of a real fjord. The rain remained with us and only lifted briefly in the late morning. It seemed that the “Trundles” (this is what they call themselves in this province) had decided to make the best of it and had descended in great numbers on the local indoor pool located across from the cruise dock. It it called Pir Badet, which translates into something like Bath of pool at the pier. When I was here in the past one of my officers translated it into Dutch as “piere badje”. which is Dutch for very small pool. But it is not a small pool at all, it is a very big one. At the ship side, there are at least 4 wading pools and behind there is at least one 50 meter pool for regular swimming within the lines.

After evaluating the weather and the fact that we have been here so many times we decided to stay on board. We would have gone ashore if it has been dry as the town is quite nice, although similar to all the other Norwegian towns we have visited.  It is comparable to Olso and Bergen but then on a much smaller scale. This city was the first capital of Norway and it kept its importance through the ages. Founded sometime in the 11th. century it has a cathedral and an archbishop’s palace which is now a museum. And there is a music museum as well. It is Norway’s National Music museum with a collections of over 2000 musical instruments from all over the world. 2000 is a lot, but I hope they are still collecting, as there must be more than 2000 out there.

The Pir Badet at Trondheim,this is the only port in my experience of sailing to, where a cruise ships docks opposite a public swimming pool.

Being a larger place, means that there are a lot of tours available. Of course there is the Big Red Bus, always my favourite if you visit a place for the first time. Then walking tours, kayaking tours and many tours into the country. There is even something called an “Arctic Floating Tour”. Here they put you in a cold water survival suit, same as we have on the ships, and you float in the cold arctic water “enjoying a tranquil floating experience”. They offer you a cup of hot coffee afterwards, so it might not be so tranquil, but cold instead.

The ship was docked starboard side along side and we were facing the fjord side. Trondheim fjord is not a narrow fjord. Hence the wide open water. Not on the photo the yacht was too far away, was the Norwegian Royal Yacht “Norge”. There are only 3 countries left in Europe that have a Royal Yacht. Having one in Norway does make sense as it is much easier for the King to get around and into his country with all these fjords and small and remote villages located so far inland.

We were not the only ones how gave Trondheim a miss, the Horizon (Lido) was full  all morning and there was still a  line with people queuing for a hot breakfast past the closing time of 11.00 hrs.  Exe. Chefs that I sailed with always told me that there was a correlation between the amount of hot food consumed and the outside temperature. So in Alaska more “sunny side up” eggs were consumed than when in the Caribbean. Same went for coffee. If that also goes for a P&O ship then today the guests made a good dent in the egg stock on board.

” Seaside Escape”, by Suzanne Marazzi.

As a follow up to yesterday’s Paintings in the Staircase display, here is one of a few hanging in the Atrium section around the Shops. I could not find out very much about this painter, except that she was born in 1971  and thus I also could not find out why the painting is called a Seaside Escape. It looks more like “Contemplating Cocktails”, but then I am not an art expert.

The Raffles Cafe, on a photo taken from the other side of the Atrium. The above painting is hanging in the top left corner.

This painting is hanging in the Atrium opposite the shops but also at the entrance to “Raffles Bar” and lounge. Although all cabins have coffee and tea facilities (A well raised English person cannot face the day without having a cup of tea first) but a lot of guests still like to go out for a morning coffee with free cakes. It is a similar lounge as The “Grand Dutch Cafe” with Holland America or the “Carinthia” Lounge with Cunard. P&O serves “Costa Coffee” in  its lounges and it must be good as the lounge is packed all day.

The Peninsular Club Party invite. We are going up in the world.

For the evening we had another lounge to go to. We returned to Carmen’s Lounge as we were invited to the “Peninsular Club Party”, as we are proud members of the lowest Tier in the P&O repeater club. You need 15 days to get an invite and we have about 40 days, courtesy of trying all the P&O ships from Southampton (except the very big new ones). We were even on the maiden voyage of the ms Britannia which was a most “interesting” experience. So we wanted to go and see how P&O did such a party. We had heard that for this cruise the numbers were not so very high, with many guests being on their first cruise, but they will no doubt catch up in the future.

We both got a nice invite with the promise that we would be entered into a Raffle if we handed our invite in. So our expectations grew considerably. What would the Raffle be, a free cruise, a dinner for two in a Speciality Restaurant? The mind boggled at the options.

With said paper in hand we arrived at 19.50 hrs. at the entrance of the lounge (we have now learned to show up 5 minutes late at each venue after opening time so we do not have to deal with the British love for queuing and indeed the line was gone. We said hello to the captain, had a very short chat about mutual friends working for Cunard, had our picture taken (we still have to figure out how that works for buying) and then sat down to watch the proceedings.

Captain, loyalty team and longest sailing cruise guests on the dance floor for the obligatory photo. Hopefully the cruise couple with get a free copy.

After an introduction from the Loyalty Manager, the captain conducted a sort of One Man show, engaging the audience in a very good way. As mentioned before, he has excellent mic. handling skills and has a very open and gregarious personality.   I used to do the same in a more Reserved way (I am not good in telling jokes, I am better in telling stories, hence the lecturing that I do)  as I also believe that those who pay your salary are entitled to some TLC from the Master of the vessel. But I always felt that the Holland America Line Entertainment was not universally happy with this  because you stick out above the average and that makes your ship stand out.

I hope that P&O let their captains “soar” if they want to, as a captain with a bit of flair for presentation is an asset to the ship. The couple with the highest number of sailing days (2000+) came forward to receive………………. a bottle of champagne. Come on P&O can you not do a little better here. 2000 days x a per diem of £150 a day = £ 300,000 +  so you already made a lot of money from them. So a bottle of champers is a bit cheap……..

Then came the raffle, won by a couple having a cabin somewhere near the dungeons and that was also a bottle of the same champagne. For the raffle, a bottle is not bad, but somebody who has 2000+ days, should then get something better. What amazed me, and what I had not expected from my fellow British guests, was that there were several who took double the free drinks offered. Drank one glass at the party and then took the next one down to the  dining room. The mind boggles……………

If you want to you can make the “Grand Entry” in this dining room by descending down the stairs from deck 7 to deck 6. For those who are not that good in descending any more, there is a door on the side on Deck 6, so you can come down with the lifts to an even level.

The Alexandria Dining room is located under the Carmen’s show lounge. Arriving again 5 minutes after opening time, and yes the queue of eager eaters had just dissipated, we saw when walking in was that half the tables were empty at the least in the forward half of the dining room. That made the service at our table even faster than usual and within 1 hrs. and 10 minutes were were out again.

The banner for the cast show “Unbelievable”.

Then it was up to the show. We had the “Headliners Cast” again, this time with a show called “Unbelievable”. This was a combination of a regular sing and dance show interspersed with the cast doing magical acts. It turned to be very interesting. You do not have to be a David Copperfield or a Houdini to present a good magical trick. The cast members were very good at it as well.  Cast member cut in half, cast member levitating, one cast member going in a cage and six coming out.  etc. etc.

The moment the dancing girls popped out of the box after one of the singers had disappeared into it.

We have now found out that this cast has 8 shows in their repertoire and as a result they doing one every other night. Quite impressive, so we have 5 in the Main Show Lounge and at least 2 more in the smaller Carmen’s show lounge. I am very impressed. I sailed most of my life with American cast and for them it was already stressful to have 4 shows on their list, let alone to do 2 smaller ones as well. But British cast are totally different and do not seem to be phased at all by some more work.  But as this group was selected out of over 1500 applicants when doing their auditions so they cannot be bad, even if they tried to. Compliments once again. Tomorrow they will be in the Carmen’s and we will be there……….

This came on the screen. As you can see most of the audience had already ran away, before I could get this shot. Maybe those who stayed were as flabbergasted as I was.

Every main entertainer / head liner, we had had so far, was allowed to plug their own C.D’s or Music stick (sales table outside the shops)  and I was amazed that P&O would let them. Tonight I found out why. The company does it itself as well. To my utter amazement at the end of the show, a large photo popped up on screen urging the guests to buy the “Exclusive” Unbelievable P&O Magic set. Including a link to U-tube that explains exactly how each trick goes and how to do the trick.   So now I am waiting to see the Head Waiter coming on the stage to plug the Cocktail of the Day, or somebody from the shops, advising that they still have some bottles of Duty Free left……………….  The possibilities are limit less.

Tomorrow we are in Andalsnes. This town has seen cruise ships since the late 19th. century when steam powered ships started making cruises to the “Nordland”. If you see a photo of a ship of the Hamburg America Linie or from Holland America Line in a fjord, then there is a fair chance it was laying at anchor in Andalsnes. It is fairly deep into  “Isfjorden” at the edge of Romsdalsfjord. This sailing in & out goes by steep Fjord walls and that has attracted attention since a very long time. We are having a train tour tomorrow afternoon as this tour is one of the very few her ladyship has not done in her long career.  I certainly have not done it as Andalsness has always been a port where I did boat drills, as the boats are normally in the lee of the ship and thus out of the wind. So I would not be amazed if the captain does the same.

Weather tomorrow: Overcast with rain showers with a chance of dry spells. Temperatures between 8 and 12 ocC or 46o and 54oF. Chilly but not cold as there is not much wind expected.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2026 August 14; At sea off the coast of Norway.

August 15, 2026 / / 2 Comments

Today we had a sea day,  because as explained yesterday the distance is just too far to do it overnight and then put another port in. This morning, just after sunrise, I woke up to a familiar sound, the fog horn. Why did it even wake me up ? Even in retirement any changes to a ships environment when cruising still wakes me up. So a fog horn, change in rolling or pitching, the A.C stopping, abrupt course changes etc.etc. I wake up briefly.  Once I have identified the change in shipboard rhythm, I go happily back to sleep again as somebody else gets paid to sort it out. The captain used the foghorn in the Radar Mast which was really nice, as we are close to the funnel and that would have brought the sound directly into our cabin.

A section of the Indian Restaurant “Sindhu”. Intimate and very nice in its double function as Suite Cabin Breakfast lounge.

With a day at sea, there is an upswing in activities in the ship and that means a discussion of what we want to do. We had already decided to go to the Sindhu again for breakfast as today, the sailors were coming at 09.00 hrs. to paint the balcony.  So we enjoyed another nice and relaxed breakfast while contemplating today’s program.  Back in the cabin two sailors had arrived on the balcony. The housekeeping supervisor was there and started to apologise (again) for the inconvenience of the balcony and about  the butler service (again).  Now I was getting irritated as there is nothing wrong with the butler service, Mr Anoop is doing a great job. It just comes back to the fact that I was/am  trying to find out the exact job description of a P&O butler. Also I was the one who volunteered for the balcony painting so that at least one suite cabin was done this cruise, I did not complain, I offered the opportunity.  But I think the supervisor still does not get it and he can also not give me a list of what a Butler exactly is supposed to do according to P&O.

The painting was done in  3 hrs. but unfortunately it turned into a bit of a rush job as they just painted over the rust, without first applying primer. (I had expected that they would have asked if they could do it in 2 steps)  So the balcony is now mostly white again, except on the metal welds, which are still rusty, but what else can I do? I offered my help did my best but it is up to ships management to make the most of the opportunity given.

Painting in progress.

So after breakfast her ladyship and I split up. She went to listen to the captain’s interview with the Cruise Director and I continued on my photo round, to document all the lounges and the artwork.

Captain Karl Shepherd and Cruise Director James during the 45 minute Q&A. Lesley reported that it was one of the best ones she had ever heard. Very cleverly the Cruise Director (28 years with P&O) had collected through the years the best questions asked by the Guests and asked those first before opening the floor to direct guest questions. That gave the captain also the option to have well formulated, concise and clear answers ready. And that gave a very good result. I myself had some toe cringing interviews to deal with, with CD’s who did not prepare themselves. In a few cases I just went over to a 45 minute monologue that would also cover the questions. But Lesley was impressed and that is high praise indeed as she did them herself when Hostess.

So I went the cultural way. The ship has 3 main staircases and an Atrium (with the shops and pursers office) located directly before the 2nd staircase. I like to document this sort of minor (?) art work on all the ships, as hardly any guests look at it, and even company’s do not always retain documentation from it, when the ship is sold or scrapped. So each ship we sail on I walk all the staircases and take a photo of each piece of art on each landing.

Staircase one has paintings mainly by: https://portalpainters.co.uk/artist/lizzie-riches/

They are mainly made up of light and bright coloured paintings, with an emphasis on people and nature. This was an English Lady (passed away in 2008) who got her inspiration from nature and the people around her.

This painting is called “Motley is the only wear”, based on a quote from Shakespeare “As you Like it” Act 2, Scene 7, line 30.

Staircase two, which is the main staircase,  has paintings mainly by: https://www.nicholashelyhutchinson.com/

This painter is a gentleman living in Dorset who gets his direct inspiration from house scenes, nature and the environment around him. Although a different style of painting the lightness of the paintings are not much different to staircase one.

Bella Vista Hotel in Macau, to the left and Raffles Hotel in Singapore.

Staircase three has paintings mainly by: https://www.askart.com/bio/Jeanette_Lassen/11210017/Jeanette_Lassen

“Tea at the Ritz Carlton”, by Jeanette Lassen

Jeanette Lassen, also passed away in 2008, but used similar light colours in her paintings and similar subjects. So that gives 3 staircases with 3 different artists and topics but all executed with a similar result.

There are some more paintings from artists around the atrium, but the above are the big contributors.

Three champagne bottles in display cases are still there.

Another, small, public room that I have not mentioned very much is “Charlies” and open space outside “Andersons the cocktail lounge. At given times the Resident Pianist plays here and the music then wafts into the Anderson lounge, through the atrium and through the shops. It took me a moment to figure out what this place was originally meant for until I saw three large champagne bottles in three display cases  and a small bar/shelf display table.   It was most probably originally a Champagne Bar and obviously it did not work. Nothing to hold the ship responsible for, this is shore management not knowing their clientele and engaging in wishful thinking.

The same happened on Holland America when the S & R class got “The Mix” with a combined Champagne Bar, Cocktail Bar and Sports Bar. The last 2 worked very well, the first one did not. The guests were simply not interested or willing to pay the prices. So that bar turned very quickly into a shelf with advertisements for upcoming cocktail sessions, discount offers and sommelier lessons.  Not only HAL, the same goes for Cunard. We have now worked our way through all the Queens ships in all sort grades of cabins and we only saw the champagne bar (and they have very nice round ones) busy on a formal night / sea days. Even with Cunard having a slightly more well heeled clientele.

So “Charlies” is now a cocktail area and music location and that works very well as it is always full during cocktails. (But then all venues are always full during  cocktail hours)

Speaking about cocktails, with three main lounges and a cocktail lounge (Anderson) and Charlie’s, and The Pub and the Crowsnest, there are not enough bands and other players to go around. So they rotate to a certain extent. The Pub has a resident “busker” who is there each evening but the other lounges share. Either the piano player, the Trio (Kool Blue) or the house band (Pulse), they move from lounge to lounge. So last night the trio Kool Blue played in the Crowsnest, so we headed there, as we had not  heard them yet.   Nice music but as they are regular players and not an act as such, they just play music. No interaction with the public and no space for requests. Luckily as long as we have interaction with a cocktail and my beer glass, we do not care.

Another look at the most popular drinking venue (at least measured over the whole day) The on board pub Champions.

Dinner in the main dining room again and today it took 1 hr. and 15 minutes to get through the 3 courses and tea and coffee. So not as fast as the first day but still not exactly at a pace that you equate with fine dining. But the food is not bad, it just misses the “wow” factor, which is hard to achieve if you see the speed with which it comes out of the Galley.

The show this evening was a comedian and I am not a lover of these shows. Not that I do not like  a good laugh but often they go for audience participation and I hate that.  As it is not a late night show, I do not expect that the show was “dirty” or full of cussing but I simply do not enjoy it. So we called it an early night, with the hope that tomorrow in Trondheim it will be dry and we can walk ashore. It is not a thrilling port, more or less similar to the other ports, only a bit bigger. Main focus point is, when you dock, is the communal swimming pool “Pir Badett” opposite the dock.

Weather: Rain on arrival, rain on departure and hopefully dry weather in between. Temperatures around 13oC / 57oF again. So it is shaping up as not a great cruise, weather wise, but at least all 1800 of us are not in the sweltering heat at home.

 

 

 

 

2026, August 13, Leknes, Lofoten Norway.

August 14, 2026 / / 2 Comments

This morning the good ship ms Aurora arrived at 07.00 hrs. at the anchorage of the metropolis Leknes, the main town in the Lofoten.  With our cabin we are right above the tenders so we were woken up by the familiar sound of the tenders being lowered.  This ship has  “telescopic” davits, which means that the davits with the lifeboats and tenders hanging in them, are pushed out by hydraulic pressure, in a system connected to large storage cylinders above the lifeboats.

The pumped out Lifeboat davits after having lowered the tenders. Please do not blame the ship for the rust on top. It is impossible to keep the top of the davits clean. When in storage position, sea water constantly forms puddles here from sea spray or just salt in the air. So if you paint on Monday, the rust is back on Wednesday, and any salt getting under the paint makes it flake off again instantly.

There are in the industry three basic sort of ways of lowering lifeboats. Option one is gravity davits. You lift the brake on the davits and the davit arms roll down the tracks and the lifeboat swings out over the side of the ship.  Option two is what we have here, the davits are pushed out by hydraulic arms.  Then option three is where the davits are pushed out of their cradle by a hydraulic or pneumatic ram until it is past the gravity point. (Basically lifting the cradle up to the point where the lifeboat can fall down by its own weight / gravity).  But this ship has the telescopic version, which are great for boat drill (and emergencies) as they do not have additional wiring such as tracing pendants to bring the boat alongside the embarkation deck. With this system you lower the boat and then pull the telescopic davits back in again a little bit, until the boat is tight against the embarkation deck. The negative part is that the system is very maintenance intense and very hard to keep nice. (See the rust on top of the davit arms) So every sailor prefers the regular Gravity davits, they always work as long as there is gravity, as the maintenance is so much easier as you can get at everything. But Gravity davits require a slightly different build of the ship and that normally means losing public room space, and that is a battle the safety guru’s normally loose from the bean counters.

 

One of the Apartment of the Seas, showing the overhanging lifeboats.

With the very big “Apartments of the Seas” that whole problem is solved as the lifeboats are hanging permanently outside the ship and the boat crews only have to release the brake and the boat goes straight down. The Captain just has to be very careful in bad weather and has to slow the ship down in head seas so it does not pitch too much with the bow slamming into the waves and damaging the lifeboats. (Especially those most forward and most aft)

This ship has two Platforms (pontoons in P&O speak) and you walk straight onto them as the staircase from the embarkation deck is inside. As there is a staircase and then the step into the tender and then the step ashore, Carnival UK (Cunard and P&O) have you do the “tender step test”. When you walk down towards the tender there is a mat with a white marked square and you have step over that square. If you cannot do that, then you have to be assessed if you can still go ashore.

The tender pontoons with 2 tenders alongside. Very nice tenders with an upper level if needed.

That stops all strollers, rollators and wheelchairs going, and infirm people. A disability is not directly a problem, as long as you can enter the tender un-aided. Some people have wheel chairs and scooters because they cannot walk long distances and that is fine as well as long as you can still do the step and have somebody with you who can carry the wheel chair and or other contraption to be used ashore.  You can do this under British / European law but not in the USA under the ADA act. There the ship has to do everything possible to facilitate going ashore. Thus the ships have lifts to the platforms or can rig up a special wheel chair lift platform to go down the stairs. That can solve the ship side challenge, but of course not the shore side challenge.  Hence you often see crew on these ships “manhandling” wheel chair people in order to still try to comply with the ADA act. I love this Carnival UK system, as it prevents a lot of back problems with the ships crew who still try to help.

breakfast part I

Breakfast part II

We went for breakfast first to the Sindhu Indian restaurant. So far we had used our good butler Mr. Anoop for cabin breakfast but as we were going ashore anyway we got up somewhat earlier  and when to the Sindhu as they service breakfast for the suites only.

And that was a very pleasant experience. Gracious unhurried service with a nice menu and plenty of time to enjoy it.  There are 14 suites on board who have this perk, including the Duplex suite with its internal curved staircase and a grand piano. Everybody comes in at a different time, so the 2 ladies and 2 gents serving staff are never un-duly hurried. It is all over seen by a manager who has clocked up 31 years at sea but now plans to retire at the end of the year.  We will be back tomorrow as the balcony painters are coming early, so we will get up somewhat earlier again. I gave the Deck floor manager (Housekeeping supervisor) that option as with the suites being always full there is seldom the chance of getting them maintained; and at the same time the Suites normally complain the most and the loudest. Lesley and I have no problems with paint smell, we dealt with it for 40 years, so it is a nice way from one sailor to another to help to get at least one balcony done.

The scenery while driving towards Leknes. It looks like that the town (that is not the one in the background) is set in a wide estuary with low lands, swamps and small lakes, surrounded by mountain ridges of various heights.

Then it was time to explore the Metropolis of Leknes. Tender tickets were in full swing, but Suites have priority passes so we could just follow the flow to the tender platform. And I have never seen soo many officers and crew involved in the operation. I came to a total of 21 while outgoing.  It made for a very smooth operation, good service and a good flow but a HAL  Human Resources Director would have had a heart attack about the crew costs.  There were 4 tenders in operation as I yesterday predicted and that meant that also when coming back, there was not much of a waiting time. Ashore there were local shuttle busses to cover the 3.9 km. distance to town. Some guests walked, but you had to walk along the edge of the main road, and I do not know how gentle “Lofoten drivers are”, so not my idea of a safe walk. The shuttle bus stop was at the petrol station / local bus stop, and the bus driver announced : to the left is the main shopping street, to the right the shopping mall  and that’s it, please enjoy yourselves. It was good that he said so as we did not directly recognise these two centres  of commerce, the whole place is very laid back. so laid back, that the tourist map you can pick at the tender pier, lists the Car hire place “Rent -a-Wreck” as a place of local interest.

The main street of Leknes. With apartment buildings, small shops, bars and bakeries along the road. The large supermarkets and clothing shops are in the main shopping mall at the far end.

So like all guests, not on tour, we walked this main street from top to bottom and  then from the bottom to top again; nosed in the various shops and then inspected the shopping mall. (House hold articles are very expensive, as apart from Norwegian prices, there is the extra challenge to get it all here.

One site of this large shop with all you can dream of for knitting, crocheting, embroidering and other needle work. Walls and walls of cases with balls of wool (Clews in old English) all around the shop. At the other side of this lane was a large lay-out of the latest Sewing Machines models (Husquarna) for sale which now also have embraced the digital age with a push screen menu on the front.

Having been born in a small and densely populated country, and even now in England where large cities (Norwich) are not far away, I always wondered what people do on these islands when marooned here during the long polar winter and when blocked in by heaps of snow on the road.  Well the answer seems to be hobbies, at home and if possible during or skiing to the  Village Hall (a brand new one it looked like) which looked as having an awful of lot of activities going. I do not know what the men do for hobbies, but the Ladies must be big time in knitting and embroidery as we visited what was by far the largest shop for that stuff I have ever seen.

Norway is blessed with a 5G mobile system, everywhere you go (even in the smallest nooks of a fjord) and  Leknes is no different and that worked as I had to call Holland as I have an unusual thing going. A man, who I consider the most knowledgeable of all HAL historians that have ever walked the earth (even if museum people think otherwise)  has recently passed away at the age of 89. Mr. Laurens van der Laan worked for Holland America in Rotterdam and later in New York and after his retirement spend for 20 years most of his free time in the HAL archives. These are maintained by the City Archives of Rotterdam. He managed to re-locate lots of lost papers (put in the wrong folders) and was even involved in opening up the HAL archive of WWII but due to lack of museum funds that has not yet been completed. I considered him my mentor as he constantly guided me where to find things that were not clearly described in the catalogues or were not described at all.  I am indebted greatly to him, to get to the level of knowledge that I now have. That was not that well known, as he preferred to work in the background, but I credit him with correcting a lot of mistakes in the general HAL history. Mistakes that crept in over the years, when researchers and arm chair historians copied each others work without much verification.  He had not made real arrangements for his personal archive (2 bedrooms full of bookcases) and the family is on a time line as his rental apartment has to be returned to the Housing Cooperation by next week. While I am still here on board. So I am paying for a storage locker to put it all in until I have time to slowly go through it all, so nothing gets lost for future generations.  Then most of it can be donated to the right museum or research institute. A volunteer from the Holland America Retiree Society is keeping an eye on the proper transfer and then we can sort it out without time pressure and without the danger of losing something important for future generations. So I had to call to guarantee my financial support.

In the morning, the tender operations leader kept announcing how many people were already ashore. By the time we went, there were already over 1100 shore side out of the 1800 on board. Coming back there were no waiting lines, so were they still ashore or not? Because we came back on board, the “Champions” Pub was full and so was the Lido – Horizon Restaurant. Where did they all came from. Unless the remainder of those on board thought: “This is the moment that we can take over all the public rooms and did so”.

The main area of “The Glass House”. As it not a regular restaurant, but a Tapas place, it looks more like a homely sitting room.

For the evening dinner we had decided to go to “The Glass House” on deck 8. This is a speciality restaurant but without a cover charge. You pay for each course instead as it is based on the Tapas way of serving. So you pay as you go along with your choices.  Also you cannot prebook here. You go to the “Horizon” portal on the mobile phone (it is not an app that you keep open for the daily program) and go in the virtual queue to see if there is space. That queue opens when the restaurant manager opens his laptop/terminal just before opening time and as long as you then keep your portal open you remain in the queue and you then get a ping on the phone when there is an opening. Then you have to be there within the next15 minutes. So if you want to go the dinner later, you join “the queue” later on, if there is a queue of course.  We went early to make the 20.15 hrs. show.

The Tapas menu for starters or for nibbles only the whole evening. The name “Jose Tapas” comes from the Celebrity Chef who designed it, Jose Pizarro.  Olly Wine from Olly Smith a well known somellier and wine expert. The craft beer is also named after him.

The way it works, is after ordering drinks, you order individual things from the starter menu, then go to the main menu (so it still looks like a regular dinner) or just stay with more starters/ Tapas. This restaurant has an very elaborate wine menu, including my favourite White Wine, the Austrian Veltliner. However they also had a special Craft Beer, Jolly Olly, which is only served here as it is part of the dedicated menu. Veltliner I have at home so the Jolly Olly took precedence and it was a nice and smooth IPA which went very well with the Tapas.

So we had some Tapas and then tried the main menu where I as intrigued by a dish called “Sliders” consisting of 3 small hamburgers with three different meats. Her ladyship went the fish way and that was also very good. The set-up is a bit ambigious; it is not really a Tapas place and it is not really a normal restaurant but it works. Some guests treated it as a normal restaurant but some had figured it out already and were just having a drink with a nibble on the seats at the entrance.

The Cast show of this evening. The New Romantics. Which again included a large number of fast costume changes. They must have a really big costume storage space somewhere in the back there.

Then off to the show which was another performance of the cast company , The Headliners Theatre Company with tonight’s feature “New Romantics”.  Not being a music person, it took me a while to figure out what that title New Romantics stood for, but it turned out that it featured songs from the 1980’s if it included a description of being in love, loving somebody or being just out of love. Thus it included a performance by one of the Ladies belting out two Bonnie Tyler songs. And if you can “belt that out” well, then you are an accomplished artist. And so was the rest of the group. Again a fabulous show.

And then I had to run to get yesterday’s blog uploaded. It officially goes out at midnight GMT. but lately it goes earlier and I have not idea why.

Tomorrow we are at sea. Slowly sailing back south to our next port of call Trondheim. This is one of those situations that the distance is just too far to cover it one night  and really to close to loose a day at sea over it. But we are having a day at sea and I think most Guests prefer it that way. So we are going with a speed of about 10 knots or so. Tomorrow there will be overcast skies again and temperatures around 13oC / 55/57oF and fairly smooth seas.

 

 

2026 August 12, At Sea sailing towards Leknes, Lofoten.

August 13, 2026 / / 2 Comments

Today we had a quiet day at sea. The wind came down to a force 3 and the seas although still confused (swell and waves from various directions) also got less and less.  While the good ship ms Aurora sped almost due north with a warp speed of 13 knots. The captain made an announcement advising that the Medivac had taken longer as expected as at the last minute there was no suitable local boat available to transfer the patient and thus he had decided to go back to the dock and do the transfer over the gangway. He did not advise if the patient was doing well, or not, so we are all keeping our fingers crossed.

The whole ship is buzzing about the eclipse, we all got sunglasses last night in the cabin and today’s lectures were about planets, stars and related. We have found the old lectures on the TV in the mean time, it took a while for them to get posted but when flipping through all the programs on the TV we found them this morning. It is not advertised in the TV program for the cabin but later on we also found a note on the display outside the Show lounge, the Curzon theatre. That gave the chance to look at a lecture giving at the beginning of the cruise about the Vikings.  Their  voyages around Western Europe, to Iceland, Greenland, Nova Scotia and also their presence in what is now Russia. Tsar Ivan the Terrible was from Viking stock.

What I did not know that their influence even stretched into modern computer days.  What we now know as Blue Tooth, was taken from a Viking name. Harald BlueTooth. The symbol for a Blue tooth connection are the two first letters of his name in Rune, put together……………….. so that was my cultural contribution to the blog for this cruise.

The well known photo wall from days gone by. Now only in use for Stock photos (5 for £ 50,–) Ordering is done at the other side by means of 2 kiosk consoles (similar as in use at  MacDonalds

I have posted photos of most of the public rooms on board but there are a few more. The photo shop, which harks back to the old days with a wall of printed photos, although that is now only in use for stock photos. 2 digital displays have been installed and with typing in your cabin number your photos come up. There no medallion as with Princess that activates when you get close, so I assume that the photographer notes your cabin number when taking a picture so you can type in your cabin number. We are not completely sure as we have not seen any photographer since we came on board. The other night, there was one in the dining room, coming closer and closer towards our table, and then something went wrong with the camera and the photographer disappeared, never to be seen again.

The Art Gallery on Board. Located in a corridor so you cannot miss it.

Another concessionaire outlet on board is the Art Center. Here on board, same as with Cunard, we have Clarendon Fine Art.  Contrary to what is the norm on the American based ships who have Park West from Miami, Clarendon works less with an auction formula but much more in direct retailing. So the art on display has prices for direct purchase. And some very nice paintings and statues as well. Buy them and you can directly walk off the ship with them. How that works with customs, I do not know, as everything over £ 139,– needs to be declared as import. But guests were buying so it must work.

We are in the cabin

We are out of the cabin

A gadget I really like and apart from Cunard I have not seen any other company doing it, is magnetic door signs. One sign with 2 sides. The advantage is that it does not blow off the door handle when compared to the paper versions that most ships still  have. Especially if they are printed differently on each side. Pick one up from the deck and you do not know which side was on display. Here somebody has to forcefully peel the sing off and then turn the sign around. On Cunard I saw a few children doing  that but the ms Aurora is an adult only ship, so it does not have that problem. Taking about Adult Only cruises on P&O. They have two adult only ships, the Aurora and the Arcadia. However lately they have been designating some cruises as Adult Only and some not, so you have to be careful when booking otherwise you end up on a cruise you might not like.

The Golden Cockerel

With an explanation for the historically less inclined.

Another unusual thing on board is that the Aurora is the holder of the “Golden Cockerel”. This is the internal Blue Riband of P&O Lines and Cruises and dates back into the grey mists of time, when the company had regular liner services to the Far East and Down Under. Then the ships tried to stay on schedule and also tried to improve their schedule. I do not know how far this tradition goes back, but I know that the trophy was given to the ss Oriana of 1960, and then went to the ss Canberra.

 

As the Aurora has a service speed of 24 knots and has sailed with a maximum sustained speed of 25.4 knots she is the fastest ship in the Fleet. 25 knots is already quite high but on trials she reached 29 knots. Hence she got the Golden Cockerel which is now displayed in a corner of the  foyer/square near Guest Services.

One of  my loyal readers asked what, to me, is the difference is between sailing in Alaska and sailing in the Fjords. Let’s start with the similarities. Both areas have a lot of green trees and land, and grey rock mountains. Both areas you can only get into when under pilotage. Both areas have indignous peoples. Indian Tribes in Alaska, Viking descendants in the Fjords.  Both areas are not a great place to be in, in the winter with (horizontal) rain, snow and storms. Both areas have  good viewings of the Aurora Borealis. (The best one I ever saw was in Juneau with purple “wheels” flashing over Mount Roberts.

“Pulpit” Rock in Norway. You can park a ship almost at the bottom of the face (other side of the photo) and look straight up.

The difference is mostly in the height of the mountains and how close they come to the waters edge and very often they are still very steep.  In the Norwegian fjords, (Geirangerfjord, Sondefjord) you can sail within touching distance (*) of the fjord wall and still have 300 feet of water under the keel or more. In Alaska the mountains are more curved and they curve upwards further away from the water. Hence there are normally wide beaches with low foliage near the water line (Great for Bear watching). Even in Grenville Passage and Johnson Return channel which are the narrowest passages in B.C. Inside Passage the mountain faces are not rising straight out of the water. What comes closest is maybe Seymour Narrows, where you go through “the hole” at Maud Island. That is steep near the water line but not very high.

The 750 meter gap in Seymour Narrows. Not so high but still impressive as the gap is quite narrow.

As a result I do not have a real preference. You can get with the ship close to a glacier, in Alaska, to see calving and a lot of  wildlife, but in Norway you can sit under a rock wall and have to put your head in your neck to see the top.  For sailing there is not much difference as the pilots are required to do all the work. For the guests the good thing this, that all of the Norwegian fjords have  5 & 4G phone coverage everywhere, which in Alaska you have to be close to a town.

A Hurtigruten Cruise ship going through a tight opening. Where is the Broomstick ????

(*) A little anecdote told to me by a Norwegian pilot when I went into the Fjords with the Veendam in 2007. A lot of the pilots employed come from the coastal Mail boats, the Hurtigruten and they sailed almost without supervision through the fjords on their watches as it was daily routine. Not as we have on the cruise ships where either the Captain or the Staff Captain is on the bridge when sailing inside. So through the years (this goes back a long, long time) they devised a game  called “broom stick sailing”. Each ship  had a standard length broomstick on the bridge wing. When coming close to a cliff rock in a fjord, the flat bristle bit was pushed against the bridge wing rim so that the stick part was sticking out. Most likely 5 feet or so. The idea was that you then sailed that close that the broom stick-stick hit the cliff rock but not the ship. This pilot claimed that this went on for a long , long time, until AIS was fitted on the ships and the people in the office could see where the ships were at all times.  I did not directly believe it but the harbour master in Bergen confirmed that this was indeed happening and it did not always work well.

Guests on board have the chance to sign up for a visit behind the scenes, as you now can do on nearly every company. You have to pay for it but here with P&O the price is a reasonable £ 85,– for the whole tour; as there are company’s out there who now charge $ 179,–

 

The Classical Duo, the Meridians, Flute and Piano.

Lesley went to see an interview with the whole cast, on the stage in the show lounge, while I took the chance to take photos of the art in the 3 staircases. There is a pattern to the consistent style of paintings hanging on the wall and I will come back about that later. Then we re-united in The Playhouse to listen to the 2nd recital of this cruise by “The Meridian Duette” with Dream Like music by Debussy, Faure, Albeniz and De Falla. The set was called Moonlight & Fire to warm the guests up for the Solar Eclipse. And they were very good again. There was even a classical piece influenced by  Scott Joplin (The Entertainer) I never knew that there was “cross -contamination” also from the light arts to the serious stuff.  The Playhouse/Movie Theatre was packed again, and I expect that when the 3rd recital is coming it will be standing room only.

A very clever way of looking at the eclipse without  having to look into the sun. Just use a reverse pair of binoculars. (Photo courtesy Ruud van Deventer, son of old HAL captain H.L van Deventer)

That warmed us up for the Solar Eclipse, but there was n’t one, at least not on board the ms Aurora. Had it been perfect sunny weather where we were, we would have seen a 1/3 eclipse or so but it was completely overcast. People in middle Europe and Spain had a perfect and even good friends of mine in Holland, far north from the centre of the eclipse could observe at least a very good partial curve. But how hard the guests standing on the outside decks did wish for it, The skies remained overcast. Luckily there are plenty bars on board to get over the disappointment.

The stage setting for the show “Up all night” which center’s around people falling in love and getting engaged in a pub. I could not get a photo of the cast performing as there was that nasty announcement again of “no recording”.

It was 2nd formal night this evening, we have 3 this cruise, and we were able to combine cocktails again with a show in Carmen’s. This time a small Cast Show. It was the full cast complement but on a dance floor about half the floor size of the show lounge.  This was a show set in a Pub having the good English name of the “Cat and Fiddle”. It was very good, we are now becoming used to the very high standards on this ship where entertainment is concerned, but they could have named this the “musical chair show” as I have never see a cast moving soo many chairs, soo many times as part of the show routine.

Tomorrow we are in Leknes, capital of the Lofoten Islands. We are too big to dock in downtown so the ship has to anchor and use the ships tenders. With an official arrival time of 08.00 hrs. I expect that the ship will be at anchor around 07.00 hrs. to lower the 4 tenders and set up the platforms.  The distance from the anchorage to the shore is a 4 tender distance as we sailors call it (one ashore, one at the gangway and 2 sailing opposite) and that should give a smooth operation. As we are in a suite, we have priority tickets so we do not need to get a tender ticket in the lounge.  We are getting up somewhat earlier tomorrow as we want to try the Suite Breakfast in the Sindhu Restaurant. We have not done that yet, as it closes either at 0900 hrs. or 09.30 hrs. and then we are only just waking up. So we will make the effort; one has to experience everything, at least once in a lifetime………….. If it is good, we will do it again.

Weather tomorrow, looks mainly overcast, dry and with a chance of sun breaking through. Temperatures  around 13oC / 53oF and a gentle breeze blowing. England will be facing another blistering hot day, so it looks like that we choose the right period to go away.

 

2026 Feb. 18, Day 07 Barcelona Day 1, Spain.

February 22, 2026 / / 1 Comment

This morning we docked in Barcelona and were assigned Berth B, while the Costa Tuscani was at Berth D. Between 2010 and 2020 Barcelona heavily invested in new and state of the art cruise terminals which  now run from A to H  and then there are still the 3 small (old) ones at the World Trade Center. Unfortunately the mood in Barcelona has turned against the very large influx of cruise visitors and now there is the plan to demolish 2 of them again.

Cruise terminals in Barcalona

How that will work with nbr. H, I do not know as that one seems to have been built with MSC investments so their very big ships can dock there.  I do somewhat understand the concern of the Barcelonan’s as with all 8 big terminals full: with on average 2000+ guests on board, there are at least 16000 extra people milling around in downtown (and most of them, marching, during some moment of the day up and down the  Las Ramblas If it is a change over port day, then the approaches to the airport are clogged up with tour busses.  So a definite challenge to for the City Fathers, City Mothers and City Persons, (I am very inclusive…. to find a good balance between the needed revenue a large chunk of money for the Gaudi Church (La Sagrade Familia) and other buildings comes from the cruise industry) and still protecting the locals way of life in down town.

Photo of the Atrium taken from deck 3 down to the grand piano (Steinway size B) This is were we will wait tomorrow for the coach to the airport.

We have been to Barcelona many a time, so we decided to stay on board. Also because we have to pack in the afternoon,  we had booked a speciality restaurant booking in the evening, and we have a  coach connection to the airport at 05.45 tomorrow morning. And we were far from the earliest casualties as some guests were leaving at 02.45 in the morning.

The stern of the Viking Saturn. On top the Norwegian flag, as Viking is the last cruise company to have Norwegian registration which must be costly. Under the flag, the “Infinity pool water catcher box” under the deck 7 pool. At the water line, the “duckfoot” an extension with a dual purpose, it improves stability as it increases the surface size of the ship and also it inproves fuel economy as it acts as a “spoiler”, which you often see at the back of sports cars. (Photo courtesy, somewhere on the internet)

But it gave me the chance to walk the ship from top to bottom and to have a very good look at the interior. The outside of the ship is not so much different from the current design of other cruises ships, with a dumpy funnel, a macrodome, balconies all around the superstructure and the public rooms on the lower and the top decks with the majority of the cabins in between. But the inside design of the ship (and those of the other 12 Viking ships as they are all similar) varies considerably from other cruise company’s.

What I think is very cool is the gangway button in the lifts. When you do not know where the gangway is, you just push the button (above deck 8) and it goes to the right deck. I wish all ships would have that.

If the theme of the mega liners of Carnival, RCC,NCL and Celebrity is noise and action, here the theme is Nordic Tranquility. That might not be enjoyed by everybody but the fact that Viking is able to keep churning out a new ship each year (and this year even 2 with LNG propulsion) means that there are more than enough people who do like it.

The deck display next to each lift. Good and easy to read. The  only irritating thing is, it rotates with the gangway deck indication. So you have to wait until it comes around again.

This success is due to 3 things: smaller ships (40 – 60.000 tons is small nowadays), very good and balanced service and an harmonious interior that is consistent through the whole ship.  The ships must have been designed by a team that was given a concise briefing, did their job, and then the results were checked, to see if the briefing was followed. The President, Mr. Torstein Hagen comes from a maritime background and does therefore understand that a ship has to remain a ship, and that the end result should still be a ship and not a coorporate and ego-tripping muddle of Sr.Vice Presidents. And I think that has worked very well on these ships.

This is Deck 2 portside Atrium with sitting areas and game tables, both analog and digital.

The centre of the ships is “The Atrium” but is also called “The Living Room”.  (Saga Cruises has a similar concept).  It is mainly a lounge to sit and relax, especially on level 3. There is no library but there are bookcases full  (with very high quality books) in every corner and on every level. As well as in other lounges like the Explorers Lounge (crowsnest) on deck 7& 8). Game corners  everywhere integrated as a part of the overall concept. And the game corners were very busy, especially with guests travelling together and who enjoyed time together before the afternoon tour or after the morning tour.

Portside Forward Atrium Corner, deck 2. “Viking Museum”.

Then there is a bit of Nordic history (up and until the early 19th. century Sweden and Norway were one country) on level 2. Here is also the Future Cruise Specialist, whose office is hiding behind a very nice Viking Saturn model. Look for the model and you know where it is. The most lively part of it all is on deck 1. Here is Guest services located, but it has no counter. No, there are 6 desks with attendants (number in use depending on expected traffic during the day) so a discussion can take place in a more intimate and professional setting, instead of being “processed” at a long counter with multiple  slots.

Two of the six front desks. These two are in use on very busy days,

Shore excursion has a small stand there, for meet & greet, but for more indepth issues they take you to one of the Guest Services desks.  Diagonally opposite is the Bar, a combination of a coffee and cake stand and a regular bar.  I think it is located in this corner to be next to the Gangway, so guests can pick up a coffee before going off the ship or have a drink when coming back after an exhausting tour.  Then late afternoon it changes more and more into a bar and there are always 20 – 30 guests present. By 18.00 hrs. the cocktail crowd starts gathering before dinner, for cocktails and to listen to the Resident Pianist or the Classical duo. (The latter alternate between the Livingroom and the Explorers lounge)

The bar in the Atrium. To the left are high chairs & tables for eating your cookies or a lunch time roll. Low chairs and tables are all around the Atirum.

To my amazement it all works here extremely well, there is no noise, just the buzz from polite conversion with a tinkling piano in the background. The fact that the space is 3 decks high has no impact at all on the atmosphere. Where you walk the deck is marble but were you sit it is all carpet and thus no scraping noises and also no echoing noise.

A corner of the “Chefs Table” speciality restaurant.

Behind the Livingroom is on Deck 1, portside is the “Chef’s Table” a speciality restaurant (see further down) with a rotating menu. On the starboard side is Manfredi’s the second speciality restaurant that focusses on Italian Cuisine.  (see write up from some days ago). On the port side there is also the “The Kitchen Table” were there is a separate chefs cooking area and also options to do cooking classes.

The starboard side of “The Restaurant”. As you can see there is art everywhere and the long blueish painting is called “twilight” by Kenneth Blom painted for the ship in 2023.

Then on deck 2, there is the main dining room called “The Restaurant”.. (I think the designers wanted to ensure that a guest would not get confused about its purpose……….) This is horseshoe shaped and runs all the way around the stern. With in the center aft, a table for 14 guests. Indeed the Captains table, although Captains tables are not a regular feature of the Viking program. Normally a Captains table is 10 seats or less, but 14 can work very well, if there are Captain & 3 officers in attendance, you have a host at “each corner” of the round table).  I used to do that in the grey mists of time when on the South Pacific cruises and I resurrected the Captains tables from the old World Cruise days. Officers loved it, much more than having their own table as they knew that the Captain would run the show, keep things under control and would ensure that conversation flowed. (as well as the booze)

The Parfume and gadget shop. There is also a boutique and a jewellery store.

Then going towards the bow, there are the shops, on deck 1 and deck 2 (in my opinion overpriced and with very limited choice) and on deck 2 also the Spa, gym, and beauty salon. This is all very nice but I did not see too many customers. But maybe that was because we did not have any seadays.  On Deck 1 is the show lounge and that is a very clever set up. At each side in the back there is a Cinema and in the evening they pull away the bulkhead with the movie screen and it becomes part of the Show lounge.

The “Star Theatre”. The cinema on the starboard side is open and now part of the Theatre. The port side is still closed as there was a movie in progress.

The sightlines are very good as there are no pillars. (Every show lounge on every ship, can be without pillars, but it depends on how much a company wants to pay. Because a “free view” lounge without deck supports” calls for a heavier steel deck construction and that costs money, but it can be done. The seating rows are benches  and then a row in front of chairs( see the brown pillows in the above photo) and there are small tables in between for drinks. Also that works, unless you have a very – very tall and big person in front of you.  Drinks are served before the show starts from a very nice and large bar in the staircase behind the show lounge. Directly behind the showlounge is the Night Club called Thorshavn.

The Torshavn night club as seen from the entrance. The light stand on the left is fabricated in the shape of trombones. Not original as Holland America has the same one on board on the ss Koningsdam since 2016.

Then you get Deck 7 and 8 (outside deck).  At the bow, is the Explorers Lounge with music in the evenings. The only thing that irritates is  that the constellation display on the wall behind the bar, reflects onto the front windows and thus it is hard to see outside after dusk. But you can solve that by going up one of the 2 glass staircases to Deck 8, where there is no reflection. The music can still be heard as there is a gap with below.

Deck 8, upper level Explorers Lounge. Mainly meant as a quiet study area with lots of books about exploration. Note all the books in the bookcase.They are all real and of high quality.

Deck 8 Explorers, is mainly meant as a quiet place to read or work on the computer. There are nice books and a lot of Nordic heritage on display, including old farm utensils. Above this lounge, on deck 9 outside are games (skittles, ping pong, mini golf) but insulation is very good as I could not hear anything below, although there was a very lively group at the poing pong table with very piercing voices.

The study table at the far right corner has a glass top and doubles up as a historic display case about life in (winterly) Norway.

On the starboard side, deck 7, is a small food outlet (I would call it a small catering hatch that looks after a very small restaurant called  “Mamsens”. This is a Nordic version of breakfast and lunch nibbles based on Nordic specialities. Apart from the waffles, it was a bit too far out of range for our taste interest.

Mamsen is located in the starboard aft part of the explorer’s on Deck 7 and is a very small restaurant.

It was also never very full and the Chinese guests on board where complaining to the chef about why there were no noodles. Somehow they did not grasp the concept, and the chef, a very cheerful lady from Zimbabwe, could not make them understand either.  I listened to  the conversation with great interest, especially when one of the group tried to get into the kitchen to verify if there were indeed no Noodles.  (Maybe “Mamsen” is also a word for noodles in Chinese or Korean ???).

One might expect a “Blond Helga” as cook in a pure Nordic restaurant but here we had a lovely lady from Zimbabwe.  And no, she did not serve noodles.

Behind deck 8 Explorers are cabins and behind on deck 7 Explorers is the winter garden  and then the covered pool. Main focus point of the Winter Garden is “High Tea” in the afternoon. (When the General Manager found out about our experience with “the trolley” from the beginning in the cruise, she was there every afternoon to make sure it did not happen again. On each side of this place are seats and loungers, that Viking calls “The Lanai concept”.

The Wintergarden, a bright and open space.

As a side note, I have never seen a Hotel manager / General Manager so omini-present as this Emma from England. I hope that Viking appreciates it as she was everywhere, where the regular supervisors could not be for a moment. It is always nice to see a hotel manager walking through the diningroom, but he/ she does not need to be there as it is full of supervisors and related. Better to keep an eye on the flow in other areas.  So very Good.

The “ceiling” of the Wintergarden. Nordic pine made to resemble a forest. I wonder if the birds would like it when the Dome is open.

The aft part of Deck 7 has the small “Hamburger Bar”. The product is extremely good but it is a bit limited. Hence guests switch for one lunch between the two venues as the Lido, called the “The World Cafe”, is just  behind it. Again very good food but I had expected a few more options to choose from. There is a very small asian outlet, which is extremely good (Asian Chef). Then there are the regular counters, topped off with a nice ice cream stand.

The World Cafe. This is the portside.

Behind it all, another bar, which is very busy as softdrinks, beer and wine are included at lunch time for everybody. (Same as Saga and Fred Olsen and also most 6 star company’s) Then there is an outside terrace, called the “Aquavit Terrace”,  which today was in use as it was chilly but sunny. The stern of the ship has a infinity pool with in the front a jacuzzi.  To stop the Infinitiy pool water from raining down on the balconies below, there is a sort of box hanging under it. This makes  the ship look a bit weird from the outside. The first time I saw it, I thought it was some sort of cherry picker basket for cleaning windows.

The Infinity pool at the stern of the ship on deck 7.

On deck 8 aft, carefully hidden away from the guests, is a black glass wall under the aft end of the funnel. Inside is a Officer / crew bar. A very clever setup and it would other wise have been a wasted space  and there is also a hidden corner for smokers. For guest smokers there is a smoking section on the sb. side midships but I never saw it very busy.

Guest smoking area on deck 8 sb. side. Still a very civilized way to slowly commit suicide.

That completed my tour of the ship. Then we had to pack. Luckily we had not bought very much, apart from a Soup Spoon in Pisa.  But we still had to go the shops on board as we had booked another cruise with Viking, on the Viking Polaris to the West side of Greenland and Baffin Bay. For that we received $200,– on board booking credit but it had to be spent this cruise on board. Unusual, as it normally goes on the credit for the next cruise that you have just booked. So the shops still made some money as all the “on board bookers” came marching in. Now I am the proud owner of yet another Power Bank, a set of suitcase locks (TSA approved) and some perfume for her ladyship. It made the day of the very friendly Turkish shop attendant who could just scrape in her commission before she left tomorrow to go on leave in Antalya. Her next ship is the Viking Star for another 6 month contract.

The “Kitchen table” on Deck 1, where under guidance of the chef you can take cooking classes and also eat your own cooked food.

We had booked the Chefs Table for 19.00 hrs. on this last day as most other days were filled up. The higher category cabins (all of them, apart from us sinners living on deck 3) could make their bookings from home but the standard Verandah cabins  had to wait until on board. It did not make much difference in the end, accept the early times being booked up. Tonight we could go at 19.00 hrs., after cocktails, and the place was nearly empty. I think the packing and leaving the next day had reduced the enthusiasm for a “last extravagant supper” somewhat. This restaurant runs in 3 set- menu cycles,  Italian, Asian, Californian, but the names might differ somewhat from ship to ship. If you take a future cruise, it might be different again, as Viking has 21 of these options floating around the fleet. 5 courses with wine  included in the cruise fare.

The most puzzling thing on board is this staircase that leads from the back of “The Restaurant” deck 2 to the back of Manfredis Italian and the Chefs Kitchen on deck 1. and it goes nowhere else. It looks like a very posh way for the Dining room manager to commute between his restaurants. The piece of art on the wall is called “paper and wood” by Johanne Ness and Hanne Overland.

With it comes a wine paring of 4 different wines. Also included. If you have bought the drinks package ($ 25,— a day, but going up) then you get slightly better wines. Price wise I think, as wine is very personal, a I preferred the “cheaper” Pinot Noir with the Asian lambchops much more than the Spanish Tempranillo offered. But as far as wines are concerned, I was already very happy that they stored our favourite white wine (Austrian Veltliner, in this case Bereich Wachau) as Veltliner is not always on board. (Azamara has it, but Cunard does not)  So we had a very good dinner and then it was time  to put the suitcases outside as at 05.45 we had to be ready for transfer to the airport.

The blank bulkheads in the forward and aft staircases are covered with scenes taken from the Bayeux tapestry depicting the Normans (Norseman or Northman or Vikings) coming from Normandy, France, led by William the Conqueror in 1066 and defeating the English/ Anglo Saxon King Harold at Hastings.

Weather for tommorrow for when going home:  Overcast with rain during the day and temperatures aruoud 13oc / or 55 oF.

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.vikingcruises.co.uk/oceans/ships/viking-saturn.html

 

 

2026 Feb 17; Day 05, Sete, France.

February 18, 2026 / / 2 Comments

The last time I was in Sete, was in 2001 as captain of the ms Noordam (III). Then we docked in downtown Sete and we could walk directly into downtown. (50,000 inhabitants). Since then the port has been upgraded with a combined cruise and ferry pier. All very nice, but now you have to take a compulsory shuttle to the Gate, where the bow of my Noordam went 25 years ago. I am all for improvement but the compulsory shuttle service was setup in the French way and thus a bit more complicated than necessary.

Sete dock. A very nice new dock with ample room for the compulsory port shuttle bus and the Ferry docking at the other side. In the good old days we used to dock opposite of where the high apartment building is located and then just walk into town.

By 11.10 we were expected on the dockside and put in a nice sightseeing coach so I was quite happy. We left late as once again there were guests missing and then we drove out of the gate. I was now expecting that this sightseeing coach would drop us off somewhere in downtown for our walking tour. That was not the case, we lined up behind 4 other (shuttle) busses. Then we had to wait because the shuttle busses left every 10 minutes and it was not possible to speed that up, so we had another 20 minutes delay. Once our coach had made it to the official stop, we were allowed to disembark and the walking trip started from here. As the whole trip was supposed to last 2 hours, we had lost 30+ minutes as the tour guide kept the ending time the same. So 1hr.30 minutes instead.

Sete Jousting. This is the red team training boats, there is also a blue team.

Once lined up we marched into town and stopped at each bakery and patisserie for a look in the windows as cookies and pies are the big thing in Sete. Then on the canal there were the “jousting boats”. Once a year in August, there is a jousting duel on the water in rowing boats, a tradition that might even go back as far as Roman Times when Sete was already a port. The photo shows the bare training boats. During the jousting, a sort of bridge / platform is constructed at the stern of a heavier boat and the “jouster” stands on top of it with a pole, trying to push the opposite person into the water. The rowers have to manuver the boat in the best position possible and avoid being pushed into an impossible position so that the jouster cannot do the job.

This is the real happening with the boats that have the ramp with jousting platform.

Although Sete is small, it is a very nice place and it was very pleasant to walk around there; compact but interspersed with canals. Here the fishing fleet of the town is located and our Guide was very proud to announce that little Sete as 3 times as many Tuna fishing boats than Marseilles. There are several canals that go through the city and they are flanked on each side by restaurants serving the fresh catch of the day.

This canal connects the sea with an inland lake and is very popular with small time boaters and fishing enthousiasts. Mussles and fresh oysters even grow on the bridge pillars.

Then it was on to the covered market (Les Halles in french) to look at more cookies but now also at the Fish stands, cheese stands and other local specialtiy boutiques.  And that was the tour. Those who wanted could stay behind, those who wanted to go back to ship could follow the tour guide, although in Sete you cannot get lost.

 

The outside of the fish market. It was restored sometime ago and, an architect was let loose to create an inspring roof, and he came up with a………………………………… a fish net cover.

Then it was waiting again for the shuttle bus. The ID card checking and boarding of the shuttle bus was supervised by no less than 5 security guards. I have never felt so protected when stepping on a bus. We were back by 14.30 and time to take a nap as all that walking (and especially all that eating too much) does make you tired.

The inside of “Les Halles”. It is open every day from 07.00 to 13.00 hrs. and the place to go for “fresh” shopping by the locals.

We had cocktails in the regular atrium lounge , then on to the dinning room again; good food, good service but nothing special, and tonight we were early as we wanted to see the crew farewell and then the “Beatles show”.  Doors opening at 20.30 hrs.  The farewell show opened with a speech by the Cruise Director about how wonderful we were, as we sailed with Viking.

 

The crew farewell show with the -tall- captain in the middle.

Then a short speech by the thus far very elusive Captain. We have not heard a peep from him all week, no departure announcements, nor anything else, but it as it is compulsory to be part of the crew farewell, there he was. I have not been able to get anything out of anybody about what he is supposed to do as far as announcements go, but I do not get the impression that Deck and Engine are very much involved with the guest operation. So the Captain is more a “Chief Bus – driver” than anything else. It feels more  that the guest well-being is solely the job of the Hotel department. Headed by the Cruise Director and the General Manager.  Her name is Emma Smith and she is from England. We spoke several times with her as she is very visible in the ship and indeed “manages by walking around”. Also her office, on the side of the  Atrium with the door open, and directly approachable.

Then  we had a toast, with champagne handed out when coming into the show lounge followed by about 30% of the officers and crew marching onto the stage. Not much different from other company’s, only here with Viking, they pulled it off somehow with having all the crew lined up properly, instead the chaos you normally see. (and believe me it is not easy to do that, as it is not the same crew that is assigned each week, and they all want to stand”next to their friend” instead of being in the right position)

The “Beattles song show”.  I have a lively imagination but I had to stretch my Beattle’s imagination very far…………………. to figure out the connection of striped pajama’s with the Beattles. The Cast felt the same when I complemented them after the show. Why not have them wearing “Sergeant Pepper” costumes to make it a big more colorful ?

The show was about all the Beatles Songs and the singers were extremely good again. The same cannot be said about the person who designed the stage clothes as that was far from comprehensible. Especially after the costume change half way through when the men were dressed in a sort of prison uniforms.  But the show was very good and the Singers rightly received a standing ovation.

Then we decided to go for a nightcap and poked our nose into the Torshavn nightclub.  Quite intimate but again the sound level was a bit too much. So we went back to the Atrium Bar for a nice Brandy Alexander and a portwine.

The Thorshavn nightclub. On the stage the guitar player acting as a warming up act, for the very good, but very loud house band.

Tomorrow  we are in Barcelona for 2 days, with the second day being the dis & embarkation day. Tours will be going all over the city, Gaudi’s church and buildings of course and other city tours but also one to the Santa Maria de Montserrat Abbey, which is a 6 hour tour, and one I had never seen before. Cost for that one was well over $ 300,– and for that price I prefer to watch U-tube.

Expected weather tomorrow : sunny but chilly with temperatures of 13oC or 55 Fahrenheit

 

 

2026 Feb 16; Day 04, Marseille, France.

February 18, 2026 / / 0 Comments

I have been keeping an eye on the weather in the Nord Med., an area which is called “The Gulf of Lions” or Gulfo de Lions. (Lions as in correct spelling) The chance of a strong Mistral wind (funnel wind from the Rhone valley is always present) but regular northerly winds can be a problem is well. Those were blowing during the early mornings and that resulted in the appearance of the MSC ship in Villefranche. But it looked like that by 07.00 hrs. the wind would have died down sufficiently for our ship to safely sail into the new harbour of Marseille.

The port of Marseille. The ships are coming in at the far northern end of the breakwater.  The south side (although much better for windy codiitions) is only used by small craft. (Photo Courtesy” Med-Mediteranee)

The port of Marseille lay out is its own worst enemy as the sail-in channel is perpidencular to the northerly winds, so when the Mistral blows you get a higher number of port cancellations, especially with the cruise ships as they catch so much wind. And it can play havoc with the ferry schedules.  For us the wind had died down and we had no problem sailing in, swinging around and docking. At the other side of the dock was the MSC Orchestra the 2nd cruise ship in port.

We had booked / included in the cruise package / another walking tour, this time of the downtown  Marseille.  To my utter amazement, the tour guide was Dutch, having lived in Marseilles for 20 years being married to a frenchman. To the amazement of some of the fellow guests on the coach, she spoke english by translating Dutch straight into English. I think in english, so my english sounds much more native, She did the same with French, but for English and German she went back again to thinking in Dutch and then giving the english translation, Dutch syntax and idiom included.

Marseille is the largest city in France after Paris with about 2 mln. inhabitants. It is overcrowded and not exactly clean, although the multitude of cultures (many from North Africa and old French colonies) make for fascinating glimpses of how  other cultures live and work. (especially the small markets, each dedicated to their own cultural background with local products and marketeers screaming in their own language).

Palais Longshamp. Great museum collection and great gardens. And the outside is not shabby either. (Photo courtesy: Packyourbags.com)

So we drove around the port, up and down the  streets, and got a good impression of how Marseilles functions. First with a photostop at Palace Longshamp. This is a very impressive building, built between 1831 – 1869 to celebrate the completion of a canal that brought fresh & safe water to the city. It took 30 years due to planning problems and construction costs but now houses several musea.  We stayed on the coach as it was raining, so we let the photo-op go.

The Porte d’Aix in Marseille. Commemorating all sorts of victories the french had in the 19th and 20th century.

A very peculiar thing is that Marseilles has an “Arc de Triomph” (official Porte d’Aix or Port Reial) same as in Paris, about the same size, but looking slightly different on the outside. Officially marking the entry point when coming from Aix-de-Provence, but several governments were involved in the building process and wanted to mark the Arch for several subsequent battle achievements. There was the end of the American war of independence in 1784,  then the French Spanish Expedition in 1824, and when it was completed in 1839, it was to honor “all sorts of victories” so a very multifunctional monument.

Most of the sightseeing tour was along the Corniche (bench in English) which runs along the whole coastline of Marseilles. The road is officially named after the American President John F. Kennedy. It is where the most expensive houses are located, included Gated-Communities, and the best fish restuarants, often in converted houses from the fisherman days. The weather was horrible while driving along the coast so we were quite happy to sit in the bus and let the -french- world roll by. Photostop at the Corniche was the monument for fallen french soldiers in the East Med. and Africa during the First World War. Although we mostly think about Flanders Fields during WWI,there were many more theatres of war. In Eastern Europe, in the Balkan and also in Africa.

The “MonumentAux Morts Des Orients. Erected in 1927.

I took this photo from the coach as you cannot miss the monument, it really dominates the local sky line.  Most people in front of it, were from our busses, as the French themselves waited for better weather to have a look at it.

I felt straight at home. What Macdonalds is for the Americans, is HEMA for the Dutch. So we had to visit.

Then the rest was by Coach, followed by an hour to walk around downtown. And there we found a HEMA. This is a dutch shop /chain that sells anything you need for your house. It is very very Dutch, so finding it in the deep south of France, is about the same as finding a Wal-Mart on top of the Swiss Alps. Even the packaging was in Dutch but it did not stop the French from buying up a storm.

The Atrium bar. To the left is a sitting area with regular tables and from there you can spread out over the 3 floors of the Atrium, which is officially called “The Living Room”

Back on board it was time for lunch and this time we tried the “nibble” selection at the Bar on deck 1 of the Living Room. This is the 3 deck atrium of which the corner on deck 1 also functions as cocktail place and related. It serves small sandwiches with shrimps, salmon and beef and is a great for those who are peckish but do not want to be tempted by being exposed to the Lido outlay (called the World Cafe on this ship)

Wendy the Future Travel Specialist in full swing. We were quite impressed with her as she was able to rattle off every port of each cruise listed in the brochure.

Viking has a repeater program, The Viking Explorer Society,  (On average they have a repeater rate of 60 to 90% on board) and that means that you might get a drinks package and gratitues included on you next cruise depending on the promotion going at the time.  There is no tiered program as with Cunard or Holland America. To recognize everybody there was  a party in the Atrium and although we were not “repeaters” yet, the Future Cruise Lady had invited us. And with free drinks…….. who can say no?  So we got a few wise words from Wendy the future cruise specialist, some more wise words from the Cruise Director and then a short show from the ships cast / singers.  There are no medals or other gifts but the biggest day holder (this cruise 160+ days) was recognized with a bunch of flowers.

As the whole ship decor is “Scandinavian bare” it does not look very impressive during the day time with the tables not being set. But is is very cosy in the evenings.

The evening show was the Cruise Director himself who is also an ccomplished singer. He performed a selection of songs from the last 40 years. We did not go as it conflicted with our dinner reservations in “Manfredi’s” the dedicated Italian Restaurant on board.  And when one has to choose between food and culture, guess what wins.  It is free of charge and the menu is standard Italian restaurant style, as people would expect it shoreside. With a decent range of entries and very pleasant service. It is evey night booked to capacity and with Viking higher cabin catagory’s  you can book  at home, while mere mortals like us, have to wait until on board, and then it depends on space still available. However it turned out not to be a problem and we have also booked the other speciality restaurant, “The Chefs table” for the last night. That one has a set menu.  Then you can book cooking classes for  $60,– a person and for that you also get an apron. They run the classes in the evening so you will eat your own cooked dinner at dinner time. We saw a group of very excited ladies marching out around 9 pm. followed by a group of spouses, drink in hand, who looked rather less excited.

Tomorrow we are in Sete, France. (It is  pronounced Sept, without the t) Weather is supposed to be dry and sunny but with a cold wind blowing from the North giving noon time temperatures of  12 – 14 oC /  54 – 57oF)

 

 

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