Day 4: All aboard!

Whoo hoo - it's Ferry Time!!

Sunrise in Trondheim.
The view from our hotel room at around 10am

Today's adventure has us leaving dry land and embarking on the main part of our trip, a 5 day/4 night passage on the Hurtigruten ferry, taking us from Trondheim all the way up into the Arctic Circle and finishing up at the port of Kirkenes - and the snow hotel!   It's also our best chance of catching a glimpse of the Northern Lights - the further north you go, the better is your chance of seeing them.  We just need to keep our fingers crossed for clear, cold nights....

The ferry was not due to leave til 12pm so didnt have to get up too early this morning.  Obviously we were eager to check out what all the fuss was about for the buffet breakfast ("best breakfast in Scandinavia!" as voted by Breakfast Enthusiast magazine) and I was determined to break the fish duck.

Selected meats.  And trees.

I'd like to point out that those are potatoes.

As you tell from the pics, finally there were copious amounts of pickled, preserved and smoked feeshes on offer (a veritable picnic, Mumsie!).  I had a bit of the salmon - and it was delicious!  Well worth the wait!  The rest of brekkie was equally yummy and my ManpanionTM thoughtfully squirreled away some bread in his pants pocket, Napoleon Dynamite-style, in case of a carbohydrate shortfall emergency later on in the day.  Fully foccacia-ed up, we checked out and headed off to the ferry terminal.

Finally!  Bring on the feeeeeeesh!!

Treacle tart for breakfast??  These Norwegians sure know how
to party.....

We got a cab over to the terminal, even though it was a fairly short walk, as the pavements were a bit slushy so we didn't really fancy lugging our bags through it.  The first sight of our Hurtigruten ship, the MS Midnatsol, was impressive - you get the sense that is a ship that doesn't fuck about.  Built to withstand the Norwegian winter and, hopefully, any potential icebergs that might come our way.  Our ship's name translates into Midnight Sun - a bit ironic given we are at entirely the opposite end of the solar calendar right now, having just had the winter solstice!  If you are interested in learning more about either the ship we are on or the Hurtigruten ferry, here's the weblink: 

https://www.hurtigruten.com/

Thar she is!!  Our home for the next 4 nights!  Please
don't sink!!

Boarding was super easy (just walk up the gangway!) and the reception check-in desk was just inside on the right.  Unfortunately the boat was full so there was no chance of upgrading from our Unspecified Polar Inside Cabin, alas - but at least we tried.  Fortunately my ManpanionTM folds up into a small space, so I'm sure we'll be fine.  The lady at the desk gave us our room cards and we also opened up an account so all our on-deck purchases would be charged to it.  I know it will make it way too easy to not have any idea what we are spending but what the hell.  At least we'll just get one enormous sticker shock at the end, rather than multiple little sticker shocks throughout each day!

Intrepid ManpanionTM about to board

We were in cabin 441 on the 4th deck, just round the corner from the reception desk so it was easy to find (even for me).  We'd obviously checked out our accommodation online before the trip (hence the vain attempt to try and upgrade to something less tiny), so it was with some degree of trepidation that we slotted the card in the key and opened the door.  Here's what awaited us on the other side.....

No problem!  It was, as expected, completely tiny but it actually managed to absorb all our stuff and have a couple of storage drawers left over!  When needs must, its amazing how little space you can actually get by in.   And its fun on a boat too as everything has to be designed with that function in mind, so I always get a kick out of the little touches that are just different, like the latches that hold the cupboard doors shut so they don't swing out in rough seas (easily amused, I know).  

Each day, the itinerary is printed up so you can
see what you'll be missing as you sleep
in your cabin

We'd worked out a system so that Matt would go off and explore the ship while I unpacked, and then vice versa - this way we wouldn't be tripping over each other and getting in each other's way and getting cranky.  It worked beautifully - after his initial reconnaissance, my trusty ManpanionTM had scoped out where the bar and restaurant was, as well as the little gift shop and the main viewing decks and lounging areas.  When it was my turn, I also discovered where the gym and sauna were, as well as the laundry room and the deets behind the wine package option for dinner.  What a team!

On the envelope we'd received when we checked in were our assigned times and seating for our meals.  We'd decided to go full board, thanks to a good tip by A&K, so didn't have to worry about potentially not being able to get into the dining room because of a lack of space.  We were the second seating for both lunch and dinner (1.30pm and 8.30pm respectively) and. as we found out, sometimes that means they have run out of stuff by the time we get there.  So far there's been plenty to eat despite not having all the choices all the time, so we've not gone hungry (plus our caloric intake is far far exceeding our caloric output at the moment!).  Lunch was a buffet and was actually pretty tasty.  The ship and crew are very hot on hand hygiene, given the potential for contagious nastiness given the density of people, so as you swipe your room card to get into the dining room, a crew member pumps a dollop of hand sanitizer into your hands.  Of course, its not going to stop all the nasties, but its got to help and it was nice to see them taking health and hygiene so seriously.

Hot tub, anyone?

After lunch, we were both knackered (it really is kinda weird trying to adjust to the lack of light here, especially when jetlagged) so we decided it was post-prandial nap time.  Unfortunately, we slept through the rest of the daylight (as much as it was) so by the time we woke up, it was pitch black again outside!  We decided we should probably try and confine our napping to the 20hrs out of the day where it was dark, rather than the 4hrs of meagre sunlight - but ManpanionTM loves to nap, so we'll see how well we stick to that over the next couple of days....

Allegedly it was around 6pm (though time pretty much loses its meaning when its this dark for this long!) so we hauled our asses up to the viewing deck ("what a great view of the dark!") and I blogged for a bit, then ManpanionTM and I strummed a few songs on Baby M before dinner.

Bye bye Trondheim!

Dinner was assigned seating again (hellooooo, table 64) and we met our fresh-faced dining companions, Mark and Annisa, a young couple from DC who seemed to be doing exactly the same itinerary as we were (Oslo, train, Trondheim, Kirkenes) minus the snow hotel.  He is a forensic scientist, she works in a clinical trial lab on biomarkers, so it was nice to share a table with fellow science geeks.  Annisa revealed that she didn't eat fish, so we all commented how completely buggered she was going to be over the next few days.  Dinner was OK - the first course was some spelt with haddock, main course was duck-substitute chicken (the duck was off because it was..well, off) and dessert was some heinous disgustingness, seemingly made out of seaweed and sadness.  I did not care for it.

And, with that, we played some more cards (I won!), drank some more wine and finally headed off to our cabin around 10pm to watch a movie and clock up some more sleep time.  Alas, no Northern Lights made an appearance - but we have another 4 or so nights for them to show up, so not all is yet lost!!

Our route

Instructions for fart containment in tiny cabin,  Essential to
prevent your ManpanionTM from becoming a Stankpanion TM.

Not to be confused with safety instructions for evacuating the
vessel in an emergency.

Dinner!
Sea buckthorn.  Not to be confused with Sea Biscuit.
Though Sea Biscuit would probably have tasted better...

Random facts of the day:

Sunrise in Trondheim: 10am

Sunset wherever we were somewhere along the coast of Norway: unverified but sometime between the hours of 2pm and 4pm