Mostly Asea

We boarded the Havila Castor a week ago in Bergen. She looks just like her sister ship, Havila Capella, which we passed a few days later:

The Havila ships are mail boats, delivering mail and packages all along the coast. We’ve booked a 12-day roundtrip, but some people use it to travel shorter distances. They even have a lounge aboard with recliners you can book if you’re only traveling a few hours. Some port calls are just 10 minutes long.

The scenery has been stunning. We’ve run out of superlatives as we walk on deck or look out the windows, dashing out on the balcony to take yet more pictures. Not just the landscape is beautiful – the clouds are dramatic, too. Which explains why the weather reminds us of Scotland – it could rain or shine at any moment!

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Unfortunately, that changeable weather was in full force for our first excursion. We sailed up Geiranger Fjord, a world heritage site, in mostly cloudy conditions with some spits of rain. At the far end of the fjord we took a tender over to land and got on a bus.

It was a surprise to learn that they grow all kinds of fruit, including apricots and strawberries, here. The Gulf Stream keeps the temperatures warmer than I ever imagined – their lows are the same or higher than we have at home in CT! And the long, long days of sunshine in June and July help things ripen quickly.

The bus took us to Trollstigen, which has fantastic views down a valley – if it’s clear. Here’s what we saw:

At least we could see a little something on the uphill side:

And the main downside of a bus trip soon became apparent – the clouds started to clear as we got back on the bus, but we had a schedule to meet and couldn’t go back to see the view. We had to content ourselves with pictures through the window as we went down a series of hairpin turns. (You have to have nerves of steel to be a bus driver on these narrow roads!)

By the time we got through the hairpins, the sun had come out!

The bus trip ended in Molde, where we took a gondola up to a restaurant for dinner. It was sunny when we got there, cloudy/raining while we ate, and gave a fine view of the setting sun as we left. Norwegian weather at its best!

The next day we did a bike trip around Trondheim. We got lucky and only had four other participants – a German couple and a Spanish couple. The guide was excellent and we stopped for coffee and waffles with cream and jam by the Nidaros Cathedral – all around a great experience.