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Travelogue: Norway or Bust!

6/22/2024

At BWI, and cleared through by the TSA with time to spare, Stacey decided that celebratory fries were in order!

For those who have been following our recent comings and goings, you know that Stacey and I docked Stinkpot in North East, Maryland a few weeks ago for a concert I played on May 18 in the same town and thought it a perfect place to stage from as we took a cruise through the fjords of Norway on a cruise ship from June 8-15. What follows is a description of the trip with a voyage overview laid out in prose. After that will be a quasi-chronological photo-dump with captions. The captions will be the detail that is lacking in the prose.

The cruise, which was organized by Irish Music Cruises, and had me playing fully four times aboard the Celebrity Apex for the assembled group of savvy world travelers, while we all enjoyed the amenities of the vessel, four foreign ports of call, and scenery that was to die for.

The itinerary? Well, we boarded in Southampton, UK and cruised overnight to our first port of call in Bruges, Belgium, where we enjoyed some time ashore walking around (but neglecting to take many pictures) on a pleasantly, but not overly warm, sunny day. We then cruised across the North Sea, which was a little spicy with 14-foot seas, to the Norway coast, ducking inside the barrier islands for shelter from the wind and waves in sight of Hellisøy Lighthouse. We then proceeded to make our way in sheltered waters overnight to Sognefjord which led us to Aurlandsfjord and the quaint town of Flåm, where we, again enjoyed walking around in a picturesque area. We decided to enjoy these towns they way we would if we were cruising on our own boat, and eschew the cattle-call shore excursions and tourist traps. We walked about five miles in Flåm, enjoying the views of the steep, snow-capped mountain walls around the town, waterfalls, streams, quaint neighborhoods, and a stunning beach area right on the fjord with crystal-clear water. From Flåm, the ship returned to coastal waters by way of a port of call in the village of Olden (I pause here to point out that Olden is well inland, and we cruised overnight back to the coast, then up Nordfjord and Innvikfjorden to get there), where we also walked extensively, and enjoyed touring two historic churches (the old church, now rarely used, and the "new" church, which was build in the 1930s to allow the 300-year-old predecessor to be more of a tourist location and an alternate meeting space for special occasions and religious holidays). Dropping lines, Apex proceeded back down the fjords to the coastal city of Bergen, where we also stripped five miles off the soles of our shoes. This was, by far, the most interesting stop from a walking-around perspective. Re-boarding after Bergen, the ship once again got underway and set course back down the North Sea to return to Southampton, where we went ashore and flew home.

Getting there from the US? We parked our car at our friend, Kim's house (Thank you, Kim!). She drove us to Baltimore/Washington International Airport where our flight from the US to Old Blighty began. The first Icelandair flight dropped us in Reykjavik, Iceland (technically Keflavik, I guess) where airport construction and crowds preempted any time for a bathroom break, before loading us on a connecting flight to London's Gatwick Airport. Once on the ground in the UK, we were herded through customs, to baggage claim, after which we consulted Google Maps for transit directions to Southampton, which required use of two consecutive trains with our considerable luggage in tow. Once in Southampton (where we could've spent a month exploring), we walked to our hotel (about 1/2 mile from the train station), checked in, and proceeded to, on foot, enjoy our evening in a very historic city, even meeting up with our Florida friends, Gary and Liz, for fish & chips (with mushy peas) at the Red Lion Pub. In the morning, parsimony won out over expediency as we trudged the 1.3 miles, bags in tow, to the quayside, where we were processed aboard Apex.

Our return to Southampton after the cruise was far less exciting. We waited our turn, and when our number was called in the late morning, we were herded off ship into a waiting van that delivered us and our luggage to London Gatwick for our flight home, once again via a toilet desert that is Reykjavik, and back to BWI and a waiting "Kim's BMW" to our own vehicle that we drove, sleep deprived over a VERY long day, to dinner at Applebee's in Aberdeen, MD (the only thing open at that hour in the area) and our bed aboard Stinkpot, some 23 hours after rising from our comfy berth on Apex.

The entire trip took 8 days from beginning to end. We knew we'd be encountering long hours of daylight above the Arctic Circle in mid-June, but nothing really prepared us for what that would really be like. We were torn between seeing the sights from our large stateroom window overnight, and using the very effective black-out shade (the latter often won the battle most nights). The sun did ultimately set, usually around 11:30pm local time (GMT -1), but the final crimson reminder of its last position would not fade to black, but, instead, circle around the horizon from west to east where it would rise again mere hours later. Night was not night again until we descended back below the Arctic Circle. It was stunning and amazing to witness.

This cruise may well be among the last of its kind. In 2026, a new law will be going into effect that will prevent cruise ships that burn diesel, bunker oil, or other "dirty" fuels from Norway's fjords. They will make exceptions only for so-called "zero-emissions vessels," but the regulations are so restrictive that it's unlikely that any members of the existing fleet will likely make the grade. Plans are apparently underway to create a small fleet of hybrid cruise ships that might get a pass, but that remains to be seen. Ultimately, if a trip like this entices you, book it now. You might not be able to for long.