A millpond was how the ocean appeared this morning as we head to our northernmost call tomorrow at Spitsbergen in the Svalbard Archipelago. There we will be 812 miles from the North Pole.
It is 9oC outside with a 28 Knot wind from the WSW. 6oC is the forecast for tomorrow in Longyearbyen. Almost nobody is on the decks, and inside the ship is busy everywhere!
Gravdal, or really Leknes which was the port, is our first port above the Arctic Circle. It was also the morning after our fist midnight sun – a phenomenon that caused us to draw the curtains for the first time!
This town & city are part of the Lofoten Islands, nearing the top of Norway. They experience the strongest of the world’s tidal currents with a 1.3m tidal gap. However at 0630 the water presented eerily as a lake-type calm.
The weather was a cool 15C but pleasant without any wind.
We did not have an excursion booked, so our morning emerged slowly. After a late breakfast in Horizon Court, we took the tender ashore and then the shuttle bus to Leknes. A quick walk around and a peek in a couple of shops, then we discovered – with others – that the local bus served Gravdal & Nusfjord (a well-preserved fishing village).
It arrived shortly after and we alighted at the Buksnes Kirke which we had seen earlier dockside. We walked up to the church and around it before walking back to the port for exercise only.
See the Norway Gallery on this blog
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and there are more on our Flickr pages
Yesterday the sun rose at 0346 and set at 1140 … that is the last sunset for eight days. Today’s weather was fine but the afternoon was really lovely – strong sun, lots of water, not a care in the world. Stavanger was at the lower end of Norway (similar longitude to Anchorage, Alaska), and tomorrow’s call is near the upper end. We were mostly 14nm off the West Coast and this afternoon passed some oil/gas drilling rigs on the horizon.
Our cabin has a double balcony in the sense that it is twice as deep as others and provides a lot of room and sense of space. Caribe 247.
Breakfast this morning in the dining room was slow and we were confronted with a long queue. The day was relaxing … a culinary demonstration, coffee and a bite to eat, a wine tasting (we had a couple from Sheffield, Mary & Ian at our table), followed by a flight of French reds in Vines Wine Bar (a new innovation for the Piazza run by Mallory, an Australian lass from the Gold Coast/Melbourne), dinner, Showtime with singer Ricky Zalez, and (having left early from the Princess Theatre) then Crooners with Tommy McPhee.
A leisurely day at sea started with a late breakfast in Horizon Court followed by an Enrichment lecture on the Vikings*, and a visit to the Flash Mob Line Dance Class. It was interesting that this craze has now joined the Princess line-up after being popular with young people for the last two-three years. Afternoon tea saw us sitting with two Scottish couples. Today was 1 July at home so some Rotary web maintenance was attended to.
The evening was our first formal night with a production show* “Destination Anywhere” – very good, similar to one seen last year but re-vamped. Then some Right Royal Trivia and a visit to Crooners with pianist/singer Tommy McPhee.
On board are many UK people (may be 40%), Americans, Japanese, and Chinese passengers.
* There is something about the Princess Theatre that even Joy succumbed to; it’s great to listen with one’s eyes closed.
Late sunsets and very early morning brightness have started. Today we sailed into Stavanger with some light rain and were alongside by 8am during our breakfast.
Our morning excursion commenced at 0830 after we boarded a smaller launch heading to and cruising along Lysefjord. It took about an hour to get there. The rain and cool weather came with us but we were prepared. Les spent most of the time on the upper viewing deck.
Lysefjord is said to be one of the most beautiful fjords in all Norway, and was carved by the action of glaciers in the ice ages, then flooded by the sea when the later glaciers retreated. Our cruise came with craggy mountain-scrapes, steep cliffs, dazzling waterfalls, and then “Pulpit Rock” – a formation that towered more than 600m above sea level. Nothing like a pulpit (or the Pulpit Rock we know at Blackheath), but the views from atop would be great – if you hiked for two hours from where the road ends!
Returning to port, we spent a little time walking through the Old Town and around the dock area before re-boarding the Crown Princess. 
The staple diet here is sardines, indeed Stavanger was a salmon canning capital in the early 1900’s. Nort Sea oil has been kind to the city in more recent times with rig building as well as research, pumping, refining and shipping of the oil itself.
The rain cleared and the sun emerged early in the afternoon.
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