Winter Europe Trip 4th December 2022 (Sunday) Day 8

(This posted is written on 12th March 2023, I finally have time as the school term has ended and I really missed our Europe trip)

While on board the ship, there were actually talks and expeditions briefings conducted everyday, but we sat out on those as P was not keen in attending. The expedition reviews are also were not too good as many of the stops were kind of short and the cost of going on their activities is too high. The next morning we woke up to the hum of the ship engine at around 6am+. Our room was on the side of the dock and some reviewers said the noise kept them up all night as the ship stopped at several locations to load and unload stuff, that did not bother us at all throughout the four nights. The interesting thing about Hurtigruten is it is a working ship, delivering things through the waters of Norway 24/7, the coastal liner is not built to be a full passenger cruise so there are many stops and sightseeing is not a priority. 

P was happy to see these

Dining room was quite busy

Sun rising in the far

One of the places the ship made a stop

Words from Qatar, so true

We lazed around and went down for breakfast at around 8.30am, the dining room was buzzing with people as like the previous night. The buffet spread was also similar to the food at Radisson Blu hotels, I would say it was a good spread. One thing that had kept our toes up since getting to Norway was refilling our bottles and getting water from the hotels everyday since its quite costly to buy bottled water from the stores. By right tap water in Norway is just like in Singapore and its safe for drinking even on board the cruise but we did not want to risk falling sick so early in our travel. So far Flam marina is the only hotel that provided us with free bottled water and we gladly took those along.

At the Radisson Blu hotels in Oslo and Tromso, we were glad we could refill our water bottles at the lobby or during breakfast. Now on board the ship, there were signs telling people not to refill their bottles from the buffet taps so I was a bit concerned. Apparently, bottled water is not cheap on board. I saw a old lady who filled up her bottle by getting cups of water from the dispenser and pouring it into her bottle slowly. The kind waitress did not stop her, who would do that the white hair slouching old lady? So we 'sneakily' or openly followed what she did, we got cups of water and slowly refilled our bottles when we were back at our seats. 

Our cruise ship at Alesund

Bought hot chocolate again

Its Sunday so the streets were really quiet

Everyone was excited that morning as the cruise was heading to a small town call Alesund and we could all alight from the ship to explore. Looking at the schedule, the ship would only leave this port at dinner time. This was the longest stop in our journey and there was plenty of time so we did not leave the ship immediately even though we heard all the announcement that the ship was already at the port and we could alight. From the window, we saw people who were all ready and walking around even before the ship reached the port. We put on our gear, got down and realised it was quite cold, so we got back to our room and put on our warmest clothes (all the ultra heat tech included and gloves). At the door of the ship, the staff scanned our cards and reminded us the latest time to return to the ship.

Very clean and quiet streets

Phone booths with donated books so people can help themselves

Love the buildings and the skyline

It was Sunday so after grabbing a cup of hot chocolate from the cafe nearby, we realised many of the shops are not opened and the streets were quite quiet. We stopped at a huge souvenir shop outlet for quite something as I wanted to get better gloves, especially for the days we went above the arctic circle in Tromso. P got a matching pair too and it cost us 40+ SGD each. 

On our way to the top

Enjoyed some pastries

Loved the layout of the place

Cafe for those who walked up to see the scenery

The table with a nice view

Only 2pm but we could see the sun setting in the distance

The town was small and quiet but we still have hours here. I did research what we could do at Alesund and one of the most recommended activities was to walk up a small hill to have a view of the city, and that was what we did. It was not as high as Floyen and it was only 500 or 400+ steps up but we were so unfit that we were huffing and puffing on the way up, we stopped at many of the rest points to catch our breath and we finally reached the top after 30 minute. There was a nice cafe right at the top and we went in to rest, it was filled with customers but we found seats easily, even sitting near to the windows on the couch. I loved the cafe as there was free hot water and tea and so on, although I felt shy and paid to get some food. The code to use the toilet was also readily available at the counter. 

Us on top of the hill with the city view

The sun setting and the city getting dark at 2.30pm

We took an one hour pit stop and P even napped for a short while and soon we were on our way going downhill. We walked slowly this time as there was still plenty of time to go before we needed to get back to the ship. 

Found these toy trolls scattered over the hill

Any special meaning to these?

Looks cute here but could be creepy at night

The last few steps were even numbered

On our way down

Halfway at 213 but it was steep 

A quick Google search showed that this hill is call Fjellstua and it's another word I can't pronounce properly. Our hike down Floyen two nights ago already shown that hiking and trekking anything big to do with nature is big in Norway and the natural sights here are really beautiful when we want to explore those. A pity we were not into more of these trekking when we went in winter 

Cat statue near a playground that caught P's attention

The streets here look so steep, thankfully not covered in snow

Kind of love this shot

We had fries and drinks at Burger King

It was all dark at 4.30pm so we headed back

We came across quite a big scale thrift shop when we got back to the city centre so we went in to look around. P saw someone with a milkshake from Burger King and he got a craving for it, it was not far from the thrift shop so we headed there. We had fries and the milkshake as a mid night snack and slowly make our way back to the ship even though it was only 4.30pm. It was already completely dark and not many people were out and around with many of the shops closed so we just headed back to rest. Our chosen dinner time is at 8pm though I cant remember why I chose such a late timing.

Brought these along and it was really good

Menu for the night

My starter of dried and salted cod

P main course of lamb stew

My main course was sterling halibut

P was disappointed when dinner time came and he realised it was no longer buffet. The nightly dinner now has a fixed seating and we are all allotted a timing to follow. The menu features food from the towns we had called at and it's served, so with the number of servers they only serve one group of diner at a time, our seating is allotted according to the timing. I felt that the dinner was not too bad and quite filling, probably cost us about 100 euro per night.