Hamburg

In the morning we sailed up the Elbe-river, passing little villages, lighthouses and flowering orchards of apple-trees. In Hamburg this cruise came to an endand we took up new passengers for the baltic cruise.

Amsterdam

One more time in a big city far away from the coast ...
our guests walked through this lovely town with plenty of channels and bridges or went on long excursions to get a real glimpse of this land of windmills, cheese and tulips!

Antwerp

During the early morning hours we sailed up the river Schelde. We had to chase away a river-cruiser from our mooring, but than we were once more in the very heart of town, just a 5 min walk to the great cathedral and the famous old town-houses.
They have a marathon in the city today, so it is not so easy to cross every street as planned, but we had the honour to start the two major runs with our ships horn - so our purser Line let it yell loud through the city!

London one more day

We had our breakfast next to the Towerbridge and could enjoy real english weather in the morning: slightly pouring rain ...

But it cleared up again soon and we had sunshine when the bridge once again was opened for us: the pilot called the bridge and they immediatly stopped all traffic and a few moments later we passed by whilst hundreds of tourists enjoyed this spectacle and waved us farewell.

So we went down the river Thames passing noble, old fashioned Greenwich and the skyscraping glasstowers of new financial district before the Millenium Dome and the Thames barriers.

Now we are out on a very calm channel heading for Zeebrugge, where we will pick up our pilot after midnight.

Our mooring at the old warship HMS Belfast

Old and new side by side

London

We crossed the channel during the night and found ourselfes in the wide mouth of the river Thames at breakfasttime. Outside the windows we could see offshore-windparks and some strange, smaller tripod-structures wich were explained as old anti-aircraft or anti-missile fortifications from the second worldwar.

Slowly we went up the river and the shorelines came closer as we approached London. We passed the great post-modern-shaped and incredible expensive flood-barriers just outside the city and crossed the zero-latitude-line at the Greenwich observatory.

Finally we reached the famous Tower-bridge and it opened just for us, for we took our parking position on the other side of it, now lying side-by-side to the old warship HMS Belfast.

It is great to be so in the very heart of town with our Fram!

Everybody is out on deck to celebrate this unique moment!

Something you don`t see for often ...

Rouen

We had an early breakfast at 7:00 today, for the city-tours started at 8:00. First the busses took us to a hilltop aside the city to offer us a splendid view over the town and towards our tiny little ship. Than we walked through the very heart of the town with lots of very old framework-houses and a some unique gothik churches and the cathedral, of course. Finally we visited the old market-sqare, where Joan of Arc was burnt in 1431.

View of Rouen

The heart of the gothic cathedral

Back in France

In the dark of the night we reached Le Havre at the mouth of the river Seine and started our next rivercruise. The seine was winding a lot and it took us some hours and 120 km to reach Rouen, the capital city of the Normandy. The Fram followed the steps of their norwegian ancestors which raided in this area around 1000 years ago. We had lovely riverbanks on both sides of our vessel with steep chalkcliffs, beautyful manors, little villages and green forrests.

Finally the Fram sails through green land again!

In the afternoon some excursions started to see more of the Normandy. Some went to Honfleur at the Seine, a nice mediavel town, whilst others drove to the tiny village Giverney and visitet the famous garden of impressionist painter Claude Monet.

"Spring in Europe" - thousands of flowers in Giverney!

Sark and Guernsey

For sure, this was one of the Highlight-days of the entire voyage: For the first time since Antarctica we could use our polar-circle-boats again - and all expedition-team was quite happy about that. So, with some special expedition-feeling we visited the tiny island of Sark in the morning. And that was a surprisingly beautyful place: In a way you stepped back in time, for they have no cars on the whole little island, just using bicycles and horse-carriages. There were some nice paths along the coast-cliffs, wich offered really breathtaking views over the rough rocks and towards the other islands of this archipelago.

Normal taxi on Sark

The view from the cliffs

In the afternoon we did a landing in Guernsey, wich was a big and crowded place - compared to Sark. A lot of our guests participated in guided busexcursions, and could so get a good overview over the different types of lovely landscapes and enjoy the very british way, in wich the charming villages were built.

One of the smallest chappels in the world - and

completely covered with broken plates and small

stones - unique!

Towards the North

We left Bordeaux yesterday evening and are now heading for the britisch Channel Islands.

The sea is absolutley calm, and after some cloudy fog in the morning - wich offered great opportunitys for the lecturers - the sun came out and so you could find a lot of guests sunbathing on the open decks. We let the day pass by with some winetasting and waffles, and in the evening our norwegian tourguide performed a really great Frank-Sinatra-Show!

Bourdeaux

In the late night we went up the river Gironde and around 5 o`clock we took our place at the pier in the very heart of the city of Bourdeaux. So we could enjoy our breakfast with a unique view over the promenade towards the lately restored beautyful houses along the riverside.

A lot of effort was taken in the last years to clean the buildings and so we could explore a really nice city during our guided citywalks in bright sunshine. During lunchtime some clouds appeared and shortly afterwards a heavy shower with hale let all spectators dissapear wich took a close look on the first passengervessel this year during their sundaywalk ...

The Fram lies in the centre of the city and

our guests explore the town 

In the Biscaya

We are now on a very straight course towards Bordeaux in France, so there was no land to see during all the day. The guests had the opportunity to visit the bridge and our Captain Steinar Hansen answered questions all morning. While on the bridge, enjoying the great view, the passengers suddenly noticed astonishing numbers of dolphins, jumping through the water on all sides of the vessel.

Villa Garcia, La Coruna

This was a very special day: in the early morning, when it was still completly dark outside, we came to Spain again and went to the small harbour of Villa Garcia - but just to set out roughly half of our passengers, wich went on an overland-excursion with busses. The Fram left again and rounded the western cape of Spain, Cape Finisterre. While we had some lectures about the great norwegian heroes wich built the old Fram over a century ago and conquered both polar regions with that splendid ship, the shoreparty was on a pilrimage to Santiago de Compostella, one of Europes most famous Pilgrim-citys, where they stayed for some hours to visit the cathedral and explore the old town. In the evening they were picked up again by the Fram in the harbour of La Coruna.

View of Santiagos cathedral

The Fram on its way to La Coruna

Porto

After we had some lectures in the morning we came to the harbour of Leixoes, close to the ancient city of Porto, wich gave name to all the country. The city itself was very interesting to explore, some guests even looked at it from the riverside during a boatcruise. Others went on a longer excursion into the north, passing a green forrest-landscape with a lot of small hills and settlements.

View of Porto

Lisbon

So we docked this morning in the capital city of Portugal. About half the guests were leaving, while the rest still stays until Rouen or even Hamburg. The weather got a little bit wet today, heavy showers came in turn with splendid sunshine, so there were some nice opportunities for good pictures with dramatic skies. Everybody went out to see the highlights of the city, as the famous tower of Belem or the jeronimo-abbey. And some went even further by bus to explore some small citys nearby.

The baroque palace of Queluz