Let’s start again

Three days of maintenance on board MV FRAM in Bergen that meant three days without passengers, three days with lots of meetings, with lots of workers running around the ship; people were running with important faces from meeting to meeting, travel agents tried to learn the ship, everybody seemed to be very busy and the ship looked between like an anthill.

God thanks, this afternoon everything went back to normal. Passengers arrived on board MV FRAM after a short city tour in Bergen around 16:00. 

The check in procedure was done fast. There was time enough to learn the ship before passengers went to their first dinner buffet. 

Just before MV FRAM left the harbor of Bergen the guests had to join the mandatory safety drill.

At 21:30 our Captain Rune Andreassen invited us for his Welcome Cocktail and introduced us to his team of officers and Karin Strand, our expedition leader, used later on the opportunity to present us her team of lecturers.

As all passengers had a long travel day all guests have been much tiered. So everybody was happy that we had to change our clock one hour backwards to get the Shetland Island time. One hour backward meant 1 hour longer sleep. That was just right for our first night on board.

It’s time to say good bye

Now it was there – the end of our trip. It came faster than we expected. Of course we knew that we had to leave at the 22^nd of April, and of course we knew that the calendar showed the 22^nd of April, but we did not want to accept it, but we had to accept it.

We reached Bergen in sunshine and that is very rare to see this beautiful town in sunshine. But we had sunshine nearly every day, why should it have been different on today?

After a brunch in our restaurant it was time to say good bye. But there is always a possibility to come back! 

It’s a sea day again

Our last day on board has been a sea day again. We had to cross the North Sea on our way to Norway. This region is very well known for its offshore oil exploration and it was nice for us to see these special constructions.

If you at home follow our blog more often than you will know already that our sea days are no lazy days. The lecture staff had prepared again lots of lecturers for us. So we learned about sea birds and salmon, about Van Gogh and the art here on board FRAM. The sea was calm like always on this cruise. There has been no excuse for us not to join the lectures.

In the late afternoon our Captain Rune Andreassen invited us to his Farewell Cocktail. 

Time was passing by very fast on this trip. We have been always busy. We saw and learned so much during the last days. It was wonderful.  

Amsterdam – Here we come!

In the early morning we left the North Sea behind and turned into the 27km long North Sea Channel towards Amsterdam. As Amsterdam lays under sea level we had to pass the locks to reach the level of Amsterdam. It was a special feeling to sail in a region that’s deeper than the sea level.

First we passed some green fields alongside, but soon we reached the industrial suburbs of Amsterdam with its oil-terminals, coal storage and chocolate factories. After a last band of the channel we reached our pier, in the very heart of the city, very near to the central station.

Amsterdam is the capital of the Kingdom of the Netherlands even the seat of the Dutch government is in Den Haag.  For sure Amsterdam is the most populous and perhaps the most popular town of the Netherlands.

Passengers left the ship as soon as we have been alongside. Some went for a walk to learn the city. Others preferred to go on a legendary channel cruise. 

Those passengers that knew Amsterdam already went by bus to the Keukenhof, where thy enjoyed the spring vegetation, especially the tulips.

Everybody was tiered when we left the Netherlands through the North Sea Channel. It has been an incredible last landing on this cruise. Until now we have had only nice weather with lots of sunshine on this cruise. Hopefully it will stay like this until we will reach Bergen the day after tomorrow.

Back to France

In the morning we had a short stopover in Honfleur, in the Normandy. Honfleur is a little town located at the river mouth of the Seine and belongs to the French department of Calvados. The department got its name from the “Plateau du Calvados”, but none of us is thinking about a plateau when we hear the name Calvados. Most of us are thinking about the Calvados brandy, which is produced out of apples grown in this area and is so well known all over the world.

There are flowering more than 9 million apple trees in the Normandy in springtime and there are thousands of festivals belonging to the apples in spring and autumn. The inhabitants of the Normandy say that they are famous for their “three C”, the Calvados, the Cider (an apple wine) and of course the Camembert, this fantastic tasty and creamy cheese.

Some passengers choose an excursion to see the hinterland and the beaches of the “côte fleurie” in the Normandy. One of the great charms of this area lies in the diversity of its manors, which are generally countrified, pleasant to look at, and always perfectly adapted to the rural setting.

During a longer stop in Deauville, an important seaside resort, the passengers had the possibility for a short beach walk. 

Afterwards they took the opportunity to visit a calvados distillery where they could even test different vintage.

Honfleur itself is a picturesque fishing port characterized by its tall and narrow houses, many of them with slate-covered frontages, even a bit inclined and its narrow alleys. The little harbor is so charming that you can find many painters sitting next to the water front. They feel in the same way inspired from this silhouette like the famous painters Boudin and Monet before them. 

Sark and Guernsey – A flower power day

The day we spent on Sark and Guernsey. Both islands belong to the Channel Islands which are a British Crown dependency in the English Channel next to the coast of the Normandy. 

We started with Sark in the morning and joined Guernsey in the afternoon. It was an incredible day. The sun was shining out of a clear blue sky the whole day.

Both islands are well known for their flowers and we have been here just at the right time in spring. We had the feeling to walk in an oversized garden – especially in Sark, where it is not allowed to drive a car; even the doctor has to visit his patients with a tractor.

We offered many different excursions during the day, like a horse carriage tour, bicycle tours, hiking tours and on Guernsey also a bus tour. Look at the pictures and you will get a little impression what we experienced.