Bergen

Today is our second day in Bergen with lots of preparations for the upcoming Antarctic season.
The ship was again turned around, this time with the starboardside to the pier.
Also inside a lot work had to be done. New equipment had to be placed.
The weather is still nice and so are the temperatures. For the crew and staff onboard there was still a little bit of time to discover the wonderful second biggest city of Norway.

Bergen

Bergen in Norway, the second biggest town and former capital was reached early in the morning.
Our pier is just beneath the famous fortress Bergenhus. Its origin goes back to the 13th century.
Around the MS Fram a lot of big supply and maintenance vessels for the oil platforms in the North Sea are moored.
The weather is like the inhabitants would like to see it a lot more often in Bergen...sunny and warm.
At 9 am a sad moment.... we had to say goodbye to all our guests. It was an absolut nice company and wonderful trip with all of them from Reykjavik to Bergen.
The MS Fram started to be prepared for the long Antarctic season. A lot of gear is transported inside the ship and the ship's outside got a new appearance. Have a look at the picture!!!! 

At sea

Our last day on board......a sea day from Leith/Scotland to Bergen/Norway.

In the morning the sea was calm but that turned to a 5-6 on the Beaufort Scale in the afternoon.
Gannets and fulmars followed the ship and dolphins were to be seen around noon.
The day went with bridge visits and lectures.

The lectures were about the Vikings, stave churches, whales and dolphins, information about the city of Bergen, the art on the MS Fram and also about the destinations with the MS Fram all year around.

Your photographer on board showed his presentation of the voyage pictures and in the evening the Captain Arild Hårvik said goodbye to everyone in the Observation Lounge.
Good bye and have a nice trip back home tomorrow from Bergen!!

Edinburgh

At 7 am the MS Fram reached the lock in the harbour of Leith. Leith is the docks area of the Scotish capital of Edinburgh. Here the famous Royal Yacht Britannia has its home. The ship is open for visitors. The ouside temperature in the morning was already up to 14 degrees...very typical sunshine weather for our trip so far. A free shuttle bus was arranged to bring the guests every hour from the Cruise Liner Berth to Waterloo Place in Edinburgh. Others participated in the excursions to the city of Edinburgh and the Castle or the Historic Royal Scotland excursion. Time was enough to explore the region and specially Edinburgh with his famous castle which is Scotland´s most visited tourist attraction. The ancient Honours of Scotland - the crown, sceptre and sword of state and also the Stone of Destiny which returned in 1996 north over the border- are on view in the Crown Room. It was a wonderful day on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth.

Orkney

This morning we reached the Orkney Islands. It is a group of 70 islands which lie only 12 km north of the Scotish Mainland. The archipelago have been settled since the Neolitic Period that means around 5000 years ago.

The weather forecast promised lovely weather for today and so it was: a little bit cloudy, then high sunshine and important nearly no wind at all. Two excursions left before 9 am from the pier.

One to the Italian Chapel & Highland Park Distillery and the other one to Skara Brae & Skraill House. It has been said that if you scratch Orkney, it bleeds archaeology. Those who did not want to join the excursions walked to the near by old town and visited the "Light of the North" which is the Magnus Chathedral. It was founded in 1137 by the Viking, Earl Rognvald, in honour of his uncle St. Magnus.

Our vessel left Kirkwall the main city of Orkney at 14 pm. In the afternoon lectures about fish and the Gulfstream and informations for the next day in Leith\Edinburg were given in different languages.



Skye

A beautiful sunrise at 8 am over the mountains of Isle of Skye when our ship reached his destination for today.

The largest town on Skye and the Inner Hebrides of Scotland, Portree.

Portree has a natural harbour fringed by high ground and cliffs. The name of the port Portree might came from "Port Righ" translates as "king´s port". Today the town serves as a centre for tourtists exploring the island of Skye.
Again a lovely day with sunshine and calm warm weather the whole day.
Excursions today:
"Panoramic Isle of Skye and Museum of Island Life" and
"West Highlands & Iconic Eilean Donan Castle".



At 5 pm we passed the famous Kilt Rock. It got its name of the typical kilt fabric pattern made up by basalt columns and dolerite sills. Both have there origin in the time when the Atlantic Ocean started to open.

Iona

The day today we spend on the beautiful islands of Iona and Staffa.
Again a superp day. Perfect weather condions for landings with our Polar Circle Boats.
The outdoor acitivies started around 8 o`clock on the island of island which is one of the oldest and most important religios centres in Western Europe. Christianity was spread throughout Scotland and marks the foundation of a monastic community by St. Columba.

The book of Kells, a famous manuscript, is believed to have been written by the monks of Iona around
800 AD. Vikings "visited" the monastery on the island several times.
Some of our guests went for an early service in the church, others walked around for personal education in the rich historic area of the Abbey and the surroundings. Two groups were shown around of professional guides.
All of us were very embrassed of beeing on the isle of Iona.
In the afternoon the ship sailed 14 nm northeast to the tiny island of Staffa. The name is from Old Norse and
means stave or pillar island. The island is well known for its basaltic rocks specially in the south end.
Nobody lives there. The island became to prominence after a visit by Felix Mendelsson. His Hebrides Overture brought fame to the island.

 

Again a superp landing with our Polar Cirkle Boats. The guests enjoyed to walk a longside the high cliffs and had a look into the majestic Fingal`s cave.



Oban

We reached Oban, a resort town within Argyll and Bute council area of Scotland.

Oban has a population of about 8,100 inhabitants.

The town is an important ferry port for the connection to the Hebrides.

A modern town which grew up around the Oban Distillery which was founded as early as in 1794.

Up on the hill there is the McCaigs Tower a prominent local landmark.

Outside of the town stands Dunollie Castle.

The weather again was fantastic with temperatures up to 18 degrees.
Two excursions were offered: "Majestic Scotland" and "Seil Island and Easdale".



Stornoway

The Outer Hebrides were on our programm for today. The galic word for for thease islands is "Na h-Eileanan Siar" or "Innse Gall".
The islands became part of the Norse kingdom  for over 400 years in the viking time until 1266 and they were called "Sudureyjar", the Southern Islands. Still 80 % of the population on the countryside speaks scotish galic today. There are some newspapers in galic, a TV station in galic, books are printed in galic and in the schools they teach in galic language. It looks like scotish galic language on the Outer Hebrides has a future.

The weather was calm and for us who now came down with the MS Fram from the northern countries nearly exotic temperatures of around 15 degrees. We docked at the port of Stornoway, the main but small and lovely city on the Outer Hebrides. Excursions were  offered to the Callanish Stones which are the finest example of a stone circle in Scotland dating from about 2900 BC, the traditional black houses and an rebuilt village from the iron age.

The Outer Hebrides are the famous area of the manufacture of Harris tweed which was the main souvenir bought on the island today!



Shetlands

In the morning around 8 o`clock our ship docked at the smal pier in Leirwick the capital of the Shetland Islands.

The small central city was only a few 100 meters away from the Fram.The weatherforcast for the day was not very good: rain the whole day! But that changed very qiuckly during the morning to a dry and warm day with temperatures of about 12 degrees. Our norwegian guests felt nearly at home.

The Shetland Islands had a great influence by norwegian invaders. The Norwegian language, "the norn" was spoken until the 19th century.

The excursions to the "Jarlshof" and the island of "Mousa" where booth very informativ and well joined by our travellers.

The Faroese

View of the inside of the cathedral in Torshavn

Today we reached the Faroe Islands. 18 still green islands of which 17 are inhabited.
The islands belongs to Danmark but they a kind of independence. A lot of exciting culture is to be discover there.
The Faroese viking language is most related to icelandic but has its roots in Norway.
The old Faroes chain dance is still alive but the time for us was too short to get closer in to it. We had an dance performance with the guest some days ago in our observation lounge.
The boat trip to the famous Vestmanna bird cliffs was cancelled due to the strong wind from southwest. Instead of a trip to the northern part of the island of Eysturoy was offered. That trip with beautiful views over lots of waterfalls and nice tiny villages was fantastic.

                                    

We had a bus tour to Kirkjubour the old religios center. The Olav church, the oldest stone church still in use from the 12th century, the ruins of the gothic St. Magnus cathedral and the 900 years old kings farm house the oldest wooden house in Europe were visited.



At sea

Today is a sea day with lots of lectures. Tone our norwegean viking women dressed in fine viking clothes gave informations about the live in the middleage in Norway and where ever the Norweagians settled down.

Katja hold lectures about the viking religion, art and the daily live. Informations about the landing tomorrow morning are given by Klaus, Torshavn and the Faroes, his home for many years.

Heimaey

Around 7.30 am the MS Fram entered the small entrance to the only village on the island of Heimaey the biggest island of the Vestmanna islands. It is always exciting how a vessel of the size of the MS Fram can pass through the steep cliffs on starboard side and the redish vulcanic lava from the last eruption in 1973 on portside. The weather was overcast and rainy, but nevertheless all of us enjoyed the bustrip, the walking tour and also the film about the eruption on Heimaey in 1973 in the museum.

Reykjavik

A new trip starts today from the pier close to the heart of Icelands biggest city Reykjavik. Not far from here the viking Ingolvur Arnarson settled down around 874 B.C. and called the place a Smokey Bay (Reykjavik).

The wind had calmed down and the sun shined the whole day, but it was cold in the city on 65 degrees north. The new guests arrived on time and we could leave Reykjavik just before 8 pm.