A day at sea

This morning many of our passengers visited the bridge to meet the captain of MV Fram, Arild Hårvik.

This was our 7. day on this tour. Since this was a sea-day, there were several lectures on different topics: The Keltic world, Gothic style, the Cathedral in Nantes,Whales, Dohphins and fish and also how to take good photographs. The vikingstory «Kråkamål» and briefings on our next city, Nantes, were also offered in our lecture-halls.

It was real nice to be outside and enjoy the fresh air, the sun and even look at the dolphins which followed our ship from time to time during our day.

Real fashion!

Have you ever wanted to know how it looks, the original swim-suit of the great polar hero, Mr Fritjof Nansen? 

The fashion show of MV Fram gave the answer. On this picture,from the "grand final" of the show,
even two copies of his white and blue swim-suit was to be seen. But of course, not only this. The expedition team and members of the crew showed sweaters, raincoats, T-shirts and more, all from our shop at Fram. Thanks to Aurea, this tours shopassistant, and Corrina, our great confransier. No doubt, our shop will soon be full of customers, after this wonderful show...

 

Leaving Rouen

We have now just left Rouen, the capital of Normandy, after staying here nearly 24 hours.

 

Even though Rouen is the third largest port in France, it is 120 km from the sea. So now we start on our long way back on the river Seine, towards the sea again.

 

 

Most of our passengers visited the charming old center of the city – some by participating on our excursion Rouen City tour. Both William the Conquer and Joan of Arc died in this town, which Victor Hugo called «the city of a hundred spires». The most impressing of all: The Cathedral of Notre -Dame.

 

The change between low and high tide is dramatic here in Rouen. It forms a tidal bore, which is a large movement of water formed by the funneling of the incoming tide into the river. In due to this, our gangway – which was meant to be open all night for passengers wanting to discover the nigthlife of Rouen or Paris – had to be closed in one hour the time around midnight.

 

Early this morning, there was an excursion to Giverny and the Monet Museum. Who would not have wished to own such a wonderful garden as  the French Impressionist Claude Monet?

 

A calm sea day

Day 4 of our «migration south» we enjoyed the calm sea on our sailing from Hamburg towards Rouen. The toughest ones put on their warm clothes and sat on deck.

Others listened to one or even more of the 8 different lectures which were presented during the day by the expedition team. This was the opportunity to get to learn more about the seabirds in the North Atlantic, Impressionism, the viking woman Aud the Deepminded, the Cathedral of Rouen and about cartography. And of course: There were port-presentations in german, english and scandinavian. Rouen, here we come!

Our day at sea is soon coming to an end. Just now, at 9.00 p.m. we have passed the Strait of Dover.

This strait is at the narrowest part of the English Channel, marking the boundary between the Channel and the North Sea. The shortest distance across the strait is only 34 kilometres. If we had passed the strait during daytime, we might have seen the famous «White Cliffs of Dover». But, unfortunately, it is now really dark outside...

Hamburg, at last!

 

At 11.15 a.m we finally reached Hamburg, the green city by the river Elbe. Hamburg is not only Germany's largest sea port, but also one af the largest harbours of the world, although it is almost 120 kilometres from the sea.

 

129 of our passengers left us here after a «mini-cruise» crossing the North sea. But there were also new passengers boarding MS Fram here in Hamburg. When we left the city at 15.00 p.m there were 178 passengers aboard the ship.

 

Our stay in Hamburg became a pretty short one. But the passengers who embarked MS Fram in Bergen could take a walk around for a couple of hours and feel the atmosphere of this beautiful city. Some participated on our tour «Best of Hamburg».

 

One of the stops on the tour was the Town Hall:  A splendid sand stone building with 647 rooms ( we
dit not have time to see all of them..)

 

Another stop was St. Michaelis Kirche.

 

In the end it was time to board MS Fram again. We are now sailing towards Rouen, France.

Wind over the North Sea

Our day at sea, on our way from Bergen to Hamburg, will be remembered for its south-east wind blowing directly against us. This is the reason why many passengers choose to stay in their cabins and take it easy during the whole day.  When we passed Fanø bukt approximately at 20.30 p.m we had a strong gale, wind with 22 m per second ( which means 9 at Beaufort scale) and the waves  were 3 - 5 meters high. This weather will stay for a while, but the captain has told us that we will be in a more sheltered area at 02.00 this night. Tomorrow at 10.30 we will arrive in Hamburg, about 2 1/ 2 hours delayed due to the wind and strong ocean currents.

As usual on sea-days, the passengers had the possibility to attend to lectures by the members of the expedition team.  They could learn more about the voyages with MS Fram ( Anja Erdmann), about whales and dolphines ( Klaus Kiesewetter) and the townhall of Hamburg from a cultural-geological perspective ( Andreas Sanders).

Arne Kertelhein and Katja Kern had lectures about the Hanseatic League, and there was a Hamburg port presentation.

Our passengers could also meet the «Viking woman». Tone Holte, dressed  as a rich viking woman, told about the clothes, the culture and the life of women in the viking age. She also played the willow flute.

The programme of today ended with even more music: Our pianoplayer, Myles, entertained in the Observation Lounge, and Tone invited all to «Viking song and dance» . Some brave «vikings» even tried to dance together with her on the very unsteady dancing floor...

Migrating south!

 

«Fram» left Bergen today, starting our 16 days tour along western Europe to Africa and the Canary Islands. We are looking forward to visiting Hamburg, Rouen, Nantes, La Coruna, Leixoes, Lisbon, Portimao, Casablanca, Agadir, Arrecife and finally Las Palmas.

 

 

At noon the first passengers boarded «Fram». We have now 199 passengers on board, coming from 13 different countries: Austria, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United States, Belgium and South Africa.

 

After the safety drill, all passengers got their blue «Hurtigruten»-expedition jackets.

Then our captain, Arild Hårvik, invited everyone to a drink and welcome in our observation lounge.

 

We have been sailing quite near the Norwegian coast the whole afternoon.

 

 

 

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.