Nordhordlandsbrau – Nordhordlands Bridge

We woke early to another lovely day, a bit cloudier than yesterday, but still very pleasant. We had chosen our breakfast booking for 8am, so we had plenty of time to pack our bags before we went downstairs.

Hotels in Norway | Clarion Hotel®

Breakfast was typical Norwegian style, with lots of fish dishes such as gravlax, sweet pickled herrings, spiced herrings and mackerel in tomato sauce to name but a few. However, this was not for me. I went for salad and bread with mature cheddar and a brown cheese that I had never tried before. I don’t think I will be trying the brown cheese any time soon – it was very sweet and didn’t really taste much of cheese.

Once we had left the hotel restaurant, we decided to go out for a walk to get our steps up for the day and also check out places that we hadn’t been to yesterday. We headed away from the main harbour area and found Byparken, a park with a nice lake and a fountain. Nearby there was a market just setting up for the day, and we found a stall that had a full porbeagle shark on ice, ready to sell.

Porbeagle Shark

We also saw a statue of someone named Christian Michelsen, 1938, and later found out that he was a Norwegian politician. He was the mayor of Bergen and later became the first Prime Minister of independent Norway from 1905-1907.

Moving on, we walked back towards the hotel, passing another market setting up for the day. This time, we saw stalls that would later be selling wild deer or wild moose burgers and kebabs.

We arrived back at our room at about 10:30am and relaxed for about 15 minutes before we checked out. We were being picked up at 11:00am and had to make sure that all of our bags were labelled up for the bus transfer to the terminal at Bergen port. This is where we were starting our next adventure on the Hurtigruten MS Trollfjord.

MS Trollfjord: Discover Norway’s Coastal Majesty | Hurtigruten

There was a bit of chaos at the pick up time mainly because there were too many people trying to get on the bus. Everyone had already been emailed with the times that we were due to be collected so there was really no need for a mad scramble. Being on deck 8 we were being picked up first, but there were quite a few (shall we say) older people who weren’t quite understanding what this meant.

Anyway, we were soon on our way and arrived at the terminal after about six minutes. We got off the bus, and headed for the terminal to check in. We didn’t need to take our bags, this was all being taken care of by the Hurtigruten staff. This is when we received our boarding cards, which also act as a room key. Once we had checked in, we had to go upstairs to another area where there was a bar and tables for us to sit at until we had received our safety briefing.

The safety briefing went on a bit: we had to listen to the same thing being delivered in Norwegian, English, German and French. Once it was over, we then could board the ship, although we couldn’t go to our rooms. Instead, we had to get sized up for a jacket, jumper and hat each, which was a nice experience in itself. We then went to the 1893 bar (named after the year that Hurtigruten was established) and drank a glass of champagne and ate some nuts.

Once the ship set sail, we went onto the top deck of the ship and sat in the sunshine with our drinks. We were also allowed at this point to go to our room so we dropped a few things off that we no longer needed.

The waters that the ship sailed through were actually part of the North Atlantic Ocean. Everything was very calm for the first couple of hours, down Fensfjorden, until we headed out into more open waters along the Norwegian coast. This is where we saw lighthouses on remote rocky islands such as Ryvlenappane, Sogneoksen and Trovågen.

Ryvlenappe

We also passed by an island called Hardbakke, which is part of the Solund archipelago. It is a place where people come to do boat trips and kayaking between the islands. It is one of 1700 islands in the Solund archipelago out in the west on the ocean’s edge.

Hardbakke

The time had come to go and eat in the Røst restaurant on deck 8. We have a set time for our evening meal and decided that 7pm was suitable for us. We were informed by Claes, who is the restaurant manager, that we could change the time if we needed to.

We were seated at a table facing the window, so we could view the islands that the ship was passing. Our waitress greeted us with a big smile and asked us whether we wanted to have the “surprise” set menu or choose from the a la carte menu. Clause had already suggested that we go for the surprise menu, so we decided on that. This was because the decision was made for us, and we would choose things that we would not normally eat. It was certainly a surprise, but not unexpected, that the first course involved reindeer, tartare to be exact!

Reindeer tartare with cloudberries, shallots and porcini mushrooms

Each course came with its own wine pairing and a full run down of why a particular wine had been chosen. One of the wines came from an English grape which was bottled and then stored at the bottom of the Norwegian sea. We couldn’t quite work out why but it was lovely all the same.

As well as the reindeer tartare, we had the following courses:

Hasselbach potato with hollandaise, sour cream, chives and trout roe;
Rib-eye steak with smoked swede and peppercorn cream;
Norwegian blue cheese, carrot marmalade and nutty fruit loaf;
Mint and cream, with a beetroot sorbet and hazelnuts.

This and the amazing sunsets that we could see, along with wonderful islands and rock formations made for a perfect end to the day.