Even with cloud cover – some of it very low and forming interesting-looking streamers within the mountainous walls of the surrounding fjord during our 2013 visit – Flåm is very attractive, but being a village with only a few hundred inhabitants it does suffer from not having a whole lot to do and on our arrival it all seemed very quiet indeed even allowing for the serenity emanating off the scenery. I will make some allowance for the fact it had been raining for most of the day on this occasion, too.

Certainly, businesses have sprung up to cater for the influx of tourists, increasingly from cruise ships, but generally these are simply shops and cafés plus a couple of small museums. There is a local railway line running from the village that provides for some spectacular views (we’ve not done it but it’s supposed to be excellent) but if you’re thinking of visiting this village port on a cruise ship then it’s probably best you plan to take a trip inland when you’re there if you want to see something more of interest than wooden buildings and souvenir shops selling sweaters. This lack of captivating attractions can completely skew the financial benefits that a cruise ship can bring to a port especially when the ship is as easily accessible as it is in Flåm; given a choice between spending some money to buy food ashore – and in Norway that can be a lot of money as you’ll see further down – or eating as much as you want for no additional cost aboard, a significant proportion of travellers will choose not to support the local economy and to channel their inner-tightness to save a few quid on their multi-hundreds of pounds holidays. Well, we’ve paid for it already, haven’t we? they’ll say, and we’ll smile tightly and nod and think dark thoughts. Yes, I know that anecdotally some people have real reasons to act that way. We’ve just never met any and this is a site about cold, hard facts, damn it!

Now, that being said about there not being a lot to do in Flåm, there is one thing that leapt to the forefront of our attention when our guide mentioned it on the bus back to the port: Flåm has a brewery. Thus is was that we had exactly one thing on our mind as we jumped down from the vehicle by the water. Let’s buy a sweater! No, wait, that wasn’t it. To the brewery! That sounds more like us. Long story short, we went and we had a fabulous time there.

Here then is our recommendation for the top thing to do in Flåm: make sure you’ve got plenty of money and spend a couple of hours in the gorgeous Ægir BrewPub. You can get some food there too if you want but the beers are the stars of the location. We love frequenting microbreweries back home because there’s nothing nicer than beer freshly-made and we always seek them out when we travel too. For as good as the cocktails are on a cruise ship, it’s fair to say that beer quality is an area where all the lines do disappointingly for our tastes (P&O usually keep a decent range of bottled beers in theory, but good luck with them being stocked) so a chance to get something malty and amber-coloured or darker and with a connection to the port of call on the cruise is something we jump at. In this respect Ægir excelled. Three drinks each set us back fifty-four pounds in 2013 so factor that into your budget plans if you must but also consider that we were well-aware of the price and ended up spending that amount anyway.

In addition to the brewery having a lovely, wooden interior it also sported some fabulous chairs with rotating, cupped seats. Interesting enough when we first arrived they provided even more spinning-based enjoyment as each drink slipped down and it was all I could do to convince my wife that buying and/or stealing one of them and trying to get it back on the ship was not the most sensible of things to be considering.

We did take a look at the shops in Flåm but didn’t see anything to make our souvenir-spending juices run and concluded our time in the pretty village with a slow wander back to the ship.

With our cabin being located on the starboard side of the ship we had a view of the landscape opposite the village from our balcony. This was effectively just the innermost part of the Aurlandsfjord and the few buildings along its shoreline; mostly the village marina and rental cottages. It was nice to see the wispy string of low cloud level with it in the fjord valley.

The next day would see us visit the final port on this Norwegian fjords cruise, that being Stavanger.

Our bus dropped us off in the main square in the city centre, next to a park and lake, Breiavatnet, and with views to the inlet of water, Vågen, in which Crown Princess was docked. The proximity to greenery and water with all its boats, along with Norway’s naturally crisp (though pleasant) September air, gave everything a fresh feeling somewhat at odds with some of architecture on show, much of which was brutalist or modernist. This was partly the result of damage during World War 2 – the Germans had attacked and occupied the city following a parachute assault in early 1940 – and partly the result of an economic boom in the wake of oil discoveries in the North Sea during post-war years.

The first of the two things to see in Stavanger included in our organised excursion was Stavanger Cathedral. The city of Stavanger considers its formation to be the year 1125 despite the area being inhabited before that, and construction of Stavanger Cathedral is reckoned to have taken place between 1100 and 1150. The building of the cathedral was instigated by Bishop Reinald who likely came from Winchester in the Anglo Saxon kingdom of Wessex, giving Stavanger a loose connection with my home county of Hampshire.

Originally Romanesque in design, reconstruction was required following a large fire in 1272 and Gothic design elements were introduced. The present interior and exterior look of the cathedral, however, follows first a removal of medieval themes from the design then a partial restoration of them in the 1860s and post-war period from the 1940s to 1960s respectively. We can’t really say anything here because we keep changing our dining room too.

The first thing to be brought to our attention just inside the entrance of Stavanger Cathedral was a large tapestry by Frida Hansen. Frida’s history is an interesting one. The wealthy families into which she was born (1855) and married fell into some hardship during an economic downturn and for a time Frida had sole responsibility for her family. She sought to start up a business repairing tapestries and, later, having taken some courses, started producing tapestries of her own. Her skill was such that she put on exhibitions, won awards, and studied abroad. The prevailing art fashion at the time was art nouveau and she introduced this into her work back in Norway. Her final piece of work, however, was the Saint Olav Tapestry that hangs now in Stavanger Cathedral and, with art nouveau having gone out of fashion by the time she started in 1926, this piece reflects more traditional elements of Norwegian design. There is a good write-up about individual parts of the design of the wall covering here: Frida Hansen’s Last Large Tapestry.

Stavanger Cathedral isn’t a particularly large cathedral by any stretch of the imagination and has a fairly basic layout consisting of three main aisles with the nave’s abundance of semi-circular arches immediately announcing the original Romanesque architecture. The pulpit was particularly impressive; wooden, beautifully carved, and surprisingly colourful. If you’re visiting the cathedral in Stavanger then pay particular attention to the designs around the capitals of the pillars. Slightly odd for what was originally a Roman Catholic place of worship, but totally typical for anywhere you find yourself in Scandinavia, you’ll find imagery depicting scenes of Ragnarok which I’ve thoughtfully neglected to photograph thereby forcing you to book a trip to Norway to see for yourself.

As we left the building, a painted and carved wooden portrait consisting of Søfren Pedersen Godtzen, former mayor of Stavanger, along with his wife and eighteen children also caught our eyes, not least because of the eighteen children. I’m guessing there wasn’t a lot of day-to-day work for a seventeenth century mayor in Norway to do or he had aspirations of raising football teams. The cold, Norwegian winters can turn a man’s mind. You might only initially count sixteen offspring but if you look to the bottom left of the group you’ll spot the other two, obviously-deceased children too. A second portrait on the wall opposite was more interesting for its frame incorporating a skull and some almost surreal faces.

So, not a huge amount to see in the cathedral but worth a quick visit because of its historical age in the country and to take a look at some of the artistry on display.

A walk of a few hundred metres from the cathedral brought us to the final part of our final organised excursion on this cruise. Gamle Stavanger is now a clean, quaint area of cobbled streets with white, wooden-panelled buildings but it very nearly didn’t make it out of the 1950s unlike the first person we saw who was still investigating a murder in a liquor joint run by mobsters.

The original houses sprung up during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries but following the second world war and the need to rebuild damaged areas this entire area was set to be demolished and for modern, concrete buildings to go up in place. Fortunately for tourism in general, the city architect at the time saw the potential in conserving the traditional structures and turning the rundown houses and businesses into something far more pleasing to the eye. Today, this old part of the city of Stavanger is a trendy location to own a home and the only major downside is people wandering through perpetually snapping photos.

A few flashes of street art and decoration aside, Gamle Stavanger appeared to be uniformly attractive at first glance but the painted panels and tiled roofs disguised quite a variety of housing designs and helped with the feeling of a natural evolution of buildings rather than something planned.

Gamle Stavanger is situated on the western side of the Vågen inlet which was also where our cruise ship was docked, making for an interesting, almost anachronistic sight in the old town part of the city. It certainly brought home – not that we needed it bringing home – just how large cruise ships are.

There are a few notably historic buildings amongst the collection of generally historic buildings dotted around Gamle Stavanger. A canning museum in a preserved cannery building is probably the main one (particularly if you like cans), although a traditional workers’ cottage and a building dating to 1726 both may be of interest too, with all three located along Øvre Strandgate. Sadly, all three were closed during our visit so we simply had to make do with soaking in some of the tranquility that comes from being taken back in time in our minds in these sorts of attractions. While most of the buildings are private residences you’ll also find some shops and cafés in the streets so whether the museum is open or not it’s all still worth a look around.

We had some time at the conclusion of our tour of some of Stavanger’s highlights to head into the main part of the city had we wanted but the proximity of Crown Princess to where our excursion terminated helped us to decide to hop back onto the ship instead.

Stavanger’s on no accounts the most appealing of the Norwegian ports if you’re taking a fjords cruise but the city has enough to see and do in and around it. Our tour was an eclectic one taking in sights from the Iron Age through medieval periods and into the telecommunications age, and a good taster of how history helps to build a place.

There were fewer photos taken on our cruise departure from Stavanger, you might be pleased to hear, but if you haven’t seen the pictures taken of the Norwegian landscape as we sailed into the city earlier in the day then please read this: Norwegian Fjords Cruise To Stavanger.

Leaving Norwegian waters and hitting the North Sea, Crown Princess then turned southwards to head for home. With us being on the starboard side of the ship this gave us the opportunity to even witness a sunset at sea from our balcony, something we’d not been able to do during the earlier days of this cruise. And you wonder why we like to cruise so much!?

The Princess Patter – the daily programme of events aboard ship when you’re cruising with Princess Cruises – provided all the information we needed to know that the morning would include trivia and nothing else. Sadly, the trivia clashed with the Zumba class which we would definitely have 100% liked to do had we been suffering from possession by the spirits of people who’d died keeping fit. And the trivia overran the start of the acupuncture seminar which would have been thoroughly interesting if parasites had eaten away any of the rational parts of our brains. Some knowledge-testing, then, with a stroll up to the top deck afterwards to watch the approach to Stavanger.

A very quick aside: the front of this particular day’s Princess Patter included the following statements from the senior doctor at the time. As I’m writing this in 2020 it’s worth reminding those who think (or who have a vested interest in promoting the misguided belief) that cruise ships are “petri dishes” and unclean and the sources of viral infections, cruise ships and cruise lines have always promoted higher levels of cleanliness than you would ever have found while travelling by air or staying in hotels.

And with that out of the way let’s get on with the purpose of this post: our approach to Stavanger on Crown Princess.

The morning was cloudy with showers forecast for the day ashore in Norway, but the temperature was pretty good and it was thankfully dry as we headed out onto the top deck of the ship. We started at the aft because you’ve got to start somewhere. One thing you might be able to discern from these pictures is that there was noticeable vibration towards the rear of Crown Princess on this cruise. You can see the effect on the surface of the aft swimming pool. This never bothered us, and we even chose an aft balcony when we cruised again on Crown Princess to the Baltics four years later, but if you’ve not cruised before and feel this is something that could be a problem for you then book a cabin away from where the propellers are.

Heading forwards towards midships brought us to the two main swimming pools that Crown Princess sports. Both pools are open to the elements so it’s not the most ideal ship for cruising to colder climates but don’t let that put you off her as a vessel. We took in some of the views of the mainland and I snapped plenty of photos of exciting things such as telephones and railings. It keeps me out of mischief.

When your cruise ship is scheduled for a port day you may not get much organised in terms of outdoor activities unless, as was the case on this day, you’re not due to anchor or dock until fairly late. To keep passengers entertained, a morning golf chipping challenge was arranged around the Neptune pool, and a good mix of talented and talentless would-be-golfers sent balls into the water, the assembled crowd, and occasionally the target shower unit to general enjoyment.

The day was getting surprisingly brighter as the ship started to see the first signs of the outskirts of Stavanger appear alongside, and we decided to watch the remainder of the sail into the Norwegian port from our cabin balcony. There was a mix of attractive residential properties along the water’s edge and reasonably heavy, industrial sections. While the cruise ship of necessity kept her speed low to stop from producing waves to swamp the shoreline, the same restriction didn’t apply to smaller boats that merrily zipped along between the vessel and the land.

One sight that caught our attention was an old ship. This turned out to be the Rogaland and she’s a ship with a moderately interesting history. She was originally built in 1929 as a combined cargo and passenger vessel making runs from Stavanger to Oslo and Bergen. In 1944, while docked in Bergen, an ammunition barge that had come into the port for repairs exploded (killing a waitress on the ship in addition to numerous dock workers) and the resulting damage sank Rogaland. She was re-floated but not fully repaired until after the war when she resumed coastal routes. In 1989 veteran ship enthusiasts bought Rogaland with the intention of restoring her to her 1929 original look inside and out. Rising costs have reduced that plan to restoring her to her 1964 look instead which was when she last ran the standard passenger and cargo routes and before she worked around shipyards. Finally, if you’ve seen the movie Dunkirk then you might have spotted Rogaland acting the part of a hospital ship.

For the final approach to Stavanger, Crown Princess swung around, bow to port, stern to starboard, in order to reverse into its designated spot alongside. This gave us the chance to see what we’d been missing from our balcony on the northeastern side of the channel into the city, that mostly being some smaller islands connected to the mainland by bridges. Plenty of fellow passengers watched the same views from atop the bridge wings.

Our day in Stavanger included an organised excursion and some free time to explore the city. The first part of our day’s excursion would see us travel to the Ullandhaug area of the city in order to take a look at an iron age farm and a telecommunications tower.

First up was the spot at which the tragedies of the tsunamis along Lovatnet (explained in the previous article) was memorialised. A white cross on one side of the road sat opposite a metal plaque on which the names of those who were killed in the two natural disasters was listed.

The views were idyllic; a poignant contrast to the events behind the reason for our stop here to take photos. Across Lovatnet we could see Ramnefjellsfossen waterfall cascading down towards the lake.

Also visible was the remains of Lodalen, the boat which had been unceremoniously deposited inland on the first tsunami, then lifted up again and slammed further up the hill from the lake when the second disaster occurred.

We reboarded our bus and continued along the road towards Loen for about another twenty minutes until we stopped for the final time on this day’s cruise excursion. This was Kjenndalen, a traditional Norwegian farming village for want of a better description, and a picturesque spot right by the shore of Lovatnet with more of those spectacular views of the landscape we’d been spoilt by during our time on land; glacial lake, mountains, waterfalls: what more could you want?

Kjenndalen comprised a number of wooden buildings all sporting grass on their roofs, similar to one we’d seen during our previous day’s hike at Geiranger. Stone bases for sturdiness and wooden fences added to the rustic look impressively. With the vista of one of Norway’s turquoise lakes and a chain of ice-capped mountains to look out on, with the lush green of the late summer on the landscape, and with the pleasing temperatures of this time of year and gentle sunshine it was easy to see why this location had been settled. I could almost see myself living here until I remembered how much it typically rained in this part of the world and that I couldn’t recall having passed a pub on the drive.

That brought our Princess Cruises-organised excursion to an end so all that remained was to return to the ship in Olden. As is fairly traditional with fairly fresh-faced cruisers (and we were, at this time; more weather-beaten these days) there were some traditional photos of Crown Princess before boarding and passing through security.

Crown Princess let go her lines at 17:10 (look at me sounding all nautical when all I’m doing is quoting from the log of cruise) and made her way along the fjords towards her next port of call, Flåm, where we had another packed day planned with a long excursion and where we’d discover a very welcome surprise in the port itself. We stayed out on our balcony for quite some time because, well, it’s Norway and it’s fjordy and it’s pretty.

Olden is situated at the southern end of the 106-kilometres long Nordfjorden and early in the morning it was cast in shadow from the imposing landscape, the sun not yet high enough to do anything other than illuminate the peaks of mountains on the western shore of the water.

The scene was one of serenity and if you were deaf then you can imagine it still would be, but as the short video clip (temporarily removed) below shows, it wasn’t quite the spot of tranquility you might imagine from the still photography.

We spent a little time out on the balcony taking in the view, remarking how spectacular it would be to have the fjord water and mountain around you all year long, and taking numerous photos. If you’re looking at some of the photos below and thinking There are an awful lot of very similar shots of the same thing there then welcome friend, you must be new around here. I’m Mark and I take lots of photos of the same thing then post them on this site.

Crown Princess was docked opposite a few buildings, one of which offered souvenirs for anyone who fancied picking some up. Tour buses were parked outside it and there was a land train too. To our right, southwards on account of the direction in which the ship was facing, we could see a building which appeared to have once been a guest house although looked to have been converted to provide tourism services. A popular place to visit not far to the south of Olden is the Briksdalsbreen glacier and there were plenty of options available for anyone fancying a trip to see it, from taxis to hiring cars, or taking the scheduled shuttle bus, or going on a more guided tour. Our plan while in Olden was to visit a glacier too but we would be travelling east of the village on an organised excursion through Princess Cruises to the Kjenndal glacier instead.

Our excursion wouldn’t be for a while so we had time for breakfast then headed up to the top deck for more views of Olden and its position in the Nordfjorden. Olden doesn’t have anything worth mentioning historically but geographically it’s in the Jostedalsbreen National Park which accounts for the breathtaking vistas in every direction. Flat fjord water reflecting the Norwegian landscape was mesmerisingly beautiful.

The time came for us to head to the meeting point for our glacier trip, and, since this was only our second ever cruise and everything was even more exciting than it still is, I couldn’t help but fire off some more photos as we passed through Crooners. You can read about the organised trip portion of our day docked in Olden in Lovatnet Lake And Kjenndal Glacier Excursion.

Crown Princess had dropped anchor near the Norwegian village in order to let a small percentage of the passengers off who would be taking a hike of their own then catching up with the ship later in the day. Knowing the ship wasn’t stopping long we simply admired the view from our balcony which handily included a sight of Hellesylt nestled on the shore of the fjord and the tender boat operation in place to take fellow travellers from the cruise ship to land.

The cruise from Hellesylt to Geiranger took around one hour and twenty minutes and for this duration we spent almost all of it on the top deck both to give our room steward the opportunity to clean our room whenever it was most convenient for him and so that we didn’t miss a thing of the scenery on either side of the Geirangerfjord as we cruised along it to our destination.

We started off by watching the Norwegian scenery pass us by from towards the aft of the ship, as much as anything to give us as different a view as possible from our cabin which was very near to the front.

For obvious reasons – to keep waves to a minimum so that the impact on the land is negligible – cruise ships need to keep their speed low when in the fjords. You’ve got flat, calm water, and towering faces of tree and bush-covered rock either side; the hum and low white-noise of the engines; the conversations of passengers carrying but everything just a bit muffled; a hint of echo in the surroundings but also sound-dampening taking place. And with all that you’ve got rises and falls in landscape, great tears of rock on occasion, waterfall streams from higher mountain tops and melting glaciers cascading in places. It is a simply astonishing, serene, humbling experience to cruise along the fjords of Norway.

The rock formations along the fjords were just incredible to look at and we found places where the cruise ship seemed startlingly close to the cliff faces it passed. However, scale can be difficult to judge with the sizes and distances involved. We were a lot smaller than we thought against the thundering presence that nature was throwing up around us and it was only when we could spot a structure we were familiar with – a house on the fjord shoreline, for instance – that our perspective reset itself.

More people started appearing on deck as we neared one of the sights of special interest along the Geirangerfjord route. Crown Princess passengers filled up all the best viewing spots along the sides of the ship and attracted the attention of staff keen to see who wanted to start the morning off with some speciality coffee or get some water to take ashore ahead of the disembarkation process to follow. The serenity of the earlier part of the cruise was somewhat lost but it didn’t detract from the views from the top deck too much.

That special sight was the Seven Sisters Waterfall. One side of the fjord sees seven streams representing the sisters dancing playfully down the rocks while the opposite side has a single suitor who flirts with them. You get used to these sorts of myths when you visit Scandinavia.

With this cruise trip to Norway taking place in September the water levels were fairly low so the waterfalls weren’t as impressive as they can be at different times of the year but we were lucky to have exceptionally nice weather cruising along the fjord which allowed the sunshine to generate rainbows in the cascades as we passed.

With the waterfalls behind us we weren’t far from the village of Geiranger now. The place relies on tourism and despite its small appearance it boasts the third largest cruise ship port in Norway, able to cope with several cruise ships at once in numerous anchor positions and with the assistance of a floating and movable pier. It’s also a place at risk of destruction from a tsunami should a large enough rock fall occur along the Geirangerfjord.

Crown Princess wasn’t the only cruise ship visiting Geiranger on the day we visited in 2013. The first ship we passed was P&O Adonia. Formerly with Princess Cruises as Royal Princess she has since been sold and renamed as Azamara Pursuit. We also spotted Celebrity Eclipse.

Both of those ships were employing tender boats to ferry their passengers onto land but we still had quite a bit of a wait as we’d only just arrived. Not only that, because we had an excursion booked we had a specific time at which we needed to make our way to the theatre on the ship so that left us a period to enjoy the surprisingly warm (and getting warmer) day on the top deck.

The next part of our second day in Norway is covered in our Geiranger Hiking Excursion write-up.

We spent a lot of time on our balcony on this cruise because it had been something we’d not expected to have. We’d only paid an inside price but had been upgraded substantially when we’d boarded at Southampton. The generally cool weather wouldn’t keep us from using the balcony every day and we’ve never booked anything less than balcony on any other Princess cruise since so it was a fabulous investment from the company. We still love balconies and we still use them every day, rain or shine; for us, with limited annual leave each year, there’s no point saving money for extra cruises we can’t take anyway so we may as well get the best we can afford.

While we waited for Crown Princess to depart Bergen we could look out not only across the water to parts of the city sprawling around the shoreline of the fjord but also straight down to where someone was most likely taking some tender boat driving lessons or refreshing his or her piloting skills.

Late in the afternoon Crown Princess let go her lines and slowly pulled away from the Norwegian city giving us a different view of the surrounding land than we’d had during the approach.

Crown Princess wasn’t the only cruise ship visiting Bergen on that day but while we’d been allowed to dock at the port the AIDA Sol had needed to anchor in the water and tender her passengers ashore. We’ve subsequently seen quite a few of these AIDA ships when we’ve been cruising and their hull designs are always a welcome sight.

We continued to make use of our balcony for the cruise departure from Bergen rather than heading up on deck. This limited our view to the starboard side only but, hey, it’s a balcony! That’s what it’s there for.

If you’ve read the account of our morning cruise into Bergen then you’ll know that cruising along the Byfjorden involves passing under the Askoybrua Bridge, a suspension bridge with a main span of over eight hundred metres and a clearance just over sixty. It was not something that made the biggest impression on us because neither of us could remember cruising under it on Crown Princess in either direction and it was only the act of taking a look back at the photos long after the event that we realised we had even watched it all from our balcony.

The lesson there is that it might be a more memorable event to see your cruise ship passing under a bridge from the top deck so if you’re going cruising for the first time or the first time in a stretch of water that requires you to transit beneath a bridge then get out of your room and see it from the highest point of the ship. The lesson might also be that there’s a good reason I take so many photos and write as much as I do and that’s because our memory is just utterly shocking.

As Askoybrua disappeared in our ship’s wake we spotted AIDA Sol chasing us along the fjord.

All that remained while the light was good enough was to watch the landscape pass by. Crown Princess followed the Byfjorden then turned to starboard and retraced its route of the morning up the Hjeltefjorden. Occasional boats and yachts and rocky islands caught our attention for a time but eventually the lure of showers, changing into evening wear, and some drinks became too much to bear.

During the night Crown Princess had cruised northwards along the Norwegian coastline until it passed Holmengrå Lighthouse on its starboard side where it turned south into the Hjeltefjorden, the main shipping route from the sea to our destination of Bergen.

Despite late-night drinking (yes, we’ve been known to have the odd tipple) this cruise was our first experience of a balcony (and we’ve never looked back since; thanks for the huge upgrade, Princess) so the giddy joy that accompanied waking up in the morning meant we’d leap outside as soon as we were suitably dressed (not super warm on the North Sea and around Norway, after all) just to gawp at whatever we were passing. When you’re cruising along the Norwegian fjords you’re going to be passing rocks and hills for the most part and thus it was the case on this day. It was, unfortunately, raining, which meant grey skies, low clouds, and a damp chill to the air but that didn’t detract from the exhilaration of the experience.

At about quarter past seven in the morning the pilot came aboard although we couldn’t see this from our balcony. As we cruised past the small island of Sora Rotoyna Crown Princess turned to port and entered the south west arm of the Byfjorden for the final stretch towards the Norwegian city that we would be visiting.

Coming closer to some of the rocky islets in the fjords we could see that many were inhabited and in some cases the houses seemed astonishingly close to the water line. I can only assume we were either cruising during a high tide or that the water levels in fjord do not change by much. The houses along the fjord looked incredibly charming, would have had some spectacular views (and I can hardly imagine what the sight of a cruise ship passing by would look like), but I don’t think the isolated location requiring boat access is one I’d like. We love being near to the water but we’re still definitely city people at heart.

Before a ship can reach Bergen it needs to pass under the Askoybrua Bridge. I know this from the Log of the Cruise that Princess provide passengers with on the last day. I also know this from watching videos of people cruising in and out of Bergen online. I also know this from the photo below which clearly shows Crown Princess approaching the bridge.

So, do you remember passing under the bridge to approach Bergen?

We all stood up on the top deck, quite amazed at how close it all was, it was sunny, lots of people.

No, that was on Crown Princess, it’s true, but that was the Great Belt Bridge near Denmark in 2017.

Oh. Did we pass under it at night, then?

No, that was Diamond Princess leaving Yokohama in 2018.

Right. In that case, no, I don’t recall passing under the bridge near Bergen.

A conversation with my wife that confirms neither of us remember passing under the bridge. I’m going to blame this travelling lapse on our cruising naivety, this being for all intents and purposes a cruising virginity reboot for us and a time when we didn’t take anywhere near as many notes or invest anywhere near as much energy in researching trips. Despite my photo, I clearly had no idea we were about to cruise under the bridge near Bergen so we must have stepped back into the room or got breakfast and completely missed the experience. Bizarrely, since looking back at the photos since that point it turned out that we did watch the ship cruise under the bridge when we departed Bergen although I’d not bothered to document it originally on this site.

The rain had stopped so we made our way to the top deck of Crown Princess to see the final part of the cruise ship’s sail into Norway’s second-largest city, Bergen. The morning’s rain, the low cloud cover of the hills, and our high vantage point on the ship gave the place a compact and fairly drab appearance but that didn’t make a dent in our excitement levels and we looked forward to getting off and taking the free shuttle bus out of the port and into the city.

The next part of our Norwegian fjords travelogue series describes the sights of Bergen.

Ullandhaug was the area of the city to which we first headed. There would be two components forming this part of the excursion and both from very different parts of Stavanger’s history. We started at the Iron Age Farm open air museum. The location of Jernaldergården felt a little anachronistic, being overlooked by apartment blocks on one side, and this did detract from being able to immerse yourselves fully in the history, but it was still very interesting to visit and the guides did a fabulous job of recounting tales of what life was like in the period between 350 and 550 CE.

We didn’t just wander around the exterior of the farm buildings like the sheep in the area, but also were taken inside one for some more iron age storytelling. The buildings were very interesting, set into the ground and with turf laid on the roofs to keep the places as warm as possible. They were, however, awkward to get into and out of without a lot of bending and risk of bumps to the head.

Staying in the Ullandhaug area we next paid a visit to Ullandhaugtårnet, a telecommunications tower and landmark overlooking the city of Stavanger. Built in 1964 and standing sixty four metres in height there were some delightfully brutalist elements to the design that I loved and that many of our fellow passengers on the excursion couldn’t stand. As a light drizzle accompanied our visit to the tower and there were steps involved to get onto its viewing platform, a fair number of people decided to stay on the bus for the short time of our visit as a result.

Other than providing some lovely views of the Norwegian landscape around Stavanger, the tower itself did not have a lot of history, although it was built next to the spot where another tower commemorating the Battle of Hafrsjord had been erected in 1896 but which had been mostly destroyed during the Second World War. Stone markers with Viking symbols indicated where the remains of the tower had been removed the year before the telecoms tower had been constructed.

We enjoyed the scenery and tutted a little at the mediocre quality of the street art decorating some of the walls before heading back to the bus which was waiting to take us back to Stavanger.

Stegastein Lookout

The Stegastein Lookout is a viewing platform jutting out 30 metres from the cliff edge and situated 650 metres above sea level. I won’t lie: the name Stegastein really appealed to me. I think the combination of dinosaurs and robots from 2000 A.D. comics I read when I was younger just works well to make me instantly like a place. As luck would have it, though, the view was fabulous regardless of the awesome name although, as you can tell from the photos below, it was absolutely throwing it down with rain when we hit the location. I always find it amazing just how many people will stay on the bus in circumstances like that. We never do; rain can make for some truly atmospheric pictures and always helps with memories – “Do you remember that time we got utterly drenched stepping out onto that viewing platform?” – and in this case the sight of low cloud in the fjord valleys was breathtaking.

Aurlandsvangen

At Aurlandsvangen we had a short stop to wander around at our own leisure. Many people headed straight for the souvenir shops but we made our way instantly for the Vangen Church, the largest of the medieval stone churches in its county in Norway, having a free-standing, wooden, bell tower. It’s not that we don’t like buying souvenirs but when you have the choice between a historical monument and a store selling soft moose toys in red and blue jumpers we just find ourselves leaning in favour of the former option. We’re weird like that.

Outside the Aurlandsvangen church we braved the Norwegian drizzle for a little while longer, grabbing a final photo, but coming to the conclusion that there wasn’t a whole lot of things to see or do in this village. Of course, if soft moose toys in red and blue jumpers are your thing then you’re probably covered.

Our day trip concluded with a return to the ship at the village and cruise port of Flåm.