Late June, 2022. This would be our third cruise on Sky Princess, operated by our preferred cruise line of choice, Princess Cruises, and it took place barely four weeks after getting off the same ship when we’d cruised to Denmark and Norway.

When we had booked this cruise that would be visiting some fjords and ports we’d not seen before in Norway ahead of a few stops along the north coast of Iceland, we’d filled in all the little details, picked the cabin we wanted, and chosen the earliest possible boarding time. Before we’d left our house on the day of the cruise departure, though, all of that had been changed by Princess.

Firstly, a fair amount of time before the cruise we’d spotted that the cabin we’d picked had been swapped out for another despite us requesting no upgrades. We’d half-expected this to happen, though, as, as with our previous cruise, what we’d chosen for ourselves – one of the few rooms with bigger balconies on these ships – had been commandeered for quarantine purposes; this was 2022, after all, and the pandemic was still in people’s minds. Our Premium Deluxe Balcony on deck 9 was replaced by a Mini Suite on the Lido deck. This was not what we would have chosen, even if Princess considered it an upgrade, but we decided not to fight the decision. As it turned out, we ended up really enjoying the convenience of being close to the pools and fast food places and we really liked the space in the cabin, even if the balcony suffered by comparison.

The second change came via a message the night before the cruise: the ship would be late in and our boarding time of 11:00 was pushed out to 12:30. No big deal, we thought, unless everyone ignores it. Unfortunately, there were a lot of people likely already with firm plans in place to turn up and our slight fear that perhaps Southampton would become a parking lot as a result turned out to be well-founded, though not just for that reason.

When we arrived at the port gates at just after midday we could see chaos in car form. However, the traffic, very slowly, was inching forward so we followed the line towards the ship’s berth. Then we followed the line away from the ship’s berth and down some side roads to perform a U-turn because people in hi-vis gear told us to. Then, after a hefty delay, we were sent to a parking area in queues. Then, after some time there, we were sent to another parking area in queues. Then, after some more time, we were sent to the area beside the ship where they would eventually take our details, park our car, and let us board. Not 11:00 then, nor 12:30. Not even the 15:00 we’d heard someone say it would be as there’d been reports that a fire alarm had cleared out the embarkation and disembarkation building for a while. We eventually boarded Sky Princess at 18:48.

You might imagine that we would be fuming after all this, but we genuinely had a load of fun while queueing. For a start, some of the parking people were doing their best to entertain grumpy passengers; one was even directing cars as if directing planes at an airport. As for us, we dug around in the glove compartment and found a USB stick of music we’d not listed to in ages, plugged it in on shuffle, hid the display screen, tried to guess the songs as they came up, and danced and sang along in the front seats. What’s the point in getting upset about things nobody’s got any control over? Everyone’s doing their best, and sometimes shit happens.

We aren’t the sort of cruisers who immediately head off to find some food as soon as they board the ship. Usually. You’ll understand that we were a little peckish on this occasion, though; not to mention thirsty. We had suspected there might be some delay at the port so had brought water just in case, but only a small bottle between us and that hadn’t lasted long. So, with it likely to be some time before our cases arrived we more-or-less just dropped our carry-on luggage in our room and went to dine in the Cielo dining room. We sat with a couple of American women and had a very good first meal on Sky Princess while sharing stories of how the day had been for everyone and everyone’s cruise history; all the usual stuff.

Back to our room for the much later than planned sail away and a small summer sunset from Southampton.

In addition to our cases then turning up – allowing us a chance to hang everything up, grab a shower, and get into something a little smarter and less grubby-feeling for the ship and its upcoming cruise – we received a letter from Princess Cruises informing us that they would be giving everyone some on board credit as a gesture of goodwill to make up for the delays in embarkation. Considering it wouldn’t have been their fault that there’d been a fire alarm and evacuation at the port building, that was a great move from Princess, and it’s not the first time we’ve benefitted from them from some issue that generally didn’t really affect us that much and wasn’t their fault in the first place either.

To finish off this day of embarkation chaos at Southampton, it won’t surprise you if you’re a regular reader of our cruise accounts to learn that we hit the drinks hard. Take Five, the jazz lounge, was our haunt for a few hours, selecting a variety of drinks from the extensive menu, enjoying the band, and enjoying the view of our home city of Portsmouth as we cruised past along the Solent.

We finished the evening off in the Vista Lounge, and I really mean we finished the evening off in the Vista Lounge. It was just us two and a mother and daughter who we were chatting with and dancing with at three in the morning when the lights finally came up and we let the DJ go to bed.

A long cruise embarkation day, not without problems, but one we thoroughly enjoyed nevertheless. In the next post in this Sky Princess cruise travelogue series I’ll share a few pictures and details of the next two days which would be spent at sea, relaxing, before the first of many great ports on this cruise.

If you’re one of those people who’ve not cruised with Princess Cruises before, or not cruised at all or in a long time, then you might be interested in seeing what sorts of daytime activities there will be on a Princess ship, and that’s covered below. If this doesn’t make you feel like cruising with Princess is for you then it’s probably worth mentioning that our experience on other cruise lines (and if you take a look at the menu on this site you’ll be able to see just how many that is) is that they’re all much of a muchness when it comes to these things. Fitness or dance classes, the odd quiz, some light music becoming more showy as the day wears on, and endless attempts to encourage people to make themselves look younger and fix their aching joints with highly questionable products or purchase some jewellery or artwork. It would almost be weird if we didn’t look at sea day activities on a cruise ship and think “Nah, I think I’ll just swim and read my book and drink.”

As I mentioned in the first post in this Sky Princess cruise travelogue series, we’d had an unwelcome “upgrade” to a mini-suite. Our preference would have been for a normal cabin with a big balcony – that was what we booked – but the addition of the seating area on which to throw bags and sit and read, plus the second TV for ordering food and drinks to the room was actually something we came to really like. Not only that, but its location towards the front and on the Lido Deck made it fantastically convenient to access the adults only pool and to pop out to grab snacks or drinks from the pool bars. Photos of the mini-suite are below.

We had been still up and dancing at gone three in the morning (as mentioned in the first post) and likely would have spent even longer in bed thanks to that on the back of a long day trying to get aboard Sky Princess but we were woken at half eleven by an announcement into the cabin from the captain pointing out that some passengers still hadn’t completed their muster drill.

The muster on Princess ships (at the time of writing this) is supremely easy. There are two things you need to do. First, stick the muster video on your TV (or watch on your phone) and at the end check the boxes that confirm you were present (as detected by your Medallion) and watched it (honest). Second, head down to your muster station so they can register your Medallion and confirm that, yes, you know where you need to go in an emergency. That’s it. We tend to put the video on while we’re unpacking and make finding the muster station the first thing we do as it’s the work of a few minutes in total usually.

That people still find a reason to not do the muster these days – and we experience it on other lines too – annoys me immensely for two reasons. Firstly, it increases the risk that the cruise lines will go back to the old way of mustering. I really, really don’t want to do that, and neither do you. Secondly, there’s an easy way to sort this out. You can’t buy a drink or hit the casino or the shops without a cruise card or Medallion, so after a grace period on embarkation day why don’t the ships simply block the card from purchases until the muster is done? Okay, I know why they won’t do that – it’s additional code development and quite likely prone to false negatives leading to lots of angry travellers – but it seems doable in theory.

Anyway, after all that, and after a late breakfast and a peruse through the Princess Patter to confirm there was nothing to do but eat, drink, swim, and read, we went ahead with the day’s plans of eating, drinking, swimming, and reading.

It was formal night on Sky Princess – they tend to be on sea days – but I didn’t feel in the mood for dressing up in my tuxedo so we booked at table at Bistro Sur La Mer, one of the speciality restaurants on the ship. We’d dined there before and I hadn’t been massively impressed with what I’d ordered, but my wife had liked it so I gave it another chance. I’m pleased to say it was massively improved this time around, and the view was quite spectacular with the low sun late in the evening as we headed north.

Our first Sky Princess sea day evening concluded at Take Five. On the previous night I’d asked the band if they knew the Duke Ellington track, Caravan, expecting it would be something that any jazz artists would know. They didn’t, which was a surprise. However, they’d looked it up during the day, practiced it, and performed it that evening for everyone, but mostly for me. How can you not like that?

Another day at sea rolled around on Sky Princess. We were still heading north up the North Sea towards Norway, and the weather was lovely. In the photograph below you can see the view from our balcony which shows its position above the bridge and also highlights the big problem we have with these cabins on Royal-class ships: the balcony depth. You can sit bolt upright, or you can sit at a slight angle. Meh.

We’d last been on Sky Princess only four weeks before when we’d cruised to Norway and Denmark so the ship hadn’t changed at all, but that’s no reason not to have a wander, take some photos of the top deck, the swimming pools, the sports areas, and the ship’s wake. It’s a nice, gentle way to pretend we’re getting exercise before we sit around spending another day eating, drinking, and reading once more.

On this day at sea we decided to do the free afternoon tea. This is something Princess do – I think – on every sea day. Some sandwiches, some rolls, some cakes, and a few cups of tea. It’s pleasant, but not spectacular, but it is complementary and we enjoy the break occasionally on cruises.

We had known that some other people we’d gotten to know on social media were going to be aboard and, while wandering through the ship, we bumped into them, sat down, and ended up chatting for hours. We’d end up spending a lot of time with them, often quizzing in the evenings.

This second sea day featured food in the Main Dining Room. Not only did we get a great seat with sea views, we also had a great meal. One of the stand-out things about this particular Sky Princess cruise was just how good the quality and range of food was. Food can be a bit hit-and-miss when you cruise, really depending on which staff are on, when you cruise, and all those other random factors, but it was all top notch on Sky Princess.

The traditional conclusion to most evenings on this particular ship was, of course, Take Five. Through the last set of the night we were the only people in there listening to the band and they made a point of coming over and thanking us for staying and applauding each track.

At this time of the year the sun barely sets in this part of the world which was why it was still light when we decided to make our way to bed. By this time, too, Sky Princess had started to make its approach into the Sognefjord ahead of its first port of call on this cruise, giving us our first glimpse of Norway’s fjords.

In the next post in this cruise travelogue series I’ll cover the excursion we took while docked at Skjolden, Norway. We’ll be starting with a drive up over the Sognefjellet mountain pass and we’ll make a stop at the Mefjell Crossing Memorial Stones.

When you travel to the Norwegian fjords you have to be prepared for any kind of weather. You can’t be one of those people who hit Facebook groups and says “We’re going to Norway in June so what will the weather be like?” because nobody knows. You can only hope for the best, but prepare for the somewhat less good than that.

It was raining in Skjolden. Some of that rain was coming from the clouds above us, but some seemed to be coming from the clouds that had decided it was nicer down near the water and had descended to save themselves some time and effort in getting people damp. That’s laziness from the clouds, but it did make for some interesting scenic views, even if they weren’t the ones we might have wanted.

We particularly enjoyed the views from the top deck as we came back from breakfast, not of Skjolden itself, but of the fjords around the ship and the way the clouds pushed fingers of themselves around the landscape. Something delightfully mildly threatening about it all.

Our day in the port of Skjolden was one with an excursion booked. We like excursions and will almost always book one if it’s our first time anywhere, and that was certainly the case here.

Our trip would eventually take us far from the fjords towards Lom, and the route would lead up over mountain passes, quite some height up. To break up the journey we had a few stops for photos on the way. While it’s true that you can’t guarantee the weather in Norway, you can at least guarantee some stunning views and old, impressive landscapes, and…

Ah.

The first stop was at the Nedre Oscarshaug Viewpoint. Perhaps on a clear day it would be a place from where you could see for tens of kilometres and bask in the sense of scale of the world around and your smallness within it. We simply got up and personal with more cloud. Many people didn’t bother getting off the tour bus, but I’m pleased to say that the majority of us laughed and headed outside for that chilly, drizzly experience you can see in the photographs below. There was a lovely dullness to the sound; the cloud really smothered the ambient noises.

A more interesting photo stop on the drive from Skjolden to Lom occurred next, both in terms of what could be seen and in terms of what the place represented.

In March 1813, six men with ages ranging from 20 to 57 from the Boverdalen valley, along with horses, tried to cross the mountains in search of grain. They didn’t succeed and succumbed to death by freezing. Memorial stones were erected at the Mefjell crossing for them.

The highest point of this mountain pass in Norway is almost one and half kilometres and we were still seeing snow and packed ice on the ground in late June, so it’s not hard to imagine what those men were facing towards the end of winter two centuries earlier. Arguably, the low visibility and quiet, chilled air lent this point of interest even more solemnity than it already had. The Mefjell Crossing Memorial Stones proved to be a very poignant stop on this excursion.

In the next post in this travelogue series we’ll continue through Lom to see a stave church, museum, and controversial column.

The Sognefjellet Road is known as Sognefjellsvagen or the less exciting Norwegian County Road 55, and it incorporates the highest mountain pass – nearly one and a half kilometres – in northern Europe. It’s renowned for its views which were spectacular even on a day of low, full cloud cover like we had.

I’ve mentioned before that I don’t like taking photos through the windows of buses when we’re travelling but the urge took hold of me as we headed for Skjolden. I upped the ISO levels and set the aperture to get a decent chance at fast (and therefore sharp) shots and clicked away as we passed by mountains, valleys, waterfalls, trees, fields of snow, lakes, and tendrils of cloud clawing at all of it.

Excitement on the journey back came as we were negotiating the hairpin bends and narrow road down the mountains on the approach to Skjolden. There were passing points on the road, but not many of them, and the problem was the cloud was thick and clinging to the ground dropping visibility down to very little indeed. Our bus driver drove sensibly, which was nice on account of none of us wanting to die, but we suddenly reached an impasse where cars and vans coming up couldn’t get past us. Now, if you drive then you know that the general rule is that traffic coming up a hill has priority over that coming down, but if you’ve ever seen a bus then you know that traffic that isn’t a bus can take a hike as far as the bus is concerned. Numerous attempts were made for everyone to squeeze over as much as possible; I had some nice views of the rock face a few centimetres from the window for a while too. But ultimately, the wider vehicles trying to come up had to back down until they felt safe enough to pull over onto ground that wasn’t falling away precipitously. When we eventually started driving again we were already overdue getting back to the ship, although we knew we still had time to spare before it left.

Despite our extended jam on the road we still had time to make a final stop, albeit an understandably brief one, and this was the Åsafossen waterfall. From parts of Skjolden it’s actually visible along the road, and it was a very fine example of a waterfall. You can never get tired of seeing waterfalls, and that’s part of what makes Norway such a fabulously beautiful country to visit.

There was a small incident while we were at this stop when one of our fellow passengers on this cruise excursion fell over and smashed his face in quite nastily on the stony surface.

In addition to the waterfall and the wonderful landscape and the cows there was one other point of interest where our bus stopped, and that was a sculpture known as The Hand, but more formally The Wittgenstein Monument.

The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein retreated to Skjolden in the early twentieth century – and his life is a very interesting one, worth a read – learning Norwegian to talk to the locals while there and away from academics that he felt were affecting his thought processes. This monument is only a few years old, made from pine, and contains a speaker in the wrist section that started talking while we were there, almost making a small child fall over in fright before running away crying. Great stuff.

In the next part of this cruise travelogue series I’ll cover our cruise away from Skjolden and what we got up to aboard Sky Princess in the evening.

This post, for the most part, will simply be photographs of the view from our balcony on Sky Princess as we cruised away from Skjolden and down the fjords.

There’s not a lot to describe that was new in the evening aboard Sky Princess either. At some point when you’re cruising – or just travelling in general – you do get into a rhythm and find what it is you like so just keep doing it. The good thing about cruising, though, is that the outside keeps changing while you’re doing that. We had a very good dinner in the main dining room, took part in the movie quiz where we finished second, then drank and danced until gone two in the morning.

With this cruise on Sky Princess taking place this far north in the height of summer, the sky never got dark so before we headed back to our room for the night we popped out briefly onto the ship’s (admittedly underwhelming) promenade deck just to snap a shot.

On the way back through the ship towards the elevators that would take us to our room I decided to capture some photos of some of Sky Princess’s interior spaces with nobody around. I find these sorts of pictures a little unsettling. I’ve seen a lot of cruise bloggers going out of their way to take photos and videos without people in them, and it never feels right to me. Not only that, but it’s not really representative of what being on a cruise ship is like. Ships aren’t wall-to-wall with noisy people (the lazy “Butlins at sea” trope spouted by the bigoted sub-moronic), but they aren’t ghost towns either, and I prefer to see what they’re like and give people a better expectation for what travelling by cruise is like. It’s also why I don’t like a lot of the TV adverts you see for cruising either, showing the happy family on a ship with a capacity of several thousand, apparently blissfully happy with perhaps just a dozen others; you’re going to upset some people with those misrepresentations, you know.

The next port of call on this Sky Princess cruise would be one we’d cruised to almost a decade before: Olden.

Just because we didn’t have any firm plans, it didn’t mean that other people didn’t, because there were a load of excursion options for those who fancied the idea of letting Princess or one of the local businesses whisk them away to see other sights. Ordinarily, we’d have done the same but there was nothing that really grabbed our eyes from the offerings; we’d seen a glacier before, we had no desire to spend a few hours in a bus to a waterfall or church, and the popular skylift at nearby Loen might be something we do one day but we simply weren’t sold on it on this occasion. You’ve got to be in the right mood. We opted to simply have a bit of a stroll around, as much as we could, and that meant we could be sensible and let everyone with schedules get off the ship first and do their things. To eat up some time before the queue for the tender operations eased off a bit we took a gentle amble around the top deck of Sky Princess to get the 360 degree view and snap a few photos.

Olden is a stunningly beautiful port in Norway.

We weren’t the only ship in port on this day, with the MSC Preziosa also visiting and snatching the dockside area ahead of us for easier embarkation and debarkation of her passengers.

The bright sunny day and surroundings of steep, ice-topped mountains around the fjord valleys of Olden meant there were no shortage of incredible views and photographic opportunities to explore. As we completed a circuit of Sky Princess we could see other individuals and couples doing almost exactly the same thing.

In the next post in this cruise travelogue series we’ll be ashore and going for a walk around the port of Olden where, if you’re lucky, I might just have taken some pretty photos to share.

A pretty Norwegian port would have to suffice, we decided, and luckily for us the weather was utterly glorious.

In the previous post in this series there are photos of Olden from the top deck of Sky Princess, if you’ve missed that and want to see even more Norwegian landscape gorgeousness.

We gave the organised excursions enough time to get most of their passengers ashore before wandering down to take the tender boat from Sky Princess to the small pier at the end of the fjord. Olden can accommodate a cruise ship berthing alongside, but the space was already taken up by MSC Preziosa. Not a major problem when you’re cruising in fjords, though, as it would take some very odd weather to affect the typically still waters, so tendering tends to be a simple and quick process.

The photographs of Olden in this post generally follow our very gentle, very slow stroll from where the ship’s tender boat dropped us off, heading southwards and clockwise around the shoreline of the village and up one side of the fjord until it looked like we were running out of sights to see, then retracing our steps back, past the pier, forming a large U-shaped route up to where Preziosa was docked, which just so happened to be alongside a pub. What are the odds of that!?

The pretty church we initially passed, then doubled back to venture inside (since we saw it was open), was the Old Olden Church. Built on the site of former churches that themselves dated back as far as the thirteenth century, this building was built and consecrated in 1759 and served as the parish church in the county until 1934 when a new church was built to take over the role. The Old Olden Church was left as a museum and site of interest for tourists.

After leaving the church, we followed the shoreline road over the Oldeelva river. This river runs into the Nordfjord off the Briksdal Glacier; a popular destination for cruise visitors to Olden. It’s only the fact that we’ve seen other glaciers and my wife’s old hip and knee injuries were flaring up a bit that chose not to head to Briksdal on this port visit, but I suspect that if we were to return to Olden on a ship in the future then we’d likely either book an organised trip or take the land train to it if the port wasn’t absolutely heaving with tourists on that particular day. The clear blue skies helped the spectacularly beautiful views look even better.

Our walk in Olden took us to some decent vantage points from which to see the stunning Norwegian landscape and the two cruise ships in the fjord on that day. It’s a wonderful feeling to suddenly grasp the size of everything around when you see the vessel you arrived on dwarfed by nature. I know that there will be people who’ll look at the photos below and think that the ships spoil the views of the fjords and the mountains and the green hills, and I understand that point of view, but fortunately for me there are few enough cruise fans who visit this site as it is that I don’t think I have to worry about anyone who actually doesn’t like cruising popping along to leave a derogatory comment (that I likely wouldn’t allow to be published anyway; dictator of my domain, and all that).

We headed back around to the opposite side of the fjord, passing back over the river and through the village (with a quick stop to look for souvenirs as we always try to spend some money ashore, even if it’s on some right old tat, when we cruise around the world), making our way to where we knew a pub was located. This was right where MSC Preziosa was docked.

The pub was the Mølla Gjestehus and it was fairly quiet when we arrived. We soon guessed that because most of the MSC ship’s passengers were filing aboard it might be leaving soon (and, indeed, it would leave before Sky Princess). We found some seats on the terrace near some officers of the Italian vessel who were making sure to spend money in the port on food and drink (we approve of this), and grabbed ourselves some locally-produced beers and ciders.

I won’t lie: the drinks were… not great. Or, let’s say that they weren’t to our taste. The important thing for us when we try local drinks, though, is not that they’re nice, but that they’re local. You don’t have to like a thing to appreciate a thing. I’m thinking of having that printed up on my business cards.

More of those beautiful Olden landscape views accompanied our short walk back to the pier and a small wait in a long queue to take the tender boat back to Sky Princess.

I hardly need tell you again that Olden is incredibly beautiful, but it is, and we were fortunate enough to have good weather for this visit. It is, however, a village, and if you’re not a hiker or looking for things to do ashore that don’t involve trips to nearby lifts and glaciers or more distant waterfalls and churches then you might struggle a little for interest. Oh, the struggle of being in Olden with nothing but those views.

In the next post in the cruise travelogue series I’ll share photographs of the sail away from Olden along the Nordfjord, and it’s an absolutely beautiful one that the photos don’t do enough justice to.

But first, we had to wait for all the passengers to board Sky Princess. We could tell from the fact that tender boats were still heading from the ship to shore that not all of them had; cruise ships track who is on and off the vessel at all times. We waited and watched, and our scheduled departure from Olden came and went.

After MSC Preziosa had made her departure, our captain turned Sky Princess around to face out of the fjord and present the tender boat boarding side towards the pier in Olden in order to shorten the time needed for boat trips. We could still tell that we were waiting on people, though, as the view from our balcony (now, thankfully, out of the direct sunshine) allowed us to look back to the village where the Princess Cruises gazebo and some members of the crew were still hanging around. That suggested to us that whoever was late was on an organised trip because cruise ships don’t wait around long if you wander off on your own and don’t get back on time.

Eventually, we saw a couple of buses pull up, a queue form on the shoreside, and everyone – including the crew on the pier – pile aboard the final tender boat. There was a small amount of ironic cheering from some of the balconies on the ship. But not from us. We’re very reserved.

Sky Princess departed from Olden a fair bit later than planned, but with this being the height of summer in Norway there was plenty of bright sunshine to show off the Norwegian landscape as we gently cruised along the fjords. Green hills, snowy mountain peaks, flat water, pleasantly warm, supremely tranquil. If you’ve not cruised the Norwegian fjords then make the effort to do so.

It’s not true that you can ever get tired of viewing the fjords in Norway, but it is true that you can get hungry so we interrupted our balcony-staring time to head down to the dining room for dinner. The food on this particular cruise was of a high standard and this meal was no exception.

We are creatures of habit on cruises – we’ve discovered what we like to do and keep doing it – so with dinner out of the way we would typically head to some lounges in the evening on a Princess Cruises ship, take part in a quiz if one’s on, enjoy the music if not. However, the light, even fairly late in the evening was superb, the scenery was superber (shut up), and we decided we’d risk heading to the bar at the aft of the ship. This isn’t a location we’d normally visit at any time on any ship because it can get busy on pleasant sea days plus you’re forced to drink from plastic glasses like a child and, depending where you end up, you might be near filthy, stinking smokers too. But the aft bar on Sky Princess was quiet with only a few other passengers around and we got to experience some incredible views in relative solitude.

Yes, that’s a 24K Gold Margarita and a Dirty Banana. Cocktails of champions.

Eventually returning to our cabin and heading out to the balcony we became immediately aware of a lot of noise. This turned out to be some fast boats with groups of Norwegians on them waving flags and shouting. Our first thought was that this might be some form of protest against cruise ships because Norway is a bit funny like that, but this actually just turned out to be happy, possibly drunk, fjord party types. Much loud music and whooping and waving ensued. And that answers the question of what Norwegian locals get up in the evenings in the fjords.

The day’s sail away along the Nordfjord and out to the open sea concluded at well past midnight when the sky was ablaze with post-sunset colours. Sky Princess turned northwards. In the next post in this cruise travelogue series we’ll be visiting Ålesund where we had a far less lazy day planned.

Our Princess Cruises excursion was due to take us to the nearby islands of Giske and Godøya, and if you know anything about cruising or anything about islands then your first thought might be that this would involve one or more boat trips. It’s a reasonable thought, but then you have to factor Norway into the equation. A weird fact about Norway is that it really likes tunnels. We’d previously driven through the longest road tunnel in the world (still, at time of writing) when we’d visited the Borgund Stave Church in 2013, and we’d encountered a few smaller ones through hills on this cruise already, but in Ålesund we’d get to experience underwater tunnels for the first time. Why does Norway like tunnels? It’s either a Freudian sex thing or wanting to appease trolls. With Norwegians, either is equally likely.

Our bus took us via tunnel underwater to Valderøya first, then over a bridge to Giske, then another underwater tunnel to Godøya.

You’ll probably be able to guess already – indeed, you may well have searched the internet for the Giske and Godøya excursion on a cruise that you’re planning, so you’ll know – that our destination on Godøya was the Alnes Lighthouse.

The present Alnes Lighthouse – the fourth to serve the island as a navigation aid for fishing – dates from 1937. The first lighthouse in 1853 was little more than a window in a wall lit dimly with three candles so as not to confuse vessels with the lighthouse on Runde, and operated for only a few months in winter. This was replaced by a lantern that could be hoisted up a pole. In the 1870s a small guard house was built and the lighting time extended to most of the year but attracting anyone to work the beacon proved difficult due to the poor conditions so a larger, better residence was constructed and in the early 1890s moved to its current location. In 1928 the lighthouse was connected to the electricity grid and a backup gas light was installed.

Getting off the bus we were told that we were free to visit the lighthouse or the former lighthouse-keeper’s residence (now a café and exhibition centre) during our allotted time, and that our excursion included a pancake and drink in the café. We headed straight for the lighthouse. Inside we were greeted by art from local artists on the walls and steep steps up a few floors that wouldn’t feel out of place on a warship. They’re the sort you walk down backwards for safety, so bear that in mind if you’ve got any mobility issues or are a generally clumsy oaf. My wife, who has a history of falling down steps, actually managed okay, though.

At the top of Alnes Lighthouse we were treated to some lovely views courtesy of the natural beauty of Norway and a spectacularly bright and sunny June day. We also might have been treated to a phallic shadow that made me snigger.

There wasn’t a lot of room at the top of the lighthouse so we limited our time admiring the Godøya scenery in order that those other members of our cruise excursion who’d hit the monument rather than the café first could see the sights and grab some photos of their own. We’re considerate like that. We then headed off to get our included snack which was fine, pleasant enough, but nothing outstanding.

We spent the remainder of our time at Godøya wandering down to the shoreline. The beach there was rocky and absolutely gorgeous. Norway is not short of wonderful views.

In the next post in this cruise travelogue series we’ll move onto the second part of this day’s excursion while in Ålesund when we stop on the island of Giske to visit the church there.

The photograph below is not Giske Church. What can I say? I like interesting looking buildings, even if they’re silos or warehouses or agricultural constructions or bus shelters or sheds. And I also like people on excursions looking at me as if I’ve grown a new head when I stroll away from the group to take pictures of things they almost certainly consider dull. Confusing people is my thing.

Giske Church dates from the twelfth century and is built from white marble – the only Norwegian church built from marble – of unknown origin. I know what you’re thinking: aliens! But that would be silly. All the trolls kill any aliens that approach Norway. Everyone knows that. All that can be said for certain is that the marble was transported to the island over water because the bridge and tunnel that connects it to its neighbours now are far more modern constructions, and that suggests that the people who built the church had considerable wealth. In fact, it was built for the Giske (or Arneson) family, and was originally a family chapel. The island of Giske and the Arneson family feature in the Norwegian Sagas, and a birth in the family recounted in Stein’s Story in the Saga of Olaf Haraldson would be that of the progenitor of the Norwegian Royal Family.

The white marble of Giske Church isn’t immediately obvious thanks to a covering of plaster and chalk that clearly doesn’t protect it from wear, given the relative hardness of marble and chalk, but perhaps discourages anyone from thinking “Ooh, white marble, that’ll look nice in the downstairs loo!” I think the worst of people.

The interior of the church contains an impressive range of colourful, wooden carvings, feeling very medieval in their look but actually dating from a little later, carved by Jakob Sørensøn Giskegaard in the late eighteenth century when a series of renovations were undertaken after a long period of neglect.

The church and cemetery are still in use these days, and the gravestones are worth a look around if you visit Giske. A protected marble grave in the cemetery holds one of a pair of doomed lovers from a local story that the guide there will be only too willing to share with you. And if you think that’s a way of me saying I can’t quite recall the specifics of the tale then you’re absolutely right. But look, head to new places, spend some money locally, learn some things. That’s what travelling should be all about.

We had a little bit of spare time after our visit inside Giske Church to enjoy the surroundings before our bus returned to pick us up. With the church located on the southern point of the island we had some pleasing views to Godøya where we’d been earlier in the day, helped by the beautiful weather.

This concludes a very short but enjoyable enough excursion on our Sky Princess cruise, and in the next part in this cruise travelogue series we’ll be dropped off to explore Ålesund on our own.