The End of the World’s Most Beautiful Voyage

Hurtigruten Terminal in Bergen..

00:45 – The ship left Ålesund and up till 08:15 it made very brief stops at Torvik, Måloy and Florø. I think we’ve made up all the lost time in Trondheim as we will be arriving in Bergen at 14:30 as scheduled.
10:45  – The ship sailed through the narrow and beautiful Strait of Steinsundet.

11:00 – Guests were asked to vacate their cabins at this time so that the cleaners could prepare the ship for the next journey.  Bags were left outside the cabins for the porters to take away.

From now till arrival at Bergen, we spent time in the viewing deck which was quite full of people.

14:30 – We arrived in Bergen and made our way to the Hurtigruten terminal and waited for our bags to arrive.  Time to say goodbye to fellow passengers and to thank Eskild our Cruise Director who was there to the last moment making sure that everyone was on their right coach.  The blue Turistbuss Bergen coaches took passengers to the airport or to your hotel in the city.

Passengers who were going into the Bergen city centre are dropped off at the Radisson SAS Hotel right in the town square.  This is where the coach picks you up as well if you’ve bought transfers to the airport for the next day.  Had we known this, we would have booked our night in Bergen at this hotel.  Instead, we were at the Thon Hotel Bergen, which is diametrically opposite from the Radisson and on the higher slope of the large square.  Getting three suitcases and Barbara up there required a bit of effort.

Conclusion

Hurtigruten’s Richard With..

So was this the “World’s Most Beautiful Voyage”?  Not having been on many similar coastal voyages, we could not really say if it was the World’s Most Beautiful, but it certainly was Very Beautiful. Considering that we are not ‘cruising-types’ and we generally don’t like the cold weather, this winter Norwegian coastal voyage has made a huge impression on us that we would consider going on another trip like this (and we did). Even the disappointment of not seeing a spectacular Northern Lights show didn’t spoil our enjoyment of the trip.

Norway’s coastal scenery is stunning, the fjords and the intricate fjord routes are amazing and the Hurtigruten crew worked very hard to make the voyage enjoyable for passengers.  Special thanks to Eskild our cruise director.