Last night we sailed through the Inside Passage from Tromso to Narvik. There is an outside but the inside passage is shorter, more sheltered and much more scenic. About 3 hrs. down from Tromso the ship has to go under a bridge and for that you have to be the size of the Prinsendam or smaller. So the big boys have to go back outside if they would have wanted to go to Narvik. That is not often the case and it is also not that often the case with other cruise ships. This because Narvik is not really a cruise port and that is the reason why Yours Truly has not been there either. Nor my Lord and Master, and she has been out there for a long time as well on (really) small ships and she did not make it here either. But the ms Prinsendam is the Elegant Explorer and keeps going to ports to offer the guests something different, even if it is not the wildest thing in life. I am happy as I put another “dot” on my world map at home. Continue reading

The wind turned to the North during the night and although that did not help with the outside temperatures, it did do wonders for the visibility at the North Cape. Seeing something here is always hit and miss with my experience being about 50/50 for seeing something or not, either the base of the Cape and /or seeing the top. But when we arrived at 08.30, it was sunny, it was bright, and it was clear. We could see the top with only a little bit of haze around the Globe Statue.

The top of the North Cape from the ship . Even the Globe Sculpture / Statue is clearly visible.

So the Captain swung the stern of the Prinsendam towards the Cape so everybody could have a good look. I was happy with a quick photo from my balcony as how many times can you look at the same Rock? From there the ship continued and sailed around the northern edge of Norway into Honnigsvag which is located in a V shaped entrance quite well protected from the winter weather. Not that it does not get cold here. It must be very cold here in the winter as now on summer’s day, the temperature only just reached 7oC/45oF; due to a northerly breeze blowing while there was not a cloud in the sky.   Continue reading

Trondheim is located in Trondheim fjord which is the 3^rd largest fjord in Norway. About 72 nautical miles long and the city named after the fjord is about 40 miles deep into this fjord when measured from the open sea. It is one of the most ancient cities in Norway so old that it takes at times priority over Oslo the capital city. When new Norwegian Royalty ascends to the throne, it happens here and not in Oslo and there are few more of these things. The city has a 2^nd name Nidaros and for a brief period in 1930 it was the official name. Then almost a revolution took place and the government put the name back to Trondheim. This must have been a major issue as the attitude of the Norwegians does itself normally not link to revolutions. I have been told that this is still smoldering on but more peacefully as there is a split in opinion about whether the name should be spelled Trondhjem or Trondheim. So maybe one day when we come here during a cruise we will see the barricades up again, dividing the town in a hjem and a heim. Continue reading

Today we are at sea after leaving the Netherlands two hours late. Reason, the lock door of the Main Lock in Ijmuiden did not want to open. Amsterdam can only be reached by deep sea ships via Ijmuiden and then sail via the North Sea Canal to the various cargo berths of Amsterdam Port or all the way to downtown where the Passenger Terminal is located. Which is a great location as there are not many big ports where you dock a 5 minute walk from the downtown area. Also for joining and leaving the ship it is great as Central (Train) Station is also only 5 minutes away. And if there are a lot of Dutch guests on board you can see long lines of “cloggies” roiling their suitcase down the street from the train to the ship.

They have now built the walls of the new locks and have lifted a complete dredger into the lock pool to clear out all the mud inside. (Photo Courtesy: Dutch Government)

But the locks are another matter. They are expanding the locks to be the biggest in the world and it seems that the old one is a bit upset about that and starts giving sensor problems. And without electronic sensors nothing can work nowadays. Not even a set of locks that are already over a 100 years old (The first one is from 1876) and must have worked a long long time without any electric wizardly. The Prinsendam was delayed 2 hours inbound two weeks ago and now again two hours while outbound. If it has to happen then outbound is better, as inbound it might affect the dis-embarkation & flights of the guests going home. Outbound there is most of the time sufficient leeway in the schedule to catch up again. And in this schedule on the way to Stavanger we have plenty of time. Continue reading