Our final sea day on board the Britannia

When I first found out that our cruise was going to coincide with the Royal Wedding I was admittedly gutted, there was no way that I could miss it. 

Yet this actually worked out to be a much better than I thought as the wedding was broadcast around the ship with a huge sense of patriotism on deck. 

Believe it or not, the fairytale wedding was not even the highlight of my day as we put on our glad rage and went up to the Epicurean restaurant for Eric Lanlard’s afternoon tea. 

The classic menu with a modern twist including a smoked salmon and cream cheese open sandwich on spinach bread - nom.

Dark chocolate macaroon with smoked salmon and cucumber - double nom and a lemon meringue trifle with blackcurrant coulis.

On our final sea day we were sure to do many of the classic cruise activities including dance classes ( as long as they fitted around the royal wedding) , playing bingo and even a spot of disco dancing. 

Strolling through Bergen

The city of Bergen is the second largest town in Norway and - fun fact- was established in 1070 when King Olav returned from fighting  King Harold the battle of Stamford Bridge 1066.  

The bustling city thrived on the harbour and fish market and has been occupied by Germany for much of its history, which can be seen from the timber architecture. 

At all of our previous ports, the course ship has been docking right in the centre of town but in Bergen the ship ‘parked’ in a commercial cruise port  and got a shuttle bus into the city centre. 

My first stop was Begenhus Festnig a.k.a. Bergen Castle. The fortress was built in the middle ages and includes Haakon’s hall and Rosenkrantz Tower. It was mainly used as a military fortress yet the only time that it has seen any action was in 1665. 

A British fleet ‘attacked’ a dutch ship in the port of Bergen and the Norwegians were left with no choice but to defend their port. as it turned out the dutch made an agreement with King Charles II to share the cargo, or something like that. with the exchange too happen in Bergen. The problem was, nobody told the Norwegians. 

An early departure from Bergen saw us return to the ship for lunch and for me this also meant a second visit up to The Cookery Club for Great Bakes. 

In the two hour session we made Portuguese custard tarts; the secret to a thick custard is the addition of cornflour, lean and almond polenta cakes and a demo of strawberry and cream meringue roulade which would go down a treat at Wimbledon time. 

Kayaking the Nordfjord

This morning I awoke surrounded by fjords in the little town of Olden and after disembarking the ship, spent the morning kayaking through the Nordfjord. If you ask me, this is one of the best ways to see the fjords with a 360-degree view of the absolutely stunning scenery. 

My arms were hurting by the end though, not to worry, I had a massage scheduled for the afternoon. At least I thought I did, but it wasn’t until I got down to the spa (on deck 5) that I noticed that I had the day wrong. I was able to change it though and my kayaking aches were soothed with hot stones. 

On the 17th May 1814, Norway became an independent state from Denmark and the date is now celebrated as Norway’s National Day. On this day, locals put on their traditional dress and parading through the streets. 

The parade at the quayside was a sight to behold with hundreds of thousands of Norwegian flags set against the backdrop of the huge union jack which is printed on the side of Britannia. 

The ship saluted the parade by sounding to the fog horn and the marching band replied in kind by paying ‘God Save The Queen.’ 

A Heritage Walk in Ålesund

Today I went on my first P&O organised shore excursion, a heritage walk through the art nouveau town of Ålesund. On the 23rd January 1904, a fire burnt the town to the ground leaving 10,000 people homeless. Luckily though, only 1 person was injured yet the whole the town had to be rebuilt and so it was, in fabulous art nouveau style. 

Before you ask, I did not climb ‘city hill’ even if there is a restaurant on top. Instead I took a brief respite and kanelsnurr (the fluffiest and most delicious cinnamon bun that you’ve ever had) at Racoon Coffee and More. The cafe can be found on Kong's Gate 6. 

We returned to the ship for a late lunch and a quick dip in one of the ship’s 5 swimming pools before a night of comedy on board the Britannia. 

Welcome To Stavanger

We arrived in the port of Stavanger early this morning and after a quick trip to the Horizon buffet for breakfast, departed the ship to explore what the fishing town turned oil “tycoon” had to offer. 

It turned out that another cruise ship had also just arrived in town so Stavanger was really rather busy actually. 

Before leaving home I had drawn an itinerary for the day but that all fell apart and I didn’t end up doing half of what I had planned like visiting the Swords In Rock. 

The colourful street of Oevre Holmegate in the Skagen area of town has a very hippie vibe and it’s here that you can find many quirky and cute cafes including Hanukah where I stopped for coffee and Wifi.

If you want to access the internet whilst on the ship you have to do so via satellite which is very expensive so I had prepared myself for a very tech-free week.  

Stavanger made its fortune in the 1800s when an influx of herring came upstream….or is it down? The canning museum where a lot of the action went down is still one of the main attractions and then in the 1870s when the fish reserves were drying up and oil rig was discovered offshore and Stavanger lived to see another day…or few centuries. 

On my journey through the town, I stopped at the medieval cathedral of St. Swithin’s which, according to my guidebook, employed many British mercenaries when it was built in 1270 because of the shortage of skilled, local craftsmen at the time. 

Another thing that Stavanger is famous for is the Antony Gormley ‘Broken Column’ statue or rather 23 statues. You may recognise the name as the artist behind ‘The Angel Of The North.’ Sadly, out of 23, I only found one of them. 

I was itching to get back to the ship so after a quick jaunt through the picturesque old town of Gamle Stavanger that’s exactly what I did and sampled Eric Lanlard’s Lemon and Zuzu tart in the Market Cafe.