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.’