The sea is like glass and in the morning we briefly stop at Alesund. Three of us are still at breakfast so Randall has just enough time to wander into town on his own to check out the town as it starts the day. Alesund is an attractive town which looks like it is doing well.
We are having difficulty sorting out just who are the Norwegians, who are Swedes, who are Danes and who are Germans out of our travel mates. These seem to be the dominant foreign speaking people on the ship. Of course there are the inevitable pommies most of whom seem to be retirement home escapees seeking a sun tan in Norway by sitting in coolish breezes on the rear sun decks much as they would usually do on Brighton beach. Their mates are snoozing over their books and knitting in the panoramic lounge upstairs.
The days on board are somewhat idyllic as the ferry glides along winding its way through the thousands of islands. We are continually amazed that people actually live here but perhaps these people have much the same challenges as people face when living in central and Western Australia. The remoteness of it all must be tough at times. But if we think of the sea ways as part of the national highways then it all makes sense. We on the Richard With are part of a traffic network where each ship of the line is one day apart when leaving from Bergen. So far, at day 4 of the trip north we have seen some 4 other Hurtigruten ships making their way south. So there are plenty of opportunities for locals to go back and forth from the bigger cities of Bergen, Trondheim, Bodo, Tromoso and Harstad. In many ways it is better going here than in NSW where we are still trying, and failing, to construct at least one highway of international standard, let alone using sea lanes for transport.
We are having difficulty sorting out just who are the Norwegians, who are Swedes, who are Danes and who are Germans out of our travel mates. These seem to be the dominant foreign speaking people on the ship. Of course there are the inevitable pommies most of whom seem to be retirement home escapees seeking a sun tan in Norway by sitting in coolish breezes on the rear sun decks much as they would usually do on Brighton beach. Their mates are snoozing over their books and knitting in the panoramic lounge upstairs.
The days on board are somewhat idyllic as the ferry glides along winding its way through the thousands of islands. We are continually amazed that people actually live here but perhaps these people have much the same challenges as people face when living in central and Western Australia. The remoteness of it all must be tough at times. But if we think of the sea ways as part of the national highways then it all makes sense. We on the Richard With are part of a traffic network where each ship of the line is one day apart when leaving from Bergen. So far, at day 4 of the trip north we have seen some 4 other Hurtigruten ships making their way south. So there are plenty of opportunities for locals to go back and forth from the bigger cities of Bergen, Trondheim, Bodo, Tromoso and Harstad. In many ways it is better going here than in NSW where we are still trying, and failing, to construct at least one highway of international standard, let alone using sea lanes for transport.
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