Return to Bergen

I must apologising - Pam hastn ad a chancee to edict this poster yet

Peaceful start to the night, rudely interrupted at about 1am when we had to run through about 3 hours of open ocean.  I woke up to very violent rocking of the ship and was almost killed when my water bottle, previously safely tucked away on the head board of the bed, was hurled toward my head, lucky my natural survival instincts kicked in and I managed to deflect the missile from its’ mission.

The next few seconds were a blur but included screaming; through a fog of semiconsciousness I looked up imaging Pam to be beside me and supportive, only to see her silhouette disappearing out the door, prominent was her ghostly white face as a mask of fear, I’m sure I heard her mumbling feverishly about Davey Jones Locker?  As far as I was concerned this was the end of the trip and life as we know it and was hoping/expecting to be ultimately rescued from freezing Arctic waters by some well-meaning and alert marine rescue – Norway division.

I got up after Pams untimely departure and looked out the window.  The horizon was clearly visible until the ship leaned, a wave loomed up, white spray tore through the air and the horizon disappeared and I thought it might be all over.  Lucky the ship sprang back and leaned the other way, the moon became visible and once again it appeared the ship would roll all the way over and our young lives would be lost forever.

I suffered the terror of the sea alone in a dark cabin before Pam reported back on her encounters during her 2 hour escape from the cabin.  She had gone to the centre seating area and watched a well dressed German woman wandering around a little disorientated. It turns out she was suffering a little dementia and she was looking for the bus stop so she could get to Bergen.  Pam obviously thought this was a very good idea and wouldn’t have surprised me if they’d wandered off together to look for the bus.

Pam enjoyed the next couple of hours chatting to Hurtigruten engineers and reception staff and returned refresh and ready for bed again at 3.30am.

The alarm woke me, we fronted for breakfast after dropping our suitcases near reception for ultimate debarkation at 10.45am when buses were scheduled to take us to the airport.  Got to the airport where 3 staff processed 400 passengers on to the 2 chartered flights.  This was obviously a unique phenomenon for the locals as we had one approach us wanting to know if Taylor swift was making a surprise appearance at Bergen so Trondheim was evacuating for the event.  Soon set her right and boarded with no incident other than Pam sitting next to Maureen.  Pams philosophy with this flight – if the winds are too strong to cruise, are they really too strong to fly??  The answer came quickly when the pilot announced turbulence was forecast, Maureen did a mighty job while I slept the sleep of the dead three rows away. 

No problems with the flight, until we landed, the plane obviously had new brakes fitted in its last service and several hard stops during taxi towards the terminal caused some concern, I think maybe the pilot had some sort of vision impairment and kept stopping at cross intersections because he didn’t see planes coming from either side.  Perhaps a visit to Specsavers may assist with his peripheral vision.

Out of the airport and on to our familiar light rail to our motel, Maureen, Pam and I had a short walk down town to have a look at their lights, returned home, tea, not too many red wines and then bed.  Not sure it will be the same without the constant rocking, maybe it will be better?

The girls get on the Flam Railway at 8am tomorrow, Pam and I have the day in Bergen thenstay at the sirport motel for a flight on Tuesday morning.  No plans for tomorrow for us yet, see if we can get some sleep tonight before we make too many ambitious plans??

bergen Airport light rail station

Central Railway Station Bergen

Some lights around Bergen City Centre, getting a bit of a Christmas feel