Bergen

The day started like clockwork with our taxi arriving at 6:30am to pick us up. After stopping off in Otterbourne for Syd and Jo we were on our way to Gatwick for a late morning flight to Norway.
Our eta for Gatwick was 8:30 duly met, which gave us some time for breakfast and a quick visit to the 'Spoons (for the men). Our Norwegian Airlines flight left bang on time and after a smooth flight we arrived in Bergen 15 minutes early.
The Flybussen took us in through the city directly to the Havila terminal where we were expecting to be able to book in directly onto the boat.
This is where things went a bit awry. Check in was delayed due to "some technical issue" on the boat. We watched the boat disappear from its dock to return immediately but facing the other way. The land crew were unable to advise what the problem may be other than that it was a technical issue.
After some time the boat disappeared again to return facing in the previous direction. We were all hopeful that we may soon be boarding, but that was sadly not the case. We found a quiet spot in an upstairs cafe area to wait out the delay and watched as the other 280 guests and ourselves got progressively more hungry and more exasperated.
Eventually we were able to board to join another queue for the allocation of eating times and tables for the early part of our trip. The ladies with permanent smiles on the reception desk were dealing with a lot of complaints about the boarding procedures, justifiably so.
Eventually, we were able to grab some food from the on-board cafe to beat our hunger ( we were not prepared to wait in another queue for the main dining room to become available.)
We returned to the dining room much later in the evening where we were treated to some delightful food, very much adding some joy to an otherwise frustrating late afternoon.
The ship left Bergen at 8:30pm to begin the journey to The North Cape.
Tonight the boat will be stopping at Floro, Maloy and Torvik prior to arriving at Alesund in the morning.Les mer