Within The Arctic Circle

It was very exciting to cross into the Arctic Circle at approximately 7.20 this morning. Some of our group enjoyed passing the Globe, which marks the spot where we entered it, up on deck with a glass of early morning sparkling wine, however I was far less organized and made it by the skin of my teeth whilst still in my pajamas! Thankfully I didn’t appear to be the only one and as it was pretty dark I don’t think anyone one would have really noticed anyhow!

We spent most of the morning knitting whilst admiring the snow capped mountain views from either side of the ship – it really is incredible to be travelling through icy waters with these spectacular scenes from the warmth and safety of MS Midnatsol. There are settlements all along the coast, some of which appear incredibly remote with many of the houses close to the shore with boats moored alongside. It’s the stuff of picture postcards…

Mid morning we were invited on deck to attend the Arctic Circle ceremony. King Neptune graced us with his presence and those people who were brave enough were given the traditional Norse welcome - which includes a ladle of ice cold water down the back of the neck followed by a shot of cloudberry wine.

After another early lunch, during which we were treated to a fly past by two very kind sea eagles, we took a short walk into Bodo where we found another ‘Husfliden’ store. I bought some of the traditional paper cut Christmas decorations and was really excited to get one in black rather than white card. A few of the ladies bought more yarn and Lynn showed us the way to a small quilting shop that had lovely fabrics and patterns.

Once back on board we set to our knitting once again. My ‘wingspan’ scarf (free downloadable pattern on Ravelry) is coming on nicely using the yarn I bought yesterday and the group is still having fun with their fairisle bag project. Both Elizabeth and Dani have already completed the project and are now in the throws of putting it together. Dani has decided to make hers into a cushion cover. 

Read More

A Sprinkling of Snow

After another calm night with no ports of call we woke up this morning in Trondheim, the third largest city Norway. Of course it was still pitch black outside as we sat eating our early breakfast so that we could be in time to catch the city tour bus that left at 8am. I have to admit it was a total struggle to wake up this morning after such a good night’s sleep and with a body clock that appears to think that dark equals night time I spend the first half hour of the tour in a bit of a blur! I think I was not alone though as the bus was pretty subdued at this point. Goodness only knows how I will get on towards the very end of the week when we will only be getting about 4 hours of day light – hopefully the group will have asked all their complicated and technical knitting questions before then!

Trondheim is an unusual city in that it is divided by the river Nidelva which snakes through the lower part of town – in fact the islands that the river creates (and on which Trondheim is built) is only attached to the main land by a stretch of land just 100m wide. We were taken up into the hill behind the town and, not only saw a great view of the city waking up, but also the remains of the first winter snow fall which came a few weeks ago. Much of the snow is now grey and mucky, but never the less it was a lovely sight across the roofs and gardens of the mountain side houses. The fresh mountain air seemed to wake us all up and by the time we reached the city Cathedral we were ready to take in the information our knowledgeable guide provided.

Having learnt about the Viking King Olav and the reasons why the Cathedral was built, we were taken by our lovely Arena guide Lynn to visit 3 of the city's yarn shops. Needless to say this seemed to be the highlight of the day, with many of us buying some of the wonderful yarns that Norway has to offer. Unlike everything else here, the yarn is good value and wonderful quality so I think we all felt compelled to add just a bit to our stashes! As you will see from the image I was so excited that I was in a yarn sweety shop that I failed to take a decent picture of some of the girls enjoying themselves in one of the stores!

After a lovely lunch on board we spent the whole afternoon knitting once again. The fairisle bags (and cushions) are coming on well although there was quite a lot of ‘backwards knitting’ going on towards the end of the afternoon!

We entered open water for the second (and last time) at about 6pm tonight and it got just a tad choppy for an hour or so. I rather enjoyed it as it was a bit like walking around a little drunk, but of course without the hangover tomorrow or the effect on my finances! A couple of the group obviously didn’t enjoy it quite so much as there were a few late arrivals for dinner. All is calm now and we are settling down to an evening of more knit and chat.

Read More

Alesund and a touch of knitting

We started our day with a knitting class in one of the lounges aboard the ship. The weather behaved itself over night and so our voyage so far has been relatively calm, even though we travelled though one of the deeper stretches of sea at breakfast time. However, the mist, fog and clouds (perhaps courtesy of the Norse God of rain ‘Freye’) took a while to lift this morning – making it perfect weather for a spot of knitting needle action!

We have started work on a bag project designed by the talented Debbie Abrahams, and whilst the main part of the bag is made using the fairisle technique, this morning’s challenge was to cast on the requisite 160 sts and work a good couple of inches of moss stitch in the round, adding a couple of button holes into the mix which will later be used to anchor our drawstring and toggles.

We had an early lunch in the restaurant and headed onto shore to investigate Alesund, a lovely busy town with predominantly art nouveau architecture and a nice shopping centre. We have visited our first ‘Husfliden’ – a lovely chain of stores here in Norway, which sells knitting yarn and crafting supplies alongside national costumes and household items, such as candles, mugs and decorations. I was restrained and did not spend any pennies despite the fact that there were many things catching my eye – fairisle printed mugs and beautiful paper cut Christmas decorations among them.

Once back on board at 3pm we returned to our knitting and chatting whilst travelling to the town of Molde, where we are now in dock for an hour or so before dinner. I think I will take a stroll around on the top deck and take in the view of twinkling lights in the hills and might even brave the open air jakuzzi later on if I’m feeling really brave. 

The image of the handsome chap with the violin (above) is a portrait of Ole Bull who I mentioned yesterday - the fella with the looks so fine that he made the girls swoon!

Read More

Bergen

It was a bit of a shock to my system to wake up in the dark this morning despite the fact that the alarm was not set for an outrageously early time, and perhaps more of a surprise that it really wasn’t properly light until about 9.30am, by which time we were already half an hour into our informative tour of the city of Bergen

We had a very knowledgeable tour guide who pointed out all the buildings of note and gave us lots of information about famous people who lived in Bergen, who include the composer Greig, the writer Ibsen and the fascinating violinist Ole Bull (a Justin Bieber of his time perhaps) who apparently was so gorgeously handsome that many of his female fans got themselves in such a tizzy that they commonly fainted during his performances! I have made a note to self to look on line for images of this chap, to see if he really was as gorgeous as the story suggests, or whether Norwegian women were simply easily pleased!

After the tour (and a subsequent ‘fishy’ lunch in the fish market) we took a walk around the shops and appreciated the architecture all over again. To walk around the Hanseatic Wharf buildings – which I had admired from afar last night – was a real treat and like taking a step back in time. Standing in the narrow, wooden clad streets it was easy to imagine the traders and the fishermen discussing their bargains and bartering their prices, swapping fish for grain and visa versa. I took a walk around the back streets falling in love with all the wooden clad houses, painted in a wonderful palette of chalky blues, ochres, pinks and reds, alongside white and olivy green. By the time I was walking back to the hotel, the sun came out and changed all the colours all over again, making us do a mad dash out onto the deck to grab a picture of the mountain side bathed in sunshine.

This evening we have boarded the ship MS Midnatsol and are about to set sail on our trip along the Norwegian coast. I’m so excited I’m not sure there will be much sleep in me tonight, but need to have my wits about me for the knitters in the morning…

Read More

Norway 2012

Very very very excited to have arrived in Bergen this afternoon and at last kick off the Norway Cruise in association with Arena Travel, which I have been getting so blooming excited about lately!
Its dark here now so its really hard to get an idea of exactly what this city has to offer us, but the hotel is beautifully situated with a view across the river to the Hanseatic Wharf which is apparently home to lots of lovely shops and traditional Norwegian buildings and we have noted the twinkling lights of all the houses in the surrounding mountains (of which there are 7) so I am sure that tomorrow promises to be a great day when we get to go and explore.

I am going to try really really hard to blog every day over the next week, but I have been told that internet access might be a bit unreliable once we are on the cruise liner (from tomorrow evening). I have no lovely images of my own to post yet so will have to make do with one I have borrowed from the internet of the buildings opposite us in the bay.

Read More