As we approached the end of our Northern Lights Cruise we were supposed to have two sea days south to Bergen where we would disembark and head home.

We left Alta at midnight and when we woke it looked like it should be 7:00 am. It was almost 10:00!  It was so nice to sleep in on a sea day when the ship is rocking just enough to promote sleep, not hinder it. Plus we had had three shore excursions the day prior!

Randy and Flynn enjoyed taking some sunrise pictures as the sun was actually rising as we went south.

We watched the scenery along both sides of the ship as we sailed the Norwegian Inside Passage.

Viking has a polar plunge activity in an ice filled pool when the ship crosses the Arctic Circle. It was amazing to us how many people chose to participate, but we did not. We were really done being any kind of cold.

We did get Arctic Circle certificates!

We had a relaxing lunch with our travel partners Flynn and Jo. We had not traveled together previously, but found complete compatibility. We’d be glad to do a trip together again.

We watched one more educational presentation, this time about  Viking ships. It was about the old, authentic type, not current Viking cruise line ships.

Viking boats had a steering board on the right side.  Over time that became “steer board” and gradually, starboard. The starboard side of a boat is the right side.

The sails were made of wool by women.  I’m sure they used the resources that were available, but it surprised me that sails were ever wool.

We enjoyed our last few calm sea hours on the ship.

Overnight, we had bad weather again with high seas and high winds. 

The seal on our sliding balcony door was not tight enough to stay fully closed in the high winds. Randy got up repeatedly and closed it to avoid the wind howling through. Unfortunately, his efforts only stopped the howling for brief periods!  We told the steward about it the next morning and the maintenance crew was able to fix it.

We had the Norwegian specialty waffles for breakfast. The queue for these each morning had been long enough that we hadn’t bothered before. I thought these were quite good. The brown cylinders are the Norwegian goat cheese we had been introduced to previously.

The weather was still very unsettled.  We were sailing into the storm with winds up to 60-80 mph and 30 foot waves.  The captain had slowed the ship which would likely delay our arrival in Bergen the next day.

We watched a presentation on Bergen, our last port of the cruise and where we would disembark.  We learned Bergen was founded in 1070 and its location was important for shipping and travel.  The city is on the same latitude as Alaska and Siberia but is warmed by the gulf stream

The black plague entered Norway through Bergen, eventually killing half the population of the country.

In the late afternoon the captain announced 70-80 mph, hurricane force, winds.  He said “We’re just rolling on down the sea-way.”  At that point it wasn’t frightening, just very interesting.

This was when it got a bit frightening!  We were sitting at dinner and I glanced over and saw the wave water above the bottom of the windows.   The restaurant was on the first deck.  Crew quarters and many ship systems are on A Deck, below the first deck. 

By then the ship’s shore excursion crew were hoping to adjust the times of our Bergen excursions so we didn’t miss them. Our morning tour was to the town of Dale, Norway, home of Dale of Norway sweaters.

The Dale textile business dates back to 1872. Beginning in 1956, Dale of Norway designed Olympic and World Championship sweaters for Norway’s national ski teams.  They were later chosen to design official sweaters for ongoing Winter Olympic Games.

Even though we had already bought Norwegian sweater jackets in Tromsø, we planned on buying Dale of Norway sweaters in Dale, Norway. That now seemed in doubt.

Overnight we had winds gusting up to 100 mph and 40 ft waves.  It was rough, but at least our balcony door didn’t howl! We woke finding we had survived the night and the seas had calmed.  

As we came into Bergen it was finally calm enough, and warm enough, to go out on deck briefly.  It was my first time out on deck on the whole cruise.

Our 8:00 am scheduled arrival ended up closer to 3:00 pm.  We missed out on our Dale of Norway excursion so I was glad I had bought a sweater on the ship.  Unfortunately, Randy missed out. 

Jo, Flynn, Randy and I went for a walk into town while we waited for our salvaged, abbreviated city tour later in the evening.

We walked by the Bergenhaus Fortress.  There are buildings within the fortress dating back to the 1240s.  The fortress has held the royal residence,  a cathedral, several churches, the bishop’s residence, and a monastery. Haakon’s Hall, formerly the royal hall, was built around 1260. 

The tower was built around 1270.  

In the mid 1600s the tower was incorporated into a larger structure, now known as the Rosenkrantz Tower. 

Once a home to the local governor, it served as a place to store gunpowder from 1740-1930. 

Bergen has had a series of devastating fires in its history.  The wooden houses that once stood along the wharf burned down in 1702.  These houses quickly replaced them so they are about 320 years old.

The Bryggen Wharf is now a UNESCO World Heritage site.

I liked how they cover buildings under construction with a shell that mimics the building.  On the Stiftelsen Bryggen building above, there is still a nice representation of the building and the covering is barely noticeable from a distance. The construction isn’t a visual distraction to the landmark.

Bergen has decorative man hole covers!

Our planned two hour Bergen panoramic tour ended up being just an hour but the crew and shore operators did the best they could to give everyone something.

Our driver drove us around a bit showing us various sites that did not photograph well at night through bus windows.  He took us across the river so we could photograph the wharf from the opposite side.

The next morning we left the Viking Venus with fond memories of the ship, the crew and our adventure.

Jo and Flynn left very early and flew out the same day.  Our reservations required an overnight in Bergen and then out very early the next day.  They were both very long travel days but all was accomplished.

I took a picture of this donation box that we saw at the airport in Bergen.  I have seen them in other European cities as well.  It holds an interesting mix of left over currency in many types and values. 

This is me in my authentic Dale of Norway sweater purchased onboard the Viking Venus. It has actually been cool enough in Phoenix to wear it a couple times.

The Northern Lights Cruise right after us had the reverse itinerary – Bergen to Alta to Tromsø to Narvik to Amsterdam to London.   Due to extreme and unsafe seas (worse than we had) the Viking Venus was “stuck” in Tromsø  and the passengers had extra days there to finish out their cruise.  Viking chartered flights for those passengers from Tromsø to London Heathrow.  Those same charters brought the next group of passengers from Heathrow to Tromsø to begin their cruise. The Northern Lights Cruise after that didn’t see any lights.

We were really very fortunate.  We saw lights numerous times and had seas that were bad enough for a good story but not any worse.  

It was a great trip with great friends, with a great crew, on the Viking Venus.

We disembarked on January 24, 2024.