Norway 2016: Mountain Hike

A couple more items about life on a coastal ferry. The crew and our interaction with them is different then traditional cruises. The crew on the Trollfjord are mainly Norwegian and Swedish. They are professional and efficient but not as friendly as we are used to, particularly on HAL with the Indonesian and Phillipneo crews. We have yet to meet our cabin steward. It actually appears to be a team of three. Again, they get the job done but there is no interaction. There is one waiter, Orjan in the dining room who is quite friendly.

The other item to talk about that is different is the Internet. Unlike other cruise lines, you just pay a flat fee for the voyage. No worrying about how many minutes you use. The only limitation is that no more then two devices can be hooked up at once. It also requires that you resign on each time, a bit of a pain but no big woo. The other great aspect of it is the cost, only 400 NOK for eleven days, that equates to around $48, a rare bargain in Norway. And to top it off, it actually works well :)

Our first stop (other then the one we slept through) today was Finnsnes. It was only a 30 minute stop so we opted to stay on the boat. In the pictures below you will really start to see how the leaves are changing as we head north. We are almost at 70 degree's North so it makes sense but the change seems like overnight to us.

Here are some pictures from this morning:

Small light beacons

This one is actually on

Fish Farms, not sure for what, maybe salmon?

Finnsnes

More supplies for the village

Note we are over 69 degrees north, thats 200 miles above the arctic circle

Old house

In the afternoon, we have signed up for a "Mountain Hike". It was scheduled to last for three hours and was rated "moderate" on Hurtengruten's difficulty scale. The ship was in Tromso for four hours, one of our longest stops for the whole voyage. The group of hikers assembled on the pier and boarded a bus which took us to a cable car. After a quick cable car ride you hike the rest of the way, 2,000 feet in total. It turned out to be quite the hike. I think going forward we might not sign up for any hikes harder then easy. It was pretty non-stop uphill for about 45 minutes. In addition, as you approached the top the wind was howling. In our group of 32 hikers, all but one made it to the top. I won't name who did not but I made it. Here are some pictures: