Bodo and Trollfjorden

Friday, July 3, 2015  (Day 4)

     Today was the day for washing two loads of clothes.  I put in one load before breakfast as there was only one machine available.  After breakfast I put the first load in the dryer and the second load in the washing machine.  All our clothes were clean, dried, and put away before lunch.

     We crossed the Arctic Circle around 7:11 am and had a celebration outside of Deck 7 around 10:15 to find out who made the closest guess as to when we'd pass the the AC.  (We were told to guess between 6:45 and 8:00 am.)  I'm glad I didn't win as the winner was given an ice bath (!) and received a certificate.

       Each day, the cruise director, Thess Appelberg, produces a one-page program (double-sided) with all of the daily activities, including times for meals, when we dock at a city and, most importantly, when we leave.  We heard that some people have missed the ship and it was quite expensive to take a cab or whatever to catch the ship at the next port!

    We had lunch at 11:30 so we could go into the city of Bodo with Ramiro & Moraima.  We took our map of the city and found the Husflid Bodo.  After that, we went to the Scandic Hotel near the ship.  (Scandic is one of the hotel chains seen all over Norway.)  Ramiro and I madly did everything we could on the internet for the short time we had.  (That is when I sent the "no internet on the MS Kong Harald" alert!)  Moraima and Mother stayed for a while and then returned to the ship as Ramiro and I continued with wifi. 

     In the afternoon Mother and I met Anne and Nancy to play rummicube.  We saw many people playing cards, reading books, and just looking at the view.  There is a library on board; Mother and I thought there was an unusual collection of books.   Dinner was a 6:30.

     After the Geiranger Fjord, the next most spectacular thing we have experienced/seen was going into the small finger of the strait of Raftsundet called Trollfjorden.  It is only 26 km long, narrow and a beautiful strait of Raftsundet.  The evening had been very foggy and we weren't sure if we could go in the small fjord.  Luck was on our side.  Even though it was a bit dark, the captain brought the ship in and then essentially stopped it toward the end of the fjord and did a 180 degree turn.  Quite impressive!

one of the many small 'villages' along the coast we saw throughout the trip

Arctic Circle celebration on the 7th Deck with our Cruise Director Thess Appelberg (center, black hair) 

and our Captain Jan Kristian Jonassen (center, with white hair, to the right of Thess) 

playing rummicube with Anne and Nancy

Marit from Holland and Ludmilla from California (formerly from Germany);
we met them at the dinner at the Alexandria Hotel at then end of the Geiranger excursion

In the back of Trollfjorden;
 we were so close to the sides of the fjord 'walls' I felt as though I could reach out and touch them 

rock/mountain climbing anyone?

 We had turned 180 degrees and were leaving Trollfjorden; it took around 20 minutes to make the turn;
Mother with Nancy Johnson and Anne Panowicz 

We are leaving Trollfjorden - quite a narrow entrance to/exit from the fjord!

The sky had cleared quite a bit when we left Trollfjorden around midnight