Seeing the Northern Lights was high on Mrs C's bucket list. Iceland was the obvious choice, but northern Norway was much further inside the arctic circle and more likely to see the lights. We booked with a reputable tour operator, travelling from local airport at Bournemouth and with a reputable cruise line from Norway, cruising the Norwegian Fiords up into the arctic circle to the Russian border at Murmansk. All the ingredients for a good holiday and target rich for photography.
At Bournemouth Airport, our private charter airplane had engine problems and we had to wait for three and a half hours for a replacement plane to come from Stanstead. On arrival at Bergen, the ship wasn't there - it was three ports away undergoing gearbox repairs, so it was an overnight in a hotel and a coach and aircraft to get us to the port. It was another half a day of repairs until the ship got under way. Mrs C was not amused, but I did reassure her that things could only get better.
All OK for three days, we got off and looked around at a couple of towns and managed the first of our five booked excursions - a dog sleigh ride in the middle of nowhere. Mrs C was now happy and relaxed. The following day we were advised that there were certain towns that we couldn't disembark, but the larger towns/cities were OK and our remaining excursions were still OK. The following day we were advised that on the orders of the Norwegian Government, no passengers were allowed to land except their disembarkation port. During the night, the Norwegian Government ordered all cruise ships to land at the nearest port to a Regional Airport and coach all passengers to that airport to arrange flights back to their own country. Flights costs were paid by the Cruise Company, but will be invoiced to passengers. That ended up as over £700. From boarding the coach at 6:30am to Regional Kirkense, to Oslo, to Gatwick and finally sharing a taxi with another couple, we got back home at nearly midnight.
To say the least, a bit of an adventure with lots of delays and not quite knowing what was going on at times. There were no symptoms of infection by any passenger and all passengers were from the UK, mainly Dorset. With a fairly closed environment, we could have carried on our return leg without landing and take our return chartered flight from Bergen to Bournemouth, rather than spend time at two higher risk airports, Oslo and Gatwick.
Now at home we are self isolating, but thankfully no symptoms and on the plus side, I did manage one or two reasonable holiday snaps.
At Bournemouth Airport, our private charter airplane had engine problems and we had to wait for three and a half hours for a replacement plane to come from Stanstead. On arrival at Bergen, the ship wasn't there - it was three ports away undergoing gearbox repairs, so it was an overnight in a hotel and a coach and aircraft to get us to the port. It was another half a day of repairs until the ship got under way. Mrs C was not amused, but I did reassure her that things could only get better.
All OK for three days, we got off and looked around at a couple of towns and managed the first of our five booked excursions - a dog sleigh ride in the middle of nowhere. Mrs C was now happy and relaxed. The following day we were advised that there were certain towns that we couldn't disembark, but the larger towns/cities were OK and our remaining excursions were still OK. The following day we were advised that on the orders of the Norwegian Government, no passengers were allowed to land except their disembarkation port. During the night, the Norwegian Government ordered all cruise ships to land at the nearest port to a Regional Airport and coach all passengers to that airport to arrange flights back to their own country. Flights costs were paid by the Cruise Company, but will be invoiced to passengers. That ended up as over £700. From boarding the coach at 6:30am to Regional Kirkense, to Oslo, to Gatwick and finally sharing a taxi with another couple, we got back home at nearly midnight.
To say the least, a bit of an adventure with lots of delays and not quite knowing what was going on at times. There were no symptoms of infection by any passenger and all passengers were from the UK, mainly Dorset. With a fairly closed environment, we could have carried on our return leg without landing and take our return chartered flight from Bergen to Bournemouth, rather than spend time at two higher risk airports, Oslo and Gatwick.
Now at home we are self isolating, but thankfully no symptoms and on the plus side, I did manage one or two reasonable holiday snaps.
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