One of the things that had been most appealing about this Britannia cruise to the Norwegian fjords was that it wasn’t just a chance to sail on a ship we’d not been on before, but that it also included a few new ports for us. Haugesund would conclude the cruise but our second port of call following our day revisiting Stavanger was to Nordfjordeid along the Nordfjord.
We like to book excursions when we visit a new place for the first time but we’d booked this cruise fairly late on so a few of the excursion options were already off the table. Of the remainder, they would involve long bus journeys far from the town, and some of those were to places we’d visited before when stopping at other ports. That left us with looking to see what we might do in Nordfjordeid and, to be fair, there didn’t look to be much. But there was a museum and we expected that the scenery of the fjords would be nice enough that a simple walk around would more than satisfy us. We’re not too difficult to please, especially when spending time away from home and on a cruise ship.
We had our plan. The weather had other plans.
Britannia made her way as far as the town of Nordfjordeid in the morning as planned but we could already tell from being out on our balcony during the sail along the fjord that it was going to be very cold and windy ashore with the fjord acting as a wind tunnel whipping the air from distant glaciers along its length. Layers, we’d decided, would most definitely be needed.
That wind, though, turned out to be too much for the ship. Britannia would need more ropes to keep her moored safely than could be actually deployed in the port. An announcement from the captain informed us all that the port was therefore cancelled and we’d instead have a day of scenic sailing along the Nordfjord.
I’m sure a lot of passengers on Britannia were disappointed, and for those who’d possibly made their own plans with local tour companies this likely required some frantic emails or calls to cancel bookings, but for us this would prove to be a lovely day on the ship.
After breakfast and enough time for our steward to clean our room we made our way back to the cabin, spending the day sitting inside, reading, making some quite terrible tea (the only kind of tea you can make on a cruise ship is terrible – a requirement of the global tea cartel that mandates tea quality – but it’s warm, so there is that), and popping out onto the balcony frequently to take photos and videos of the stunning scenery.
It was incredibly cold stepping out onto the balcony of our cabin and long periods were accompanied by rain trying its hardest to become sleet. My wife mostly stayed inside, peering through the glass of the doors if I mentioned that something particularly interesting in terms of geology was out there. I was out enough, though, that I needed to keep my hoodie on and a coat over the top. It was bitter, but the views were so rewarding.
You cruise the Norwegian fjords to see scenery of huge rock faces, evergreen trees, waterfalls, mountains topped with ice and snow, and the Nordjord does not disappoint, no matter what the weather is like.
A beautiful, relaxing day on Britannia with hours of cruising along majestic fjords came to an end as the ship made its way back out into the open sea in order to track along Norway’s coast overnight and head to the next port of call, and one we were really looking forward to seeing again.
To finish this post off a quick look at some of the cocktails we treated ourselves to in the evening and the food we enjoyed in the main dining room. We opted for the same starters and main course; a rarity for us as we’ve got largely incompatible tastes when it comes to food, but it does happen when the meal options aren’t too inspiring or if the mood takes us. It was all very nice.
In the next post in this cruise travelogue series we’ll be seeing whether Flåm turns out to be as wonderful as we remembered from when we’d last visited a decade earlier and found that actually, yes, Norway can produce good beer.