Norwegian Fjords Cruise - May 2014: Wednesday

When we travelled with Celebrity on our 2012 Iceland and the Fjords cruise, we were supposed to stop in Olden but instead we stopped in Molde. No reason was given and we were not happy at the time, as Molde offered no excursions we were interested in and we suspected that Olden was a much nicer port of call. We were proved right today. Molde, a medium-size town, was situated on a broad flat plain while the tiny scattered community of Olden is at the end of a beautiful fjord. As at Andalsnes, we were the only ship in port.

Here's the approach -

Our morning excursion of over 4 hours around the Nordfjord was truly outstanding and all the more exciting because we had exceptional weather – sunshine all day and the temperature in the mid 20s/70s. The views were terrific and the local people we met all so warm and gentle towards us. We were sometimes reminded of how they had suffered in the Second War as many of these pretty communities were bombed – either by the Germans or by us and the Americans when we were trying to get the Germans out. There was also many a cruel story from Viking times.

As I may have mentioned, they haven’t spent any of their oil or gas revenues, but have invested it all. Norway has been a very poor country in the past with many young people leaving the country for a better life elsewhere. They are determined to turn that tide. They have invested the oil and gas money on the world’s stock markets and in property such as on Regent Street and the fund is now worth £78,000 per Norwegian with only one quarter to a third of the oil and gas reserves extracted so far. They have also paid off their total national debt.

What a nice place to live! The downside is that beer is £11 a pint and petrol is at least £2 a litre – ummm!

Wednesday Evening

We had a beautiful sailaway from Olden and down the Nordfjord and then out into the North Sea. It was an absolute flat calm with a little sea haze and it was light again till very late into the night.

The main evening entertainment was the ‘Headliners’ doing their Queen tribute in Carmen’s, the dance bar. We stayed for only a short time.