Reviews
Lights fantastic
Ken Snowdon suffers a baptism of ice, visits a very cool bar and endures Arctic temperatures on a voyage realise his ambition to see the Northern Lights
I'VE always wanted to see the
Northern Lights - and I don't mean
the ones at Blackpool or the pub
in Gosforth. No, the aurora borealis
captured my imagination at
the age of ten. They were sometimes on
display when Superman flew up to his
Fortress of Solitude in the Arctic Circle
and even the name struck me as wonderfully
exotic. I thought both were a figment
of someone's imagination, but
decades later I'm hoping to witness one
of them and it's not the bloke with the
underpants and cape.
This dazzling light show is caused by
solar particles passing into the atmosphere,
creating a striking display of
ghostly green, yellow,
red and violet lights
darting across the
horizon. So it's fingers
crossed as I join a
Northern Lights
cruise, a joint venture
between DFDS and the
Norwegian cruise line
Hurtigruten. The former
takes you from
North Shields to
Bergen and the latter
takes you north into
the Arctic Circle. The
question is: will I see
them? There's no guarantee that - unlike
David Tennant at Blackpool - Mother
Nature will switch them on.
I've packed my thermals, Berghaus
Arctic jacket and fetching red sunglasses
(not for the sun but the glare of the
snow). On board the Queen of Scandinavia,
I'm installed in a pleasant Commodore
class cabin with double bed, TV
and complementary mini-bar. With the
evening departure, there's little in the
way of outside scenery to occupy your
time at first but there's things to do onboard
if you like nightclubs, cinemas,
gambling, eating or drinking.
Of course, the following day you can
gaze at the full majesty of the North Sea,
but in November's blustery winds and
bracing temperatures, I stayed inside.
Teatime the next day saw us in Stavanger
and finally on to Bergen by 11pm.
It's at this point you get off the ship,
go through immigration and get back on
again just after midnight, ready for a
6am start the next day. This sounded a
bit like hard work to me but a spokesperson
for DFDS Seaways explained a way
round it. "Rather than re-boarding the
Queen of Scandinavia some guests do
prefer to check into a hotel for the night,
and we do organise this alternative accommodation
on request. Passengers
who choose to return then disembark
early the following morning and board
Hurtigruten later that day, leaving plenty
of time to explore the picturesque city
of Bergen. The port
provides luggage
lockers where passengers
can leave
their belongings for
the day as they explore
the Gateway to
the Fjords." So I did. It
rained a lot.
And so to the Hurtigruten
part of the
trip. The vessel that
will take me nearer
the Northern Lights
is the MS Finnmarken.
There are 32
suites, some with a balcony. If the views
outside aren't enough for you, there's
also a fitness centre, saunas, internet
cafe, outdoor swimming pool and observation
areas.
Soon after sailing a meeting is called
for the British contingent (there are also
a lot of Germans on board). The captain
is there to introduce the crew, everyone
from the masseur via the chief engineer
to our tour guide, Peter. He tells jokes
about the Americans and the Germans
(funny) and quips about England's failure
to reach the Euro finals (unwise). He
also talks about the excursions we can
buy when we reach ports along the way
to Tromso, my final destination. Then
there are some cheery words about the
importance of putting on a survival suit
if we have to abandon ship as apparently
we'd only last five to ten minutes in
the water without one.
Day one sees us hugging the Norwegian
coast as we travel to Alesund. Altogether
we make 20 stops at towns
along the coast between Bergen and
Tromso. I spend most of the time on the
observation deck, watching the beautiful
Norwegian coast in centrally-heated
comfort. Some brave souls are outside,
some there for the fresh air and some
huddled behind the door smoking.
We stop at Alesund where Peter offered
a walking tour lasting two hours
with a guide and costing about £15. I pay
nothing and lurk at the back before
doing my own thing. Alesund was all but
destroyed by fire in 1904 and rebuilt in
the continental style - all spires, towers
and ornamentation. It's very pretty.
Day two and we wake up in Trondheim,
Norway's third largest city and
still some way from the Arctic Circle.
This was the country's first capital,
founded in 997 by the Viking, King Olaf.
It's still got its wooden houses and narrow
streets alongside more modern developments.
The cathedral was started
in 1070, but they were still at it in the
1960s. I think it's finished now. The view
looking down on the city is spectacular,
and although its lights are twinkling far
below in the early morning darkness,
they aren't the Northern ones.
The Finnmarken runs with an easy efficiency.
Every day you get a full list of
where the ship is calling, plus interesting
pointers along the way. Regular announcements
are made, the crew is
friendly, the food is good (although there
is no choice at dinner) and the drinks -
like everywhere in Norway - are outrageously
expensive.
It's day three and at 7.05am (and 58 seconds)
we have crossed the Arctic Circle.
The custom is to have a ceremony on
deck, which starts a little later because
we were all in bed when it happened. It
kicks off with tour guide Peter singing
a song about a Norwegian cod delicacy
which (if I heard correctly) is being used
as draught proofing for a door.
Then Neptune is summoned by everyone
shouting "King Neptune", but the
best we can manage is a crew member
dressed for the part. Neptune tells us it's
an honour for us to join "the cod, halibut,
mermaid and crab" in his kingdom
and wants to baptise us all. This involves
having ice cubes shoved down the back
of your shirt.
Everyone got one or two, but for some
reason the king thought I deserved five.
Three dropped out at waist level but two
made it as far as my underpants. Fortunately,
everyone else was wriggling
around, so I was able to plunge a hand
in and dislodge the cubes so they fell out
of my trouser leg.
I thought we'd seen the last of lumps
of frozen water, but at 9pm we have an
hour in Svolvaer famous for its local pub
made entirely from ice. You get a pair of
gloves when you go in. The seats are ice
(covered in animal skin to stop your bum
getting damp) the bar is ice, even the
glasses you drink from are made of ice.
Nice. No lights yet though, and there's
only a day to go.
It's the final day and I have a mere six
hours left to see the lights. There's more
spectacular scenery, looking much more
Arctic now. Snow dusts the hills that
come down to meet the sea and completely
covers the higher peaks behind.
Beyond the towns, some houses are
dotted about in splendid isolation but
most are built close together as if huddled
for warmth. At this time of the year,
the sun doesn't get above the horizon
and what daylight there is -
between 10am and 2pm - is washed out
and pale. There's a murmur of excitement
in the lounge as someone thinks
they've spotted a whale, but our stares
into the gloom fail to make it materialise.
As we approach Tromso and my
final stop, there is a splendid full moon
in the sky where the sun ought to be.
As I walk down the gangway, I look
northwards into the early afternoon sky
and reflect. After a week of expectation,
excitement and hope, there's still no sign
of the Northern Lights. The scenery has
been magnificent, the voyage relaxing
but its time to go home. Via Gosforth.
TRAVEL FACTS
DFDS Seaways offers the Northern Lights Cruise in conjunction with
Hurtigruten Norwegian Coastal Voyage. Prices start from £779 per person
for a seven night holiday including two nights onboard Queen of
Scandinavia and four nights on the Finnmarken on a half board basis,
transfers and flights from Tromso to Newcastle via Oslo, and one night stay
at an Oslo Airport hotel.
10:27am Saturday 5th January 2008
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