We had a fairly late port arrival time that day as we were only due to arrive in port at 09:00. We had set an alarm for 08:00 just in case, but we were awake before then. We got up and ready. Then we headed for the buffet for some breakfast. We both had coffee and orange juice. Graham had fruit, yoghurt and oatmeal. I had congee with chicken, egg, spring onions and soy sauce. I also tried some of the pork link sausages and hash browns.
After breakfast, we headed back to the cabin to get ready for the day. Then we headed downstairs. The port that day was Nordfjordeid. When I looked at the ports before the cruise, this seemed to be the one with the most potential. There are some real highlights that are within reach of Nordfjordeid like the Loen Sky lift or the Briksdal Glacier. However, by the time I got organised, excursions were either sold out through the cruise line and other companies, or they were not what we wanted. We figured that we would just get off the ship and see what we could find. In the end, we did not bother as we did not trust the weather. That turned out to be a very wise decision.
We got off the ship and got some port photos. Then we headed down the seemingly endless floating dock. Near the terminal building, there were some more photographers. We stopped there, too, as the photos had the full ship in the background. Then we headed out and explored. There was a gift shop opposite the port. I wanted to get some presents for my colleagues. I did however not want to carry them round with me. We decided to come back to the ship.
We headed into town. This was one of the more unusual port towns. Most of the area around the port was residential. Sure, there were some shops and cafes, but apart from the souvenir shop right across from the port, they were not really aimed at the tourists. Instead, they catered to the local population. This was really refreshing. Nordfjordeid is a very pretty town with lots of wooden houses. This is kind of what I had expected Reykjavik to be like.
At the end of the main street was a beautiful church. Sadly, the church itself was not open. The graveyard was however interesting. As soon as we entered the graveyard, we spotted a familiar name – Edvard Munch. We both recognised this instantly as the name of the painter who had painted The Scream. There was some information next to the grave. This was not the grave of the famous painter, but actually the grave of his uncle, who was a captain. It was still pretty cool.
We took a wander through a park with a stream. This led us back in the general direction of the port. On the way, I managed to get a photo of the ship. We also passed the local Viking museum and a natural swimming pool. The pool was closed, but Graham could not resist dipping his toes in. At that stage, it started to rain heavily. We quickly went back to souvenir shop where I got some troll magnets for my colleagues and a couple of Northern Lights magnets and a magnet of Nordfjordeid for myself. Then we headed back to the ship.
When we came out of the shop, the rain had got heavier. The dock that felt long when we got off, felt endless at that point. We also had to wait a short while to get back on the ship as there were a lot of people getting off the ship. Once we were back on the ship, we headed back to the cabin. We dropped off our stuff and got changed into our swim stuff to warm up in the hot tub. When we got to the pool deck, we were the only people that were there, but at some stage, it got pretty busy. At that point, we were ready to come out anyway. We got dried off as much as we could and then we headed back to the cabin to get showered and put some dry clothes on.
Once we were ready again, we headed down to Billboard Onboard for literature trivia. I fancied my chances, but some of the questions were really obscure. We scored 9 out of 17 and the winning score was 15. After trivia, we headed to the buffet to get some lunch. Graham had iced tea, fried chicken and chips. He had some fruit crisp with vanilla sauce for his dessert. I had lemonade and southwestern avocado salad. This was delicious, but quite spicy. I had strawberry pie for dessert.
After lunch, we found a square lounger and relaxed for a while. When it was time for team trivia, we headed down to Billboard on board. We scored 11 out of 18 and the winning score was 12. Graham had a glass of Sauvignon Blanc, and I had a Gin’s Cup. After trivia, we headed back up to deck 10. The same square lounger was still available and we settled down again.
In many ways, this was a strange day. All aboard was 17:30 and then there was some scenic cruising after this. However, it was also the second formal night that day. We decided to see how all of this would work out. For the time we were happy where we were. We had another drink. Graham had a glass of Sauvignon Blanc, and I had a passionfruit margarita. I also got up to some mischief. Ever since our first Alaska cruise, Graham has been teasing me that I had promised him a subtropical paradise whenever we have done some cold weather cruising. This cruise was no exception. I decided to give him a subtropical paradise. I uploaded the photo of the ship I had taken earlier that day into Co-Pilot and asked it to add palm trees. This did not look quite right, and I asked it to add a white sandy beach. Then I told Graham that there was his subtropical paradise.
I did not think Nordfjord was as pretty as Hardanger Fjord, but we saw so many rainbows. It was still enjoyable. It was just a shame that we started the scenic cruising so late. The light started to fade quite quickly. This was not helped either by the fact that it was a cloudy day. Just before 20:00, we headed back to the cabin to get changed into our formal gear. We found a gift on the bed. Repeat cruisers get a Royal Delft coaster. This changes every year and initially every ship had a different tile. Since 2012, each class of ship has had a different design. The present collection consists of four tiles and features a nautical element in each tile: compass, sextant, anchor, and bell. For the Pinnacle Class ships, it is the anchor.
Once we were ready, we headed for the dining room. We wondered if we would get a table as we were so late that day, but we were seated straightaway. Graham started with the avocado shrimp cocktail, which consisted of layered diced avocado, shrimp, and creamy chipotle sauce. For his main course, he had beef tenderloin, which came with a crab cake béarnaise sauce, fingerling potatoes, and asparagus. I started with cream of four mushroom soup with chive oil. This was every bit as good as the mushroom soup at Chops Grille on Royal Caribbean. For main course, I had the New York strip loin with steak fries and garlic-herb butter. I finished my dinner with a hot fudge sundae, which consisted of vanilla ice cream, almonds, marshmallows, and chocolate sauce. We had another attempt at ordering the Chateau Ste Michelle Riesling, but this is not what we ended up with. They have a Chardonnay from the same winery on Holland America ships, and I started to wonder if this was what we ended up with. It was a nice drop, and we did not actually mind.
After dinner, we stopped for some photos. Then we headed up to the photo gallery to round up some more photos. There were surprisingly few. Most of them had already found their way into my folder. Graham took some photos of my outfit just outside the Grand Dutch Cafe. Suddenly, this part of the ship was very busy. However, when the people who were passing through realised what we were doing, they stopped so that we could take the photos. I was really surprised by this, but also very grateful.
We stopped for a nightcap at the Panorama Bar. Graham had a Bahama Mama, and I had a passion fruit margarita. Then we headed back to the cabin and got ready for bed. I read a chapter in my book, but soon we were fast asleep.
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