Explore More Issue 18

TRAVEL
PHOTOS: © ISTOCK/CATHERINE COLLINS
I could have closed the curtains
but we were gliding past savagely
beautiful islands whose Thor-like
like presence would have been
rude to ignore. These magnificent
monoliths backlit by the sun
were mesmerising.
Mile after mile, despite the
simple repetition of sea and austere
islands, I couldn’t tear myself away.
There was nuance in the shapes, the
birds that clustered
on and around them,
the sparse flora and
fauna nestling in
nooks and clinging
to crannies, the way
the sunlight reflected
in the deep, dark water made
every second thrillingly different
and created a hunger for the next
moment of magic. I think I finally
fell asleep at about 03.30. The
midnight sun is one of those things
people can tell you about until they,
or you, are blue in the face. You
need to see it to believe it and I can
pretty much guarantee you’ll be as
surprised and seduced as I was.
After that the surprises came
thick and fast. So thick and fast
in fact, I nearly missed the
second one.
Breakfast, 07.30, Day Two.
The important bit here is ‘Day
Two’. Late night island spotting is
exhausting, but nothing comes in
the way of breakfast, and breakfast
in a Viking World Café is just the
best. I was steaming full speed
ahead past reception and heading
for the eggs benedict when I
realised the smiling Maitre d’ had
said ‘Good Morning Miss Cotter
Craig’. Hang on a minute, I had
only been on board for just over
24 hours, there were 900 people on
Viking Sea, and yet he was able to
greet me, and every passenger who
came in to breakfast by name. As
the cruise continued I discovered
this was standard with so many of
the staff – the stateroom stewards,
the security team who waved us on
and off the ship, the shore staff, the
waiters and waitresses, the ladies in
the spa – everywhere. Now that’s a
surprise like a warm hug.
Next, Geirangerfjord. To be
You need to see the midnight sun to
believe it and I can guarantee you’ll be
as surprised and seduced as I was
honest I had been a bit sceptical
about the fjord part of this cruise,
I’m Scottish, I live on the shores of
Loch Linnhe, have swum in Loch
Ness and have even taken a boat
out on Loch Lomond, so what on
earth could a fjord offer that my
beloved Scottish lochs didn’t? Quite
a lot it turned out.
The first thing that took my
breath away were the farm houses
precariously positioned hundreds of
metres atop fortress-like walls rising
from who knows what depths, and
accessible only by narrow vertical
tracks. That’s bad enough, but if
you were a small child or animal
there was a pulley and basket
combo to hoist you from sea level
to the top. Extraordinary.
However if anyone had asked
me what sort of things I’d expect
to find growing there (unlikely,
but stick with me) I would have
said; carrots, potatoes, peas, beans,
maybe the odd turnip, but almost
certainly not apricots. But grow
there they do. Geirangerfjord is
62 degrees north and only a few
hundred miles south of the Arctic
Circle, and here the most delicious
and northerly apricots in the world
thrive and grow. Arctic apricots?
Yes please. I really did need a little
lie down after all this overwhelm
and it still wasn’t 09.00.
Then we got off the ship and
went for a very Norwegian hike,
I say very Norwegian because
it involved walking up some
incredibly steep hills quite fast.
There was just
something so
intriguing about
Geiranger that a bit
like the adventurous
schoolgirls in Picnic
at Hanging Rock we
felt the urge to walk higher and
higher, but mercifully without
the disastrous consequences that
befell them.
The higher we went the more
impossibly bucolic it became,
from flower meadows brimming
with welcoming cheeriness to
untrimmed billowing hedges,
the smell of summer grass,
Clockwise from
far left: A view
from Viking Sea
as the ship
approaches the
Lofoten Islands;
Lupins growing
in the Nordic
countryside; the
picturesque
fishing village of
Honningsvåg; Fi
was surprised to
discover apricots
grow so close to
the Arctic Circle
WINTER 2019 | VIKINGCRUISES.CO.UK 13
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