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48 VIKING.COM EXPLORE

48 VIKING.COM EXPLORE MORE

TRAVEL We got off the ship and went for a hike. 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, the rush of mountain streams and small vertiginous fields bursting with multicolored wildflowers: campions, bog cottons, buttercups, cornflowers, saxifrages, sedums and poppies. If all that had not been enough, the sudden appearance of a pack of llamas and bell-ringing goats on the trail in front of us just seemed normal for Norway. In retrospect, they were another wonderful surprise in one of the most beautiful and individual countries in the world. Every day the surprises came when you least expected them, like a chain of beautiful bridges in the Norwegian Sea linking one remote, tiny island with a handful of humans and some sheep to another remote, tiny island with a handful of humans and some sheep. In every port, we had the joy of experiencing the seductive attraction of a new place: Scandinavian friendliness; ancient paving stones; the odd tram rattling past; and the daunting ski jump high above Tromsø, a town inside the Arctic Circle at the top of the world. Other surprise highlights? Being brushed with birch twigs in The Spa (really, try it!); eating king crab fresh from the sea and cooked in a yurt; and watching interactions between huge, rapacious sea eagles and furious, tiny terns in the Lofoten Islands. The Shetland Islands, part of Scotland but with an ancient Norwegian soul; the THE MIDNIGHT SUN IS ONE OF THOSE THINGS YOU NEED TO WITNESS TO BELIEVE IT lush, treeless greenness of the Orkney Islands; and the standing stones that made me stand and weep. All never to be forgotten. And just when I thought none of these could be beaten, they were. Like all great hosts, Viking saved the best surprise for last. The last night of a cruise is always a bittersweet affair. Not only is there the sadness of it being over and the goodbyes to be said, but far worse—the pains of packing. How on earth was I going to deal with the 25 Viking helmets (plus horns) for everyone at work? Mercifully, I am easily distracted, and a medley of hits by Elvis, Little Eva, The Beatles, Chubby Checker and The Supremes drifting down from the top deck saved me. Anything was better than wrestling with Viking helmets, so I headed up to Deck 7 to see what was happening. Nothing could have prepared me for what I witnessed. The Viking Band was getting the night going, the onboard vocalists were belting out hits from the sixties and guests were dancing. Boy, were they dancing. The locomotion, the swim, the mashed potato, the twist—they still had all the moves, and they were giving it everything. Watching them dance was life-affirming and joyous. For about an hour at the end of the cruise, somewhere in the North Sea, they were all Sweet 16 once more. That really was a priceless experience, and to call it “surprising” does not do it justice. But then, that is a Viking cruise for you. GETTING THERE: The 15-day Into the Midnight Sun journey departs from Bergen to London, or in reverse. Clockwise, from facing page: Lofoten Islands, Norway; one of the bridges linking the Lofoten’s isolated islands; a giant king crab; the Arctic Cathedral in Tromsø EXPLORE MORE VIKING.COM 49