Sailing in the land of the midnight sun

• August 13, 2022

• August 13, 2022

  8 minute read

Norwegians like fresh air and in all conditions. As they say, no bad weather, just bad clothes. The ideal is a timber cabin in the mountains or on a shore, mod cons not essential. Playwright Henrik Ibsen wrote about Friluftsliv (free-loofts-liv) in the 1850s, so while the idea has been trending in a Covid world, it’s nothing new.

There’s no pretending that sailing up Aurlandsfjord on Norway’s west coast to Flam on a cruise ship will deliver a virtuous frugality, but as I sit on my stateroom veranda while we glide silently through early-morning mist with forested steep mountains all around and melting snow caps forming fingers of waterfalls, this is a moment of natural wonder to treasure. It is travel at its most uplifting and a tonic after the past 2 ½ years.

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I’m on board Rotterdam, the new Pinnacle-class flagship of Holland America Line and the seventh in its fleet to be named after the Dutch port in which the company was founded nearly 150 years ago. This is a seven-night Viking Sagas roundtrip from Amsterdam with stops at Norway’s capital, Oslo, pretty Kristiansand in the nation’s south, and Stavanger and Flam on its west coast.

Rotterdam is glistening in whiteness. Just the week before, the vessel has been christened by its godmother, Princess Margriet, aunt of King Willem-Alexander of The Netherlands.

Fellow passengers are mostly American and Dutch, the latter gathering at the Grand Dutch Cafe and celebrating merrily at an Orange Party. I detect a few Aussie accents too among the 2500 or so guests.

We are advised to wear masks (as do all crew) in public indoor spaces and on shore excursions, and have shown an international certificate of vaccination and proven Covid negative in a medically supervised test within three days before departure.

My stateroom on deck six is midway between the 12 public decks; the stairs can be useful for exercise, although the lifts are rarely crowded. The ship has an extensive art collection in foyers and stairwells, many works on a musical theme. There is more exercise in a well-equipped gym, sublime relaxation at Greenhouse Spa and lazing in the sun around the Lido pool forward and a smaller pool aft. And there is sun, seven straight days of it with temperatures in the mid to high 20Cs. Europeans call it a heatwave; I call it heaven.

The cabin is spacious with comfortable twin beds, a sofa sitting area, desk, TV and oodles of hanging space. Its bathroom is not squeezy, nor is the veranda with two sun lounges. Blockout curtains work a wonder, which is important after a night out in the music lounges on decks two and three. We are in the land of the midnight sun so it’s still light after 11pm and dawn comes a few hours later.

Perhaps my favourite spot is Explorations Cafe overlooking the bow on deck 12. It is quiet in the early morning, serves a fine coffee and has deep leather armchairs with ottomans from which to watch our arrival at ports or the wide waters on days at sea.

Dining on Rotterdam is top-notch. Cruise and travel director Karlijn Verpalen says Holland America Line’s record of good food spans its lifetime. Its vessels carried hundreds of thousands of Dutch emigrants to the US in the late 19th-early 20th centuries and it was wise for them to arrive well-nourished at the immigration station on New York’s Ellis Island. Sick hopefuls were turned back, at cost. Which is not to say the passengers in steerage in those days would have enjoyed today’s cuisine choices.

The mainstay of easy dining is Lido Market World Cuisine, which on a pre-Covid ship may have been self-serve but here selections are plated by crew. Expect choices from homestead cooking to North Sea seafood, sushi, Asian and Dutch. And then there’s the desserts. More formal complimentary meals are served in the Dining Room, with menus devised by a Culinary Council of chefs including Rudi Sodamin, David Burke and Andy Matsuda. I’m won over by dishes such as coconut-crusted shrimps and a roasted spice-crusted prime rib with wild mushroom and horseradish mustard mousse. Wines have been selected by critic James Suckling and a few Australian labels make it on to the international list.

It’s possible to go the extra yard in fine dining at restaurants that incur additional (fairly modest) cost, including Matsuda’s Nami Sushi, Burke’s steakhouse-style Pinnacle Grill and Rudi’s Sel de Mer where Sodamin has conjured a menu of French dishes with contemporary flair. Be advised, portions are sculptural but not arthouse minimalist; I regret having sampled a Norwegian waffle with jam, sour cream and brown cheese, and a supersize meringue on a shore visit.

Peckish out of hours? Burgers, hotdogs and pizza slices are freely available all day around the pool, where movies are screened at night. While films under the stars may be nice, the centre of entertainment is on the Music Walk and World Stage. The shops, casino and library are nearby.

B.B. King’s Blues Club, the Rolling Stone Rock Room, Billboard Onboard and Lincoln Centre Stage share the Walk in open-sided lounges that are acoustically well-engineered. The Lincoln Centre ensemble plays light classical and popular pieces earlier in the evening, before the action starts with rock hits at Rolling Stone; close your eyes and you’re in Beale Street, Memphis, at B.B. King’s jazz joint. The musicianship is marvellous. The World Stage, with panoramic screen and astounding digital effects, hosts shows by the Step One Dance Company, as well as BBC Earth Concerts and port talks.

In Oslo we dock at the doorstep, close to the Norwegian Opera and Ballet theatre, a building that echoes the Sydney Opera House in its white monumentalism, except that with slanted surfaces visitors can walk on the roof. We are also alongside the Munch Museum, which houses numerous versions of Edvard Munch’s The Scream. But the cultural buzz is all about the stunning new National Museum, which has opened days before our visit and displays the earliest version of The Scream as well as 5000 works from the national collection of art, crafts, architecture and design.

Shore excursions are generally worthwhile and conducted by local guides; there are many on offer at each stop, graded in level of fitness required (including hikes and cycling) and size of wallet (helicopter jaunts). A Best of Oslo tour gives a taste of Viking culture at the Maritime Museum on Bygdoy peninsula, once the royal family’s private property and home still to its herd of cows. On display are artefacts crafted by the courageous if cruel seafarers and a model of the Osberg Ship of 820AD, found in a burial mound in the early 20th century (the original is being relocated to a new Museum of the Viking Age). But the most fascinating object is Norway’s oldest boat, a 2200-year old dugout canoe 9.8m long and weighing two tonnes.

We have saved the best for last. While Norway has abundant fjords, more than 1000 of them, which have been formed by the same glacial process, not all have dramatic, towering granite sides. At Stavanger, Rotterdam docks not in the old harbour with its wooden, white-painted houses, but at an industrial wharf. We are at the centre of Norway’s oil industry and vessels from here service North Sea platforms. There’s a small irony in that the nation’s obvious prosperity, care for its citizens and now clean and green credentials (petrol stations seem rare) are founded on the discovery of offshore oil in the 1960s. Stavanger has what I am told is a fascinating oil museum, but I am off on a fjord ferry, sailing up the majestic Lysefjord to worship at the foot of Pulpit Rock. I could be one of those specks of humanity 600m above, but I don’t have the head for heights the hiking excursion requires. Down here though, it’s a serene delight as we gather glasses of the purest H2O from a waterfall and watch the precipitous frolics of a mountain goat and her two kids.

Next morning, we have that spectacular arrival in Flam, a town of about 400 people but well-geared for visitors keen to ride the historic Flam to Myrdal railway on a track that climbs from sea level to 870m through 20 tunnels in an hour.

As we sail back to Amsterdam, cruise director Karlijn says to think of it not as the last night of the cruise, but the first day of our new diet. But a little Friluftsliv has rubbed off, too. Fresh air has filled my lungs.

More to the story

What’s not to like about Norwegian eccentricity?

The Flam-Myrdal railway has a photo stop at Kjosfossen, a thundering waterfall, and suddenly the hills are alive with the sound of music. In the mist, a mysterious woman dressed in red appears, singing and dancing, nicely timed for the train schedule. She is the Huldra, a forest spirit from Norse folklore, or perhaps a student from the Norwegian Ballet School earning some cash.

Also from mythology, look for an old-style (non-digital) troll with wizened face and wicked ways. One can be spotted on the drive to Oslo’s Holmenkollen ski jump, a Winter Olympics site. Thousands more lurk on shelves of gift shops, handily placed for tourists.

In the know

Rotterdam sails the seven-day Viking Sagas journey in August and September; from $1319 a person, twin-share. Holland America Line offers a busy itinerary of cruises throughout the world and returns to Australia in November.

hollandamerica.com

For travellers joining a cruise from Amsterdam, Movenpick Hotel Amsterdam City Centre is alongside the passenger terminal, close to Centraal railway station.

visitnorway.com

Graham Erbacher was a guest of Holland America Line.

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