Narvik

We continued to batter our way through the gale overnight. (Stop Press: we heard from the Captain that it reached Force 11 overnight - this is classified as a violent storm). Some time in the middle of the night we entered the shelter of the Lofoten Islands as the ship ploughed onwards towards Narvik, our new port of call. Waking and looking out over the town, it is overcast and only 4C. We have no fixed excursion planned today. We will get a good breakfast and then head into town for a bit of exploration.

The mountain peaks behind the town are already covered with a layer of snow and looked very picturesque as they looked down across the port.

Well we were lucky. Though cold, it stayed dry and the wind seemed to drop as we walked away from the ship. We headed slowly in towards the town. We had to stop a couple of times as Diane’s pulse climbed a little higher than was ideal. It soon settled, however, and we made our way to the local museum. This was focussed on the local railway which had been built to bring iron ore from Kiruna in Sweden to the coast for export. It was quite a feat to build the railway, even though it less the 50 miles long. It was also a very early railway to be electrified for its whole length - with power coming from hydro-electric power stations.

From there we strolled along, past the shops, to the WWII Museum that explained the significance of Narvik during that last bit of unpleasantness. It was incredibly interesting and very well laid out. We must have spent a couple of hours there before retiring for a coffee and then finding a fabric shop!

We returned to the ship mid-afternoon. After a drink we returned to the cabin and spent a couple of hours with our books. Jane and Trevor came and joined us for a pre-dinner drink as we sailed away from Narvik, and we had a video call with Zoe. Dinner was the usual excellent affair and then we made our way to the theatre.

The show this evening was a celebration of Bert Bacharach’s life and music called “Magic Moments”. In front of us sat the violinist from last night and the comedian from the night before. We chatted with them while waiting for the curtain to go up. The show itself was really excellent. I am not a lover of musical theatre, but must say that it was a very enjoyable show.