I don’t know how long this link will stay live for now the holiday is over, but it gives full details of the holiday from Ffestiniog Travel. click HERE
Our holiday started at Heathrow airport on Tuesday 23rd February where we met Richard our tour leader for the next 11 days. We flew with British Airways to Oslo and then transferred by coach to the Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel where we stayed for two nights.
After a welcome meal we went for a wander around the locality to try to get our bearings, not easy when they build roads on multiple levels.
Day 2 was a free day in Oslo so some of us caught a local bus to Bygdøy firstly to visit the Viking Ship Museum which contains 3 Viking ships and other artefacts. 
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From the Viking Ship Museum it was a short walk to the Norwegian Maritime Museum down by the coast. This museum houses some fantastic models of Norwegian boats as well as a reconstruction of the cabin of the DS "Sandnæs"
The DS "Sandnæs" was built in 1914 as a night ferry sailing from Stavanger to Bergen. In 1950 she was replaced by a new vessel and renamed Soma before being sold off in 1965 and then scrapped in 1972. Luckily some bits were saved for the museum.
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The collection of boat models is quite extensive but we only took a couple of photos.
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Outside the museum there was a good view of our hotel across the bay, it is the tall building with the wedge shaped roof which houses the restaurant and bar on the 34 floor.
Adjacent to the Maritime Museum is the Fram Museum and around the outside of the museum are statues of the Polar explorers. The Fram was a Polar exploration vessel going to both Poles .
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Inside the museum there are two vessels the first being the Fram and it is set out in such a way that you can go onboard and explore all parts of the vessel.
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Over the years the Fram was modified and these two models show how the superstructure was changed over her lifetime.
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Around the exhibition hall there were several models showing life at the Pole, the Bear and Canoe were full size.
In an adjoining building was a second boat, The Gjøa which was the first boat to sail the Northwest Passage. Unfortunately there was no access on this boat.
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There is yet a fourth museum only a few yards from here and that is the Kon-Tiki Museum that houses a boat made of rushes and a raft made from Balsa Wood.
Thor Heyerdahl crossed the Pacific Ocean on this Balsa wood raft called Kon-Tiki in 1947 before doing expeditions on several reed boats. The one below is Ra II which he sailed from Morocco to Barbados in 1970, this was following his first boat Ra breaking up a year before.
By now it was 4 pm. and the museums where closing so we caught the bus back to our hotel in town.
That evening we ate up on the 34th. Floor with views across the town. The meal was a bit expensive with a 3 course meal and a glass of wine each costing £140.
 | 2 X 3 course meal 1310 NOK = £108.34 2 X Glass of wine 270 NOK = £22.33 2 X coffee 78 NOK = £6.45 Total 1658NOK = £137.12 |
The cost of living in Norway is very high with 25% VAT and a high duty on alcohol.
Below are some of the views from the hotel.
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Day 3 Train to Trondheim
Bit of an early start as we had to walk to the railway station so we met in the hotel lobby at 0730 hrs and made our way to the station as a group. Most of the route was either over high level walkways crossing the busy roads or covered ways into the station. Norway is almost a cashless society even buying a coffee on the train is done by credit card. The train journey was about six and a half hours, thankfully there was a buffet car on the train, they have a strange system where by you can top your coffee or tea mug up at a discount after buying the first at full price. The train was very smooth and quiet and the first 20 minutes of the journey was spent mainly in a tunnel. All seats are pre booked although one or two people were trying it on. I don’t think I would fancy caravanning in these conditions but as you will see from some of the photos below taken from the train some people do.
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We arrived in Trondheim in fine weather, it was only a short Minibus and taxi ride to our hotel. We had to have two vehicles as there were 19 of us each with a case. After checking in to our room we went for a walk round this pretty little waterside town. Unfortunately we had not been out long when it started to snow with a very wet snow so we beetled into a café for coffee and cake before returning down a very wet and slushy road to our hotel. The evening meal in this hotel was a bit cheaper at only £88 for the two of us.
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Day 4 Bodø
Today was an even earlier start and those of you that know my habits will know what a shock this is to my system. The hotel put an early breakfast on for us at 6-30 am. and we were away at 0710 hrs. by Taxi and minibus back to the railway station. Today’s journey to Bodø would take almost 10 hours by train, much of the route is single line so we often stopped in a station waiting for a train coming in the opposite direction.
Our journey involved crossing the Arctic Circle, everywhere north of this point has the sun above the horizon for 24 hours on at least one day of the year. The line is marked by “Trig points” but we failed to spot them.
All the photographs today were taken from the train so unfortunately some will suffer from window reflections.
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We arrived in Bodø about 5 30 pm. and made our way to the Clarion Collection Hotel Grand where we also had dinner, this was paid for by Hurtigruten owners of the cruise boat MS Polarlys. The reason being that we were supposed to have a 6 hr cruise on it the next day, but the boat was in dry dock so this was part of their compensation.
The Clarion Collection Hotel Grand stands on the site of the old Grand Hotel that was hit by a bomb during the second world war. Over 50% of the properties in Bodø where destroyed by the Luftwaffe on 27 May 1940. A fragment from the bombing hit the very bottom corner of this antique wall mirror cracking it. They kept that mirror and it is now on display in the lounge of the hotel along with many other artefacts including engraved silver tea service etc.
Day 5 Svolvær
A leisurely start today as due to the MS Polarlys being in dry dock we would be taking the high speed catamaran ferry to Svolvær and this does 30 Kts so a much shorter time onboard and later departure at 1600 hrs. We had to be back at the hotel for a buffet lunch at 3 pm., again paid for by Hurtigruten as compensation.
We spent the morning wandering around a very snowy town
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We arrived at Svolvær at 9 pm where a coach was waiting to take us to our hotel. Richard the tour leader went to find the coach and driver while we waited on the quayside, while he was away the coach driver appeared from the opposite direction and wanted us to go to the coach, but we felt it better to wait for Richard to return first. The Rica Hotel stands on a very small island a few hundred yards by water from where the ferry docked but about 15 minutes by road.
At 10pm another coach arrived with a local guide to take us out of town to see the Northern Lights and we were very lucky to see a spectacular show. Unfortunately the compact camera we had with us was not able to photograph them, but hopefully the guide will be sending us copies of the ones he took and I will add them when they arrive. After the first sighting had faded we went to the other side of the mountains where we managed to see another display returning to our hotel at about half past midnight.
Day 6 Tour to Lofotr and Henningsvær Ferry to Tromsø
A gentle start for a coach excursion to the Viking Museum followed by a visit to Henningsvær.
The first photographs are from our coach trip to the Lofotr Museum. One of the interesting points on the journey was the bridge between the islands which looked more like a ski slope than a road bridge.
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 This is the largest wooden church in the islands |
The museum has a visitor centre which shows a video and an area with artefacts with all the information via hi tech headsets.
 Museum visitor centre |
Up the hill from the visitor centre they have built a replica Viking Chieftain House, this is modelled on one they excavated in 1983 and stands a few meters away from it. This is a very large building some 83 meters long and 10 meters high.
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Once inside the replica Viking Chieftain House we were shown several replica items of tools and a chieftains chair. There was also a selection of dried fish hanging around the place.
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After this the Queen invited us to stay for lunch, this was a lamb stew cooked in a cauldron over an open fire. There was no chimney above the fire and the smoke went straight up through a hole in the roof. The stew was served with bread and there was also mead to drink as well as water.
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After this we continued by coach to Henningsvær a very pretty fishing village on two islands connected at one end by a causeway. Access to the islands is via a slender single lane bridge in the bottom left corner of the aerial photograph below.
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As we arrived at the village it started snowing heavily so we adjourned to one of the many cafés for coffee and cake until it abated. We then had a pleasant couple of hours wandering round taking photos.
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We headed back to our hotel and had a wander round the area taking a few photos. This area is famous for its dried fish which is dried in the open air on these wooden racks. They also do a lot of rod fishing from here and there was a steady flow of boats coming and going. In this area land has been reclaimed from the sea by putting large rocks along the coast
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We returned to the hotel for diner and then collected our luggage before catching the bus again that would take us back the to ferry terminal, here we waited for the Hurtigruten MV Vasteralen to dock. This was to be our home for the next 18 hrs as we made our way north to Tromsø. We had an outside cabin on level C which meant we had a non opening porthole, we also had two single bunks, one above the other, and an en-suite toilet & shower. Included in the cruise was breakfast and lunch the next day. All boarding and disembarkation was recorded by a bar code pass that also operated the cabin door lock and could be used in the bar etc to charge drinks' to the cabin.
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Day 7 Tromsø
The ship called in at several ports on the way, here it moored at Finnsnes for about an hour while they loaded and unloaded cargo. The boat has its own mechanical cargo ramp in the port side of the hull well aft and inside the boat there is a lift to take goods down to the different deck levels.
As the boat was here so long passengers were free to disembark and walk into the town or like Diana just take photographs.
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As we approached Tromsø we could see a welcoming committee waiting for us, it was the local Dockers who were having a dispute. They didn’t hassle us but just handed us a leaflet in Norwegian.
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There was a Taxi and a Minibus waiting for us at the dock, unfortunately even with both vehicles there was not room for all of us with our luggage and the driver refused to have 3 standing even though the journey was less than 3 minutes. The 3 who walked arrived at the hotel before the minibus as they could take a more direct route across the quay.
We were staying at the Clarion Collection Hotel With for 2 nights. One thing we hadn’t expected was that this hotel include an evening meal in the price, it was only a self-service buffet with 2 hot dishes but loads of cold items to chose from.
Day 8 Tromsø
In the town square there was a large display of snow sculptures, each one done by a different international team.
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On the mainland there is a modern Church known as The Arctic Cathedral, this was only opened in 1965 and can seat 720. The organ was only acquired in 2005.
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 Looking to the Alter |  The organ on a mezzanine floor |
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Tromsøya is the home to a few museums and on the quay side in the old Customs warehouse is the Polar Museum that houses several Polar related exhibitions including trapping, the first woman working at the pole and expeditions.
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At the other end of town is the Polaria sea-life centre which houses North Sea fish and seals. Polaria looking like a fallen pile of books in the background can be seen in the first photograph. The seals are fed and trained several times a day. They have to work for their food to keep them fit both physically and mentally.
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Again most of the photos are taken through the coach window, there were some quite spectacular icicles down some of the rock faces, The road went round the edge of some very large lakes as well as quite high into the mountains. They are building a new suspension bridge across the mouth of the last inlet we went round that will shorten the journey by a few miles. |  |
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We spent the night at the Scandic Hotel Narvik and we struck really lucky with our room as it had a full size bath and never ending supply of piping hot water. The bedroom had interesting decor including a lamp that was suspended from the ceiling and the bright blue power cord hanging down to the floor. Above the head of the bed was a full width illuminated mural. Our room overlooked the town and ski run.
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The hotel again had a bar on the top floor where we had a light lunch, this time overlooking the Iron ore unloading facility where it is transferred to boat for export. The ore comes by train from Sweden via a single track line. The ore facility is run by LKAB the Swedish mining company. Narvik has a deepwater harbour that is ice free and can handle approximately 16,000,000 tonnes of ore per year.
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 The engines that pull the ore trains are 16 axle double units at 30 tonnes per axle a full train is 8,600-tonne |  The ore wagons are also double close coupled units with opening floors to dump the ore in 5 seconds. |
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Day 10 Kiruna and The Ice Hotel
We caught the train to Kiruna being taken from out hotel in one Minibus that had to make two journeys. At the station there is a preserved railway engine and a model of how the town was before the railway
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Our tickets said our seats were in carriage 53 so I was expecting a long train, wrong, just three carriages numbers 51, 52 and 53 with a buffet car in 52 not so well stocked at the NSB trains and only open when the guard wasn’t doing anything else.
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In Kiruna we stayed in an early 1900 hotel with the rooms on just 2 floors, the hotel is situated just across the road from the old railway station, unfortunately they built a new one about a mile away so it was another short coach ride.
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We weren’t at the hotel for long before the coach was waiting to take us to the Ice Hotel at Jukkasjärvi. I have seen this on the TV but in the flesh its something else.
Outside the Hotel
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Church
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Inside the hotel
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Ice Bar
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After our visit to the Ice Hotel we went for diner at the restaurant across the road and enjoyed a nice slice of reindeer.
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It was then back to the hotel for the night
Day 11 Kiruna airport
The coach picked us up at 11 am to take us to Kiruna Airport to catch our to Stockholm where we changed plains for a flight to Heathrow so this is the last photo of the holiday.
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