Farewell Dinner Night ...

... is on the night before Trondheim, because passengers often disembark there instead of in Bergen the next day.

If you have a choice, I'd suggest you stay with the ship. Day 11 is lovely, and so are the final hours down the coast to Bergen. 

More fuzzy photos: 

My dinner companion, Bjørn Frotvedt, is welcomed with a glass of sparkling wine. And no, they don't do this at every meal.

And here is Wanda Clark from Indiana in the foreground, 

when the head chef, Kurt Gjertsen, is presented. 

Wanda is my cabin neighbour, 

so I could ask if she was OK with me posting a picture. 

The rest are random (as in "completely disorganized") photos of staff and officers, just to give you an idea of how this shift on this ship says goodbye. Please let me know if you want me to remove some of them, or if you want me to add your names * 

And many thanks to everyone who works on board, both the visible and the invisible, for making this a great vacation.

* email: koftakorma @ gmail.com

CHRISTMAS IS COMING!

Tomorrow evening MS Finnmarken is hosting a julebord in Bergen. And there is a lot of decorating going on. 

I've been taking pictures of piles of decorations and thinking how nice they look before they are hung up.


And when I took a picture of hotel manager Per Øivind Dahl looking through a box ...












... he kindly shared some of the shrubbery with me: 

Later that day he mentioned that a couple of lovely ladies had volunteered to decorate one of the trees.

[Picture will be forthcoming]

And today, on the last leg of the journey, I cam across one of those lovely ladies hard at work in the restaurant: And Wanda Clark from Indiana seems to be having fun! (I'll fix the pix later, Wanda, just want to send you the link now.)

Babette's Cafe on MS Finnmarken

This is on deck 7, and a great alternative to the observation lounge. With cake!

More here: http://hookedonhurtigruten.blogspot.no/2013/11/what-is-your-favourite-ship.html

Stunt filleting on board

It is always a pleasure to see something done extremely well, which is why I enjoy the filleting demonstration.

One whole salmon 
and one extremely well filleted one. 

I apologize for the fuzziness of the other pictures. And I'm posting them anyway. 

Here chef Kurt Gjertsen is showing us a very fresh salmon.

Normally, this event happens on deck, but today the weather was not compatible. 

I'm trying to stay out of the way of people who haven't seen this before, so I didn't get any pictures of the actual filleting ...

But here's the end result: sushi! 

If I ever see this again, I'm going to ask permission to film the whole process, from fish to bones.




Relevant posts:

The Lunch Buffet

Food awareness and thanks to the kitchen staff on Finnmarken

  

Blue on blue

Post and booze in Sandnessjøen

Vinmonopolet in Sandnessjøen - where you can buy wine and spirits - is right next to the ship.  

This picture is taken from the gangway, and Polet, as we call it, is next door to Narvesen.

If you want to post something, keep going right, past APOTEK1, follow the star, and there you are, at POSTEN

What is your favourite ship?

A passenger asked me that when he saw me in a Trollfjord vest. He preferred MS Trollfjord because the promenade deck there was roofed - and for a serious photographer, that is an important consideration.

Both Trollfjord and Midnatsol have a central atrium, which gives a lovely impression of spaciousness. And I seem to remember big windows in the saunas and gyms?

And Trollfjord has art by Espolin Johnsen, who knows all about the million shades of dark:

https://www.google.no/search?q=Trollfjord+espolin&client=opera&hs=fXl&channel=suggest&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=k3GXUtjyMKfnywOz6IK4CQ&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1115&bih=516

I'll be posting wonky pictures of these ships and of Polarlys (does it, too have an atrium? I can't remember) when I find them - all were beautiful, each in its own way,  and all of  them could have been a favourite ship except for one thing: I write a lot on board, and MS Finnmarken is by far the best writing ship.

Finnmarken has more public areas than any of the other ships I have been on. And I spend a lot of time in Babette's Cafe - it's usually peaceful, has huge windows on either side, the internet connection is good, and it has cake!

And it's easy to rush out on deck if you see something that you want to photograph.





I'm stopping here and going to my cabin while the going is good: we have arrived at Stamsund from Svolvær 45 minutes behind schedule, and I want to be horizontal before we start crossing Vestfjorden.


So now that I've outed myself as a Finnmarken fan - how about you? What is your favourite ship, and why?