across the sea to Norway...

After an excellent day of sightseeing and shopping, I took a bus out to the North Shields ferry terminal and boarded a huge cruise ship, bound for Bergen, Norway. The m.s. Queen of Scandinavia! I had a sea view cabin on deck 5 which was larger than I expected. We left at 6.30pm, with a brass band celebrating our departure over the PA. Hilarious! The Captain assured us we had smooth sailing ahead, so I breathed a huge sigh of relief and was lulled asleep by 9. Although, there were moments when we hit a few small waves, and I questioned the sanity of my choice of holiday - was I mental? - I'm terrified of open expanses of deep water, and therefore none too fond of boats. But the distance on the map made it look so easy - it was only a 4cm trip!!

I explored the ship the next morning - well, the one cafe and an airport-style duty free shop. After that, there was...erm...nothing! There was a bar, restaurants and a casino, but I wasn't going to do those on my own. Thank goodness for my cabin, my iPod and my book (I'm currently reading a biography of Mme de Pompadour, thanks to a Dr Who episode!)

It was strangely exhausting doing nothing, but I had to stay awake til 11pm when we arrived in Bergen, as everyone had to disembark and go through immigration.

We were in Bergen overnight until 10.30am - so I had a few hours to look around in the morning. Unfortunately the weather was atrocious, cold, windy, raining and foggy - and my poor umbrella coped the brunt of my swearing. Bergen has an area on the waterfront called Bryggen (pics right), and it's shops and housing are World Heritage Listed. Quite spectacular, even in the rain. I walked around for about 2 hours, and made it back to the boat in time - although utterly soaked.