Yesterday we left Darlington after a lovely weekend. Thanks must go to Val and Julian for masterminding it all, and to Jim and Sarah for sharing it with us.

Our next stop is Harrogate for a midweek bridge congress. We are staying in an Airbnb so we needed to buy a few provisions on the way.

We popped into Sainsbury’s just outside Northallerton and then went into the town itself where there are some lovely little shops and in particular a very good butchers selling top class pork pies.

We stocked up for the Airbnb.

There are 7 of us staying here, all bridge players. The competition proper starts tomorrow but there is a short event tonight. Val and I are playing in that while Denis and Julian are off for beer and curry.

We had mixed fortunes and once we got back to the Airbnb we all discussed what we’d done on each hand …. Including post mortems on the unsuccessful ones. These days we get full copies of all the hands we played to help the discussions.

The nice thing about being in the Airbnb rather than in a hotel is that we can do this over some shared food and a bottle (ok, two bottles) of wine.

The main event started today …. We had mixed fortunes, with Denis and Kathy doing best and Val and I doing worst. Once more back at base we had a Chinese take away and another post mortem …

Last session tomorrow, and also the Champions League draw …. and then home ….

After a busy day on Saturday we had a relaxing morning yesterday chatting, doing jigsaws and quizzes, watching TV …. We ate a light lunch and then headed out for the day.

First stop was Hopetown, Darlington’s railway museum, to help celebrate the bicentenary of the Stockton/ Darlington railway

It’s a great place to learn about the history of the railway- these places are so much more interactive and fun than museums were when I was a child.

After that we moved on to Darlington town centre, to The Vault. The weather was lovely and we sat outside and chatted for a couple of hours

Then it was time to move inside as the DJ was starting up and we had been promised some Northern Soul music.

It took a while to get going but eventually the DJ came good and we got the music we wanted and Jim and I managed to find some time and space on the dance floor.

We finished the day with a great curry at Babul’s. Jim and Sarah are now heading off but we have one more day in the North East before moving on to Harrogate for a bridge event. Just the small matter of Newcastle United v LFC to deal with first……..

And so to our last port of call, Lerwick

I was helping on an early excursion so needed to be at the meeting point for 08.00. Luckily the clocks were put back to UK time overnight and so I had had an extra hour sleep.

Usually we meet for the excursions just off the ship where the coaches are parked and waiting for us. Here, we are berthed outside the harbour and need a tender to take us back and to from the ship. So at least the meeting point is on the ship.

The excursion took us to Sandsayr Pier where we boarded a small boat for a short cruise across to the island of Mousa

I was back in time for lunch (nachos, one of my favourite things) and then got to work on the preparations for tomorrow’s final beginners bridge lesson. I’m hoping to actually get the group playing bridge in earnest which will be a major achievement for us all.

Tonight is the last formal evening so we got dressed up a bit

We’re going to watch the magician again and have a country and western sing-a-long in the Piano Bar – a bar I’ve discovered a bit late on this cruise.

We are at sea all day Thursday. So we will be hard at work with the last set of bridge sessions. And I have a jigsaw to finish.

It’s been a good cruise and we have been very lucky with the weather. Back to reality when we get home and back to trying to sell the house!

The weather is more overcast today although still warm. We are at Bergen which is much bigger and busier than our previous ports of call. We also have company with a Viking cruise ship also here.

We deliberately had no excursions planned so that we could just spend the day together and probably have a really nice lunch somewhere (we’d been saving up!). I booked us a lunchtime concert of Edvard Grieg’s music which also gave us access to the various museums. We had plenty of time so we wandered through the city towards our destination.

The museums are collectively known as KODE – as we got close I thought I’d better check which one the concert was in. On closer inspection I discovered to my horror that the concert was actually at Grieg’s house, Troldhaugen which is about 15km from the city centre! By this time it was too late to make the journey so we had given it a miss. Fortunately we could use the tickets for the museums so it didn’t all go to waste.

The first museum , Rasmus Meyer, had an Edvard Munch exhibition – sadly it didn’t include “The Scream” which is in the National Museum in Oslo. But some of the paintings were clearly in the same style…

After that we went to another of the Kode museums where the featured artist was Lotte Konow Lund. Her work was completely different and not to everyone’s taste. I liked some of it

Next stop was lunch. I’d chosen a restaurant called Pingvinen which allegedly served wholesome Norwegian food. We weren’t disappointed.

Denis declared the mushy peas to be better than those on the ship but still not as good as his own!

By the time we had finished lunch the weather had deteriorated so we headed straight back to the ship. We had only one more day before bridge started again and we wanted to make sure we were prepared.

In the evening we went to a show – “Disco Fever “ and a ‘sounds of the 70s’ sing along session. Both great fun

Today we are at Skjolden which is a small town at the far end of Sognefjord which is the longest and deepest of all the fjords. Indeed it is the longest navigable fjord in the world.

As planned we had a lie in – but then so did most people so the breakfast buffet was packed even at 10.15. We spent the morning just pottering- generally tidying up and making sure everything was in order for the remainder of the trip. I also had a little walk into Skjolden which had more to it than at first I thought

My afternoon excursion was a coach journey and sightseeing tour. Nice and relaxing and, as always, some fabulous scenery. The guide was knowledgeable and I discovered that Ludwig Wittgenstein had once spent a lot of time in this area. There was a strange object in memory of him.

Denis’ excursion was more interesting though a visit to the nearby Urnes Stave Church which is also a UNESCO heritage site.

Looked amazing …

I only just made it back for 18.00 (“all aboard” time) which caused the ship to call Denis to ask where I was – a bit disconcerting on two counts 1) I was on one of their organised tours and 2) why did they not call me?

Anyway, the evening was much like every other evening, starting with a quiz. Tomorrow we are in Bergen and have a day off from excursions!

Another day, another fjord. Today we woke up at Olden on Nordfjord. A place even smaller than Andalsnes.

We had both been assigned an excursion to help with.

I had a short journey by coach and then a hike up to Briksdal Glacier hike with a local expert on geology, specifically glaciers.

Denis had basically the same trip but going by troll car to get to the glacier rather than hiking

Once more the scenery was awe inspiring

We both got back to the ship at about the same time which was just in time for lunch. Olden is a very small place so there wasn’t a great deal of choice for food and in any case yesterday’s prices had spooked us so we had lunch on the ship.

After that it was an afternoon of sport (well, watching it) and relaxing. The sports bar was set up for the Wimbledon men’s singles final but I watched PNE v LFC. This was our first match since Diogo Jota and his brother died, less than two weeks ago. Preston North End managed it all very well and I think we would all thank them and congratulate them on their sensitivity and thoughtfulness. The result wasn’t of any importance except as a small step towards playing football again. Liverpool won 3-1.

As the nights stay light for so long we have taken to having a leisurely dinner each evening and watching the fjords go by. It’s interesting trying to imagine what it must be like living in remote places such as this. We see modern bridges connecting small islands, such as this,

And then in other places the connection is by a sort of pontoon ferry.

We have our assignments for tomorrow and luckily they are both in the afternoon so we can have a lie in!

Specifically the ship had docked at Andalsnes at the end of Romsdalsfjorden.

As we are treated a bit like crew on these cruises we are able to volunteer to help on the shore excursions but it’s a bit of a lottery as to what we get assigned to. In this case Denis didn’t get assigned to anything so he had a lazy morning. I got assigned to “The Golden Train” – a journey down the valleys to Bjorli and back by train.

The weather was perfect and the scenery was stunning. Norway is a very beautiful country and I’m thinking it would be perfect for a road trip.

Once back I met Denis. He’d got off the boat and had taken some good photos for me

We had lunch at a little local cafe recommended in the Lonely Planet guide to Norway. It was very nice – local beer and a homemade burger – but very expensive- 713k =- approx £50. So I’m rethinking my plan for a road trip!

We did a couple more general knowledge quizzes (not very successfully) and went to watch the evening show which was a magician. I’d met him earlier in the week and had asked him about my new hobby “mathemagics”. I don’t think he was very impressed, even when I offered to show him some of my tricks.

The magician’s show was excellent. His name is Philip Hitchcock – if you ever get chance to see him I’d thoroughly recommend him.

We ended with a half hour of soul and Tamla hits in the Observation Bar on the top deck. By this time it was past eleven o’clock but the sun still hadn’t quite set.