London Still Rocks!

Dinner last night was on a Sámi theme: Reindeer featured heavily - I skipped the reindeer broth starter though, and had a mushroom cake, which turned out to be a kind of mushroom paste, slightly peppery, in breadcrumbs. Interesting. All but one at the table had the reindeer for main course though, following the waiter's recommendation - it's become a running joke now with him that it doesn't matter what I'm eating, I'll have the Chardonnay.. Anyway, I was worried about this dish, since I haven't liked venison in the past - but no, it was lovely! And as usual, the ice cream was a winner - we weren't sure what it was, but thought mango. Later, I was at a midnight concert at  Tromso Cathedral  - last night! I thought it was today . (Well, technically, it was!) Some people who didn't explore  Tromso  on  Christmas Day  were saying they'd do it then - but of course, we weren't there long enough for that.. Well, again we were late in docking - to the ...

Major swells last night continued into this morning, when I was trying to get up.. I managed it eventually, and got to the restaurant in time to have a decent breakfast - thank goodness I didn't have to rush off straight afterwards!   We were in  Hammerfest  today, back on the original schedule. And I was doing a city (bus) tour - what with the driving snow, I was glad I hadn't opted for the hike! We couldn't start it, obviously, until we reached Hammerfest - which was supposed to be an hour after breakfast finished, and ended up being 15 minutes after that. Never mind, the captain amended the departure time accordingly - and ooh, when we did get off, it was a winter wonderland! Finally, proper snow.. although I do have to acknowledge, the timing was good - if we'd had snow any earlier, we wouldn't have made it to Nordkapp . But ooh, everyone's thrilled.. apparently, during a presentation on deck about something or other, some people down the back were busily ma...

Well, we were to arrive in  Kirkenes , on the  Russian  border, today.. until we had a briefing - in which the captain, and a couple of other officers, explained to us just how bad the weather conditions were going to be up there in the next couple of days, a storm causing winds of Force10-11 on the   Beaufort Scale , and 40-foot waves. With the 10-foot waves we had over Christmas, which caused a lot of seasickness, nobody was going to disagree with the captain's decision to avoid it - particularly when he pointed out that it'd last for 48 hours.  No, we skipped Kirkenes entirely, taking shelter in  Alta . It's their standard safe haven, apparently - and lo, they advertised last-minute excursions there, so I booked onto the city tour. I had to finish breakfast early - we had a 9.30am start! And I have to say, I wasn't mad about the organisation of this tour - we were told to meet on the pier, but the guides were actually up on the main road with the buses! ...