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Norway is a beautiful, scenic, clean, friendly but very expensive country. The ideal way to see it is to cruise which is exactly what we did. We sailed from Southampton on P&O's ship 'Ventura' for 7 nights.

Our first day was spent relaxing at sea so we made full use of all the ship's amenities including watching the Cup Final via satellite TV in the theatre!

Day 3 we arrived in Bergen at 8am and spent a lovely day exploring the old town and harbour area as well as taking the funicular railway up Mt Floien which gave us some fantastic views.

Day 4 took us to Molde, a small town in just south of Trondheim where the snow was still evident on the mountain tops. We passed the Romdal museum as we climbed to a viewpoint high above the harbour.It took us about an hour to reach the summit and again, the views were well worth the effort.

Day 5 we arrived in Olden and took our pre booked excursion to see the Briksdal Glacier. This involved walking again but I'm an active sort of person who loves the outdoors. The Glacier is quite stunning and well worth the walk. Anyone who doesn't fancy the one and a half mile uphill trek can use that 'Troll Bus' for an extra 20 Norwegian Krone. After walking back (in the rain by this time sadly) we were treated to coffee and cakes in the local cafe. We got back to the ship in time for lunch and as the rain persisted we decided to watch a film in the theatre for the afternoon before getting ready for our second formal night and our 5 course gourmet dinner! Whilst getting ready for dinner the ship sailed 60 miles along the Nordfjord and the scenery was beautiful! We were so glad we upgraded to a balcony cabin as we were able to sit and relax and watch as the glorious scenery went by us.

Day 6 - Stavanger. A lovely town with a beautiful old church that's worth a visit. This is more of a commercial town with high street chain stores as well as a local fishmarket and fruit and veg stalls. Unfortunately it rained all day here but managed to fine up for the Sailaway Party held outdoors on Decks 17/18. Being true Brits we donned our coats, grabbed our union jack flags and sang 'Land of Hope and Glory' as though our lives depended on it!

Day 7 - another day at sea but this time our captain found us some lovely warm sunshine so we could relax on deck, read a book and generally have a lazy day on the North Sea which was as calm as a mill pond.

Day 8 - arrived in Southampton at 7.30am, disembarked, collected our car and drove home in just about 5 hours with some lovely memories of an amazing trip.