Awesome Aurora Adventure
I’ve just returned from a superb cruising holiday to the Norwegian Fjords. I had a lovely family holiday with my Mum and sisters on P & O’s Aurora Cruise ship This was my first cruise with P & O and I was really looking forward to enjoying the experience with my family. My parents had cruised on Aurora 10 years ago so Mum was really looking forward to showing us the ropes!
We had a very comfortable journey to Southampton with Eavesway Coaches, it didn’t feel like a 6 hour journey as we had regular comfort stops enroute. We were whisked through check in and before we knew it, we were settled into our cabins and enjoying the send off from Southampton by the Scottish Piping Band!
After exploring our ship, we had a ‘Casual’ evening in our restaurant, the Alexandria and were treated to fine food and wine with excellent service. Next day was a day at sea as we sailed towards our first port of call, Stavanger. This gave us an opportunity to explore the ship fully and take advantage of the lovely shops on board and have a really relaxing day. Monday was the first of 2 formal evenings and the Captain’s Welcome Party where we were treated to pre dinner drinks and had a chance to chat to the ship’s crew – what a lovely group of people they were too, nothing was too much trouble.
Tuesday morning we docked in Stavanger and after a leisurely breakfast, had chance to go on land and explore the city of Stavanger – which just so happened to be one of the ports of call on the 2011 Tall Ships Race. We were treated to some very interesting sailing vessels! That evening we set sail for our next port of call, Olden which is located at the end of Nordfjord. What a special treat to wake up to, I pulled the curtains back and couldn’t believe my eyes………….. the spectacular scenery unfolding, see the photos showing the awesome scenery. We had a very early wake up call, but it was well it! We were taken for an early morning to cruise the length of Oldevatnet Lake where we could see the foot of the Briksdal Glacier, after a leisurely stroll back to Aurora, we had a sunny afternoon on deck enjoying the beautiful sunshine – what a bonus!
Next stop was Flåm Beautiful Flåm is situated in the innermost part of the Aurlandsfjord, a tributary of the 204 kilometres long and up to 1308 metres deep Sognefjord. Surrounded by steep mountainsides, roaring waterfalls and deep valleys, Flåm is a paradise for everyone looking for a one-of-a-kind experience with nature. The world famous railway at Flam, one of the steepest in the world had been fully booked for weeks, so settled on a visit to the museum which was very interesting.
Sailing out of Flåm that evening, you couldn’t help but wonder how the local people manage to get about, I’m sure many rely on using boats for their day to day transport.
Our final stop was Bergen and to get a feel of the city, we took the hop on, hop off city bus tour, our final stop was the Bergen Fish Market – a real feast for the eyes, I’ve never seen so many different varieties of fish. We had the opportunity to try minke whale, caviar and salmon cooked in a variety of different ways! As it was also lunch time, we couldn’t resist some seafood with a bottle of the local beer for good measure. Before making our way back our ship, we visited the famous ‘wonky ‘ houses This UNESCO protected old merchant quarter is the only preserved business district from the Hanseatic period (the alliance of trading cities and merchant guilds which dominated the trade along the coast of Northern Europe) some of which date back to the 14th to mid 16th centuries. After sampling the local waffles and visiting the street markets, we made our way back to Aurora.
What a lovely leisurely way to travel and I know we will definitely be travelling by sea and Aurora again!