Sunday 18 September 2011

Brekstad

We are in Central Norway.  We had spectacular scenic cruising throughout the morning as we weaved our way through many narrow passages between countless islands in beautiful Stokksund.  At times the shore seemed no more than 30 or 40 metres from the ship.  The scenery here is more rural than rugged Norwegian Fjord frontier.  There is more agriculture evident now as we ply our way further south.  We see fields where the crops have been harvested and where cows are grazing.  


Not only was the scenic cruising really good in the morning but we also had the option of attending several lectures.  At 09:45 Tessa Van Dries told us all about everyone's favourite celestial light phenomena, the aurora.    At the same time Steffen Biersack gave  a lecture in German about the principles of navigation.  At 11:00 Andrew Wenzel gave an interesting talk entitled, Demons From Hell - Killer Whales. At the same time Ralf Westphal gave a fascinating talk in German about Haudegen, the last German Arctic weather station in the 2nd world war.
At 13:00 we dropped anchor just outside the charming small city of Brekstad.  It was a beautiful day.  A light breeze was blowing and the sun was shining through large gaps in the cloud cover.  The Brekstad Hotel and community cultural centre was open for us.  Inside there two different galleries for us to explore including a great exhibit featuring the famous Norwegian artist Hannah Ryggen.  The hotel offered us Aquavit to sample and a variety of Norwegian foods.  There was also lots of opportunity to explore the community on our own.
Several people went on a bicycle excursion along the shore line while others went on a motor coach tour of the area which culminated at Austrått Manor.
At 18:45 the last Polar Cirkel boat was back at the ship and Fram weighed anchor.
In the evening we were entertained by the crew singing some classical popular songs in the Observation Lounge.