Hurtigruten; Friday, 08 February, 2013

It was lucky that I turned in relatively early as I, along with most people, were woken around 3am as we rounded the West Cape into particularly rough seas for about 30 minutes, with the whole boat rocking and pitching around until it made it into the shelter of the islands around Måløy.

During breakfast we made the final stop at Florø, and then slipped our moorings for a final time to start the 6 hour sail round to Bergen and the end of the cruise.

As it was a full ship booked from Bergen in the evening they asked us to vacate our cabins by 10, so most of the morning was spent either sat in the café or out on deck, the weather having become really rather pleasantly warm in the sun (though still bitterly cold as soon as you caught any wind).

Just before 2 the sides of the islands, which had previously been dotted with occasional summer houses gave way to more intense levels of housing and a short while later the urban sprawl of Bergen came into view.

For a ship that, at times, had been over an hour late, we tied up at Bergen exactly on time. After disembarking and collecting our luggage from the terminal it was then a short walk back up the hill to the Scandic hotel to check back in for the evening.

Having dropped everything off we went for a wander around Bergen, ending up at the aquarium with plenty of time left before it closed to have a look around.

A quick stop for a bite to eat, and then, quite early, but needed to bed in a room that didn’t move around and didn’t have the sound of an engine throbbing away underneath it all night.