Viking Vela In Search of the Northern Lights and British Isles Explorer Cruise Day 7/32 – Alta, Norway - The Neptune Says 'Hi'
Arlona noticed last night on Cruise Mapper that Viking Neptune was close by and en route to Alta. This morning, we looked off the port side, and sure enough, there she was, anchored in Alta Harbor.
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| At 745 feet long and 94.5 feet wide, the older design of the Neptune is smaller than the Vela's 784-foot length and 101-foot width |
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| She also accommodates 930 passengers versus Vela's (and Vesta's) 998 passengers |
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| Still, the designs are so similar that unless they are right next to each other, it's hard to tell any of the Viking Ocean fleet apart |
We sail overnight at midnight, and we expect that the Neptune will slide over and dock, so their day tomorrow won't involve tenders.
We planned to sleep in this morning, given our late night last night. Cruise Director Andre had different plans as his morning announcement came blaring on the hallway speaker precisely at 8:00. Yes, it wasn't playing directly in the room, but it was more than loud enough to wake us up.
After breakfast, we decided to hop the shuttle to town and wander the mall.
It was...wait for it...a mall. Clothing stores, housewares, a pharmacy, food options - the usual. From there, we wandered to a slightly smaller mall with slightly less of the usual stuff. We were early for the bus back to the ship, so we did one of our favorite things - hit the grocery store to see what unusual chip flavors the locals like.
Norway was nowhere as unusual as our Asian ports as far as chips go, but still interesting.
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| Not just green pepper - intense green pepper |
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| The same goes for the bacon BBQ |
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| These sound interesting |
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| Whoa - more intense flavors |
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| Onion and cheese |
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| Not chips, per se, but pork rinds |
We rode the bus back to the ship and grabbed lunch in the World Café. While sitting in the room after lunch, the door buzzer went off. It was our cabin steward, Yan, with a tray of four chilled cans of Nordlands Pilsner Beer.
A couple of days ago, we were chatting with the Beverage Manager, Simbarache. I mentioned that I had asked to try a Norwegian beer at lunch and that the waiter said none was on board, other than an IPA. I don't care for an IPA, so I was out of luck. Simba said he was working on that. Well, he wanted to make sure that I didn't miss trying it, so he sent the four cans to our room. You have to love Viking service.
Our 2:15 tour this afternoon was Viking's included tour, The “City of Northern Lights”.
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| Our first stop was the Cathedral of the Northern Lights, which we walked past yesterday - while all faiths are welcome to use the facility, it is primarily Evangelical Lutheran |
Cathedral of the Northern Lights is a modern, titanium-clad landmark consecrated on February 10, 2013. Designed by Kolbjørn Jensen. The spiraling design is inspired by the Northern Lights.
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| Not many places in the world need to remind people of this |
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| The lighting is designed to be reminiscent of the Northern Lights |
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| The pipe organ blends into the interior architecture |
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| The twelve plaques on the pillar are for the twelve apostles |
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| The 6-meter bronze representation of Jesus faces upward to represent hope - his right fist is clenched to represent struggle, his left is bandaged and open to represent suffering, and welcoming |
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| The floor is made of untreated German oak bricks as a natural touch |
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| An amazing candelabra |
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| The baptismal |
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| A window behind the altar allows natural light to fall upon Jesus's face |
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| A staircase leads to the basement, where a Northern Lights museum is highlighted by a ten-minute movie of incredible aurora activity |
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| It really is a stunning structure |
Alta is known for slate. Yesterday, we saw the statue of the slate cutter in the town center. Alta slate is used all over the world, and is considered the world's best, at least by the locals. Alta slate has been used all over the world, including Dubai and Barcelona.
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| Many of the houses have slate roofs, said to last essentially forever - the ladder is for municipal chimney sweeps |
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Our next stop was the Alta Museum, featuring Sami heritage, indigenous stone carvings dating back thousands of years, and rock and mineral samples from the local geology
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Stockfish was easy to preserve, and a big part of the historical local economy - salmon fishing in the Alta river is also a huge industry here
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| Wow - so appetizing - our guide said that it is an acquired taste |
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| A showcase of all the awards of Norwegian ski jumper and Alta native, Bjørn Wirkola, who dominated the sport in the 1960s - it is now said that an impossible task is like jumping after Wirkola - because if Wirkola jumped, he won |
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| Troll-inspired weaving |
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| Sami clothing |
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| The restroom was behind bomb shelter doors |
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| Most buildings here had bomb shelters built under them - this had two sets of doors |
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| The bay behind the museum, Hjemmeluftbukta in Norwegian or Jiepmaluokta in Northern Sami, was absolutely stunning |
With that, our tour came to an end, and we returned to the Vela.
A short distance from the pier, this structure sits high atop a hill.
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| From the dock, we could see the back side of a ski jump here in Alta |
After hanging out in the room for a bit, we went up to the Explorer's Bar for a cocktail. An aside - after our world cruise with extensions, where we were on for 163 days, we jokingly said that we had worked an entire crew contract and were now part of Viking. Now that we're approaching 350 days with Viking, we got a tremendous surprise tonight. As we sat in the Explorer's Bar, Adam, the Assistant General Manager, came over to us and presented us with these.
We received gold Viking name badges. Gold badges indicate Bridge crew, rather than hotel crew. We were absolutely blown away, and Arlona was nearly moved to tears. This small token from Viking meant the world to us. This is another example of what makes Viking an amazing cruise line. When you're part of Viking, you're family. We're honored to be part of it.
The weather took a turn for the worse, with drizzle and overcast. But the weather in Alta can change on a dime.
We enjoyed dinner in the World Café before heading up on deck #9 forward at 9:00 to join astronomer John Maclean to search for the Northern Lights. Unfortunately, both the Northern Lights and the clouds didn't get the memo and did not cooperate. After about 30 minutes, we went down to deck #7 and the Explorer's Bar for a nightcap. A little after 10:00, we went back upstairs to check out the skies. The Northern Lights were visible, barely. We took a couple of photos, but it was nothing like last night, so not worth including here. After 20 minutes, we decided to call it a night and return to the room.
We will sail overnight at midnight, and plan to arrive at Tromsø by 10:00 tomorrow morning. We have a panoramic tour of Tromsø tomorrow afternoon. We'll stay in Tromsø overnight, sailing Wednesday evening at 8:30 to head to Narvik, Norway.
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