Our first port of call was Olden, a very pretty village in a pretty fjord setting. We wandered ashore rather than take an excursion, we had been to Olden before where we did a tour to a glacier which resulted in Virginia spraining her ankle. We went as far as a small Church which had antlers on the ends of the pews. Virginia looked at socks in the souvenir shops but resisted temptation. The soft toy Beatrice we brought with us was photographed in various spots. The second port of call was "Åndalsnes", a bigger but less pretty place. We hadn't been there before. We patronised a chemist for Virginia to get nail varnish remover, and a supermarket where we got water and notebooks to write things in. Happily English is fairly well understood, and credit cards usable rather than having to have Euros. The most interesting thing we saw in "Åndalsnes" was a railway carriage, which had been converted into a chapel close to where we had docked. Consecrated by Bishop Odd Bondevik in 2003 - doubtless some English names look odd to the Norwegians.

At 3am in the morning we were awoken by kettles and telephones and bottles flying around the cabin. A storm the captain had told us about the evening before had persisted and grown into a Force 12 hurricane which we all felt as he turned the ship to approach "Alesund". Good stuff, want to know one is on a ship at the mercy of the elements. We did our first excursion to Giske and Godøy with oddly people of Scottish extraction as guide and driver! "Alesund" is in a complex of islands linked by bridges and particularly tunnels, some of which have been blasted deep under the Fjords. Norway builds tunnels even for a few school children to get to school. Dusty as cars have iron studs in their tyres for snow. A man walked illegally along one such tunnel, the coach driver honked and we later saw police going to arrest him. Giske Church was interesting. Pre-reformation it was Catholic, the Church had kissing crosses on it which pilgrims could kiss to get 100 days of time off purgatory. Post Reformation it became Lutheran. A notable called "Altarpiece Jacob" carved the current ornate altarpiece and pulpit, and even painted them with his blend of paints. I saw that the 2 on the hymn numbers was more like a 9. A lot of surnames of Giske in the graveyard. We had squidgy cake at "Alnes" lighthouse, which I climbed for good views of the Atlantic battering against the rocky beaches. Picturesque. A bay surfers use. Last stop was to look over "Alesund" rebuilt after fire in 1905 in an Art Nouveau style. Oddly reminiscent of Venice or Amsterdam. The excursion was not as cold as expected! In the evening a good show 'Oceans' by the youngish theatre company, a medley of mostly nautical related songs. Not pretentious or artistic, just belting the numbers out.

We had booked excursions before we sailed. One could save money here by buying train tickets etc oneself when one's there. We didn't spend all the Norwegian money we took as Norway proved to be a very expensive place. So expensive Norwegians catch ferries to Newcastle to go shopping. Stavanger, our first port of call, was rather closed up on the Sunday. An Italian guide led us round an Iron Age Farm, picturesque wooden buildings in Gamle (Old) Stavanger, and where three massive swords stand to mark Harald Fairhair unifying Norway centuries ago. The Iron Age Farm was informative from how they prepared woad to dye their wool blue to Norse myths justifying the blond-haired enslaving the darker haired.