In May 2018 my wife Jan and I went on a trip to Norway starting in Bergen and using the Hurtigruten Ferry/Cruise ships to visit places on the coast including Alesund, Trondheim and Tromso. We also spent just under a week on the Lofoten Islands in the north of the country. The whole trip was planned around taking photographs to add to my picture library.
If you would like a black and white print as a memento of your trip, all of the black and white images are available. They were taken with a Mamiya 7 camera on Ilford 120 film and are available as high quality hand made darkroom prints in a range of sizes from 40x30cm to 70x70cm (size refers to mount and frame, image is a few cm smaller).
They all have a 6 digit number at the end of the title to uniquely identify the negative to help ordering – just type this number into the search box in the World Landscapes Gallery and it will show the image and ordering information. Not all images are included so if you can’t find the ones that interest you just send me an email using the Contact page form on this website and we’ll sort out the details between us.
Our trip to Norway started with Jan driving us down to Gatwick Travelodge. We caught the start of the late afternoon rush hour on the southern bit so it took 5 hours!
Today it was just a few minutes from our hotel to the terminal at Gatwick Airport for our flight with Norwegian Air to Bergen in Norway.
A few weeks ago I had arranged with Gatwick security for my films to be hand searched. It was a very easy process, they couldn’t have been more helpful and very fast. I was concerned before I contacted them as the last time I brought film through Gatwick, over 20 years ago, it all had to go through the x-ray machine. Unfortunately some of it was 3200 Delta which was ruined so I threw it in their bin once they had put it through the machine.
Hotel to hotel, with flight in between was just over 5 hours. An interesting comparison with yesterday’s drive!
After resting my bad back for an hour or so it was time to get the camera gear ready and go and take some pictures of sunny Bergen.
The most photogenic part was near the harbour opposite our hotel. Lots to photograph. I took 4 rolls of Ilford FP4+ 120 (10 shots to a roll) with one of my Mamiya 7 cameras and either the 150mm, 80mm or 43mm lenses (divide by 2 for rough full frame digital or 35mm film equivalent). I used my Gitzo Mountaineer series 1 carbon fibre tripod for everything so I didn’t have to worry about camera shake at slow shutter speeds as I stopped the lens down. We had sunny spells and a cool breeze so good for photos.
We returned to the hotel to drop off the gear before heading back to find somewhere for food and drinks. As luck would have it there was a microbrewery in the harbour so we went there! The Havre Kadavre Imperial Stout was excellent, served in 200ml glasses as it was 11.4%! First time ever Jan’s had a bigger beer than me! Mine is on the right in photo below.
All images were taken in or around the Bergen Harbour area, the black and white ones on my Mamiya 7 film camera and the colour ones using my Motorola phone. Not expecting any photos with my Mamiya tomorrow as they forecast heavy rain and a temperature drop of 14°C, to 10°C.
In complete contrast to yesterday we woke up to heavy rain and it didn’t stop all day. We put on full waterproofs and went out for a couple of hours around Bergen, including quite a few areas that we hadn’t visited yesterday.
I decided not to take my Mamiya 7 cameras and just took a few photos on my Motorola Moto-X phone specifically for this blog. We also found an interesting shop selling old film cameras, Antonio Stasi. Absolutely full of everything to do with film photography.
We stopped for a break in a bar on the harbour, where Jan got locked in the toilet and had to phone me for help. Apparently the lock on the Ladies toilet was broken so they wedged the outer door open but when the wedge gave way Jan was locked in! After this excitement we returned to our hotel to be picked up by a bus mid-afternoon and taken to the nearby Hurtigruten terminal. We checked in and a while later we were on board our ship, MS Vesteralen, our home for the next 3 days. We left Bergen at 10.30pm, it was still twilight. We get off on Sunday in the Lofoten Islands.
Our first full day on the Hurtigruten MS Vesteralen was broken by a few short stops and a 3 hour one in Alesund. We made our escape to take photos around the small town.
First stop was the harbour and the Art Nouveau buildings. Then it was a 20 minute walk to the top of Mount Aksla, the local hill behind the town for the big view. Lastly we ambled out to the lighthouse so that I could take the last 2 shots on my third roll of Ilford FP4+ 120 film. That was 30 shots in all in glorious sunshine. Most of the shots were taken using an orange filter to darken the blue sky when I come to make the final prints but I also took a few with the more dramatic red filter. The blue sky should be darkened considerably to dark grey in those. Finally, through the day there were a few images from the ship, mostly using the standard (80mm) lens. All photos from the ship were taken on Ilford 400 Delta rated at 320 ISO, handheld. Tripods aren’t much use for photos from moving ships.
This is the first time Jan and I have done more than an overnight trip on a ship. While we are being well looked after I’m going a bit stir crazy with the lack of decent exercise and monotony. At home we walk over 3 miles over the local hills every day with one or two longer walks each week. There was nice scenery but I’m looking forward to getting off in Stamsund on Sunday and walking around the Lofoten Islands.
The black and white images were taken on my Mamiya 7. The colour ones were taken using my mobile phone to give you an idea of what the day was like.
Today we woke up in Trondheim, the ship docked at 6am. We went for an early breakfast, along with half of the ship, and managed to get off a bit before 8am heading for town.
It was another clear sunny day, all day. We headed straight for the river and the old houses. The place was deserted and as a bonus the buildings were reflected in the water. We walked along the shady side so that I could take the sunlit buildings opposite. I used Ilford FP4+ 120 film in my Mamiya 7 with both the 43mm wide angle as well as the 80mm standard lenses and orange filters for the blue sky. I also took a couple using a red filter for a greater effect. All black and white photos, except the lighthouse, were taken using my Gitzo Mountaineer tripod to make sure everything was pin-sharp. The lighthouse shot was taken on Ilford 400 Delta handheld. The colour ones were taken on my phone.
We’re still on the Hurtigruten MS Vesteralen heading north to the Lofoten Islands. Time is starting to drag on board. Life seems to revolve around meals and not much exercise.
The first event of the day was the King Neptune Baptism ceremony as the ship crossed the Arctic Circle. For a bit of fun lumps of ice and iced water were poured down the backs of volunteers. Jan stepped forward to do her duty for both of us! Well someone had to record it all. Jan was soaked but received a warming schnapps to compensate for hypothermia. I took a couple of short videos, first of Jan crossing the Arctic Circle and then a general one.
Today we called in to Bodo, a large modern town towards the north of Norway. We had 2.5 hours to wander around the town but it was very modern and lacking in any charm so we headed back to the ship early.
Next stop Stamsund in the Lofoten Islands, the main event of the trip.
Stamsund was a tiny hamlet, not a lot to attract visitors other than the dock area for ships. Jan had arranged a taxi and it was waiting for us. The trip to Reine, our base for 5 nights, was about an hour. Reine is a small fishing village with just 30-odd houses in the part we were in. The views are spectacular. Some of the best landscapes anywhere in the world so as a landscape photographer I felt that I had to come. The phone photos here show what it was like on our first evening.
Tomorrow if the sun shines we climb a small mountain for one of the best viewpoints in the whole of Norway, allegedly.
Our first full day in Reine in the Lofoten Islands and it started sunny! For me, the most important landscape shot for the whole trip is the wide angle view from Reinebringen mountain. We headed straight for it. It’s not an easy route. Quite steep for much of it, the lower section a mixture of steepish slabs of rock and dense silver birch woods. Then an open section with a few hundred yards of newly installed rock steps, then steep hillside of rocks and earth. It had been dry for a few days before we arrived so there was little mud to slide on and it was a reasonably straightforward ascent. It took a bit under 1.5 hours from the start of the climb to reach the top over 2500 feet above.
Unfortunately, it was cloudy at the top. I took a few shots and decided to wait as there seemed to be some brightness coming. Soon it was back to wall to wall blue sky. We spent well over an hour on the top taking photos, most of the time with no-one else there. There were lots of people climbing up as we descended. It took an hour to reach the old road at the bottom. It was quite warm now so we headed straight for a bar in Reine for a beer each. Mine was slightly larger than Jan’s!
As an aside, Reine and the local area have a large dried fish industry. There are racks and racks of them drying in the open air. The heads are dried in separate racks and shipped to Nigeria when ready. The rest of the fish is a local delicacy.
I ran off 4 rolls of Ilford FP4+ 120 film with my Mamiya 7 camera, that’s 40 negatives. Mostly I used the 43mm wide angle lens but I did run off one roll with the 80mm lens. I took a lot of shots with a red filter and just a few with orange. Red should give quite dark skies in the prints. I used my smaller Gitzo Mountaineer 1042 tripod, it’s lighter than the other one that I use around towns and cities.
A bit less strenuous today, we just walked from Reine to the small hamlet of Hamnoy. There was no footpath so we followed the road, fortunately it was reasonably quiet. It started cloudy but quickly cleared to be another sunny day. We took a few detours for photos and in total we walked 8.5 miles and it was pretty flat.
I used my Mamiya 7 camera with either the 43mm or 80mm lens and my Gitzo Mountaineer 1042 tripod. Mostly I used the 43mm because the landscape is so close and impressive using a wide angle lens is the only way to fit it in. I used both the red filter and my polarising filter. If the traditional red buildings were an important part of the picture I tended to use the polarising filter. This darkened the blue sky and intensified the colours of the huts so they should be mid tone grey or darker in the prints. The red filter darkens skies tremendously but it also lightens red buildings to light grey which wasn’t ideal if the buildings are a major part of the photo. Hopefully I made the right choices!
We’ve seen lots of wildlife here, some really close up. Today near Hamnoy I had an extra close encounter with a Black Backed Gull which dive bombed me several times. I beat a hasty retreat before any damage was done and found somewhere safer to take my photos from. We also saw Eider ducks and Black Guillemots, yesterday we saw several Mountain Hares still in full white winter mantle. Very easy to spot as most of the snow has gone.
Tomorrow there’s a chance of a boat trip, weather permitting.
We decided against a boat trip as the one we were interested in takes all day and the weather forecast was not good. It was wet and windy today so we went for a 7 mile walk to the village in the far south of the Lofoten Islands, called Å (pronounced ‘OR’, roughly). It’s a bit like our Lands End but with a bit more charm. Lots of fishing boats and traditional red huts. We stopped for lunch and a pint in the Brygge Restaurant on the quayside. A good choice, we were well looked after. We also passed the tiny port of Moskenes a couple of miles south of Reine. There was almost nothing there except the ferry dock, and a building site. We didn’t linger!
I didn’t take any photos on my Mamiya 7 camera during the walk, just a few phone photos for my blog. Quite windy at times too. We called a taxi for the return to Reine as the weather was so poor.
Dinner was in the Lanternen Inn in Reine. On returning to our cabin at the water’s edge at about 8.30pm the storm was clearing and the light over the mountains was fantastic. I ran off 4 shots with my Mamiya 7 camera and 80mm lens. The brightness range was enormous so not sure if it’s printable but I have something to work on.
Today was Norway Day. Unfortunately, it rained for much of the day so we went for a walk, about 8 miles to Hamnoy again. Everything was closed and was too dull for photos with my Mamiya 7 film camera. I just took a few photos for this blog with my Motorola Moto-X phone. There were lots of flags flying in Reine for Norway Day. Supposed to be better weather tomorrow. Fingers crossed!
We have come to the end of our time in Reine in the Lofoten Islands. Really enjoyed ourselves. Small place with just 2 restaurants, a coffee shop and a small fast food place with a shop and petrol pumps. Lots of boats, cabins and wooden racks filled with drying fish. Bit of a fishy smell around the fish racks too, not unexpected! A very relaxing time.
It was another dull day so just a few more phone photos around Reine. Reine Rorbuer, the place where we’re staying, has kindly let us stay in our cosy little cabin until we are picked up by our taxi to Stamsund dock late afternoon. Then it’s another Hurtigruten ship, MS Lofoten, this evening heading north to Tromso. Finally, there are 3 shots of Hurtigruten MS Vesteralen, the ship we spent 3 days on from Bergen to the Lofoten Islands. Travelling south while we are still heading north.
We’re heading for Tromso but our ship detoured into Trollfjord, just 100m wide at the narrowest. It doesn’t lead anywhere so the ship turned around and came through the narrows for a second time to get back on course. We had a Trollfjord hot drink to celebrate in a small commemorative enamel mug, a bit like a rum based Gluhwein. All of these photos were taken around midnight! It’s difficult to get used to the lack of darkness, it never goes completely dark.
The next morning was brighter to start with but rained later. Tromso was wet for most of the 10 hours that we were there. I did take a handful of shots around the harbour on my Mamiya 7 camera. The light was a bit flat so will have to wait to see how they print. The colour shots were taken on my phone.
We made some new friends on the MS Lofoten, Mia and Pair (names as they sound not necessarily how they are spelt!). They are from Stockholm in Sweden and this was their third trip on the same ship, the smallest one in the Hurtigruten fleet. The ship did seem very relaxed and cosy, everything was quite small.
In Tromso we left the ship in the rain so no point taking any photos; the 4 of us went to the Mack brewery on the high street instead. Seemed like a good compromise at the time! They had 50 beers on tap including 3 porters. The Breakfast Porter was really nice but at 11% it definitely isn’t a session beer. We lingered here as long as we could but returned to the ship at 6pm to collect our luggage. Just another 6 hours to wait until our ride south arrives. We went for something to eat and chose the Thai restaurant as we hadn’t had spicy food since leaving home. It was good. We stayed there until they closed at 10pm, still with 2 hours to wait so we went to a bar on the quayside and were greeted by a very large Polar Bear as we walked in. Fortunately, it was stuffed!
The ship, Hurtigruten MS Nordnorge, arrived a bit late, after midnight. We checked in and went straight to bed. Interesting day but not a good photo day. Hope the weather picks up again tomorrow.
We’re heading south again from the most northerly point of our trip, Tromso. We were hoping for good views of the spectacular mountains in the Vesteralen and Lofoten Islands but the weather was poor all day. Low clouds, rain and strong winds up to gale force 7 according to the captain.
I didn’t take any photos on my Mamiya 7 cameras today, just phone photos for this blog.
Hurtigruten MS Nordnorge, that we used for the trip from Tromso to Trondheim, was the 3rd and biggest of the 3 ships that we used on this trip. We travelled through a 5km long, 7m deep artificial navigation channel south of Tromso and Hurtigruten ships call at 34 ports on the Norwegian coast, carrying cargo as well as passengers. The photo of a quayside is typical of the many tiny ports, just a warehouse and a few houses scattered over the hillside. I took a shot of Stokmarknes in the Vesteralen Islands in the rain, through the window of the ship and there are a few views of Raftsundet where the mountains on both sides are over 1000 metres high, not that you would know on a day like this with such low clouds.
We had a wander around Svolvaer and a drink in the Anker Brygge bar, fortunately it was dry, but dull! The final image is a rough seas view of Hurtigruten MS Nordlys, taken through a window of the Nordnorge.
The day was wet and windy until late afternoon. I was hoping to get a good view of the 7 Sisters mountains just south of Sandnessjoen but the clouds were down and it was raining so no views. By the time we reached Bronnoysund the rain had stopped but it was still dull. It changed very quickly, 10 minutes later it was sunny. I did manage to take a handful of photos around the harbour on my Mamiya 7 camera but I doubt that I will use them. Then it was back on the ship to continue south and about 30 minutes later we came to Torghatten, a mountain with a hole through the middle so that you could see daylight. The ship detoured slightly to give us a clear view of it. Spot the hole in the lower photo of Torghatten. As I’m sure you can see, the hole was made by a Troll arrow. Fortunately, we haven’t seen any Trolls yet although we did visit their fjord a few days ago.
Tomorrow we leave Hurtigruten ships for the final time at Trondheim.
We woke up on Hurtigruten MS Nordnorge close to Trondheim this morning and, after an early breakfast, we left the ship for the last time.
Our hotel was just a 5 minute walk from the quayside in Trondheim. Even though it was only just 8am, too early to check in, we called in to drop off our bags. The hotel (Clarion) surprised us by letting us check in straight away. That made it much easier, we dropped our bags and a few other bits in our room before heading back out to take photos. It was bright with a few clouds and cold in the breeze. It will be interesting to compare the pictures from today with those taken 11 days ago on the trip. The reflections were gone but the light and foliage had changed. I took a few pictures along the canal and around the Nidaros Cathedral.
After giving my bad back a break in the afternoon at the hotel we headed to the Bror pub. Just a few beers on tap, no dark beers of note. Seemed to be a student pub so we moved on. Just 5 minutes further on was the Ox Brewery Tap Room. It was actually the brewery as well. They had 20 beers on tap. I started with the Imperial Stout and then moved on to the Brown Ale. Both were excellent. The Brown Ale actually tasted like a brown ale rather than the bland brews often available back home. The food was good here too. We finished the evening with a stroll back to our hotel on the waterfront. Our hotel is the tall white building on the left in the photo at the end.
Tomorrow we catch the train to Oslo.
Today we travelled from Trondheim to Oslo on the train. This was a journey of almost 7 hours but at least I could wander around and not just sit there. I took a few phone photos. Lots of tree lined valleys, not too many mountain views. We stopped at Lillehammer station which was the closest we came to seeing the famous ski resort on this trip. There are few views from the train but my phone packed up again on the train so not many blog photos from the train. I’ll have to get it sorted when I have a chance. It was 11°C in Trondheim but 24°C in Oslo. Spring at one end, summer at the other.
After a rest my phone started working again, it was obviously a bit tired. I took a few phone photos of Oslo to give you a flavour of what it’s like.
Tomorrow we fly home after taking some morning shots around Oslo.
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