The Northern End of Europe
Norway occupies the western edge of Scandinavia, much as Chile is the western edge of South America. From Kristiansand on the southern end it wraps around in a thin mountainous band extending way past the arctic circle to the northern cap of Scandinavia.
The
mountains plunge directly into the sea which floods the intervening
valleys creating thousands of fjords. Land travel in most of Norway is
extremely difficult, so they have always been a nation of seafarers. The
Norsemen were the greatest explorers of their time, journeying eastward
to Russia and Constantinople, westward to Newfoundland, and south as far
as Morocco. Due to their custom of pillaging as they went, their visits
were long remembered.
Captain Halle Thon Gundersen of the Prinsendam is a product of the seafaring tradition but strongly discourages pillaging by the hordes of tourists that he lets loose upon his ports of call. He lives just south of Bergen and was able to stop off at home when we visited that port.
Our cruise took us first to Oslo, then to Kristiansand, then Bergen, then Alesund. From there we headed off to Iceland.