The next change of itinerary after leaving Trondheim took us to Kristiansund. This was the first time we could remember going into Kristiansund. We had called here on our Southbound Coastal Voyage with Hurtigruten, but we couldn’t remember what we had seen on that visit.
Day 9: Sunday 26th February 2023: Kristiansund
From the Saga map of Kristiansund, the city consists of connected islands. Spirit of Discovery had threaded her way through to the dock. We had seen lots of shops and houses at the side of the water as we had passed.
After another delicious breakfast of Eggs Benedict, we relaxed and as it was Sunday, we didn’t rush to leave the ship.
The shops that we passed after leaving the ship were all closed. We turned left and further down the road an oil field supply ship was docked. This was very close to the pavement and completely dominated the road.
To the Varden tower
Walking up Langveien was interesting as the pavement alternated between ice and slush. The plan was to walk to the Varden tower and to see the sites alongside the lakes that had been recommended by our guidebook.
Langveien went past the Kirkelandet church also highlighted in the local tourist map.
A little further up the street we turned off and went up a side street until we came to the entrance to the Vanndamman park. In the park we passed a pen with peacocks before we reached one of the promised lakes.
Our guidebook was definitely out of date as the promised interesting collection of boats and junk at the side of the lake had all gone.
Through the parks
We carried on walking alongside the lake and then up the over hill. Over the trees to our right we could see the tower.
After the lake, the path became very narrow. This made passing joggers and families going the other way quite difficult. To our left we had a very steep drop and to our right a steep tree-covered bank.
According to the tourist map, we were very close to the tower but we seemed to be walking away from it as we followed the path around the slope of the hill. After climbing yet another hill below us was a street with detached houses on both sides. We went down the hill, crossed the street and then climbed the steps opposite.
At the top we could see a large map that detailed this park did indeed include where the tower was. The pathway followed a ridge that was cut into the slope of the hill.
Below us were the back gardens of the houses. On the left was another tree-covered steep slope. This path too was very narrow in places.
The Varden Tower
We eventually reached the main path from the main road and we could now see above us the Varden Tower. Other passengers who had made a more direct journey were already at the tower.
A notice on the tower promised that it was open all the time but reminded that it was covered by CCTV.
We climbed the steps and went into a lobby. The steps up the tower started there. Around the walls were murals of the area. The spiral stairs were both narrow and steep.
Before we could start to climb we had to wait for others to descend.
The views were interesting and we spent quite a time looking out what matching what we could see to our map.
Our random wanderings in Kristiansund
After leaving the tower we went down the (icy) main path and made our way back to the main road.
Then we made the big mistake of the day and turned left as we were hoping to find open shops or somewhere interesting to at least have a coffee. Eventually reached a supermarket but it was closed then we made our next mistake, which was the head off on the street at the side of the supermarket. We thought this would take us back to the water further down the dock from our ship.
This road came to a cul-de-sac. After backtracking we went to our right which was roughly back in the same direction. There were more streets with lots houses. We then passed a church that was on our map and we realised that we were now walking parallel to the main road.
We had to walk on the street as the pavements were either icy or full of slush. Not much clearing up had been done at all.
Turning again to the left we were eventually back on the main road opposite to where we are descended from the tower 35 minutes before!
Afternoon in Kristiansund
On our way back to the ship, we did spot a fast food restaurant with a cluster of shops. But by now we just wanted to have a sit down and some lunch.
After lunch our second walk into Kristiansund was much later in the day. This time we turned right after leaving the ship and walked along at the side of the water on Vagevein.
We passed closed restaurants as well as lots of closed shops.
At one of the junctions, we stopped and chatted to a local man. He was curious about Spirit of Discovery and where we were going. He expressed surprise that we were on our way to Alta especially at this time of year. His next holiday was to be on Hurtigruten to Greenland. We chatted about Antarctica and Svalbard on their ships and our plans to take the Coastal Voyage again. To our surprise, he talked about the local rumours that Hurtigruten were close to bankruptcy.
Further down the road, we did find a souvenir shop that was open. It was full of local made crafts as well as the usual trolls and clothes for souvenirs. Our ship arriving unexpectedly had prompted the shop to be opened especially. I only hope that the shop owners had better business from other passengers than from us.
After we passed yet another closed supermarket we decided to turn back. The rain came again and we wee sheltering in a doorway when we were joined by a local lady. Just like the guy earlier she was very interested to learn about our ship and where we were planning to go for the rest of our voyage. She had travelled a lot but it was now content to stay in Kristiansund.
MS Vesterålen
By the time reached the ship the rain had stopped. I picked up my camera and went to the upper decks to see how much of Kristiansund I could see from there. I heard a loud ship’s horn and there was Hurtigruten’s MS Vesterålen is passing on her way out of Kristiansand. So now I knew definitely that this was not our first time here as the Coastal Voyage calls here.
Evening in Kristiansund
On our bed we had tickets for a tour in Andalsness in the afternoon. Once again Saga had rearranged excursions at short notice.
Over dinner, we swapped stories about what we had seen in Kristiansund.
After dinner we went into the Britannia lounge and saw Bradley from the cruise staff perform his favourite ‘feel good’ songs in the Britannia lounge.
Northern Lights – Aurora Borealis
The Captain announced that the Northern Lights were now visible out on deck. After heading onto the top deck, I joined the mad crush of passengers. The lights were a fabulous display and were even visible with the naked eye.
The sky was clear of clouds. But as we have been briefed earlier seeing stars through what looked like mist meant this was an effect of the lights. Then we were able to capture the display on on our cameras.
All around the ship we can see the lights. These are some my images:
Linda had stayed in the cabin used her iPhone 14 out on the balcony. She followed the advice that we had had from Jeannette Lendon for smartphones. Her images were fabulous. These are a couple of them:
This blog has more of our images of the Northern Lights from the evening.
Once I had seen her pictures, I definitely regretted going out on the top decks with all my expensive camera gear!
The good news was that the bad weather further North had not stopped this fantastic display of lights as we sailed on to Åndalsnes for next port.