From the top deck, there are 360-degree views of Trollfjord, in the Arctic Circle, Norway.Supplied
The midnight sun made us giddy. I expected awe and sleeplessness, but not silly delight in seeing a daylight sky all night long. It never got old. When we should have been going to bed, my friend and I trooped up to our ship’s top deck to watch a sun that wouldn’t set for months; at first, it felt soft on the eyes, then harsher past midnight.
We were on board Hurtigruten’s refurbished ship, MS Trollfjord, on its new Svalbard Express itinerary sailing up Norway’s storied fjord coastline. But unlike the famous Hurtigruten ferry route that’s been making short port stops along the coast for 130 years (and tourists have long used for sightseeing), now passengers are offered a more cruise-like experience on a slightly more glamorous ship with longer stops to get off and explore.
Irene and I took dozens of photos trying to capture the surreal, almost painful beauty of midnattssol (the Norwegian word for midnight sun is so much more expressive). We made punch-drunk video-calls back home just to show everyone what it was like being above the Arctic Circle. By our last port in the High Arctic, we’d sit down to a gourmand’s 14-course meal that almost topped the delight of non-stop daylight. That was a revelation, but it was one of many. Travel in Norway’s North would always surprise me.
Surprise No. 1: I can eat fish three times a day, and love it
Meals were the sleeper hit on board, but this only occurred to me the day I ordered fish dishes at breakfast, lunch and dinner – and enjoyed every bite. The ship’s kitchens only use fish caught in Norway – salmon, trout, cod, pollock, catfish, halibut, ling, haddock, turbot, herring, anchovies, freshwater trout and arctic char – prepared in traditional ways. My favourites? Pickled halibut with truffle seaweed, and snow crab ravioli with reindeer consommé and lojram roe.
Part of the MS Trollfjord’s revamp was adding a restaurant that nods to the Indigenous Sami people. Brasserie Árran meals feature braised reindeer shanks, bidos soup (with smoked reindeer meat and marrow) and lots of local seafood, of course. Securing a non-reservable table was tricky, and the service slow and uneven but the dishes were excellent, and it was the only place on board to get a juicy burger and fries when the mood struck. But it was the specialty cocktail menu in the 1893 bar that really stood out: Any bartender who can serve an elevated beer-based cocktail in a Viking drinking horn has a place in Valhalla waiting, guaranteed.
Surprise No. 2: I’ve been doing sauna all wrong
The sauna at Traena.Kristian Dale/Supplied
“You go in the ocean first!” insisted the sauna mistress on the island of Traena. Traena’s fishing community dates back to the Stone Age, and this small village is one of the prettiest port stops on the trip. It’s part of an archipelago where there are about 500 islands and even fewer residents.
The sauna was inside a weathered old boathouse perched on top of rounded granite. You enter through a low door, scramble over rocks, strip down and, as directed, head down a steep ladder into the -12 C ocean before entering the wood-fired hot room.
Siw Berg, our sauna leader, had met us at the dock. She had short-cropped red hair, a huge smile and a T-shirt that read “Actually I can,” which I think was meant as subtle encouragement for her cruise guests. “Last week,” she told me, “only two people got into the water.” That disappointed her. Berg is passionate about the health effects of sauna, not just what it does for the skin and the body but socially, too.
After she made sure everyone dipped in the ocean at least once, she handed around cans of the local ale. While we sweated and sipped and admired views of the Helgeland coast, this group of strangers started connecting – the Germans slapped their wet bathing suits and laughed about having to wear one, the Floridians couldn’t believe they dunked into the frigid water, while the Canadians bragged about their cold lakes at home.
Berg urged me: “Don’t wash off the salt until tomorrow – it’s better for your skin.” I always take local advice, so that night at dinner, I tried to ignore dried salt flaking off my eyebrows and lips. I placed my hopes in a fresher face for the morning.
Surprise No. 3: Wildlife can restore my sense of wonder
Even the most enthusiastic traveller can get inured to the natural beauty of the fjords. Once you’ve seen one adorable, red-painted coastal cabin sitting prettily on a remote beach, haven’t you seen them all? But one afternoon, the captain turned off the main engine as our ship became surrounded by a pod of humpbacks, and my senses sharpened again. The crowd on deck was awestruck and silent; the whales were so close you could smell their fishy exhalations and hear the blowhole spray. Several began breaching. “It’s a whale soup!” whispered my neighbour. It almost felt like those flipper waves were meant just for me.
MS Trollfjord enters the narrow opening of its namesake fjord in northern Norway.Catherine Dawson March/The Globe and Mail
I was shocked again when the captain slipped her big ship into the narrow opening of Trollfjorden, one of the country’s most scenic and remote fjords. It’s a tight fit along the 2.5 kilometre passage, a catamaran had to wait for our ship to pass before it could leave. Slate grey cliffs dotted with spring green scrub rose sharply off each side. White, foaming tendrils of water wove down the rockface. Eventually, the ship shrugged out of the channel into a wider back bay. At least three sea eagles swooped silently overhead. Standing on the top deck it felt like we were in the midst of wilderness without leaving the ship. Then the captain began a tight 360, then turned again, slow doughnuts that gave passengers a grand view of Trollfjord from all angles and let her reposition to slip back into the main channel. You don’t soon forget a travel moment like that.
Surprise No. 4: I will stop for reindeer and pickled blueberries
After days spent in Arctic Circle ports searching for Norwegian sweaters and cinnamon buns and hiking in the mountains (gondola assist optional), our anticipation to reach Longyearbyen, about as far north as you can go in Norway, took hold. This frontier town in the High Arctic is where we’d leave the ship and fly home, but not before taking a couple of days to explore.
The old mining town is on the island of Spitsbergen, part of the Svalbard archipelago, on land ruled by Norway but also home to two Russian settlements. In Longyearbyen, rusted coal buckets climb the hills and conveyor belts sit idle in all but one mine that’s still active to supply fuel in Europe owing to the Russian war in Ukraine.
More than 2,500 people live and work in Longyearbyen, many stay through the four-month-long Polar Night. They also get used to the polar bear threat (playgrounds are double fenced against the beast) but no one steps outside the town line without a gun. You’ll find reindeer nibbling for food all over town, too (by law, they have first dibs on resident’s gardens). And while I ooh’d and aah’d and took photos of these shaggy creatures, I was also greedily reaching for reindeer charcuterie at Huset, the town’s unpretentious fine-dining restaurant with Michelin-star hopes.
The menu focuses on ingredients found in the High Arctic, and a 14-course tasting menu is made up of some truly creative and exquisite dishes, such as Arctic sea urchin and fermented honey soup served in wooden Sami cups. The wine-paired meal was a delight but what pulled me out of a food stupor was the sweet sharpness of a pickled blueberry served atop musty, chewy cured seal meat and the briny crunch of a seaweed cracker. My tablemates weren’t keen on it, so I started eating theirs, too.
Surprise No. 5: Norwegians make you laugh and check your privilege in the same breath
Staff on board MS Trollfjord are efficient and easy to talk to – employees must speak English, German and a Scandinavian language. The Norwegian sense of humour bubbles up in most exchanges, so too does their egalitarian approach to everything. This can be engaging and entertaining, but not always. One afternoon, as I stood dripping water all over the ship’s reception lobby, I realized that, in future, I’d need to pick up fresh towels before using the ship’s sauna. Despite my slightly frantic gestures, there was no way my postsauna shower puddles took precedence over the gentleman in front of me who needed help downloading the ship’s app.
But perhaps that’s why sailing with Hurtigruten was so refreshing. Let Norwegians show you their country – and get to know them in return. You might just discover your own pickled blueberry or midnattssol moment.
If you go
Fjord views from Andalsnes.Catherine Dawson March/The Globe and Mail
Pick up some of Norway’s favourite candy – black licorice in its many forms: soft, hard, sweet, chewy, covered in chocolate and salted.
The Svalbard Express sails May through September between Bergen and Longyearbyen. The MS Trollfjord also runs up the same coastline October through April on North Cape Express trips (these skip Svalbard but travel in the winter comes with a Northern Lights guarantee – if they don’t appear on your roundtrip cruise, guests are given another cruise free of charge). Sailings from nine to 15 days range from US$1,800 to US$5,000, depending on dates. Price includes cabin, meals, drinks, Wi-Fi and on-board activities. hurtigruten.com/destinations/norway
You’ve come this far, consider spending a few extra days in Bergen to wander Bryggen, the historic UNESCO wharf neighbourhood. It’s full of touristy shops, but the wonky wooden architecture is a relic of structures once common in Northern Europe. Another must-see are the frescoes painted on the soaring ceilings and walls of the art deco stock exchange-now-chic restaurant, Frescohallen.
In Longyearbyen, Hurtigruten runs most of the tours and owns the best accommodation in town. Adventures abound – both easygoing (an evening of local history enjoyed in traditional wooden huts over reindeer stew) and ones that require windproof suits and jetboats past glaciers.
The writer was a guest of Hurtigruten. It did not review or approve the story before publication.
Catherine Dawson March