Saturday 23 July 2022

July 23, 2022, Bergen, Norway - Part 1

While settling in for another long day at port a knock is heard at the door, coffee? No, surprise it’s a nurse, here to take Gerard‘s test. Jan says, well mine too, right, well no, Jan says, well yes, we both need tests… this goes on for a bit before she agrees to testing Jan. Your results should be ready by about 3pm, sure, okay another missed port. The nurse then pulls out a bag of about 70 swabs, “this is how many I need to do today”, we feel for the situation we do but we also know that this could have been avoided, we just ask if there would be any possibility that this could be sped up would be greatly appreciated. At about 1pm we were having a chat with the Guest Relations Manager, Daphnea, I wanted to send her a letter and the only way to get her email was to talk directly to her. We stated our case, bottom line, after 5 days I should be released, if Jan hasn’t got it by now she is either a super woman or I’m no longer contagious. She said she would talk to medical to see about our results. Seconds later, so before Daphnea could speak to medical, medical calls and says our samples are going into testing now, give us 15 minutes. Fingers crossed our phone rings and surprise we both test negative, we are leased. We phone Daphnea to let her know, she is very happy for us and says you can now leave the ship. Hurray…


We are excited to leave but upon scanning our cards security stops us, we look at the screen, in big bold red, “Shore leave denied”. We say, phone Daphnea, then I say jokingly, shore leave? Are we crew… This blip gets cleared up and at just after 2pm, our feet hit real land after 7 days on the ship, again, hurray….


We are in Bergen, Norway, which is located on Norway’s southwest coast. Bergen serves as the country’s largest port and its second largest city. Bergen lies in the centre of the “seven mountains” and offers lush green landscapes with the water from the North Sea surrounding the land.


The city’s rise to prominence in the region sprouted from its dried cod trade with the north coast during the early 12th century. The area’s old wharf section where this trade began is listed as a World Heritage site and was the focus of our short few hours here. We very much enjoyed the walk about this area as well as seeing our sail away from a viewpoint different than from our stateroom. We were very much welcomed back to ship life from our cabin stewards to dining room staff, from the Hotel Director, Florin and from Daphnea, the wonderful, Guest Services Manager - Happy Birthday to her, tomorrow…


Great dinner, great show tonight, here are a few pics of our day, hope you enjoy. Nice to be back…


Quote of the day - “Traveling’s not something you’re good at. It’s something you do. Like breathing”. - Gayle Foreman



























































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