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Cruising the Norwegian Fjords
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| Massive - the giant Costa Atlantica |
YOU might not imagine celebrated Italian film director Federico Fellini to be automatically associated with cruising but he is.
And the presence of the great man certainly looms large on the giant 85,000-tonne Costa Atlantica superliner.
Our cabin was on Deck Eight And A Half, named after one of Fellini's most famous films. The deck directly below, Ginger and Fred, recalled a Fellini TV movie and other deck names inspired by his movies include La Strada, Roma and La Dolce Vita.
Once on board, the link begins to makes sense for the bold and brash interior design of Costa Atlantica blends the style of classical Italy with more contemporary ideas.
The lobby space, spanning eight decks, feels a bit like a cathedral at sea. And the other eye-catching feature about Costa, which really moved into mainstream cruising when the founding Italian family sold out to Carnival and Airtours (The UK operator no longer with us) back in 1997, is the prices.
While Costa has dramatically upgraded the quality of its fleet since the turn of the century, value for money remains a strong point and some of its cruise-only prices come in under £100 per day.
Money saved is often splashed on luxury spa facilities which are another Costa hallmark.
For our voyage to the Norwegian Fjords, we found our own way to Amsterdam as an overnight stay in this delightful Dutch city made the ideal curtain-raiser to our voyage.
Ahead of us lay some ports with a rich and varied nautical history - Bergen, Hellesylt, Geiranger, Alesund in Norway; Torshavn on the Faroes, Akureyri and Reykjavik in Iceland, even the remote Scottish ports of Lerwick and Invergordon -before we saw Amsterdam again.
Although Costa claims to promote 'Cruising Italian Style', its passengers are drawn mainly from Western Europe. English is quite rarely heard and often squeezed out by Italian, Spanish, French and German.
Europeans can treat cruising a bit like a bus service with large numbers getting on and off each day so this is a world away from the more formal ships.
Costa wants you to enjoy La Dolce Vita of life afloat and on the last night, your waiters may even spring into spontaneous choruses from Italian opera.
Although cabin space on board Costa Atlantica isn't vast, no fewer than 620 of its 999 cabins have private balconies.
Dotted around a dozen decks, you'll also find 58 suites (all with balcony), three restaurants, 12 bars, a three-deck theatre, casino, disco and more. Add to that three swimming pools (one with a retractable roof), a water-chute and four jacuzzis.
Sports' lovers are also well-catered for, with a jogging track and fitness centre with gym, a sauna, steam room and treatment rooms. And 'Bambinos' can even boast their own clubs and activities.
There is consistently good restaurant and buffet food available 12 hours a day. We loved Caffe Florian, a fantastic reproduction of the cafe in St Mark's Square, Venice. With its live, classical music, it became our favourite cappuccino stop.
The itinerary was fascinating and included gorgeous Geiranger and a tour to the top of Mount Dalsnibba. The midnight sun was another attraction and we felt for the Norwegian monks who were told to rise at sunrise and sleep at sunset, meaning they ended up getting no sleep at all.
They sent a messenger to the Pope, asking for a rule change. This was granted, so they then rose at 6am and went to sleep at 6pm.
Despite her vast size, Atlantica navigated her way through some tight twists and turns in locations only usually heard of on weather warnings: Bailey, South East Iceland, Fair Isle and Faroes.
The volcanic basalt of the Faroe Islands is thought to be 60 million years old. We docked at Torshavn, supposedly named after Thor, the Norse god of thunder. According to legend, every time he hit his hammer, the weather changed.
The 18 islands of the Faroes are known as the 'Islands of Sheep'. They have up to 80,000 sheep - twice the size of the adult population - and wool soon became 'the gold of the Faroes'.
The skies were certainly not something we were used to. During summer, it's traditional for the Faroese to climb a 2,500m mountain to experience sunset and sunrise with just an hour in between.
Said our guide: "We have two winters, one light and one dark. The weather is about light, not temperature."
We passed salmon, herring and mackerel processors and learnt about whale hunting - the Faroese now only take pilot whales, and only up to 2% of them.
Until 1880, this was a poor agricultural society. Then they began to harvest the ocean and now produce 100,000 tons of deep fish.
We passed houses painted yellow, blue and green, and a turf-roofed kindergarten playhouse. At Saksun, where 30 farmers live, we visited the old farm, now a museum.
A farm had two outhouses; one for whale and fish and another for sheep - salted and dried. An oyster-catcher, the national bird, called as we walked towards the stone church.
So we returned to Costa Atlantica, two bewitched people out of 30,000 annual cruise visitors to the Faroes.
The sail away was more than magic. From our balcony, we viewed emerald-coloured rock formations and cruised towards Iceland.
Iceland, first colonised by Irish monks in 870 AD, is a joy of glacial activity, volcanoes, lava, ash, geothermal water heating and memories of Viking sagas.
From Akureyri, our guide for the Jewels of the North tour, pointed out a field of sealed, white rolls of barley and oats - "marshmallows for trolls" - before we drove through uncharacteristic, dense summer fog.
We reached Godafoss or 'The Falls of the Gods', where the Vikings took their slaves. It is supposed to have got its name after the local chieftain threw the statues of his old gods into the falls after Christianity was accepted in Iceland in the year 1000 and has two spectacular cascades of glacial and spring water.
More water at Lake Myvatn or 'Lake of the Midges' which is a twitchers' paradise as it provides a stop-off for birds from Europe to Greenland and Canada.
We were then thrilled by Dimmuborgir with its lava formations and volcanoes - which legend has it are trolls turned to stone when caught by the sun's rays - and then the geothermal field full of hot springs at Hevrir, belching mud pools and soft colours.
Our guide warned us not to step over the boundaries as ground temperatures were scorching. I ignored an overpowering sulphur stench to photograph through hot steam.
It was easy to believe that only one per cent of Iceland is cultivated, and how only 50 years ago, it was tree-less. Timber was so precious that when people moved house, they took its timber frame with them.
All the delights of the North aside, the cruise price was worth it just for the sight of the sky near Surtsey, a volcanic island and the southern-most point of Iceland.
Photographing the striped red and yellow display, I lingered on our balcony - it would have been an insult to the sky to sleep.
Louise travelled with Costa Cruises, which offers 13-night voyages from Amsterdam to Iceland and Norway's Fjords in June 2008 from £1669, cruise-only full fare.
For more information, call 0207 940 4499 or visit www.costacruises.co.uk.
9:43am Friday 11th January 2008
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CommentPosted by: Shelley Davidson on 11:57am Mon 14 Jan 08
This is an excellant feature. Very helpful, concise and well written.
This is an excellant feature. Very helpful, concise and well written.
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