6 days ago
Following in my grandparents' footsteps on a 130-year-old cruise
'To the people in the north of Norway, Hurtigruten has been everything. Transporting medicine, clothes, fresh fish, local people going to hospital' Gunnar, the captain of the Kong Harald, explained as we pass the Arctic Circle.
I was on board the Coastal Express, the historic postal ship that has operated in Norway since 1893 – 132 years ago. Hurtigruten translates as 'fast route' in English, and the ship connects various coastal communities, with the voyage becoming more popular with tourists in recent decades.
I asked him if he still considers it a ferry or a cruise, and he replied with a smile.
'Somewhere in-between. Years ago it would have been mainly local people taking short trips as they didn't have any other options, but now with cars and airports we need the tourists to keep the route running.'
The ships still deliver cargo, and I was told that the most photographed thing on board was the forklift, which shifted the crates on and off the ship each time we stopped – 34 times, between Bergen to Kirkenes – although given the ethereal landscapes we passed, I took this fact with a pinch of salt.
But I was aboard for more than just beautiful views. My grandparents chose to take the same journey in 1968 for their first overseas holiday, so this sailing was, for me, also a voyage into the past. My grandfather, a farmer and captain of the Home Guard, and my grandmother, a racehorse trainer and member of the Constantine shipping family, were both passionate lovers of the outdoors. They honeymooned on the Isle of Skye and took regular trips to Scotland, where my Grandad, a keen falconer, would spot birds of prey. They were drawn, inevitably, to Norway's wildlife and natural beauty – changing from the snowy scenes of the north to the green pastures on the approach to Bergen.
I've always felt a sadness that I never had the opportunity to know my grandparents – as they had both passed by the time I turned five – and had clung to titbits of information about their interests and personalities in order to forge a connection with them. Despite having travelled to more than 90 countries, I'd not yet made it to Scandinavia, so discovering that I could take the very journey they once did felt like a way to bridge time, and build a sense of shared experience through our travels.
Stops in port varied from 10 minutes to a couple of hours, and at Stokmarknes I disembarked at the Hurtigruten museum to see the fully preserved MS Finnmarken from 1956, very similar to the ship my grandparents would have sailed on. The main difference, I noted, was that the old ships had first- and second- class dining rooms and cabins, as well as a large post office and lounges for games. I saw old menus on display showing salted cod and salmon, and recalled my mother saying that my grandma had talked passionately about 'the fish platters' after their trip.
The food on board the Kong Harald was a stand out for me, too, with meals including aqua-vit herring, piles of smoked salmon, and crab topped with trout roe. Head chef Roy has worked with Hurtigruten for 42 years and has seen the change over the decades from silver service to a more relaxed dining experience, without formal dress codes. Long careers with Hurtigruten seem commonplace, and the team are like family to one another, spending Christmases together and decorating cabins for passengers on board, many of whom travel the route regularly.
Until the early 2000s, the majority of passengers were still Norwegians, though the 1960s saw an increase in foreign tourists, particularly from the UK and Germany. The uptick must have been sizable, as my grandparents coincidentally saw another couple from the same small village in North Yorkshire on their ship. The husband, presuming he wouldn't see anybody he knew, had chosen the opportunity to debut a new faux hairstyle. So the story goes, he was so embarrassed when he spotted my Grandad, that he threw the toupee overboard.
He might have avoided the humiliation had he been on my sailing, as there was none of the enforced socialising you see on most cruises – just announcements as we passed significant places, which drew people away from the lounge and onto the top decks to mingle. The arctic circle crossing was celebrated with shots of cod liver oil and a toast with Havets Bobler – a sparkling wine aged under Norwegian waters – and as we sailed under the bridge over the Risøy channel, Norwegian flags were handed out for us to wave at passing traffic.
I spent a lot of my time on the top deck, where passengers sit in a glass-windowed viewing area, where the only important decision to be made is which side to watch from. There's a Norwegian word – kos – which means sharing simple pleasures, and this lounge is the epitome of that. Passengers knitted, read books and simply watched the fjords roll by, their banks dotted with rust-red houses. With the exception of the digital cameras, you could imagine passengers 50 years ago enjoying the same simplicity.
Even the excursions I joined – which, as I found out from a historic poster on the ship's bridge, have been running in some form for decades – are focused on timelessly Norwegian elements. A walk around Hammerfest – the self proclaimed 'northernmost city in the world', or a sea eagle-spotting boat trip near picturesque Trollfjord, are both experiences unlikely to have changed much at all in the past decades.
As we headed back to the Kong Harald from Trollfjord – the sea eagles swooping down around us – the captain showed me his clicker had hit 75 sightings in just one day. Given my grandparents' interest in wildlife, I could easily picture them, half a century before, as awed by their surroundings as I was.
Throughout the week, I'd been questioning Hurtigruten veterans about how the route had evolved since the 1960s, hoping to piece together what my grandparents might have seen and felt. But in doing so, I came to realise that it was the enduring similarities, not the changes, that left the deepest impression.
Even in my lifetime, I've revisited places only to be disappointed by how time had reshaped them, but here it felt as though little might have changed at all. I'll be forever grateful to the Norwegian coastline, and to this little voyage, for giving me a moment of connection with the family members I never got to know, decades in the making.
Essentials
The Coastal Express has multiple sailings throughout the week, with northbound, southbound and return journeys from £1,354 per person. Tickets can be booked together with flights from London or Manchester.
