into the blue

Norway Tuesday 1 December 2015

When I took a look at today's photos from the ship I realised I'd hit the blue hour when the low light and the surrounding snow reflect off eachother with breathtaking effect.

And Joe Cocker's Out of the Blue, which I've always loved, comes to mind - have a listen

So here we go . . .

During the night we stopped at Hammerfest but I drifted back to sleep and by morning there was this wonderful vista from our porthole

Had a stroll around the deck after breakfast, which was a veritable feast of porridge, fishes, meats, cheeses, fruits, boiled eggs (of course) and all you could name.

and next we swing into an icy Honningsvåg, the most northerly city in Norway.  Tiny as cities go - but magical all lit up against the darkening day

Then a walk round to our coaches for the trip to Nordkapp.  Loved the look of Cafe Corner, but sadly no time to sample it's delights which, according to this lovely blog, are many - Cafes to Contemplate 

quick peek back at our mighty Finnmarken, towering above the fishing vessels and lying in wait until our return. 

and so we were whisked off on the half hour or so coach trip through snow covered mountain passes - this is probably the last day they won't need to be preceded by the snow plough they said!

And here we are at land's end - the northernmost tip of Europe with next stop, across that cold dark sea, the Svalbard archipelago and then the North Pole itself.  An awesome sense of place.  Freezing and windy and incredible.

My first snow this year - wahoooooo

Mike just about visible what with the thermal layers and the pitch dark and it's only 2pm! 

When we got back to the boat they were serving up hot chocolate and freshly-baked warm apple cake - extremely welcome and exceedingly tasty.

Had a few more ventures on the outside decks to see hauls of king crabs being delivered (which were later served up at dinner!) and our arrival at Kjøllefjord.

It was really exciting being up on deck in the freezing cold with the ship ploughing on through the dark seas and the wind whipping about our hooded figures.

Rain tonight so no clear skies for the aurora but last night was so spectacular we weren't expecting another display (but how wrong we were . . . .)

Spotted a poster of all the Hurtigruten ships and this was the MS Narvik that we caught for a couple of stops one summer all those years ago from the Lofoten Islands to Honningsvåg - happy memories . . .

Read on here for Wednesday - almost in Russia . . 

And if you've missed the start of our sea adventure - then just click here to go back to Monday

Moon rivers and sing songs

This is a bit of a soppy one - to those times long ago and little when I lay in bed soothed to sleep by sing songs on the piano from the dining room below.   Somewhere in our house there's a legacy of dog-eared sheet music with wonderful illustrations on the fronts from films.

And when I read Bob Dylan's amazing Chronicles One (2004) and learned that Moon River was one of his favourite songs I loved him even more.  On p81, talking about early pop songs, he says;   "I loved songs like "Without a Song", "Old Man River", "Stardust" and hundreds of others.  My favourite of all the new ones was "Moon River".  I could sing that in my sleep.  My Huckleberry friend, too, was up there, waiting 'round the bend maybe on 14th Street".

Seems to tie in with what he says later (p108), returning to his home town in Duluth for his father's funeral and remembering how "growing up, the cultural and generational differences had been insurmountable - nothing but the sound of voices, colourless unnatural speech" and " It seemed I'd always been chasing after something, anything that moved - a car, a bird, a blowing leaf - anything that might lead me into some more lit place, some unkonwn land downriver".  I like to think this is another reference to the roaming spirit of Moon River - 'wherever you're going I'm going your way'.

and on Youtube I found this incredible clip from Breakfast at Tiffany's with Audrey Hepburn singing Moon River - you'll never want to hear another version, believe me:

. . . although there are loads of Youtube raves on the Joe Cocker recording and even Bob himself singing it live once!

and while on the subject of Joe Cocker - when I was a first year student we used to go down the road to the unrenovated Ranmoor Inn where an old dear played the piano on Sunday nights to an imprompu sing song of songs long before our era.  We often spotted Joe Cocker in the corner in the tiny snug singing along!  Some of our favourites on those nights were:

On Mother Kelly's Doorstep, Bye Bye Blackbird, Side by Side, My Old Man Said Follow the Van, On The Sunny Side of the Street, The Lady is a Tramp  . . . .


I'll leave you with a few to dip into and you can imagine those balmy nights in bed with the songs drifting up the stairs and thinking of "the free fresh wind in my hair, life without care"!

Ringo singing Bye Bye Blackbird lovely and I prefer it to Paul's new version:

The wonderful Bing singing Swinging on a Star with cute chorus:

This version of Side by Side should make you smile ......

and the amazing Ella on the Sunny Side of the Street - another piano cluster!

 fabulous 2008 Lily Allen version of The Lady is a Tramp: