Our Cruise to Norway on the Aurora was just the best holiday that we have had in a long time!…we had already been on a demi run to Amsterdam to see how cruising would work for us, so we knew that the ship was very wheelchair friendly! It was also our 35th Wedding Anniversary Present from my Mum…Isn’t she wonderful! She knows what a tough time we have had of it over the years and decided to treat us! So being very clever with our budget, we set about finding bargain clothes and accessories for this rather glitzy cruise! We trawled Charity shops and Boot Sales for bargain pieces as I had nothing really glitzy…I have dresses but nothing sequinny! It was quite fun actually and I had a big trying on session a few days before the cruise with Rosie telling me what suited me and what didn’t! Of course I took far too many clothes with me! But then don’t we all!
On the second night there was a fancy dress Halloween Party and we really went to town! Freddy decorated his wheelchair with Poundshop accessories and wore half price ‘Day of the Dead’ clothes and accessories from our outlet center in Chatham…lot’s of bargains over there! I wore my Voodoo Vixen dress that I have had for years now! Ever since I was nominated in the first ever Amara Blog awards…Do you remember? Voodoo Vixen was kind enough to gift me this beautiful dress especially for the occassion!
I really dressed it up with Halloween accessories and the skeletal body part Freddy purchased for 50p from a Charity shop, it was actually part of a kids top, so I cut the T-shirt material away and fastened it with safety pins to the front of my dress! My hair was my own off course lol!…we did look good together and lots of people commented how brilliant we looked…thing is we couldn’t eat in the ‘Posh’ dining room, so we had to eat in the canteen and not as many people as we thought had made the effort either!…There was a fancy dress parade in the Carmen Bar and oh I did feel rather shy! but I held Freddy’s hand and we all paraded around together, there was about 50 of us that took part and we knew they was all from our clan because we had all dressed up and had made the effort!
As luck would have it Freddy won first prize! Yay! and here he is showing off his bottle of red wine and a P & O Keyring lol! Mind how they go with the Prize ay! lol! but it was the taking part that counted! we had a brilliant time that night!
That night as we sailed along the Fjords, I slept with the curtains and one eye open, hoping to see the Northern Lights…I could see a grey type shape and thought it had a tinge of green to it and shot up with my phone and took this lovely picture…a bit blurry but still blooming lovely…
As we sailed and had fun eating, drinking and partying, we finally arrived in Andalsnes…
And How Breathtaking the view was from our balcony…
As we booked only 6 weeks before the Cruise set sail for Norway, we weren’t able to get on any tours (they were soooo expensive in the first place!) So we just had a walk around the town…there was a cable car ride, which was about £120 for the two of us…if I had of done my homework about this place, I might have paid that, but at the time and as the town was quite small, we just decided to have a scout about…
This is us trying to do a selfie lol! This was the best in about 30 pictures! we are not cut out for selfies…but we did have a laugh trying!
This is the view of our ship and the Harbour and Mountain range…
This is one of my favourite pictures of Freddy…he looks like a Fisherman doesn’t he!
I’d fallen in Love with those Primark coloured soled boots and when I went back to buy them, they didn’t even have them in stock in Chatham! (I had seen them in Southampton when we went on the Amsterdam Cruise and had hesistated!) so luckily I was able to pick up a pair in TK Maxx for £18.00, they matched my lagenlook top perfectly and I wore pink accessories to match my Orla Kiely, Chrimbo Pressie, Bag…
We had a lovely day there, but there wasn’t a lot to do, so by 3pm we were back on the ship having a late lunch and then back to our room where we had an afternoon nap…yes were getting old lol!
We then had a few days sailing…going along the Fjords was breathtaking…lots of sites and mountain ranges to look at…by this time Freddy had enrolled himself into a Bridge Class and I would sit in the Library reading…I can’t tell you what books as these days I can’t concentrate on one in particular, but I loved sitting there looking out to sea, or sitting on the promenade wrapped up warm…We met some lovely people on the ship that we met up with for drinks and musical quizes during the day and would often meet up for a show and drinks in the evening…they really did help to make this cruise a special one…
Our next stop was Tromso
Years ago we took our kids to Lapland and had a blooming fun time doing all the things that you could possibly want to do in the snow…Husky Sledding rides, Reindeer sledding and Snowmobile rides, so luckily we had already done that kind of thing…that was all crossed off our list so we wanted to do something different…
We had tried booking some trips for here onboard the ship, but there was no wheelchair accessible trips available !!!!! I know sickening isn’t it! We wanted to book, to go on the Cable Cars, up the side of the mountains, so we decided to go it alone!…you can do that peeps…the excursions are so expensive, a couple of hundred pounds each and although I didn’t have a clue on how we was going to get there…we had to try…
We were able to get a wheelchair accessible minibus the the town centre and once everyone got off we asked the Driver if he knew how we could get to the cable car excursion…he tried explaining, but it was difficult to understand, so in the end he took us there…he was such a lovely guy, it wasn’t far in the minibus but would of took a long time for me to walk and I don’t think I would of had the energy!
Once we arrived, we thanked him and treated him, I always believe in treating people that help you out…this guy didn’t have to drive us all the way there, so we gave him £20.00 nothing in comparison to the money that we have saved compared to the hundreds of pounds that P & O was going to charge us! The cable car was all set up for wheelchair users, you just had to go around the back and there was a platform for us to wait where the next car along picked us up allowing us to get on first and picked up the other folk after…the view above is a piccy of our trip up there…(by the way the tickets for the cable car worked out at about £30 each…still so much cheaper than the P & O excursion!
…And we made it up there…all on our own! Grand total of £80…for the both of us! Here are the pictures to prove it lol!
I hate heights but the views were amazing…
Freddy showing off…and so proud of us that we had made it to the top of the mountains on our own! Go Us!
The journey back to Tromso town centre was pretty stress free as well…We got a bus back! Yes their buses are all kitted up for wheelchairs, which is cool because it makes you feel as normal as normal can be! Norway is totally kitted up for accessibility everywhere…its such a cool place to visit. The bus took us through the suburbs and past the Artic Cathedral all the way to the town center and no charge! how about that!
We arrived back to town in one piece and hit the shops, having our pictures taken with a few trolls along the way…
As soon as nightfall hit, we decided to get the minibus back to the ship…the journey was a trip in itself…only to travel back through the underground road tunnels and roundabouts…have a watch HERE Tom explains it so well
Back on board the ship for more food and entertainment as we sail away for a few days…and on our way to Alta
Im going to continue this post in another article…so see you soon…
To be Continued…
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