We have an hour to fill before our shore excursion at Narvik so I’ll do a quick post about yesterdays day at sea. These are always appreciated after a few port calls, time to have a lie in, catch up on chores and go to the extra lectures laid on.

Almost immediately upon leaving Gerainger we entered the inner passage heading north. Since then we have been constantly cruising the smooth water between islands and the shore. At times we seen pretty close.

As Narvik has a strong historical perspective during WWII there have been a number of lectures about it and the German occupation. This afternoon there will be one about the sinking of the Tirpitz in a nearby fjord.

I also had a tour about the Bayeux Tapestry. All the stairwells onboard Vela feature various panels from it. As they are greatly enlarged the detail is incredible, and as our onboard historian explained them we appreciated them even more. The story behind Edward the Confessor, Harold and William’s coronation is fascinating. Every British schoolboy knows about the Battle of Hastings in 1066 but the events before it make interesting reading, especially being illustrated by the tapestry…..which is in fact technically an embroidery.

Finally, in the middle of dinner, we passed into the artic circle marked by a globe on an island we passed. It is light 24/7 now, thankfully our cabin has some good blockout curtains.