In other shipping news from Norway, a false alarm about pirates aboard a Norwegian ship carrying, of all things, concrete, in the Mediterranean Sea, prompted the Greek navy to rush to the rescue.
Posted on 05/03/2005 4:52:36 AM PDT by franksolich
Twelve Norwegians from Bergen found themselves stuck on board a cruiseship this week. They'd only meant to have a quick weekend trip to Denmark, but are currently taking an involuntary tour around the North Atlantic.
The Bergen residents, including one local family with children, had taken advantage of a special deal to take the vessel MS Norrøna back and forth to Hanstholm in Denmark. The vessel is owned by Smyril Line of the Færoe Islands.
The vessel regularly plies the route between Bergen and Hanstholm, and then sets off from Bergen for week-long trips to the Shetland Islands, the Færoes and on to Iceland before returning to Bergen.
Bjørn Engvik was among the 11 others from Bergen who heard an announcement early Sunday morning that the vessel would dock at Bergen in a half-hour. But he told newspaper Bergens Tidende that when they assembled themselves to disembark, they were told the vessel was already pulling away from the quay.
Engvik's family and eight others were thus forced to see Bergen disappear behind them while the vessel set off on its five-day cruise.
The first stop was the Shetland Islands, but Engvik's family couldn't get off because they didn't have their passports with them. (They're not needed for Scandinavian residents traveling between Scandinavian countries.)
They then cruised on to Torshavn in the Færøes, but since the cruise line wouldn't pay for them to fly back to Bergen, the family continued cruising to Iceland.
"It's too bad, because the children should have been back in school this week," Engvik told Bergens Tidende. "We haven't asked for this cruise."
Jan Walle of Smyril Line couldn't explain why so many passengers failed to get off the ship in Bergen. He said the cruise line will now conduct manual checks of cabins on board, to make sure they don't wind up with more involuntary cruisers.
One can think of worst travel mishaps than this.
Well, worse travel mishaps than this can happen, and I think they all should sit back, relax, and enjoy the rest of the cruise, which by the way covers a lot of ocean.
Yeah, the kids should be back in school, dad and mom should be back at work, and somebody forgot to turn off the iron before they left, but, well, things happen.
The only cause for hysteria should be of a medical nature, if one is needing a pancreatic transplant, for example, and has to be within an hour of the hospital in case one turns up--and there doesn't seem to be any of that here.
Whiners.
Life must be difficult, when you can't see the forest for all those trees. This trip could be a better education than the missed days of school. Or, at least one heck of a "show and tell".
Well, I surely hope this sort of behavior isn't common among Norwegians.
I have the impression--and I surely hope it isn't a false one--of the Norwegians as being silent, somewhat dour, and laid-back, mellow people, who roll with the punches.
Norwegians are Swedes without the self-righteous, self-congratulating prissiness of the Swedes, Danes without the sense of humor of the Danes, and the Faeroese but with more women, which seems a pretty good combination.
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