norway

e - NORWAY.

Carole and I attended a dance in Newcastle one evening in July 1967. My friends the "Mystics" were playing during the programme and while they were on stage we were sold tickets for a raffle of many quality prizes. Forever optimists, we purchased a handful and waited until the draw which would be towards the end of the evening.

Film star June Thorburn was to pull out the winning tickets. Her husband was Morten Smith-Petersen, of the Bergen Line.

A variety of very desirable prizes were awarded and as usual we failed to match the ticket numbers. The final Star Prize was then announced and the ticket pulled. The number matched our ticket......for a week in Norway !! It was a great prize and we were very pleased to get it since we were celebrating one years going out together !

So on the date of our choice, we caught the ferry from Newcastle to Bergen on the day ascribed and we had a cabin in the depths of the ship.

It was bit rough and it was also an overnight sailing. Normally, when it is rough I walk the decks but we were cabin bound all night. We went up to breakfast feeling quite green. To eat a meal was frankly not for us but we managed some toast and tea. However, next to us was a man eating what smelled and looked like raw fish so we returned to our cabin even more nauseated.

Eventually the ship docked and we caught the bus to take us first to Voss then to our destination, ULVIK.

At the hotel we signed in and were given a large room in the roof ! We could open the windows in the roof and see for miles. The air was cold but so clean. In view across the fjord was a huge waterfall which has appeared in a number of Viking films. We spent a marvellous week and went on all of the tours and sight-seeing expeditions.

We had an evening in the hotel where slides of the area were shown. We walked along the fjord and decided to go out in a small boat. We were some way from shore when another occupant of the vessel asked how deep was the fjord. We were told a figure which made it almost bottomless. Carole and water don't go together in these circumstance so she was very happy when we docked again.

However, at the weekend we were told that a special sailing on a ferry had been arranged to take us on the Hardangerfjord with our suitcases on our way back to Bergen. We bought some souvenirs.

It was a lovely way to see the Fjord and the mountains which had the first snow of the winter to come. We disembarked at Norheimsund and a bus took us over the mountain pass to Bergen.. We bought some souvenirs....

We caught the ferry and were back into Newcastle before dark. It had been a super holiday...

It was a great shock when we read later in the year (Nov 1967) that June Thorburn was returning to London from Spain on Iberia Airlines Flight 062 when it crashed into Blackdown Hill, Sussex, killing all 37 people aboard. She was only 36 years of age....