Thursday 1 September 2022--Hurtigruten's MS Nordnorge is scheduled to depart at 8:30 this evening, with boarding beginning at 4:00. I'm up early enough to have breakfast, but go back to bed, and get up to check out at noon. Leave my bags at the hotel and go for a meander. I'm still pretty tired, and my feet are sore, as well, so I'm not very ambitious--I go to Byparken, the central town park, and circle the pond slowly, stopping frequently to sit on benches and watch the world go by. What a geezer. I note people zipping around on electric scooters, mostly but not all youngsters. The scooters seem to be part of a sharing scheme--I see them standing unsecured in clusters here and there.

A caffeine boost seems in order. There's a long line at Espresso House on Torgallmenningen, so I go to Joe & the Juice across the street. The place is pretty much empty, and small wonder, I think, as I enter--there is dreadful '90s disco music blasting, "What Is Love", "Mr Vain", and the like. I'm having horrible flashbacks of visits made to Dagobert in Quebec City, and similar venues in Montreal. Can't remember for the life of me why I ever went into those places. I order an Americano and settle down to fiddle with my phone. There's quite a long wait, for no apparent reason. I don't really mind, because I'm just killing time. The music shifts to ABBA and the Bee Gees, which oddly enough is a big improvement. The young woman behind the counter, obviously addled by exposure to brain-damaging music, finally remembers that the old guy sitting across the room ordered something and hasn't gotten it yet. She brings the Americano along with a brownie, apologizing profusely. The delay bothers me less than the disco flashbacks. Baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me, no more.

Pick up my bags at Hotel Neptun and schlep them over to the Hurtigruten terminal, a walk of ten minutes or so. I can see as I approach that the ship isn't there. I'm told there's a technical issue, and the vessel will be here at 11:00. Tonight's buffet dinner will be at a local hotel instead. Which hotel? Neptun. How convenient. There's a lounge upstairs for passengers to wait in until a bus can run them over to Neptun, but it isn't a long walk, and Henrik isn't far out of the way. I make it to dinner and then walk back, with another detour to Henrik.

Nordnorge arrives, and we depart not long before midnight. I stand on the outdoor deck and watch the lights of Bergen recede. I'd wanted to get some photos of the city and environs on the way out to sea...things could be worse.