We have another day at sea today so the child bride and I slept in and were late heading off for breakfast – about 9.30am. You’d think at that time there would be a liberal sprinkling of available tables. But no. We went to lunch at about 2.00pm the other day – rather late for your average pensioner who will be early for any freebie, but same result – this particular restaurant always seems to be full. I think some people sleep there. They are not relinquishing a window seat for anyone or anything. If they’re not eating at that table they’re playing cards. Rough seas and the wobbly boots should be keeping the walking sticks, walkers and mobility scooters in their rooms but that’s only a small percentage. Everyone else is there with bells on.
I have to admit, it’s nice to get off these ships regularly so the CB and I are not fans of extended times at sea. There are reasons for this. Boredom is one because we don’t want to join a choir or be embarrassed by the professional trivia competitors or enter a ping pong tournament or learn to line dance. Actually, that may be worth investigating although there are no Shania Twains on this boat so….. Exploring (and sampling) the various drinking establishments does while away some time and we’ve done that countless times so far. An additional reason to get off occasionally is because cruise ships are just about the most efficient virus incubators ever invented and are especially effective in bad weather when all of the doors and windows to the outside world are closed. So I caught a cold. I’m blaming the CB for hiding the zinc tablets thereby compromising my immune system. Maybe I should have worn one of those useless masks that some people on this boat still insist on wearing.
We were lucky during the first half of this trip with great weather but once we started to head south the weather went pear shaped so we had to skip the exposed Gravdal in the Lofoten Islands. Fortunately the skipper decided to substitute the geographically protected town of Narvik. This place had a small but significant place in the conduct of World War 2 in 1940. Jumping forward a couple of years, in November 1942, Winston Churchill said in a speech regarding the Second Battle of El Alamein that “Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat”. Incidentally he also said in the same speech “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is perhaps the end of the beginning.” But I digress. Back to Narvik.
The Battle of Narvik was fought from April to June 1940. In April the British and Polish navies beat the German navy off Narvik and in the next months German forces were driven back to the Swedish border. This was the first Allied victory but I guess Churchill forgot because British forces were withdrawn in June that year to fight elsewhere and Norway was subsequently lost.
Just to finish off, why was Narvik so important that a naval battle was fought over it? Amongst other things it’s the port for iron ore produced at the Kiruna mine (there’s a fascinating story unfolding there right now but that’s a digression too far) not far away in Sweden. No iron ore, no tanks. Thus endeth the history lesson.