Crikey, Mona! And also Yikes! My wife is always after me to go on a cruise with her, but I've always resisted - and now I know why! Whew. I hitched up around that part of Norway when I was young (celebrated my 24th birthday in August 1963 with a token dip in the sea at Narvik), and it was pretty cold then, in summertime. You must feel as though you've been hi-jacked onto an Arctic Convoy. I've just found Alta on Google Maps, and it looks nice and sheltered in there. Yes, it would have been very exposed going around the north to Kirkenes; and good luck to those people on the bus. Why did they go, I wonder. Unless Kirkenes has improved a heck of a lot since '63, I wouldn't have bothered! All the best to you.
