As we woke this morning, still somewhat buzzing from the excitement of the aurora last night, the realisation that our home for the past 11 days was soon to come to an end as we are due to arrive in Oslo on the morning of the 3rd. As ever, when it you've had such an amazing time, there is always a sadness that descends as all of the "lasts" take place.

We decided to get some sorting of things before heading into Kristiansand on foot today, having had our last excursion yesterday to the Viking village. As had been the case all trip, breakfast was a delicious affair with ginger shot, juice, coffee, cooked food, tasty cheese, pate, eggs, bacon, toast, yoghurt, berries, crepes...we will not be eating this well again on the rest of the trip. Cooked tomato, fish cakes, meat balls, smoked salmon, gravalax...it has been ridiculous.

So, at about 11am, we set off on foot into something unfamiliar for a while...bright sunshine! The ground was very cold as was the air of the day, with about 10cm of snow on much of the ground. Kristiansand is a slightly larger town than many we've visited and there was a recommended walk through the old town, taking in the church and an optional walk up into the city park. We made our way, shoe covers doing the job, onto the icy wharf, to be greeted by the sight of another enormous ship opposite us. The aidaNOVA, a German cruise liner, was pulled up. It hosts 5200 passengers with 1400 crew on a 20 story monster. Contrast with our 500 passenger 100 crew ship on 9 levels. Watching the Germans going through the rigmarole of getting off the ship in their droves made us even more grateful for the size of our ship, let alone the ability we've enjoyed to visit smaller ports along the way for a more authentic view of Norwegian coastal people.

The town was quite pretty and the sun on the streets was lovely. A quick visit to the cathedral for a few photos and then we ventured up the icy path into the city park. Some great photos of frozen lake and views over the town were taken! The old part of the town was very pretty too, spotting a cat sprinting around a highlight.

With the allure of one last delicious lunch on board the Trollfjord, we walked back onto the ship in time to have another yummy sample of the wide variety of foods. Some cured reindeer, various cured fish (cod, salmon etc), some pork belly all washed down with a tasty coke for me...spoiled yet again. We still enjoyed the chance to chat with our favourite waiter Ove too! After lunch we took some time to arrange for the claim back of the VAT on purchases via the ever helpful lady in the ship's shop.

The plan to get some photos uploaded whilst sitting in the Espiland lounge was thwarted by a call over the ship's audio for June Jones to go down to reception. Bronnie's bag had arrived at the ship! Slightly worse for wear and as we discovered the next day, a broken handle, but otherwise in tact. We also spent some time contacting Polish airlines who have cancelled a later flight in our trip (a pain...some work to do to resolve that) and also to confirm we are not returning to Australia as scheduled on the 4th January. Still fiddling with international roaming as whilst the eSim works well for data, some of the banking things require us to receive codes via SMS and to turn the home sim on seems to be attracting exorbitant charges. We'll work it out.

Our farewell dinner began at 6pm with our usual table Sue, Maxine, Peter and Jen having a good time. The meal of salmon sashimi, pea soup, smoked cod (Tim)/beef cheek (Bronnie), Cheese plate and sponge cake was absolutely delicious. The sublime Kraftkar cheese was again a meal highlight for me, as was the yummy tokay style dessert wine.

Up to the 1893 bar one last time for a final Aqevite liqueur, the clarified espresso liqueur, a final IPA and a prosecco (all part of the drinks included in the tour I promise) with a chance to hear from the crew/farewell was lovely. Not much in the way of swell during the day and all in all a great way to finish the last full day on the MS Trollfjord. We had to have our bags packed and out of our room before 10pm so they could be transferred to the dock in the morning to avoid us having to take them down the slippery ramp.

The tour has certainly lived up to and exceeded what I/we thought it would be. A truly unique and amazing part of the globe and one I would recommend to others. Physically challenging at times (oddly enough despite the extreme nourishment) due to the constant moving of the ship. My body battery has rarely exceeded 50 since leaving OZ, and even though it's only been walking, the combination of a cold, the cold and ship rolling, my resting heart rate has been elevated and HRV shows as being stressed!

The places we've seen, smelt, heard and visited it's actually hard to believe we've actually done them. Very, very cool. One last sleep on ship and we dock in Oslo early in the morning.