Starting in Bergen, Norway, the Coastal Steamers has daily departures on an 11-day round trip voyage to Kirkenes, a city in the very northeastern part of Europe, and back. Modern and classy, the ships call on over 30 ports, many of them just to unload and load cargo, supplies and local passengers. Tourists enjoy the fabulous views as the ships cruise between islands and into fjords, crossing the Arctic Circle and move north into the land of the summer midnight sun and the winter Aurora Borealis, nature's own dazzling light show in the dark skies.
Author Berit Liland is a retired merchant navy ship radio officer, with an economic degree and a background in the Norwegian Maritime Authority. Being well read in history, she realized that many cruise guests were missing out on all the heritage, the stories and the culture that related to many of the islands, villages and areas the ships were sailing by, even if they were visible from the ships.
In the years prior to 2007, she undertook to log the entire 11-day Coastal Steamer route by GPS and electronic navigation charts in order to have an accurate base on which to base the voyage guide timeline on. She then contacted every community, topic experts and used other open resources in order to compile what became a 400-page day-by-day voyage guide, color coded and easily read. Since then the paper version has sold over 30 000 copies, and the book is by customer requests now also available for digital use as well.
The book has several noteworthy features.
City walks in Bergen and Trondheim will assist the user in preparing and conducting self-guided tours to the author's recommended highlights.
Position references as well as time hacks from the previous port of call will assist the user in knowing when the ship is passing a particular point of interest described in the book.
The content is adapted to normal hours of circadian rhythm, so the parts of the journey the ships pass at night are just
