After experiencing the incredible natural beauty of Stavanger, Olden, Hellesylt and Geiranger on Iona’s previous ports of call, it’s a surprise to wake up on the final day in Norway, to open the curtains and find yourself in Haugesund, with a view of a large shipyard, commercial docks, cranes and boatsheds as your view!
Haugesund is not billed as a stop of great natural beauty – and it’s the last suitable place in Norway for Iona to call before making the final leg of the journey back home to Southampton, so we weren’t expecting much from this port at all.
There are excursions you can do from here, but there’s not much in the way of fjord scenery nearby, so they involve a fairly long coach journey, so we decided to just stay at Haugesund and have a look around the town instead.
There wasn’t much here to keep us occupied for very long.
A few shops along a high street, but this isn’t really a tourist destination and, with the rain starting to pour down on us again, we decided there was probably more enjoyment to be had back on the ship.
We spent the rest of the day enjoying various entertainment back on Iona, as Haugesund, without an excursion to a further-afield location, didn’t have much to offer to keep us entertained for very long.
By this point in the holiday, we didn’t really care that the last port is a bit of an anti-climax – we’d had the most amazing time already, seen plenty of sights that we’ll remember for a long time – and had the best time on board the ship.
Every single minute we spent on Iona was an absolute pleasure, so this day – and the subsequent full day at sea – were still highly enjoyable.