Can you travel to miles from the North Pole in a wheelchair? If you take a cruise ship up along the Norwegian coast, you can. By James Walsh. The golden September sun was wonderfully warm as I passed through the sliding glass doors at the aft of the ninth deck and emerged into a silent, mystical world. There, surrounding the ship and seemingly close enough to touch, were the towering gray and green granite walls of the Trollfjord.
A silver waterfall ribboned hundreds of feet down the face of a cliff as dozens of fellow passengers, transfixed, stood at railings, snapping images of the fjord. The cruise ship β feet long and home to more than passengers β felt as nimble as a kayak. This was Norway. This was the reason a coastal cruise had called to us. This was magic. For our return to Norway, my wife, Heidi, and I chose to make it our first-ever cruise. We first visited in with friends. Seven years ago, we explored the cities and towns by train, bus and ferry.
This would be very different, seeing Norway from the sea. And, seeing Norway from a wheelchair. Since I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in , my mobility and stamina are dwindling.
Seven years ago, I could still walk and hike β with frequent rests and an occasional fall. Now, I spend more of my time out sitting in a battery-powered chair. If there is a plus to my condition, it is this: The time to travel is now, while I still can β although the chair limits where I can go and what I can do. When we told our travel agent, Maggie Knuteson of Travel Leaders in Woodbury, of our desire to return to Norway, we said it needed to be wheelchair-accessible.
She found Hurtigruten, a Norwegian cruise company that also sails to Antarctica, Greenland and Iceland. At the halfway point, it crosses open sea to the Svalbard archipelago high above the Arctic Circle.
