In Norway, a no-frills, all-fish cruise

In the arms race now gripping the travel industry, there is almost nothing cruise ships won't do to tempt new customers.

Some boast of climbing walls, ice skating rinks and water parks. Others offer endless bingo, salsa, yoga or gambling. Travelers can go clubbing all night or have their bodies scrubbed with precious oils.

And then there is Norway's Hurtigruten line.

Hurtigruten, which plies Norway's magnificently craggy western coast, specializes in rocks, fish and sea, with a dollop of heavy machinery thrown in. It prides itself as "the anti-cruise ship" line -- an ornery outlook that snagged my counterculture psyche hook, line and sinker.

Near-freezing temperatures at the end of May? Can do. A schedule that dumps you off at all hours of the day and night into hamlets that may or may not be open? Why not? Breakfast, lunch and dinner chock-full of fish in every possible permutation? OK, I'm game.

"No bingo, no karaoke, no dancing girls -- you can't call us a cruise ship," said Ebgert Pijfers, tour leader on Hurtigruten's MS Vesteralen. "We are a working ship, the lifeline for some villages in the north."

About the cruise line

Nearly every day year-round, a Hurtigruten ship leaves the western city of Bergen for the 12-day odyssey up north and back. The ships churn past some of the world's most remote, remarkable scenery, above the Arctic Circle, past UNESCO-honored island communities, through the icy Barents Sea.

The ships haul appliances, lumber and electronics north to tiny coastal communities. Going south, they pick up pallet after pallet of fish.

Oil and gas workers, college students, retirees and families are transported in both directions, along with their cars, bikes and strollers. Tourists are welcome -- as long as they understand the route doesn't revolve around them.

"What you see outside the ship plays the main role here," said Pijfers.

The scenery is a 24-hour event, but only the most noticeable sights -- say, crossing the Arctic Circle or having playful killer whales ride the ship's bow wave as it leaves a fjord -- get pointed out on the loudspeaker.

A ship stays anywhere from 15 minutes to over three hours in port, loading and unloading. Tourists can leave the ship and wander, stay and watch, or ignore the stop completely and curl up with a thriller in the lounge.

What to expect

My husband and I rode the MS Vesteralen, one of the line's older ships, with about 180 tourists and 30 locals from Kirkenes south to Bergen at the end of May. Between the midnight sun, the odd port times, the chilly weather and our Spartan, submarine-like sleeping quarters, I was slightly disoriented -- in a good way -- the entire time.

For Hurtigruten ships plying the coast, the choreography of the docks defines the schedule. Ships arrive or depart in the middle of meals or the middle of the night. We had an 11:45 p.m. stop in the picturesque university town of Tromsoe, a 2 a.m. docking in tiny Bodoe and a midnight walk around Aalesund, an Art Nouveau town voted the most beautiful in Norway.

Other daytime dockings allow for a handful of spectacular off-ship excursions to view sea eagles, visit ancient Viking sites or peer out from one of the northernmost points in mainland Europe.

The line's busiest month is February, when travelers flock to see the northern lights. Other seasonal excursions include sledding with dogs or reindeer, going fishing for king crab, or taking an icy dip in the Barents Sea.

Bundling up in full winter gear, we ducked and squealed as more than a dozen sea eagles hunted down our little boat to snatch fish tossed into the air. Sami herders and their reindeer greeted us en route to Nordkapp, a plunging cliff at the top of Europe.

No one should venture forth on Hurtigruten if they can't stomach fish. At one luncheon buffet, I counted 14 varieties, including lox, tuna salad, smoked mackerel, salmon with peppers, smoked Greenland halibut, coalfish with asparagus and several shellfish salads.

Some passengers revel in the menu.

"Best food I have ever had, fish in every way, shape or form," said Helen Johnston of Mequon, Wis., whose four daughters took her round-trip from Bergen to celebrate her 84th birthday.

Her youngest daughter, Barbara Holtz, 48, of Mukwonago, Wis., loved the midnight concert at Trondheim's famous church. At a longer stop in Tromsoe, the American women marched with a homemade "USA loves Norway" sign in the country's National Day parade, marveling at the spirit of thousands around them.

Hurtigruten says that pride infuses its crew. Says Pijfers, "We are a little piece of Norway floating along the coast."

IF YOU GO

Twelve-day voyage through fjords, from $1,502 a person. Most popular departures are in winter to see the northern lights.

INFO 866-552-0371, hurtigruten.com