I was sitting on the bus on my way to work, when I spotted this rather strange-looking vessel anchored in the Baltic. The bottom part looked like a working vessel, and the top part looked like a cruise liner. She was clearly an icebreaker designed for heavy ice. Not something you often see on a regular cruise ship.
I looked her up and she is Le Commandant Charcot, a Polar Class 2 rated icebreaking vessel operated by Compagnie du Ponant. She is a cruise ship capable of reaching remote polar destinations. Only four years old, she has travelled to the geographic north pole, the northern pole of inaccessibility, the north magnetic pole and Antarctica.
I can see the attraction of endless icy landscapes for people who have never seen them. The ship also looks amazing.
Unfortunately, since I have been in Sweden I have experienced more than my fill of ice and snow. I have travelled on an ice breaker and have also been over the Baltic Sea by ferry several times in the middle of winter. So if I had to travel in Scandinavia, it would be Hurtigruten in summer, to see the fjords.
