Faroe Islands residents head to Tyneside for their Christmas shopping

Nov 1 2009 by Nicky Gardner, Sunday Sun

TYNESIDE is preparing for a friendly invasion next month as residents of the remote Faroe Islands head south for a shopping spree.

The scatter of mountainous islands, halfway between the Shetlands and Iceland, are wild and windy. And the Faroese have a long tradition of escaping their northern homeland for a dose of pre-Christmas cheer.

So, in early winter each year, some 1400 Faroese revellers board the Norröna, a handsome cruise ferry operated by Faroese company Smyril Line, to go Christmas shopping.

This year Smyril Line has opted for Newcastle for the seasonal cruise to civilisation, so Faroese fishermen, farmers and their families will get a taste of English Christmas. The Norröna will enter the Tyne early on Tuesday December 1 and dock at Northumbrian Quay in North Shields.

Bright city lights and the chance of a night out on the town are not standard Faroese fare. The capital city of the Faroes, Tórshavn, is hardly bigger than Hexham.

Small though their homeland may be, the Faroese are fiercely independent and have their own parliament, language and currency (the Faroese króna). The islands are outside the European Union.

“Yes, I’m looking forward to seeing Newcastle,” said Jákup Joensen as he tinkered with the motor of his fishing boat on the Faroese island of Sandoy last weekend.

“I’ve heard all about turkey and mince pies, but I’m not sure they’ll be a match for a good whale steak,” said Jákup referring to the Faroese affection for whaling, a sport that often invites criticism of the islands by outsiders.

The Norröna will berth overnight at North Shields, and weigh anchor on Wednesday afternoon for the journey back north to Tórshavn. Sources in the Faroes say that the Norröna’s first visit to the Tyne may not be her last.

There is talk of Smyril Line tinkering with the Norröna’s regular schedules from 2011 and even a rumour that a Newcastle stop could feature on the ship’s regular schedules.

For the North East, the loss of the DFDS ferry routes to Norway last year was a harsh blow. Cast back a few years and Tyneside enjoyed several Scandinavian links. Over the years they have vanished. First Denmark, then Sweden and then in 2008 Norway.

The old Tyne Commission Quay is looking decidedly empty these days and if Smyril could be tempted to add a regular Newcastle stop, it would open up a raft of new travel possibilities for Tynesiders. The Norröna schedule includes a weekly run from Esbjerg in Denmark to the Faroes and Iceland.

Smyril Line has tried British ports of call in the past, stopping off for some years at the Shetlands and for two summer seasons at Scrabster in northeast Scotland.

But high port charges and difficulty in drumming up business at the two Scottish ports prompted Smyril to drop them, leaving some slack in the schedule that could be to Newcastle’s advantage.

For the Faroe Islands, the Norröna is a lifeline. Without the ship, the shelves of shops in Tórshavn would be empty of produce from the continent, and fresh fish from the Faroes could never be sold in Denmark’s lucrative fish markets.

Cargo may be the Norröna’s bread and butter, but the sleek cruise ferry is also important in bringing summer visitors to both the Faroes and Iceland.

If Tyneside can pull out all the stops in December and get those mince pies just right, the rewards could be high. Regular calls by the Norröna could bring a lot of tourist traffic to the North East.

:: Nicky Gardner is a writer specialising in ferry and rail transport and European travel. She lives in Berlin, where she is co-editor of hidden europe magazine (www.hiddeneurope.co.uk ). She can be contacted at email: nicky@hiddeneurope.de