July 18 Honningvaag Norway

Honningsvaag is the closest port to North Cape, Norway, the most northern point reachable by road.  There'a another point just a couple of miles away that's even further north, but no one's built a road to it.  Nordkapp is appealing, located on a rocky point hundreds of feet above the ocean.

Sailing into the harbor

 Bamse the Sea Dog was apparently the hero of seamen here, taking care of them and bringing them back to the ship.

 We took the 20km bus ride from the port to North Cape.

 There was an obligatory gift shop stop, this one tended by the native Sami people.  THe teepee/reindeer display showed the way they used to live.  It's clear from the gift shop that the Sami did not make their livelihood by being the low cost provider.

 We arrive at Nordkapp with relatively benign weather conditions.  It wasn't sunny, but at times there was a shadow, and the wind was calm.  Even in July we were prepared for 0C with 50mph winds.  The locals were very pleased with the conditions.

A large caravan park was right next to North Cape, plus a few tent campers.  This is a tourist mecca in the far north.

 The symbol of Nordkapp

 Everything in Norway proclaims 71 10' 12"N as the latitude of North Cape.  I guess if you went to the bottom of the cliff at low tide and stood in water up to your knees it might be 21" but the globe is a good 500 feet south of that mark.

 You can hike from here to Italy.  We didn't.

 This sign was located where you might be tempted to park your motorcycle.  None were parked there.

There was a drone buzzing around for awhile.  I noticed that he kept it over land and didn't venture out beyond the cliff.

Children of the Earth monument

 The return trip to Honningsvaag -- reindeer roaming in open pasture.  They're all owned by someone.

 We walked about town after lunch.  Not a big town.  There was an ATV Adventure that you could sign up for.

 Tribute to the fishermen of Norway

 Snow blower showroom.  I couldn't take the front picture of the machines because of glare on the window, but there were serious blades there.

 The church

A telephone booth?

Snacks by the checkout in the local grocery store.  We bought cookies instead.

A cod fish drying rack as an example shown in town.  On our drive we had passed some very large ones, but not within camera range.

In the evening as the boat left Honningsvaag, we rounded the North Cape in the all day sunshine.  You can see how Nordkapp is atop a very big cliff.  The sun was also up all night -- no sunset, but we're headed back to sub-Arctic waters and we'll have sunrises and sunsets from now on.