August 5-7 Tromso & Svalbard Norway

The Tromso visit was for a changeover -- the end of a segment and the beginning of the next. About 900 people got off, 700 got on, and less than 300 of us stayed aboard. We were docked well away from town (but close to the airport)  and there was no shuttle bus available to take us into town.

Since there was nothing of great interest in Tromso we stayed near the dock, and walked about half a mile to a grocery store to stock up on snacks.

We do have a fatality to report. Cynthia dropped her phone while at Nordkapp (no grass, just rocks). It continued to work for 36 hours, then died completely. That means that we lost her pictures from Hammerfest and Tromso. We have several cameras with us, so picture taking can proceed without pause.

Another northernmost. We didn't visit.

Tromso sailaway

Longyearbyen is the settlement on Svalbard, an island sort of belonging to Norway, way up north. It took a day of sailing to get here, and it'll be another two days to get to Iceland. But this is about as far north as most people can go. North 78 degrees.

Port

The major industry here was coal. You can see the cableway that transported buckets of coal to this transfer station where it was moved down to the dock.

Northernmost Circle K.

Svalbard has become a favored movie location for shooting winter/glacier backgrounds.

Vehicles to move people and equipment around

A glacier visible from the port.

The church. We didn't climb the hill to visit.

University Center in Svalbard, specializing in Arctic studies. The piping is distribution of hot water from the central power station for heating.

Tribute to the coal miners. The grocery store in the background was much less expensive than anticipated - I believe because Svalbard is not really part of Norway, but is administratively governed by them. Taxes are low to make up for the delivery costs way up north.

We have been told that although this is a permanent settlement, few people actually live their lives here. Most people come for about 5 years, earning great pay in coal mining or fur trapping or other industries up here. They then move back to the more temperate parts of Norway for the remainder of their lives.

But we did see a large number of apartments, and more under construction. Perhaps there's something to living for 4 months without seeing the sun at all that appeals to some people.

As we sail away from Svalbard and head for Iceland our string of great weather is coming to an end. We were just waved off from our next stop, Husavik - a tender port since it would be unsafe to take the small tenders into the actual dock. We're substituting Akureyri, which has a dock and is at the head of a long fjord, offering significant protection from the weather.

August 4 Hammerfest Norway

 Hammerfest is the northern most town in the world. (Later we will visit the northernmost settlement in the world, so it's a matter of size.)

It's a Sunday morning so we opted to walk around the small town. Just outside the port there was a squabble of seagulls (I looked up the collective noun for gulls) on an apartment building. And they were noisy. No one was sleeping in in that apartment.

How'd you like to see that looking in your bathroom window?

Hammerfest town square

Lindstrom, from Hammerfest, participated in many of the famous Arctic land Antarctic explorations as the cook. He ended up traveling on more polar expeditions than any other person.

St Michael's Church

Protestant Church of Hammerfest. At both 10 and 10:30 am on this Sunday morning the bells in the tower rang LOUDLY for 5 minutes. We believe it was intended to wake up the churchgoers so they could be there on time for the 11 o'clock service.

This chapel across the street from the church, is the only structure in Hammerfest to survive the Nazi scorched earth retreat during WW2.

Sod roof on the entrance gate. The house is for sale.

The Music Pavillion

August 3 Nordkapp Norway

 It's up to the northern tip of continental Norway and a visit to Nordkapp - North Cape. We actually dock at Honningsvag to the south.

Our excursion was a simple transfer to North Cape, but the scenery is magnificent on the 45-minute drive there.

Reindeer crossing brings traffic to a halt

The symbol of North Cape. Cynthia has once again removed the tens of people clustering around the base. That's why the railing is hanging in air -- its base was sacrificed along with all of those people.

I watched a 30-minute movie in the visitors center and it had a number of clips showing a similarly vacant Globe at Nordkapp. But all of those were taken in the gloom/twilight of winter and the only people around were those operating the drone camera.

We are pretty far north.

Visitors Center

These are the "stone-wheels" set up on the plateau that show copies of drawings made by children from all corners of the world with the motto: "Peace and friendship'.

Bamse the Sea Dog was the mascot and crew member to the Norwegian coastal patrol vessel Thorodd during WW2. He became a patriotic symbol of the Norwegian resistance during the Nazi occupation.

August 2 Alta Norway

 Posting has been delayed until we returned to the land of internet connectivity. Above the Arctic Circle it's difficult to move much data.

Alta is another town on a fjord.

The Church of the Northern Lights. The architecture is designed to mimic the sheets of northern lights visible in the night sky. The outer layer is titanium.

On the day we were there a bicycle competition was taking place. There was a festival area in the small city center.

Further out is this 19th century wooden church, Alta Church one of the few buildings in town that the Germans left standing in World War II.

We explored Alta on a ship's excursion, and the tour guide was hard pressed to come up with anything else to fill the scheduled 2.5 hour tour. It's a beautiful place although cold and cloudy on the day we visited.