June 24, 2013 (Posted July 22)
Following the Silver Cloud's departure from Geiringer Fjord, we spent a day "at sea" traveling more than six hundred miles north to Harstad, Norway. Harstad, at latitude 68 degrees north is just above the Arctic Circle. Michael and I would not see the sun set again for nearly two weeks.
None of the Silversea tours offered at Harstad were particularly appealing so we had decided to look around the town and see what was available. I was hoping to see the Trondenes Church, a structure dating from the thirteenth century built as a fortress as well as a church. It is said to be the oldest medieval church in northern Norway. Google Earth showed the church several miles out of the downtown area but I was happy to see as we sailed into Harstad harbor that the distance to the church was reasonably walkable.
Harstad, with a population of approximately 22,000 people is the third largest city in northern Norway and a center for fishing, ship repair, and support site for the Norwegian North Sea oil and gas industry. As we noticed throughout Norway, the townspeople are reasonably well off and the local economy appears to be booming. We arrived during the annual Festival of Northern Norway celebration and the downtown plazas were filled with tents. Later in the day, we saw people selling arts and crafts, flowers, vegetables and food. There was a small stage with live singers too.
Michael and I were off the ship shortly after 8:00 am, well before the festival opened. We saw a few people setting up displays while a few others swept the cobbled streets of the pier side plaza. We had arrived mid-festival still the early morning atmosphere was sleepy and slow moving.
We picked out the modern church on a nearby hill, noted as a tourist attraction on our map, as a destination. The climb was steep but we managed it relatively easily. At the top, we found a road sign indicating that Trondenes Church was 2 kilometers further on the same road.
We had an opportunity for a real walk, the first chance since Copenhagen to stretch our legs. It took us a little over an hour with several photo stops to reach the church. When we arrived, we found a tour group from our ship already there checking out the inside of the historic landmark. We were in luck as the church opens only for tour groups when between scheduled services. The church was wonderfully historic and photogenic.
On the far side of the churchyard we discovered a monument, in Russian, to Russian prisoners of war who had died on the Trondenes peninsula. A historical preservation group had recently created a walking path around the remains of a Nazi prison camp. There were a number of placards showing photographs from WW II. From 1943 to 1945, The Germans held several thousand Russian soldiers prisoner under brutal conditions in rudimentary housing next to the medieval era church. The Nazis used the Russians as forced labor to build a gun battery on Trondenes point. Over eight hundred Russian soldiers died there.
I had no idea all this history had taken place here. Nothing about a prison camp appeared in any of the reading I did prior to our trip. I suspect since no Americans or west Europeans were involved it just wasn't mentioned in the English speaking world. Norwegians have good feelings toward the Russians even today because Soviet troops liberated Norway in 1945 and then withdrew without making Norway part of the Soviet sphere.
Norwegian historical sites seem to emphasize either the Viking era or World War II. The Viking times were a heroic age, the war a time of heroic resistance.
We concluded our visit to Trondenes point with a visit to the Trondenes Historic Center, on the other side of the church. At the Historic Center, one could pay eight or nine dollars to see a film on Bronze Age and Viking history or spend an equal amount at the snack bar or gift shop. We did not spend much time there. On the way back to the dock we passed almost all of the remaining tourist sites marked on our map, a maritime museum and an art gallery.
Michael and I made the correct decision to go out early. Shortly after returning to Silver Cloud after our five-mile walk, the skies opened up and we had a rainy afternoon. We did venture out briefly in the drizzle to see the festival and check for free Wi-Fi. Norway, as a rule, has no free Internet except at libraries where the instructions are in Norwegian. We returned to the ship empty handed and with no e-mail updates.
The sun came out as we sailed away from Harstad at 11 pm. From the sun's position on the horizon, it appeared more like 6 pm than 11 pm. Of course, this was the first evening we would not see a sun set at all. Some of our fellow passengers stayed up until two or three am taking pictures of the "midnight sun" and were able to tell us later that, indeed, the sun does not set in late June above the Arctic Circle.
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