A Stop at Windy North Cape

June 26, 2013 (Posted Aug 6)

Honnigsvag is a small fishing port on an island just off the coast of Norway.  It was our starting point for a bus trip to the somewhat misnamed North Cape.  North Cape is advertised, at 71 degrees 10 minutes north latitude, as the northernmost point in Europe.  This would be true if it were not on an island adjacent to the mainland.  The actual most northern point on the mainland, several miles to the east, is not quite so far north by a fraction of a degree of latitude.  North Cape has the publicity, the modern visitor center and the crowds.  Mageroya Island, the island on which North Cape lies, connects to the mainland by ferry and by a mile long tunnel under the sea. It is a popular destination for European vacationers traveling by ferry or driving campers as well as hosting a dozen or cruise ships per year.

Michael and I had originally signed up for a bird watching boat tour from another fishing village on the other side of the island.  Only six people on our ship chose this excursion so it was canceled for lack of enough participants to run the tour.  We were not interested in scuba diving for king crab, the other available tour, so we signed up for the tour to the very touristy North Cape Visitor Center.

A very strong wind was blowing as the Silver Cloud tried to dock at the small pier at Honnigsvag. For a while, we were not sure we would be able to go ashore at all.  The captain was able to get lines secured on the third attempt and we made it ashore and onto the tour bus only a few minutes late.  A local guide gave a narration about the settlement and the history of the island as we traveled over a paved road through rugged, treeless scenery.  The external temperature was in the forties F. and the snow had almost all melted but the landscape was cold and forbidding even in the arctic summer.

The tour bus made a stop at a supposed Sami camp.  Sami is the politically correct name for people called Laplanders when I was growing up.  The "camp" was a gift shop and a nearby tent with a corral for a single reindeer.  A Sami couple ran the place.  We could see their house, a normal ranch style dwelling, just down the road.  I imagine they put on their authentic Sami costumes and wait for the tour buses every day in summer. Our stop was a photo and shopping opportunity.  Our guide told us not to touch the reindeer but to take pictures and perhaps visit with the Sami man stationed at a well-worn and obviously not inhabited tent.  The gift shop next to this display was a frame building filled with Sami souvenirs mostly made in Finland. The wife ran the gift shop.  Business was brisk.  Four tour buses from Silver Cloud and several from the Hurtigruten ferry stopped there during the forty-five minutes or so our tour bus guide allotted for pictures and shopping.

The Sami are an ethnically distinct people inhabiting extreme northern Europe.  Some are still nomadic following their reindeer herds across the most northern parts of Russia, Finland Sweden and Norway.  Many are settled fisher folk and farmers. They are politically semi-autonomous having their own government but no homeland.  They remind me of American Indians without official reservations.  Historically they haven't been treated much better either.  It was sad to see this couple making a living by dressing up for tourists, posing for pictures  and selling trinkets. 

The area around the visitor center at North Cape was cold and windy.  I was glad to have my new brand Norwegian coat for the wind was really blowing.  Eventually the cold and wind turned to cold rain.  Michael and I paid our respects to the globe mounted near the edge of the 300-foot cliff.  A couple of French bicyclists were celebrating the end of a long journey from Provance in the south of France to the north end of Europe by taking pictures of each other and their bicycles on the plinth of the globe. I think the main point of arriving at North Cape by whatever means of transport is to take a photo to prove you were there.

The visitor center was a new building housing a cafeteria, a bar-restaurant and a very large gift shop on the main level. There were three more levels going down into the rock of the cliff. Michael and I watched a time-lapse movie showing a typical year at the cape compressed to twenty minutes.  We then explored the underground corridors full of historical exhibits. We wandered about the gift shop, took another look outside and waited for the return bus trip. Since neither Michael nor I are much interested in buying souvenirs, this type of excursion is mostly a waste of our time.  We would much rather have visited a fishing village and seen real people living real lives.  However, the trip was worth it for the scenery, the tour guide's narration and the ability to say we were there.

Silver Cloud's bridge crew had problems leaving Honnigssvag similar to the difficulties arriving.    One of the lines snapped in a sudden gust of wind as we cast off. We stayed a bit less than six hours and the weather was very windy with occasional rainsqualls the whole time.

Oddly enough, the weather cleared and the temperature climbed as the Silver Cloud entered the Barents Sea north of the mainland.  The Gulf Stream raises the water temperature along the north coast of Europe well into Russian waters.  I was able to take a clear picture of the actual northernmost point in Europe.  There was only empty ocean between us and the North Pole.

Tromso, An Unexpected City

June 25, 2013 (posted Aug 5)

Tromso, Norway at 69 degrees north latitude is almost two hundred miles into the Arctic Circle.  One would expect continuous ice and snow but that is not the case.  Because of the beneficial effect on climate afforded by the Gulf Stream, Tromso has relatively warm winters (averaging around 27 degrees F) and summers (averaging 59 degrees F). There is a lot of snow in the winter and spectacular northern light displays but the harbor doesn't freeze. Summers are cool but temperate climate crops grow well during the short but always light growing season.  Tromso is a university town boasting the world's most northern university.  In spite of reading all these facts before our arrival, I was still surprised to see a thriving, livable city.

The Silver Cloud docked at around 8 am, several miles north of the city center.  Michael and I were on the first shuttle bus to the downtown area.  We checked out the visitor's center, staffed by a young man from New Zealand no less, and walked to the local library hoping to find free Internet access.  The library is a modern architectural gem with a number of computers for public use and supposedly free Internet for people with their own devices. The problem was that all the printed directions were in Norwegian and thus incomprehensible.  Not wanting to disturb the busy library attendants, we left and continued our exploration of Tromso.  We walked across a bridge connecting Tromso city with the mainland, stopping for a look at a church billed as the Arctic Cathedral.  The church is a white modern structure with Chagall-like stained glass.  The design is meant to invoke the magnificence of the snow-capped peaks of the surrounding mountains.  We thought it a nice church but nothing special beyond its location in the north of Norway.  The sight was somewhat spoiled by construction equipment and barricades in front of the entrance.

Michael and I declined to pay admission to see the interior.  We continued up the hill (lower slopes of a mountain) to the Fjellheissen cable car and rode up to the top of 1386 foot Storsteinen (Big Rock) for fantastic views of the city.  We were far enough north in Norway that 1300 feet above sea level the land was already tundra with patches of unmelted snow.  We would have taken a hike on one of the trails at the top except for the rain that started to fall.  On the way back down, Michael asked the cable car operator if there were often thunderstorms on the mountain.  Soon after the attendant said that it was extremely rare, we saw lightning and heard the boom of thunder.  Leaving the mountain top was the right decision. The cable car descended through rain at the top into clear weather at the base.  We had time to walk briskly most of the way back to the shuttle bus stop before it started raining in earnest. Rain continued for the rest of the afternoon.

The bus back to Silver Cloud took a route through a tunnel that ran under the hillside for several miles.  The tunnel has traffic circles every so often allowing access to different areas of the city.  I imagine that using the tunnel saves a lot of snow plowing during the winter.  It is a massive construction, further proof that Norway has become a wealthy country investing in infrastructure everywhere.

Michael and I ventured out in the rain later that afternoon to visit the Silver Explorer, SilverSea's small exploration ship.  The Silver Explorer spends most of the short arctic summer voyaging between Tromso and the Svalbard Islands north of northern Norway.  Passengers view polar bears and other arctic wildlife taking several daily trips in rubber Zodiacs.  

The Silver Explorer docked at Tromso the afternoon Silver Cloud was in the same port and her crew offered tours to interested Silver Cloud passengers and crew.  Most of us went. Michael and I had taken our first cruise together in 2009 on the Silver Explorer, then named the Prince Albert II.  We cruised from the Caribbean, through the Panama Canal to the west coast of Central America while the ship was repositioning from the arctic to the Antarctic.  We both enjoyed seeing this little ship again.

Tromso is a small city, surprisingly walkable when it is not raining.  It has shopping and restaurants as well as cultural activities. The university students lend an air of youthful energy.  We were there during the time of the midnight sun.  There was no nighttime, only periods of rain or sun.

A Walk Above the Arctic Circle

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.

The Beauty of the Fjords

Saturday June 22, 2013 (posted July 16)

The Silver Cloud left Bergen at six pm Friday evening for a short overnight sail to the Geiringer Fjord.  We were to make two stops at small towns on the fjord.  The main purpose of visiting this fjord is to view the absolutely stunning scenery.  Geiringer Fjord is a world heritage site famed for large numbers of waterfalls tumbling down high cliffs and little farms perched precariously on the rocky slopes.

We were already well inside the fjord when Michael and I woke around six am.  As soon as we could get dressed for the cool wet weather, we were on deck, cameras in hand taking pictures of the mountains and waterfalls as they slid by.

The Silver Cloud docked at 8:30 am at a tiny town named Helleysit at the end of one arm of the fjord.  We stayed there only two hours, as the purpose of the stop was to let off passengers who had booked a bus tour across the mountains to Geiringer at the end of a longer arm of the fjord.  Our pre cruise information said that no one else would be allowed off the ship.  Fortunately, the cruise director announced that anyone who wanted to could go ashore; we just were required to return to the ship by 10:00 am.  Michael and I immediately took advantage of the opportunity to explore this tiny town with a waterfall running through it.

The weather was overcast with occasional drizzle.  The temperature was in the high 50's F so bundled up appropriately and carrying umbrellas we went out to see the town.  I was beginning to learn that in Norway there is always the possibility of rain.  Maybe that contributes to the Norwegian sense of humor: very dry – about the only thing that is dry.

Michael and I hiked to the top of the waterfall and took a stroll down a street that led back into the hamlet.  We stopped at a very pretty church and took some pictures.  Helleysit was a great spot for photography. I took many shots of water, walls, flowers and interesting buildings.  There seemed to be no one around except for a few of us from Silver Cloud and a handful of Japanese tourists who arrived by ferry.  Norway runs the Hurtigruten ferry system connecting towns and cities all the way up the west coast to North Cape in the far north.  Even tiny Helleysit has regular service.  We saw at least three ferries in the two hours we were there. In spite of a brand new pier just big enough for Silver Cloud, a small cruise ship, Helleysit is not likely to become a lively cruise destination.

Before starting on the cruise, I had decided to make a quest to find a good Norwegian sweater at a reasonable price.  The sweaters for sale at the market in Bergen were very expensive.  I thought Helleysit might be less expensive since it was off the beaten track so to speak, so I dragged Michael into the gift shop near the pier.

Michael got into a conversation with the sales clerk, a young woman from Lithuania working on a doctorate during the school year and selling trinkets in Norway as a relatively high paying summer job.  While they talked, I found sweaters and jackets at prices much below those in Bergen.  I couldn't decide between a fleece sweater and a faux suede jacket. The sales clerk advised me to buy them both. I think I surprised Michael when I decided to do so.  Within hours it became evident that this was a good decision as I wore one or another of them almost every day after this stop.  I had brought a raincoat and several sweaters in my luggage but did not fully anticipate how windy and rainy Norway would prove.

After a half hour delay to locate a missing passenger –he or she was most likely on the bus trip and didn't get accounted for properly until the captain and staff captain intervened – we continued along the fjord to Geiringer. I can't say much about the passage except that my two hundred pictures are gorgeous.

Geiringer town was the opposite of Helleysit.  Geiringer exists solely for the tourist trade. The Silver Cloud was one of four cruise ships anchored off shore.  The Hurtigruten ferry landed more tourists, enough to fill six tour buses. The town of 600 full time residents had temporarily swelled to about 20,000.  Two blocks of tourist shops and fast food places lined the elaborate tender pier. Carved wooden troll statues were everywhere. There were several tourist hotels and two RV parks in what passed for a downtown.  The tourist information center on the dock offered numerous tours into the mountains. Had it not been raining we might have taken a tour to a lookout point to view the fjord from above.  As it was, after a walk around the immediate area we were done.  

As we made our way back to the tender pier, it stopped raining so we decided to hike up the road, up being the operative word, to a small church that overlooked the fjord.  The church was interesting and we appreciated the exercise. 

As cruising and other forms of tourism become more affordable, more and more places will come to resemble Geiringer.  The spectacular scenery is being loved to death.  It is hard to appreciate nature's beauty when one is part of a mob of thousands.  The trip in and out of the fjord, watching the waterfalls and rugged mountains go by was well worth the aggravation of the town of Geiringer.