Day 68 Tromso, Norway

 Today's forecast, according to our daily Passages that is delivered to our suite each evening, says that it is going to be a sunny day with a high temperature of 19 degrees.  Instead, we woke to a dull cloudy day with a temperature around 10 degrees!  So much for weather predictions, but I will say the day eventually improved.

Our tour today is Tromso scenic drive and Cable Car.  If ever we see a tour with a cable car, we are right there as we thoroughly enjoy them and have travelled on a few worldwide.  The scenic drive takes us past some pretty stunning scenery and gets us excited to see this from higher ground.

But first stop is the Tromso Museum.  It's only small but what it lacks in size makes up for in displays and information.

Inside, there are several museum "rooms".  We only have time for a couple so we choose the geological and the Sami. The first is the geological where we are fascinated by the different rocks and fossils from all around the world.  We even find a replica of one from the Flinders Ranges in Australia from 560 million years ago.

We have learnt a lot about the Sami in the past few days and like most indigenous from around the world they were treated pretty badly by Europeans.  They suffered harassment and discrimination and were subjected to a persistent assimilation from the 1800's to 1960.  I loved the displays in this part of the museum, particularly a photograph showing the annual reindeer migration that we were told about.  It would be an amazing sight to see.

From our suite balcony this morning, we could see a large triangular shaped building in the distance that really stands out,  and I was surprised that it was the Arctic Cathedral that is our next tour stop.

 It is a very modern piece of architecture built in 1965.  Inside the triangular shaped building we find at one end a magnificent stained glass window and the other end is the church organ that was installed in 2005.  There is an incredible amount of glass inside the cathedral that would keep everyone warm in the cold winter months.

It's now time to drive the short distance to the highlight of our tour, the cable car to the top of Mount Storsteinen.  There is a lot of construction work going on here and we are told it will be finished later this year but for us now, things are in a bit of upheaval.  There is a helicopter flying backwards and forwards above us transferring building construction materials for the dozens of workers on the site and there is safety tape everywhere. The ground is also very uneven but we are always prepared for this.  It is a bit disappointing but doesn't detract from the views we had from 420 metres above sea level.

After our tour we had time for a light lunch and, as we seem to be doing lately, walking back into the town centre.  Even though we pass a lot of these sights on our bus tours there is nothing like being on the ground and photographing them.  Tromso is an interesting place and although it was occupied by the Germans during WW2, it was not heavily bombed, so much of the architecture remains the same in the old part of the city.  But, as we have seen all over Europe modern architecture sits comfortably alongside the old. One very good example of modern architecture is the Tromso Library.  I can only describe the roof as a three sided tent or dome with the front of the building almost entirely glass. It almost looks see-thru from where I took this photo.

I photograph the next two buildings sitting side by side and on the opposite side of the street are some very graceful homes. It's very eclectic.

We stumble across a building where the side is decorated with a beautiful mosaic.  What a lucky find….

Stortgata is the name of the Main Street and most of it is only open to pedestrians and scooters.  Everywhere we have been on this entire journey, are those damn scooters, that are abandoned anywhere and everywhere. It must be costing councils around the world, a bucket load of money to retrieve them and return them to charging stations.  Anyway, I digress.  Trosmo is another Norwegian city with a vibrant lifestyle. There are cafes hidden away in discreet corners that we would love to explore, but time is not on our side.  The thing with cruises is that they are "tasters".  If you really love a country, you will undoubtably, return. 

Day 67 North Cape (Honningsvad), Norway

Last night was one of the most glorious nights, cruising the Norwegian Sea, that you could ever wish for.   There was hardly a ripple in the ocean as we glided along with a full moon and once again we had the Northern Lights around 11pm.  We have been told that it will happen again tonight, but a little earlier around 9pm.  

The ship arrived into Honningsvag at 7am and our tour to the North Cape was slotted for 7.15am so it was an early start for us.  The day is glorious with not a cloud to be seen, no wind but it is a little cooler at 14 degrees.  Honestly, I (and half the ship) thought we would be reaching for our woollen clothes by now, but it is nowhere near as cold as Greenland and Iceland.

As we all boarded the bus to take us to North Cape, the excitement was palpable.  It feels like the culmination of our Grand Arctic Cruise.  It is a 45 minute drive to North Cape from Honningsvad and the scenery is beyond description with soaring rocky mountains and lakes that look like glass.  The narrow  road reaches heights that take our breath away, and we say a silent prayer and hope that the bus driver is experienced!  

The gods have been very kind to us today weatherwise.  We were preparing ourselves for a foggy day with zero visibility as it so often here at North Cape.  We are so chuffed.  The North Cape Centre sits high on a cliff 307m above the sea below.  I expected the sea to be wild but it is just so incredibly still with the currents very visible in the water below.  We take no time in walking the perimeter of the centre where, scattered here and there, are signs commemorating various times in history.  But of course the most photographed is the "Globe" that marks the latitude - North 70 degrees 10'21" or the most northernmost point in Europe.

The hour and a half that we were given to stay at North Cape flies by and once again we are back on the bus heading back to Honningsvad.  This is a quiet little fishing village and we take our time to walk around the town centre before heading back onboard.  The fishing and crabbing industry is huge in this area and I would love to sample some of the King Crab but that was another entirely different tour unfortunately.  I'm hoping that it might be on the menu in one of the restaurants tonight.  

As we walk along the dock we come across a drying rack for fish heads.  The smell is not great and I don't wish to sample that.

I'm off to the onboard hairdresser this afternoon to give my hair a well deserved treat.  We are having dinner with one of the officers tonight.  I don't particularly enjoy these dinners but when I found out that our new Aussie friends will be joining us I was relieved.  Small talk is not my thing.

Day 66 Hammerfest, Norway

After my disappointing photos of the Northern Lights last night, imagine how annoyed I was with myself when friends showed me their photos.  I should have made the effort and headed upstairs where people were getting great photos.  The lights were more forward than starboard so if I get another opportunity tonight I will know where to go.  There is not a cloud in the sky in Hammerfest today so maybe we'll get lucky.

It is a glorious 19 degrees as we head out of town today towards the indigenous Sami Camp.  I've not heard a lot about the Sami but they have lived in Scandinavia for thousands of years.  There are around 80,000 Sami and they typically make their living from herding Reindeer, deer hunting, fishing and farming.  They are spread across Northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia.  When we arrive at the camp we are ushered into the round timber houses covered in turf that are called Goahati.  The Sami elder has us all sit around the fire on reindeer skins while he tells us about the history of the Sami.  

After the story-telling we are taken to another turf house that is a large dining room with a cooking area in the middle of the room.  Our hostess feeds us small portions of reindeer - smoked, boiled, and dried, along with smoked salmon and a small focaccia like biscuit.  The reindeer was delicious compared to the reindeer steaks we had at the Regent dinner a few weeks ago.

After we have finished eating and drinking our hot beverage we are taken to the reindeer farm where we are given another talk about how the Sami herd the Reindeer.  Herd is not really a good word because the reindeer do an annual migration naturally and the Sami are really just following them.  Before winter the reindeer move south to country that is not iced over as it is in Hammerfest.  It takes them around two months to reach their destination and then when spring returns the reindeer migrate back.  

Hammerfest has a fence running around the perimeter of the town to keep reindeer out of the town area as they can become a bit of a pest.  But the reindeer seem to find a way through the fence and we see dozens of them on our scenic drive around Hammerfest.

Hammerfest was destroyed mercilessly by the Germans in the Second World War so the architecture is very much 50's style with colourful houses again the order of the day.  I love this style of architecture that is a great contrast to the rocky mountain backdrop.

We are back at our ship in time for lunch and as we are docked here until 10pm tonight, we decided to do a little more exploring of Hammerfest on our own.  Our tour guide briefly mention the Struve Geodetic Arc that is in easy walking distance of our ship so that is the first place we headed.  The Geodetic Arc is a chain of survey triangulations stretching from Hammerfest to the Black Sea through ten countries covering 2,820 kms. These are points of survey carried out between 1816 and 1855 by a group of scientists that were used to measure a long section of meridian thus giving us an accurate size and shape of our planet.

Next, we headed into the town centre on the ships shuttle bus to wander the streets.  The town is a strange layout and we never did find the main area, but we were content to walk around the very attractive waterfront on this beautiful sunshine day.  

We are both feeling a little weary today after our northern lights awakening last night so it will be an early night for us I would say.  Our tour to the North Cape tomorrow is at 7.15am so we will have to get a good nights sleep to enjoy this northernmost point.