Norway 2022/23 – 8, Hammerfest

Tags

Amundsen, Finnmark, Hammerfest, Honningsvåg, Hurtigruten, Longyearbyen, MS Trollfjord, Museum of Reconstruction of Finnmark and Northern Troms, Robert Scott, Sami, South Pole expedition, Struve, Struve Geodetic Arc, Svalbard, Vardø, WWII

For some people, Day 8 started at 01.20. They had left the boat at Mehamn and rejoined at at Kjøllefjord at 03.25, having travelled some of the distance between the two by snow-scooter. I was not among them. The first announcement most of us heard was to explain a delay – we had taken on 130 tons of fish during the night at one of the stops! (Some reckoned that they could see the boat listing, but given the overall tonnage of the boat, I couldn’t – and didn’t – see that it made any difference.)

We were still at the very ‘top’ of Norway. This was taken just before 11.00.

The only lengthy stop that day was at Hammerfest, around 11.15. This claims to be the northernmost town – or was it city? – in the world. So does Honningsvåg. It seems that both can be true since one is technically a city and the other a town. This I found out when, cussedly, I said privately to ‘Onchel’ (pronounced ‘Onkle’) Heinz that I had visited the town of Longyearbyen on Svalbard, way, way to the north of mainland Norway. Ah, but that, being very small, was neither a town nor a city. OK.

The options here were: – to take a very short walk from the boat,

in order to see this;

or to take a bus to see it, then visit the town and its surroundings, including the Museum of Reconstruction of Finnmark and the Northern Troms regions;

or to go on a mountain hike.

Or of course to stay on the boat, which the majority did. I had booked on the second.

The monument was to mark the Struve Geodetic Arc, which started at Hammerfest and ended at the Black Sea. This was a chain of triangulations carried out between 1816 and 1855, which helped to establish the exact size and shape of the planet.

We were taken to a high viewpoint of the harbour, passing a much enlarged former Sami dwelling.

As we were taken back to the town centre, I grabbed a few photos from the bus.

Our whistle-stop tour of the museum provided a very natural and just as sobering sequel to the visit to the bomb shelter in Kirkenes the day before. It picked up from the scorched earth policy of the retreating Germans in 1944, and covered the plight of refugees in their own country, and subsequent reconstruction of their homes and other buildings. Much of it was text and most of the rest was old photos. With little time to read and study I just hastily grabbed images to read later. Here are some.

Simulation of a cave dwelling

‘Life as a refugee’

‘Life in the fallow period’

Mock-up of a brand new home for returning refugees, reminding me of my childhood

A brand new home for a Sami family

And we were rushed on, back to the boat.

I reflected on the words of the Norwegian boatowner over breakfast a couple of days earlier, who had said that Norwegians remembered the war. And I also noted the different approaches of our local guides: the passion of that of the previous day in Kirkenes, for whom the period had been lived experience, compared with the matter-of-factness of this day’s guide, half his age, for whom all this was history. (That Norwegian referendum on whether to join what became the EU had been back in 1972, with 53.5% against membership and 46.5% in favour. They had another, I have just read, in 1994. On an 88.6% turnout, 52% were against, 48% for – no, I’ve not got my referendum results muddled. The Wikipedia article suggests that it’s fishing which for many Norwegians is a great obstacle to EU membership.)

Not UFOs but reflections from inside the coach

At 15.45 we had a talk on:

with its painful reminder that the British expedition under Scott had been ill-equipped and very under-experienced compared with the Norwegian Amundsen. Indeed it’s amazing just how much Scott achieved in the circumstances.

Later in the afternoon was the English-language briefing for the next day, but how the next day panned out is a completely different story.

We would be pulling in to Tromsø at 23.45 that evening , for a nearly two-hour stay. A concert in the ‘Arctic Cathedral’ I had walked to on the way ‘up’ had originally been scheduled, to which I had much looked forward. But there was to be no concert there that night, instead another being scheduled at a theatre/cultural centre. A little bird indicated to me that the music would not be up to much. I would have coped with this just to see the inside of the church at midnight, but I decided against in the circumstances. I was tucked up in bed and fast asleep as those who went left and came back. Feedback the next day was that my choice had been a good one.

Norway, 2022/23 – 6, Honningsvåg

Tags

e Magerøysund, Honningsvåg, Hurtigruten, Kjøllefjord, Magerøy Strait, Mehamn, MS Trollfjord, North Cape, Reindeer, Sami, Vardø

Around 10.00, we were invited to go up on to deck 9 as the ship passed through a narrow strait, the Magerøysund, on its way to our next port of call, Honningsvåg, where three excursions were due to set off.

We then learned that all three excursions had had to be cancelled. The authorities in Honningsvåg had closed the main road north out of the town as being too dangerous because of weather. So neither my trip to the North Cape, (the northernmost spot in Norway at 71° N), nor another to a fishing village, nor a hike with the expedition team were able to take place.

The ship was to remain at the port for three-and-a-half hours, from 11.00 to 14.30. So there was plenty of time for a walk within the small town. It was rather enjoyable, in effect a horseshoe walk round the harbour, out by an upper road, and back via a lower, in still air.

As I stood looking at this, a woman came by and said ‘Was ist das?’ I shrugged my shoulders trying to indicate that I didn’t speak German. But what came out of my lips was ‘Ich kennst nicht’, which I now understand was hardly grammatically correct but will have conveyed the necessary. Now I wonder if the sculpture is meant to symbolise the shape of the harbour – not that I would have known how to convey that to the woman!.

Looking back over my right shoulder

Note the snow-retaining fences

Dental surgery

This was the furthest point of the walk, and where one could look straight out to sea. I must quote from an excellent little Hurtigruten book about the voyage and its stopping places. “In the spring, the Norwegian Army’s landing craft transport around 3,800 reindeer over Magerøy Strait to their summer pastures on Magerøy Island. However, during the autumn, when it is time for the reindeer to return to the snow-clad plains of Karasjok, the animals and their calves, born at the end of May/beginning of June, swim across the 1,800 m wide strait.” That must be quite a sight! (It is – I’ve just found this video. Sound on for Sami-inspired music.)

It was much darker than this video suggests. As came to the end of my swivel, I was concerned that I might have captured the couple in full embrace, but it turns out they were taking a selfie – and I can well understand why, with that backdrop.

I turned back.

An information board outside this building, in English, explained that it was one of the first buildings in Honningsvåg after the war, built in 1950, and used to be a Christian meeting house. It is now a cultural venue with concerts and festivals.

Within this view…

… was this. Fishers preparing to go out for the night?

When I got back to the boat, I found that playing on a loop was a series of pictures of what those of us disappointed in our attempt to get to the North Cape might have seen.

I’ve been studying my globe to see what other parts of the world are at 71°N: the north coasts of Alaska and Russia, some of the northernmost islands of Canada, halfway up Greenland. All pretty well uninhabitable. How fortunate the Norwegians are in having the Gulf Stream flow past!

At 15.00 came a talk on…

by Hege, of the expedition team, including some anecdotes about her grandfather’s farmhouse. No top secrets were revealed.

The English speakers’ briefing for the following day was at 17.30. Meanwhile those hoping to leave the boat at Kjøllefjord for a scooter safari, rejoining it at Mehamn two hours later, had been disappointed, as bad weather meant that the first port had been bypassed.

The North Cape is the northernmost point of Norway, and Vardø the most easterly.

Fingers crossed that the several excursions from Kirkenes would take place. More than 100 passengers would be leaving there, and about 80 joining.

There would be a 15-minute stop at Vardø during the night, and a rather longer one, after turnaround at Kirkenes, late afternoon, when those of us who wished to could walk to the Vauban-style fortress. The town had been of strategic importance for centuries, and the domes had been part of NATO’s early warning system (and presumably still are).

We were also given a preview of a trip to come on Day 9, a visit to the Hurtigruten Museum at Stokmarknes, on which I was already booked and to which I was much looking forward.

The Northern Lights appeared again that evening, but afforded me no great photo.

Norway 2022/23 – 5, Boxing Day, Andre Juledag

Tags

Arctic Cathedral, Aurora Borealis, Finnsnes, Hurtigruten, MS Trollfjord, North Cape, Northern Lights, Norway, Sami, Tromsø, Tromso

11.00. We’re three-quarters of the way up the Norwegian coast now, and that twilight period is short. We moored for 30 minutes at Finnsnes, and I first took some pictures from deck 8, behind glass. I’ve managed to crop some of the reflections from the last two.

The remainder were taken from outside, on deck 9. Minus 3° C.

The English-speaking briefing was held at 11.30. It included details about the four excursions for the following day. I was booked on to the first, a trip to the very northernmost part of the country, the North Cape.

I can’t now recall why they were so in advance about one excursion for two days on, a visit to a snow hotel and to huskies. Perhaps they were short of bookings.

This was followed by a short talk on the Sami people, which I found a very informative supplement to what I had learned when I had spent the New Year 2004/5 in northern Finland, aka Lapland, when a Sami called Sepo was one of our guides.

14.15 we pulled into Tromsø, 69.6°N. With four hours available I reckoned I couldn’t go wrong. There was only one excursion, a husky tour, but I just went for a walk. I needed a focal point, so I decided to make for the ‘Arctic Cathedral’. A midnight concert there had been scheduled for the return trip, but I now knew it would not be happening, and I wanted to see the building. It would mean going across the kilometre-long Tromsø Bridge, the city itself being on an island, so I assumed that there would be strong winds and dressed accordingly. In fact there was no wind, and I was plenty warm enough.

From the bridge, 15.00.

The Arctic Cathedral is not actually a cathedral, but a parish church seating 600 people, built in 1965 in the ‘long church‘ style. Sadly it was closed.

Has it been open, it would have been lit, and this magnificent stained glass window occupying the whole of the west end would have been visible from the outside. I took this picture of it from a very small backlit display panel.

As I walked back across the bridge, I turned round to take this. The light top centre is of the cable car terminal.

Back on the island. It was a real pleasure to walk in these conditions, with crunchy crisp snow underfoot.

I arrived at a small square and was just wondering what this sculpture represented, when I noticed a couple of people looking up to the sky… through their phones…

(I love their ‘helmets’ of snow!)

After the previous day’s talk I knew what that probably meant. Yes, there was some wispy ‘cloud’, and through my phone it gave this.

My first definite Northern Lights. And without being summoned on deck to see them, though no doubt those on board had been informed.

I continued making my way back towards MS Trollfjord.

I still had two hours in hand so allowed myself a slight deviation to the main, pedestrianised, shopping street.

I learned later that the pavements/sidewalks were clear of snow because they were heated.

I watched these two having fun for a couple of minutes.

One of Tromsø’s two real cathedrals. This one is the Lutheran one, completed in 1861.

Back on the boat, at 17.30 we were invited up on deck to see the Lights.

Not brilliant pictures, nor indeed a great manifestation of the Northern Lights, but mine own.