Now we come to the second excursion on the Hurtigruten – the trip to the NordKapp!  Essentially the point of land that is furthest north on the continent of Europe.  This is at 71 degrees latitude  – which is 6 degrees north of the arctic circle.  By the way, the North Pole is at 90 degrees north – in case you were wondering.

We crossed the arctic circle at approximately 7:30 am one morning and I would have missed it, except for the lucky happenstance that I left my ship phone ‘on’.  You could hear all the announcements (always in three languages) via a special line on your phone.  I always turned it off at night, just in case they decided to share something in the wee hours.  I was enjoying a very deep, dark slumber (which is rare) when this booming voice suddenly thundered from the telephone speaker, spouting something in Norwegian.  And then (wait for it) in English.  We were about to cross the Arctic Circle!  Well that galvanized me into some semblance of action.  Befuddled action, but action all the same.  I was throwing on clothes and looking for the camera and glanced in the mirror and realized my hair was in some amount of disarray.  Good to know those senior citizens’ eyesight is not what it used to be.

I raced up to deck 7, muttering curses under my breath as my knees and various other limbs creaked, cracked and groaned going up the 800 steps.  I think that I was still kind of asleep, I was struggling to walk in a straight line …  In any case, I made it to the outside (yes, it was cold, but not what you might expect) and was able to snap a couple of photos of the marker.  Indeed, they have a brass statue of sorts on a rock indicating that you are passing across the Arctic Circle.  It was kind of anti-climactic.

A couple of days later they had a crossing the Arctic Circle ceremony.  This is an example of some of the fun to be had on the Hurtigruten.  Ha.  And ha again.  The ceremony consisted of having ice cold water ladled down the back of your shirt by the ‘god’ of I don’t know what (could’ve been St. Knick for all I know).  Considering that it was downright chilly outside and that I have very few items in my paltry wardrobe I opted out on getting drenched with icy water.  But I digress.

Once past the circle it did get colder, and rockier, and we really saw less and less foliage – like trees.  The Sun was still out though (yea!) and the last day on the ship (for me) was the Nordkapp excursion.  This was yet another big obnoxious bus type of tour – but of much shorter duration.  There is a city (of sorts) called Honningsvag where the big cruise ships can dock.  Honningsvag is the gateway to this North Cape area.  We had a guide (this time he was actually Norwegian) who told us interesting tidbits about Honningsvag – like how proud they were to have a gas station (he was half serious) because the nearest gas was 200km away.  And the fact that they had no hospital, only an ambulance, that you had to wait for maybe up to one hour or take your chances with the helicopters which sometimes take longer than the ambulance.  Note to self, don’t have a serious accident in Honningsvag!

We made it (without incident) to the Nordkapp center where they have a nice pseudo IMAX film showing what life is like up there at 71 degrees latitude.  Then of course, you need to walk out to the point overlooking the sea where they have the monument and get your picture taken with hordes of other tourists.  Busloads and busloads of other tourists. The guide told us that over 200,000 people come through here each year.  It’s a thing.  Wow.  I think the population of the city is maybe 3,000.  This point is about 1,000 feet above the sea, very dramatic scenery.  In one of those odd Norwegian twists, there is also a museum here that houses artifacts collected from Thailand.  This is because in 1907 King Chulalongkom visited the North Cape and in 1989 this display was put together to honor him.

 

After getting our fill of the northernmost point in Europe we stopped to check out a Sami guy with his reindeer.  Throughout this adventure I have been attempting to get some pictures of reindeer, but all I can manage is to get pictures of reindeer rear-ends.  They are white fluffy tailed behinds – reminds me of a rabbit, and they always seem to have their heads in the scrub-brush.  This has been annoying.  Our guide explains to us that reindeer are damn stupid.  That they have no concept of cars, roads, or danger.  Hmmmm.

The Sami people are indigenous to the land and have been there for eons.  They are nomadic people and are reindeer herders.  These days they use boats to ferry the reindeer to a more inland area for the winter – apparently the winters out on that northerly cape are kind of rough.  In any case, we stop at what I thought was a gross display of kitschy tourism.  This Sami guy is perched in front of a teepee of sorts with a reindeer on a lead and the reindeer is busy eating what appears to be moss out of a trough.  And the tourists crowd around and get up close and personal with Mr. Sami and take pictures.  I asked the guide later why this Sami would do this and he claims that it’s totally voluntary and that this man has done it for years, and that he likes to do it.  Really.  I hope that is true…

We head back to the ship for the final leg of my trip, up to Kirkenes.  We are in the Barents Sea now and the weather is shifting.  But not before we enjoyed a few more rays of glorious sunshine and took in some interesting rock formations.  One is called Finnkirka – a set of rocks shaped like a chapel.  For thousands of years a sacred place to the Sami.  It is uncanny how much it resembles the general shape of a church.  But, more startling for me was the vision of man-flesh that suddenly appeared above deck 7 as I was snapping pics of the Finnkirka.  Tall, lanky, well-proportioned and extremely cut in the abs area too – who should appear in a pair of swim trunks but Mr. A la carte Waiter!?  It took me a moment to regain my composure and realize this, but it was really him (he looks different with almost no clothes on…).  It was rather chilly outside too, but this guy and another dude were on a ‘crew only’ deck where hot air was blowing out from some kind of boat machinery that made it extremely warm – hence the ability to sunbathe in your skivvies.  I only noticed him because he jumped up to get his camera to take pics of the Finnkirka…  I admit, my camera lens might have drifted in his direction (oops) – he became known to me as ‘hot waiter’ after this little episode.  Apologies here to all the male readers – but the girls have been asking for something more exciting – and sadly, this is about as exciting as it gets…

The end of Norway is in sight… Kirkenes is around the corner…  stay tuned!