Ann and Roger travel: February 2017

Tuesday 28th February 2017

Last night we saw the Northern Lights for the first time - ribbons of green light hanging in the sky and altering in form constantly. When we woke this morning we had left the west coast of Norway and had instead turned east to journey along the north coast bordered by the Barents Sea. The landscape is different here - low rounded hills worn down by millennia under icecaps.

We docked at Honningsvag on the island of Mageroya at about 11.30. Mageroya is connected to mainland Europe by an undersea tunnel, reputedly with the most expensive tunnel toll in the world. The reason this tunnel exists is to allow road access to "The North Cape" which reputedly has the most expensive car park and the most expensive cafe in the world. "The North Cape" is supposed to be the most northerly point on continental Europe. It isn't. It's on an island!

The ship was virtually empty. Most passengers it seems were off on an excursion to "The North Cape" - a short coach trip costing £136 per person. Presumably it will be costing them a lot more if they are rash enough to patronise the aforementioned cafe!

We took a walk around town. It was very snowy indeed.

Here's the main street.

We saw this nice icicle hanging up on a shop front.

Honningsvag is a fishing port.

There is a fair amount of public art on the quayside.

The overall impression of the town was of snow.........

.........lots and lots of it!

We saw some fish hanging up to air dry.

This dog was keeping an eye on it's "owner's" fishing boat.

In Norway, Sweden and Finland strong alcoholic drinks cannot be bought in ordinary grocery shops. It is only available in restaurants and bars and state run shops like this. In Sweden these shops are called Systembologet and in Finland Alco. Incidentally, if by chance you don't already know, alcoholic drinks cost an absolute arm and a leg round here.

After 45 minutes or so we reckoned that we'd "done" Honningsvag so we went back to our ship for lunch.

Talking of lunch, we have found out that Hurtigruten used to provide passengers going on the coach trip from here to "The North Cape" with packed lunches but that they have stopped doing this as a substantial number of these passengers used to use the packed lunch wrappings to litter the route to and from "The Cape" thus scandalising the very litter averse Norwegian locals!

Continuing east along the northern coast of Norway, our ship passed this strange looking sea stack as darkness approached.

The last rays of the sun lit up the cliffs as we passed by.

Monday 27th February 2017

During the night we traveled through the Lofoten and Vesteralen Islands docking early this morning at Harstad. Later we docked briefly at Finnsnes pictured here.

It is a beautiful day with fine views in all directions.

Leaving Finnsnes we passed under this bridge.

It's very cold here even when you're in the sun. Ann got well kitted up to go on deck!

As we were leaving Finnsnes a fast coastal boat was just arriving.

At about 14.15 we docked in the city of Tromso - variously known as The Capital of the Arctic or The Paris of the North!

It seems like Tromso has two cathedrals, an old wooden one................

...........and a new concrete one.

We went inside the old wooden one, it was really quite austere compared to the churches of southern Europe which we had recently visited.

What is this about?

A little further on we saw this brightly coloured building on the quayside.

Just a little further on again was this really, really strange building. It's called The Polaria. It is not falling down. It is supposed to be like that!

There is lots of snow in Tromso today. It gets piled up by the authorities to enable people to get about.

I'm sure they have real wild bears around here.

Our ship's funnel can be seen poking up above the surrounding buildings making it easy to find our way back.

Sunday 26th February 2017

This morning we crossed the Arctic Circle (approximately 66.6 degrees north) about 7.30 and not too long afterwards stopped briefly at the village of Ornes pictured here.

There is some spectacular scenery along the way.......

..........we can watch it go by from our cabin.

The mountains are particularly scenic as you approach the city of Bodo.

Bodo itself is pretty nondescript.

The surroundings however are marvelous.

We docked in Bodo at about 12.45

We took a walk into the nearby city centre.

As I said earlier Bodo is quite nondescript but we did see this nice mural.

Since Alesund we have been sharing a table for evening meals with this couple from Northern Ireland. They should have boarded in Bergen like us but their plane from Belfast to London was delayed by storm Doris on Thursday and they had to re route and join Polarlys via Oslo and Alesund! They are getting off at Stamsund in the Lofoten Islands later today.

On the way back from town we saw some eider ? ducks.

I should have said more about the Hurtigruten earlier. A fleet of 12 ships runs continuously from Bergen in south western Norway to Kirkenes near the Russian border in the far north east of the country. Kirkeness is at the same longitude as Istanbul! Every day one ship arrives and leaves each of the 33 ports along the way going north and another does the same going south. The round trip from Bergen to Kirkenes takes 12 days. The Hurtigruten carries passengers, vehicles and freight. Many of the ports it serves are tiny and isolated and it is a vital link for those communities. Today while we were in Bodo we sat at reception for a while watching people come and go. The bloke in the white shirt on the left is checking people on and off the ship.

After we left Bodo and headed out into the open sea there was a really nice sunset.

We could see the stupendous mountain chain of the Lofoten Islands ahead as night drew in.

At about 19.00 we docked at Stamsund in the Lofoten Islands.

A couple of cars were unloaded. Also our pals from Northern Ireland got off the ship here.

We arrived in Svolvaer about 21.00 but it's too dark to photograph the numerous enormous fish drying frames dotted around the port.