Norwegian Coast Cruise 2012 Honningsvag Page

Up at 0713. We went on the coach trip to North Cape. There was no native guide but Mark was the escort & kept people amused. He said there was a prize for who counted the most trees. Trees don't grow at all up here (71°N). We stopped at a Sami rubbish shop with a guy (always here, we are told) with a reindeer. We at last bought a Sami doll (N140).

Reindeer

It's the same Sami every year & same goat?

Sami rubbish shop but real fur

Then, to the Cape, which has a large visitors' centre & a ferocious wind. Despite this, I took some photos. Then, we went to the film, which was quite good & had better Aurora than the Tromso one. We had hot chocolate (N78, for which I had change), then I went out again. The wind had dropped to gale force but there was more cloud around. A couple of Norwegians got engaged at the globe here, him dropping on his knee & offering a ring, who she took. I told people on the coach tannoy on the way back, with an amusing twist & taught Mark the biscuits gag privately (how to sound like a Norwegian, learned from Andy the Jazz Trumpeter last November).

What it says on the tin

North Cape Centre

Blood brothers

The view West from North Cape

The engaged couple by the Globe

Thomas Cook's 1st tour to North Cape, modelled

Typical coastline to the East

Only just in time for lunch: this mucked up our schedule, so after, Avis had a kip & hairdo (it was her birthday), while I walked round the city (village, really) taking photos & going up the hill behind to take panoramas, hopefully, of the immense view going away to the South. Then, it was my turn for a kip.

We were to leave Honningsvag, head North & go round the North Cape by sea, giving us our longest daylight of the trip. The igneous intrusion forming the Horn was given mystical significance by the Early Norwegians. The next day, we were 'at sea' but this was almost entirely between various islands off the coast of Norway. I gave my Nielsen talk.

After dinner, which was formal, so we were all dressed up at first but soon, got into more suitable clothes, we paraded on the foredeck as the Captain, as a special treat, took us up the Troll Fjord in the Lofoten Islands, which has a very narrow entrance. We were lead in by one of our lifeboats & it was an impressive feat how the Driver turned the ship round in the wider bit, which was surrounded by steep (very) hills.