Crossing the Arctic Circle

 

 

The third day of our voyage was the big day for crossing the Arctic Circle.  We were up early as we were due to cross the magic latitude line of 66⁰ 33’N between 7 and 8 am.  The ship had a contest on to guess the exact time of the crossing.  The previous night Bob and I spent hours calculating the nautical miles from the last port of call by all the possible routes through the many little islands and how long it might take going at the cruising speed of 14 knots, etc.  It was all good fun but in the end we just made a guess.  It was a misty, gray morning as we passed the silver globe on Vikingen Island; a perfect mood setting.

The silver globe on Vikingen Island

Taking a selfie to commemorate the occasion

Later that morning King Neptune came for the traditional Arctic Circle ceremony.  Hardy souls volunteered (not us) to have Neptune pour ice cubes down their backs then take a shot of Aquavit to warm up the insides. All in good fun.

Getting the ice treatment from King Neptune with our Captain (right) looking on

Warming up with Aquavit

After the excitement of the Arctic Circle milestone we settled in for more gazing at the beautiful scenery.

Beautiful lighthouse

 

 

Mid-afternoon we arrived at Bodø were the Norwegian Aviation Museum is located.  We had a 2 hour stop over here so caught a bus for a quick look at the planes.  Bob was thrilled.

Mosquito

Spitfire

Sabre

In the early evening we made short stops at the pretty towns of Stamsund and Svolvær in the beautiful Lofoten Archipelago.  On the dock at Stamsund we witnessed a touching reunion of recent African and Syrian migrants.  One doesn’t expect to see recent migrants in a small (population 1000) remote town above the Arctic Circle.  I thought what a huge adjustment it must be for them.

Happy reunion

Svolvær was in the middle of a music festival and the town was abuzz.

Party night

Misty waterfront in the twilight

The red-letter day ended around 11pm when we entered the magnificent Trollfjord.  It was still twilight and rain and mist gave the whole area an ethereal atmosphere.  The fjord is 2km long, the entrance just 100m wide and 1000m cliffs surrounded us.   Stunning!

 

 

Bob looking Nordic

The narrow entrance

The next day we spent several hours in the largest Norwegian town above the Arctic Circle, Tromsø.  We walked around the town taking in the sights. 

Snow fields in the mountains

Scenery on our way to Tromsø

Approaching Tromsø

Lovely old movie theatre now a pub where a cold beer will set you back €10!

The Migu Run Skyrunner World series was taking place while we were there.  This is a 50km run with a 4,400m vertical climb over incredibly rough terrain.  The winners finish the race in 7 to 8 hours.  We were there around 10 hours after the start of the race and watched some of the muddy and battered participants finishing.  These men and women are fit!

One thing that has struck us generally about Norwegians is their incredible level of fitness.  One rarely sees anyone overweight or obese.  Everyone exudes a rosy healthiness.  Norwegians have a very outdoors lifestyle.  There are TV channels which telecast hours of people walking over the moors and mountains and we watched Norwegians riveted to this (for us) stupefyingly boring programming.  

Finish line

Celebrating fitness

We finished our short visit to Tromsø at the Polar Museum.  This museum showed the life of trappers and hunters (quite brutal by today’s standards) and had a good exhibit on Polar explorers.

Trapper lodge

Sled dogs