Crossing the Arctic Circle and North Cape

After leaving Trondheim, the ship crosses the Arctic Circle.  The ship presented us with certificates!

We have a sea day as we head up the coast to the port of Honningsvag, one of the most northern cities in Norway.  And it definitely is colder!

When we arrive in Honningsvag, we have tickets for the North Cape Tour.  We find the bus and are soon headed to the most northern point of the European continent.

It is about an hour's ride.  The land here is pretty barren.    Over 10,000 years ago the entire area was covered in ice.  Massive glaciers carved out the present landscape.

...and left lakes.

We see several herds of reindeer as the bus speeds by...

It was the Sami people that came to live in this area shortly after the ice began to retreat thousands of years ago.  Their best-known means of livelihood is reindeer herding.  And we stopped by to see a Sami man in traditional dress. The hat is called a Four Winds hat...a simple blue cylinder, decorated with a red band, but the top is a large, four-cornered star.  Any decoration on the hat is indicative of the person's place of origin, or even his clan, much like the Scottish tartan.

He stays in a tent until a tourist bus comes by for a photo op with his reindeer.

And his family tends to the souvenir store...filled with everything reindeer related.

 We bought a post card!

Continuing on, we drive through a fishing village...

The houses are all well kept.

And then we see our first glimpse of the North Cape, aka Nordkapp in Norwegian.

About 20 minutes later we arrive at the North Cape Visitor Center.  This is the northernmost point in Europe and the land of the midnight sun.  From mid-May to July, the full disc of the sun never dips below the horizon.

It is extremely windy and cold.  We heard later that the temperature was 34 degrees with 30+mph winds.  We headed out to the monument.

And paused briefly for a photo.  Terry could hardly hang on to the camera due to the strong winds.

We tried to remember how hot we were just a few days ago on our hikes....it didn't help.  We quickly snapped one more photo and then headed back into the visitor center.

The Globe Monument, erected in 1977, has become the symbol of the North Cape.  To the north lies a remote archipelago and the polar ice cap.

Back in the visitor center we warmed up and bought a stamp to mail the postcard to our grandson.

 We browsed around the exhibits in the Visitor Center, watched a short film and found more Norwegian waffles...

Later that afternoon back in Honningsvag, we decided to check out the Ice Bar in town.

As if we weren't cold enough today, we go into the Artico Ice Bar, where everything is made of ice from the area's frozen lakes.  They provide a cape to try to keep you warm.  Haha

Each year the Ice Bar is completely remade,

We each got two non-alcoholic drinks...

in a shot glass made of ice.

There's an igloo to climb into...

And ice chairs to sit on.

The Ice Bar was a fun experience, but we definitely can say, "Been there, done that, don't need to do it again"!

CHECK THIS OUT!  June 30 @ Honningsvag/North Cape:  Sunrise, 11:06 am; Sunset, 11:06 am

The ship now heads south to the city of Tromso; to continue reading scroll down and click on Newer Post.