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4:30 am alarm. Down at the station Oslo in good time. Train to Sweden. Change trains at Katerineholm. Two nice Brazilian men helped me Off with the bike. Quick out of the way for others getting off. Find where the next train goes from. Over to platform 5. 30 min wait for next train. On board. All going well. But where is my little brown bag? My carry on bag that has all the things I need on the journey together with the docs I don’t want to trust to the check in.

Not here! Panic But the train is  moving. Nothing I can do. A nice young woman sees my distress and phones the tourist office st the station. (The station is unmanned). She can’t leave her post For 20 min but will check then.

By that time I’m off the next train but Johanna reports back – nothing found.

So I got to the hotel. And then picked up the hire car. And drove 40km back to Katrineholm. All to no avail. An hour of my life I won’t get back in the police station making a report. Maybe insurance will pay something but it’s more the inconvenience.

Spent tje rest of  the afternoon buying a phone charger and doover  to transfer photos to the phone. And establishing that I can’t get a charger for the watch. At least I have a spare watch. I keep remembering things that were in the bag – the cheat sheet for the passwords; the rugby top (only lightweight top ) that will have to be replaced  but most missed are the iPad and diary, including details of All the photos.

So im a bit out of sorts. Hate trying to Do long typing on the phone. Don’t expect much in the way of Blogs in the next couple of weeks. This blog is driving me crazy!

but I have my passport and money and cards and bike – though I haven’t yet checked if it’s unscathed – and most of my clothes. could be a lot worse

I’ll try to reset in the morning  at least I have some breathing space – events don’t start till Monday

 

Kirkenes is just 11 km from the Russian border, and at 30 deg 2′ longitude, east of pretty much all of Western Europe. (East of Finland and Istanbul.)

Many of the street names are in Norwegian and Russian.

It developed rapidly in the early 20th Century after iron ore was discovered nearby. But suffered badly during WW2. Germany occupied Norway and had around 100,000 troops stationed nearby as part of their Russian offensive. Russia in return bombed the German positions, followed by a German ‘scorched earth’ policy when they pulled out in 1944. The town was totally destroyed. So nothing is here from pre-war.

They have a large ship repairing operation (the big blue checked shed) – a ship here in dry dock, and on the skyline, infrastructure from the iron ore processing and shipment out. The mine closed in 2015, but apparently is due to reopen next year.

When my itinerary was being planned, I was persuaded that a crab fishing trip would be a good way to fill in an afternoon. As it turned out, a few hours trussed up in a warm ‘flotation’ suit in the drizzle wasn’t so bad. Out in a RIB again, though colder this time so with the full regalia including padded boots and balaclavas.

A bit of sightseeing – Old German torpedo post dug into the cliff, guarding the entrance to the harbour.

Then our guide pulled up a couple of crab pots. In the first, all but one had to be thrown back (female or too small).

Then off to a rustic cabin – an opensided cookhouse where the crab claws were steamed, then into the old boat shed where tables were set with white tablecloths and napkins and we ate the cooked crab still in our boating gear. All a bit surreal

In retrospect I’d probably have preferred a tour to the Russian border. Our guide reckons we should come back in winter. Maybe then?

So then I went for a walk. A strong memory will be dodging puddles: in this environment with frequent freeze-thaw, it’s hard to keep roads and paths maintained. And in the housing streets, often there are no kerbs/gutters. Many car parks and open spaces are gravel rather than paved.

But you could have a good time on Saturday night:

This mural on the wall of the school – I reckon would put the young ones off rather than entice them in! A bit hard to see the sad expression in the pic – but you can take your teddy!

I did forget to mention yesterday that it IS now possible to drive from the Honningsvåg island ( and hence from North Cape) to the mainland. There is now a tunnel under the strait.

Still not sure that that counts though…

Today we’ve been to North Cape – the northernmost point of Europe. 71 deg 10′. Accessed via the port of Honningvåg (pop 2500, most of whom seem to be bus drivers, guides, or fisher people).

Lots of “most northern” or “second most northern”: Barrow in Alaska is 30km further north but ‘we’ have the most northern highway, and so on.

Only one catch – it’s actually on an island so not contiguous European mainland. Separated by a channel (2 something – miles or km- wide. Narrow enough to swim the reindeer herds off at the end of summer.) But in 1553, an Englishman searching for a route to China calculated the cliff’s position and named it North Cape. (Like Tasman, he didn’t check to see if it was an island!). So then a series of kings visited and put their imprimatur on it and so it’s officially the north point of Europe!

But we have left behind the other offshore islands, so here we are at the Top of the World. 2093 km to the North Pole; 2500 km to Oslo.

All that took a fair chunk out of the middle of the day, with a 45 minutes each way bus ride to get there: up onto the plateau and then across rolling treeless Arctic countryside. Lunch at the ship started at 10am to accommodate the excursioners. I made a sandwich to take with me. I couldn’t believe the. Number of people tucking into a full hot lunch at that time. Maybe they didn’t have any breakfast?

“Hurtigruten” means ‘fast way’. The company was founded in 1893 as a coastal mail and cargo and ‘bus’ service. Before that it could take a month for mail to reach Tromsø.So the Hurtigruten imperative is to deliver/pick up cargo from small and larger towns along the coast. Today we have stops at 2am, 5:15am, 8:45am, 11:25 ( today’s tourist stop – 3.5 hours), 5pm, 7:15pm, 10pm, and Midnight and a similar schedule each day.

On other days, some of the stops are up to an hour, so time to ,rave the ship. OST stops are 15-30 minutes. They seem to try to schedule one major ‘tourist’ stop per day. Is

It’s an 11 day round trip Bergen-Kirkenes-Bergen. I’ve just got 3 nights and 2 full days.

Yesterday afternoon we had 4 hours in Tromsø which was the capital of Norway for quite a while, and from where many of the Arctic explorations took off. It’s spread along the slope of a low ridge on the western side of its fjord, with newer development on the eastern shore with a new high bridge joining the two.

I hadn’t signed up for an official excursion and when I misunderstood the instructions on where to buy a local bus ticket, decided just to go for a walk. Aimed for an interesting-looking park that i thought would run along on top of the ridge. But when I got there, found it was actually down the other side. No, not climbing any more. So just headed back down into town. It’s a pleasant-looking city, unremarkable I thought. But I didn’t get any sensible photos. ( not even of the view towards the triple ski jump in the Nordic ski park at the northern end of town! they do like their law though!

Tomorrow morning, off the ship. Luggage at the lift lobby by midnight – better get back to the packing! Rain is forecast for Kirkenes. I’ve got the day there then fly back to Oslo on Thursday.

At about 10 last night I became aware that there was a bit of blue sky amongst the clouds. Maybe tonight is a possibility for midnight sun?

But as the sky cleared, there was a persistent cloud with sea fog in the horizon. Hmm. How will that work.

Too much metal on the ship to get a sensible compass reading, but the sun must be moving towards north.

So I took a comparative 11:30 photo (see the Sun at Midnight blog a couple of days ago). I’m now at 70 deg 7min. (Compared with 68 and a bit.)

By midnight the sun has dipped below the cloud. The rays are now beaming up (compared with beaming down on Saturday). And at that point I reckoned that was it.

Down to my cabin. Into my night attire. But wait! There is sin shining at my porthole. On with jacket. Up to deck. 1:05am. Complete with reflections on the water.

And as I subsequently lay in bed, it was like the sun coming in the window first thing in the morning. (hadn’t realised how dirty the porthole window is!)

Now writing this on Monday so a compilation of activities and information from the weekend.

The Midnight Sun excursion I’d signed up for was a 4-hour van/bus trip. But I was the only passenger so I sat up front in the van and chatted with Eric: a Dutch journalist who migrated here with his wife 11 years ago.

They didn’t have enough Norwegian language to work in their usual professions here so took long and lucrative shifts in the local herring factory (3-4 month winter season). He continued to write occasional articles for the Dutch press and they bought a house (and then another) nearby as holiday rentals. The herring factory closed 3 years ago ( herring moving further offshore, operations moved to Denmark) and now he supplements the income with guiding.

He was initially confused what we would do without the sun to focus on but we made it up as we went along. We visited the next two islands further south (Gimsøy and Vestrågøy). Detoured through his ‘village’ – a straggly line of houses along the east coast road. Eleven permanent residents. The goat farmer has retired (40 goats), and the dairy farmer down the road (15 cows) is about to retire. Apparently this level of activity was sufficient to sustain them. And of course the animals have to be housed indoors in winter, though the snow out here on the islands with climate modified by the Gulf Stream doesn’t get as deep as on the mainland. Maybe only a metre or so. (The old folk tell of regular 2+m deep in years gone by.)

Back in 2004-6, all the small communities along this road banded together to bring family migrants from the Netherlands. (Eric wasn’t part of that scheme but had heard of it.) That sustained the school and shop for a few more years but most of those migrants have now gone home and school and shop recently closed. the long dark months and then long days take their toll.

Cod fishing remains the mainstay of the economy with the fishing season January-April. The cod are beheaded and gutted and hung to dry on large wooden racks for a couple of months.

The dried cod is called Stockfish. The fishing and drying goes back to ancient times. The availability of stockfish enabled the Vikings to have nutritious lightweight and long-lasting provisions for their voyages. Stockfish appear on the Bergen coat of arms! Italy is a large importer. And ground meal from cod heads and guts goes to Nigeria.

Stockfish on sale at the daily tourist market in Svolvær.

With the rise of oil and gas, there was more money in Norway for infrastructure in the last 20 years or so. The closer islands are now all joined by bridges (although some close in bad weather) and the main roads have been sealed.

Tourism is becoming a more important part of the economy – if I understood Eric correctly, there is apparently a proposal for a 50 storey hotel in Svolvær. (I wonder if he said 15? Even that would be out of proportion.

There are 4700 population in S – hard to find where they do their shopping. I found the supermarket in passing, and then had real trouble finding it again when I decided to visit.

I hired a bike on Saturday afternoon to explore a bit more widely around the town and down to the next one. When all travel was by boat, it was no inconvenience to make settlement on small islands, and away from the threat of rocky avalanches from the nearby mountains. The original settlement at Svolvær was on two long narrow islands which form the eastern side of the harbour. Now mainly holiday accommodation, but still some fishing industry including a large plant that washes nets – with cranes to help dry the nets.

There is a high bridge linking the main island to these smaller ones – here looking back to the small island with my hotel (reception is in the white building, I had half the red building immediately to the right). The taller buildings in the town centre can be seen beyond on the right. A local ship in port. Quite a lot of local water traffic in addition to the daily Hurtigruten ships (one northwards, one southwards in the early evenings.)

Then on Sunday afternoon I took a RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat) ride up the coast to a narrow fjord (Trollfjord) with a small hydro-electric power station, and finding sea eagles along the way.

Apparently the ice-age ice sheet which totally covered the mainland (hence no tall mountains and rounded scenery), was only 40 m thick through this area. So the Lofoten (pronounced luffutn) islands have this unique scenery of jagged mountain tops but smoother fjordland lower down. (I don’t have a good photo – kept being most obvious when I was on the move, or tops were covered in cloud.)

Apparently this house was built in 1850. Only has access by boat, or a 20 hour walk over the mountains.

Saturday was cloudy all day. Low cloud on the mountains out my back door. I had booked a Midnight Sun excursion. The company phoned – not looking good for tonight. I said I’d like a drive anyway, to see a bit more of the island.

Of course with daylight saving, it really should be the “1am Sun” but no one mentions that.

I hadn’t given much thought previously to the actual (apparently) path of the sun. Yes, I do know that it’s not the sun that’s moving …

We’re used to the sun rising in the east, spending the day in the northern sky, and setting in the west. In the northern hemisphere, that’s ‘spending the day in the Southern sky’.

But during the ‘midnight sun’ period when there are long (even 24) hours of sunlight, the sun appears to do a circle overhead (well ok not actually overhead, it’s still fairly low in the sky for much of the time) – starting somewhere in the NE, having the day in the southern sky, ‘moving’ to the NW and then finally at midnight (or 1am) actually being north. Before ‘going around’ again. It’s all very counter-intuitive. Doing my head in.

So we went looking for the sun in the gathering gloom of a cloudy day/evening.

There is the Atlantic Ocean. Next stop Greenland. (We are north of Iceland here.) and there, a bit above the horizon, the sun is trying to look at us. Orange rays emanating from the cloud just above the horizon. But no actual sun to see. We made a couple of stops but no improvement.

At about 11:30pm we decided to give up on it, but I got out a compass to check if it really was close to north …

I was hopeful that sometime in the next few nights I’d get lucky but the forecast is for cloud for the rest of the week. So maybe not.

First night in Svolvær, an elegant fish dinner on the deck in sunshine..

Second night, a forgettable Chinese takeaway to fit in around the planned sleeps and 9pm excursion pickup.

Third night – got a bit of time before 9pm ship boarding. Didn’t have much lunch. Don’t want too expansive and elegant. Just fancy a pizza.

Well to give her her due, the girl at the desk did her best to talk me out of it. They have huge and bigger. But I was determined. And Here.

And then I struggled. It’s 17″ diameter and very thick crust. And I think I paid $60 (incl Fanta). It’s got pineapple so can’t even call on Ruth to assist. If here were homeless people I’d be tempted to share.

Not sure how quickly you’ll get the 2 longish blogs in the making. Had trouble joining the network tonight and now about to get on the ship to head north.

The new version of WordPress is much easier to use with adding photos. But much less easy to go back and edit once a post has been published. (So I can’t sensibly fix errors that I see later on.)

And less friendly for me to respond to your comments.

So don’t think I’m ignoring you. I am seeing what you’ve written and very much like your responses. Makes me feel a bit less alone.

I’ll do a proper blog on today’s happenings later. But just to say the sun is not shining. Low cloud on the mountains out the back of the cabin. Looks like my midnight excursion might not go ahead. Bummer.

But this is what that it looked like at 12:30 am. Sun is behind the mountain but still quite light here. Interesting that the outside cabin lights and walkway lights seem to be on auto. Perhaps so we know that is is time to go to bed!

The clouds hadn’t lifted in Bergen today by lunchtime. Very glad yesterday was my ‘mountain’ day. A small plane (twin prop, possibly 80 seats) out of Bergen for 1:40 to Bodø. Then a smaller plane (twin prop, possibly 36 seats) and 25 min to Svolvær. I’m now at 68.23 degrees.

I hadn’t given any though to getting to town from the airport but some Americans came to my rescue when my phone wouldn’t let me dial the local equivalent of 13CABS. finally made it to my hotel which is actually a collection of fisherman’s cottages – some original renovated, some reconstructions. Rustic with full kitchen facilities which won’t get used and fairly dark inside despite the lightness outside at nearly 11:30pm. Won’t see the midnight sun from here though – there is a jagged row of hills/mountains close on the N side of town so the sun will be behind there. (Weather permitting, should see it tomorrow night – got an excursion.)

The winter clothes are finally out – though it was the cold wind tonight rather than the actual temperature. Up till then I’d been fine in fleece with short sleeved thermal top and summer weight long pants. Sunny.

Inside my cabin.

View out the back door.