Across the Arctic Circle, halfway to the North Pole -Trip Report UPDATED 11/29 About This Page:

[MGW]

Thanks for the update! North Cape looks beautiful!

[Disneybine]

Day Ten: Sunday, September 13, 2009 – All aboard!

I was woken up rather rudely by my alarm at – gasp – 5am. Ugh. I am SO not a morning person! Grumpily and still half asleep we managed to put some clothes on and pack up our stuff. Just as we were about to leave our hotel room, we saw our ship, the MS Richard With, pulling into port. We checked out, picked up our breakfast-to-go, and made our way to our car, which was parked right by the port.





Getting onto the Hurtigruten ship was very different from embarking on a Disney cruise ship! There was basically no security! I was able to just walk aboard without so much as showing my passport. I checked us in at the reception onboard while Manuel drove the car onto the car deck. There were a whooping three cars in there besides ours! As we made our way up to the higher decks, the ship felt very quiet. I bet most of the passengers were still fast asleep while another busload of them went on an excursion to the North Cape and get back on the ship at a different port later that day. The Hurtigruten ship left Honningsvag at 6:15am. We took a quick look around and then simply sat down somewhere to eat our brought-along breakfast. The hotel had packed three slices of bread, some lunch meats, cheese as well as tomato and orange slices. Not really my taste but oh well. Afterwards, we went down to deck 4, into the cafeteria area. They had comfy benches there so we spread out in a sort of half-booth.




Manuel looks like I felt!

The cafeteria was open already. They offered a coffee mug with free refills on coffee and tea which we bought and made good use of during the entire day. We alternated between coffee for Manuel and hibiscus tea for me. Along with the mug, I bought a chocolate bar – Bridget Jones style, chocolate for breakfast.

Two hours after our departure, we pulled into a small port but since it was just a quick stop, we didn’t get off the ship. I passed the time aboard reading while Manuel played with my Nintendo.


A lonely wind power station.


Another Hurtigruten ship that we passed.

At 11:40am, about 25 minutes late, we reached the town of Hammerfest. We had till 12:45pm to explore the small town. There wasn’t really much to see, though – especially since it was Sunday and everything was closed. We walked down the one and only main street first to the left, then to the right.

















We finally walked back towards the ship where we’d seen a small candy store that also sold a few warm snacks. We each got two wieners rolled in bacon, in a soft taco. Hhhmm! So good!



We also got a couple sodas and some candy bars before getting back on the ship. We returned to our spot in the cafeteria area on deck 4 as the ship pulled out of Hammerfest. The cruise itself was surprisingly smooth, considering we were on the Arctic Sea! Of course, the ship always stayed fairly close to the coast. Sometime in the afternoon, I went to the “sun” deck (deck 7) outside. The view was stunning. I was the only one on deck, and the silent beauty of the raw nature once again amazed me.











As I went back inside, I heard an annoncement that there’d be a slideshow on the Hurtigruten Greenland cruise at 2:30pm. That sounded interesting so I went to check it out. The small conference room was filled to the brim with people! By the way, a lot of the other passengers on board were either German or US Americans, and most of them did the entire cruise from Bergen to Kirkenes and/or back. The majority of passengers were also 50 and older, which didn’t really surprise me, I guess. I never realized how popular those Hurtigruten cruises are among Germans, though. Apparently so much so that all the signs on board were in German (along with Norwegian and English).

So anyways, the slideshow on the Greenland cruise was neat. It did, however, show me that Greenland looks pretty similar to northern Norway (well, except for the occasional iceberg floating by ). So I’m not as interested in going there as I am in going to Alaska, for example. Hurtigruten also offers cruises to Antarctika – now THAT would be the adventure of a lifetime! Maybe someday...

After the presentation, I went back to read some more while Manuel was still playing Nintendo. It’s funny how much he got into it as he had never shown any interest in it before. Around 3:45pm, we stopped at another tiny port.



Around 6pm, I got hungry so I decided on some pasta Carbonara from the cafeteria menu. Hhmm! That was delicious. It must have smelt great, too, as half an hour later, Manuel opted for the same dish.



Eventually, we abandoned our hang-out place and instead found two comfy armchairs in the panorama lounge on deck 9 forward, right by the huge windows.







We watched as the ship apporached another small port. As soon as it was docked, we took the chance to head down to the car deck (we weren’t allowed to go in there while the ship was in motion). Manuel got the charger for the Nintendo and I needed a new book as I had finished the other one. At that point, I was down to the last book that I’d brought along - and I had brought 6 books (not thick ones, though) along





We then settled back into our seats with the panoramic view. Finally, at 11:45pm, we reached Tromso. The city looked beautiful at night with all the lights and the mountains in the background. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get any pictures of the sight as it was dark outside. We walked down to the car deck and I almost got a heart attack as Manuel drove the car off the ship with less than an inch to spare between the car and the sides of the “car elevator”!!! Once back on solid ground, we followed the GPS’ instructions through the city. However, at one point it told us to drive into an underground parking lot. We didn’t, of course, and eventually got to our hotel at 12:30am. Little did we know that the underground parking lot actually led to a whole tunnel network and it would have gotten us to our hotel a lot faster! The tunnel system underneath Tromso truly fascinated me. While the streets we took to get to the hotel were steep and narrow, leading up and down the hills, using the tunnels can get you to different parts of the city fast and easily. VERY cool!!!

Anyways, the hotel itself was located by the (rather small) airport. Since I’d called ahead to let them know that we’d arrive late at night, we had a room waiting for us no problem. Our room was on the ground floor, facing the backside of the hotel). The hotel room itself was roomy.









Since it was past midnight by the time we reached the hotel and we’d been up since 5am, I think I was asleep before my head even hit the pillow!

Today we drove 0 km (0 miles)
Hours spent inside our car none
The weather today was cloudy, rainy and cold again
The best thing today was just being on a ship (and I didn’t get seasick)! I love being on ships!
The worst thing today was that this day was just too long
The funniest thing today was hearing so much German around us
The most magical moment today was watching the raw, beautiful nature sail by

Next: SnOw cool

[chezp]

Wow - what a long day! I love the first shot of Manuel - classic! And how neat about the tunnels in Tromso... fascinating.

[KMB733]

Great update! Wonderful pictures from the boat.

[DouglasE]

Hi Sabine,

I just got caught up with your trip report. Here are my reactions:

1. I love the comfy homey socks that Santa wore.

2. Don't you love it when people enjoy their work? The "elf" made me think of this.

3. My boyfriend is the same as Manuel - He just needs his coffee. This reminds me I have to stock up before he visits in a month. I am not a coffee drinker at all.

4. The college freshmen celebration is the type of spontaneous unlooked for event that makes travel special.

5. I absolutely love your room in Muonio. Even the bathroom says, "Lapland". I love wood and there certainly is lots of it at this resort.

6. Dear Manuel: I hate to break it to you but reindeer being game would undoubtedly taste gamey. At least it didn't taste like chicken. Ever notice how often people describe the taste of less frequently eaten animals like frogs as tasting like chicken?

7. The picture of the vegetarian pizza in Norway had me drooling.

8. Love the picture of you in Honningsvag. In fact, so many of your pictures are truly outstanding. However, it does help when Mother Nature cooperates with incredible scenery.

9. You mentioned Antartica. My friend, Miguel, just was selected to be a part of a leadership workshop that will take place in Antartica at the end of next month. That boy is crazy, but then he was my team mate in the Great Urban Race and you got to be crazy to do that. I'll let you know what he has to say about Antartica.

10. Your trip report is making me so hungry with wonderful pictures of pasta carbonara.

[Colexis Mom]

Great pictures Sabine! Sounds like a great day!

[pamcarey]

Great update! What a long day that was!

[jagmom08]

Okay, I can no longer contain my curiosity. Are all the hotel rooms like that with the beds? I mean, 2 little beds pushed together to make a bigger bed?

[Kenny]

A long, but beautiful day! And not too grueling... except for getting poor Manuel up at that ungodly hour!

[Disneybine]

Originally Posted by DouglasE

3. My boyfriend is the same as Manuel - He just needs his coffee. This reminds me I have to stock up before he visits in a month. I am not a coffee drinker at all.

Funny, I'm not a coffee drinker either! In fact, I don't drink anything that remotely tastes like coffee (including cappuccino).

Originally Posted by DouglasE

4. The college freshmen celebration is the type of spontaneous unlooked for event that makes travel special.

5. I absolutely love your room in Muonio. Even the bathroom says, "Lapland". I love wood and there certainly is lots of it at this resort.

I couldn't agree more!

Originally Posted by DouglasE

6. Dear Manuel: I hate to break it to you but reindeer being game would undoubtedly taste gamey. At least it didn't taste like chicken. Ever notice how often people describe the taste of less frequently eaten animals like frogs as tasting like chicken?

Yeah, I know! Well, reindeer definitely tasted nothing like chicken!

Originally Posted by DouglasE

8. Love the picture of you in Honningsvag. In fact, so many of your pictures are truly outstanding. However, it does help when Mother Nature cooperates with incredible scenery.

Thank you

Originally Posted by DouglasE

9. You mentioned Antartica. My friend, Miguel, just was selected to be a part of a leadership workshop that will take place in Antartica at the end of next month. That boy is crazy, but then he was my team mate in the Great Urban Race and you got to be crazy to do that. I'll let you know what he has to say about Antartica.

How cool! Can't wait to hear about it! Thanks for all your comments!

Originally Posted by jagmom08

Okay, I can no longer contain my curiosity. Are all the hotel rooms like that with the beds? I mean, 2 little beds pushed together to make a bigger bed?

Yeah, from my experience, hotel rooms are most often like that here in Europe. Standard hotel rooms here usually only sleep two.

Originally Posted by Kenny

A long, but beautiful day! And not too grueling... except for getting poor Manuel up at that ungodly hour!

What about poor me having to get up at that ungodly hour???

[lauriep]

Beautiful scenery. And it must have been nice to have a day without driving!

[DrDolphin]

Sabine - hmmmm.... I had reindeer and caribou in Alaska and it tasted great... not too gamey at all (I was really worried about it). Your last installment sounded wonderful - what a long day though!!

[OhToodles!]

Gorgeous photos!!!

[orionchika]

What a really cool and beautiful day!!!!

[Disneybine]

Day Eleven: Monday, September 14, 2009 – SnOw cool

Despite the late night, we managed to get to the excellent breakfast buffet by 9am. I was still really tired when we returned to the room so I simply went back to bed while Manuel played some Nintendo DS. He finally woke me at 11:30 am. I took a shower before we drove into the city center around 12:30 pm. This time around, we did use the great Tromso tunnel system. They even have roundabouts inside the tunnels! So weird the first time you see one. As we got out of the tunnels, we were right where we’d wanted to go: the Polaria Arctic Museum. When we got inside, we’d just missed the feeding of the seals but that was no big deal for us. We walked straight into the panoramic movie theater where the 14-minute movie “Svalbard – Arctic Wilderness” was about to start.


Manuel waiting for the movie to start.

The movie was fine but nothing special. We both agreed that the movie they showed at the North Cape was MUCH better. This movie took you on a ride along the west coast of Svalbard’s largest island, Spitzbergen. Unfortunately, there were only a few true panoramic shots. The rest of the time, they basically showed the same shots on all 5 of the screens. Afterwards, we stayed in the theater as the second movie, this one on Antarctica, would be showing 15 minutes later. Again, the Antarctica movie was fine – even a little better than the one on Svalbard. Still, they could have done a better job had they concentrated more on panoramic shots of the landscape. I thought Antarctica looked truly fascinating, though – especially considering the gigantic size of it. Neither Greenland nor Svalbard as interesting to me. In fact, judging by the movie on Svalbard, it actually looks a lot like northern Norway.

Once the 13-minute Antarctica movie was over, we walked through the so-called “Arctic Walk”. It was designed to immitate being in the Arctic during the winter when there’s no sun at all. What I found interesting was the artificial permafrost. We were able to walk over a surface and experience what it feels like to walk on the surface of permafrost in the summer – when the upper 50 centimeters are not frozen but everything below that is. Felt kinda soft, and you sink in a little.

Next up were the Arctic aquariums. We saw all kinds of fish that live in the Arctic Sea. They had some HUGE ones, too!


I present – exhibit A


Food chain display


That guy freaks me out!


Bearded seals! You could walk underneath the tank to watch them in the water, too. They had four seals total. As we were standing watching them from up top, they kept swimming by where we were standing – seemed like they were curious. And they sure were cute!



Afterwards, we continued on to the Polar Exhibitions. They had charts and pictures explaining how scientists are able to tell what the climate on earth was like as far back as 900,000 years by drilling several kilometers deep into the ice on Antarctica. They also showed the effects of the climate change on the Arctic and Antarctica. I found all the information they had (in English, thank God!) extremely fascinating. I’m a geek aren’t I?


I especially liked this photograph titled “The Secrets of the Ice”. Kinda scary but SnOw cool!


Back in the entrance area

We spent about 2 ½ hours at the Polaria museum.


This is what Polaria looks like on the outside. In the winter, it looks like blocks of ice falling over like domino blocks.



We left our car parked near the museum and walked down the street to see the northernmost brewery in the world, Mack. Unfortunately, summer season was already over so we couldn’t go inside or take a tour.



We kept walking along Storgata, one of the city’s main streets that took us right into the shopping district and down to the harbor. A few pics we took there:











Around 5 pm we spotted a pizza place called Peppe’s Pizza. It looked really cozy and cute, and the menu was similar to Pizza Hut’s.













We ordered a large pizza with pepperoni, pineapple, bell peppers, and red onions. Since the restaurant was busy, it took almost 45 minutes to get our pizza. By then, I was starving! The pizza was worth the wait, though, as it was huge and DELICIOUS!!!



For dessert, we shared a serving of apple pie with whip cream and vanilla ice cream. Hhhmmm!



After our dinner, we walked back to our car and headed to our hotel to take a short break. Soon after, we drove to a shopping mall close by. In all honesty, I was beyond excited to be back in civilization! Those few days we spent way up north were enough to make me appreciate malls and fast food chains again. We looked around the shops a bit but didn’t buy anything since prices in Norway are pretty steep. We just grabbed a few snacks and sodas at the supermarket. Manuel was gonna buy a can of Mack beer but was told that he couldn’t because apparently, it was election day in Norway and stores aren’t allowed to sell alcohol that day. Kinda strange since restaurants are still allowed to serve alcohol. Hubby ended up getting light beer (because that he could buy) instead.

Lastly, we made a quick pit-stop at the northernmost Burger King in the world. (Wouldn’t wanna miss that ).


Today we drove a few km/miles
Hours spent inside our car mere minutes
The weather today was cloudy and cold but little rain
The best thing today was the interesting exhibitions at Polaria
The worst thing today was that we didn’t see much of the sun
The funniest thing today was seeing a roundabout inside a tunnel
The most magical moment today was watching the seals!

Next: Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, hiking we will go!