Day 10 - Saturday, June 22, 2024 - Honingsvag Norway

Honningsvag Norway, the top of the world.  Now I can say I've been at both the top of the world and the bottom of the world. The ladder having been last November when I was in South America in the town of Ushaia.  Ushaia was formally named The bottom of the world. And here we are now at the northernmost point that you can reach by road in Norway. The latitude is 71° north which we were told is in line with northern Alaska and Siberia.

We thought a warm hat would help!

Wayne kept saying he was only bringing shorts to wear and one or two pairs of dress slacks for dinner. The weather here has made him bundle up more than I have seen him do in the past. He actually has on four layers as he had to borrow a sweatshirt from Roger because he's been so cold the last few days.

Scenes from the town of Honningsvag 

We started our day by walking off the ship which was docked right in town and walking around town. The scenery is very pretty. The major industry here is fishing, of course and right now it is cod season but various seasons include halibut and pollock. Their second largest industry is tourism with over 300,000 visitors during the summer months. It's more like one summer day. We hit a high of about 50° today and it wasn't bad when we were out of the wind and the sun was shining. They say their winters don't get all that cold going down to about 23° f and the snowfall is not great because of the Gulf stream. It seems strange to talk about Gulf stream way up here in Norway. 

The town of Honningsvag only has a population of 2,300 people. But they certainly bring in the cruise ships. Today our Viking ship, the Venus, was one of four in port. 

Trolls are a big thing up here and everywhere you go you see them.

Our tour to North Cape or Nordkapp as they call it, didn't leave until mid-afternoon. It was an approximately a 45-minute bus ride to the top of the world and the globe which marks its spot. We had about an hour there, which was plenty given all there is, is a visitor center and the globe to see.  

We we're told we were lucky as the fog lifted and the sun came out briefly for our picture taking at Nordkapp.  

While we were at the top of the world a group of antique cars pulled in.  We learned they are on an Artic Tour.  

Reindeer we're all over the countryside. Several of my pictures are blurry, from the bus window. The reindeer stay during the summer but leave for Finland in the winter months when the grass here gets two sparse. The Sami tribe own all the reindeer and tend to them.

All the little white creatures are reindeer 

Given the northernmost climate, there are a few trees to be found as you'll see in the pictures. 

We had dinner tonight in the Italian restaurant on board ship, Manfredi's. Every meal on board ship is excellent and the Italian restaurant here is wonderful. There's so much to choose from it's hard to decide.

Tomorrow we dock in Tromso Norway and will be taking a tour at 11:00 30 a.m. so there will be time to relax in the morning. I can say I am getting more rest on this trip then on previous trips even though our daily walks allow us to have a good stretch of the legs.

Here's the view from our stateroom at 10 pm. In the land where the sun doesn't set