Continuing on our journey above the Arctic Circle, we stopped for one night in Honningsvag and a visit to the North Cape. We arrived early enough to go get a bite to eat at a restaurant recommended by Frommer’s known as “The Corner.” The food was excellent, and the atmosphere was very welcoming. Kimber had the Cajun salmon and I had the fried cod, and there was plenty for Sidney to share with us both. We finished the lunch with three desserts - warm blackberries and ice cream, apple pie and ice cream, and cappuccino ice cream (enough ice cream?). The food was actually good enough for us to warrant another visit for waffles and coffee for our evening snack before heading out to North Cape. The waffles were to die for!
The remainder of our afternoon was spent wandering the town, which essentially is a cruise ship terminal and fishing village, and getting some rest. We needed the rest because we were heading to North Cape to see the Midnight Sun over the Barents Sea. The town was very pleasant, and while it was a bit of a tourist trap, it did have a welcoming “feel” to it.
We took a bus out to North Cape at 9:30 p.m. North Cape is the point traditionally recognized as being the farthest northern point of the European Continent (though the actual “farthest” point is about 200 meters further north and is located just a short distance away.) North Cape sits on top of a 300 meter high bluff, and is surrounded on three sides by water. There is a visitors center and a statue of a globe, but the thing most people come here for is the view. The water looks like thousands of blue ribbons moving around the cape, as you are surrounded by about 240 degrees of the sea, and the Midnight Sun glows orange to the north. At least it did the night we were there. Many visitors come from around the globe only to find the Cape completely socked in with fog. We were very fortunate for our visit to have such a beautiful view.
Even though we were up late for the trip out to North Cape, we got up early again and headed out for our next stop in Bodo. We only planned one day in Bodo, as Frommer’s did not have a lot to say about the town and actually only recommended visiting for one day. We were quite impressed during our visit, and will plan to visit again and at least do a long weekend there. There are really a large number of activities and the town is very visitor/family friendly.
Our first stop in Bodo was the Norwegian Aviation Museum. Housed in a building that resembles an airport terminal (and actually sits at the end of the airport runway), the museum has designated sides for military and civilian aviation. The exhibits are well done, and while it is not as large as the Boeing museum in Seattle, it has a wide array of aircraft. Of particular interest are the Junkers Ju-52 float plane and the U-2. Some history buffs will note that Gary Powers flight over the Soviet Union was to have landed in Bodo, but he was shot down instead.
After the aviation museum, we took a city bus to the Saltstraumen. This is a natural feature that has the strongest tidal current in the world. Every six hours, the water reaches its peak flow of over 400 million liters a minute through a very narrow passage in the fjord. The result is a churning current and whirlpools that can be over 10 meters wide. It is very impressive and worth the 45 minute bus ride.
While Bodo had many other things to do, we had to head out the next morning for our visit to Andenes for our whale safari. We decided to do a little rescheduling of our trip, cutting out the Narvik stop and extending our Andenes stop to two days. The reasoning was two-fold, one being that the whale safari would take the entire day and we wanted to spend a bit more time on this Norwegian coastal island, and the other being that we wanted a more relaxing “final stop” during the family portion of this vacation. Kimber has to return to work on Monday, but Sidney and I will visit Oslo from Tuesday to Thursday.
The whale safari was our anniversary gift to ourselves, and it was worth every penny (or krone, as the case may be). It started with a guided tour of their museum, which was very informative and featured, among other things, the skeleton of a 15.8 meter sperm whale. The whale washed up on the beach a few years ago, and the skeleton is in an ongoing process of preservation.
We were told before actually going out on our boat that we stood a pretty good chance of seeing sperm whales. This little spot off the Norwegian coast is one of only two places in the world where they can be seen regularly, as the waters are suitable for providing the squid they feed on. The other location is in New Zealand. We were also told that we may see some other species of whales, but that would be much less predictable, as other whale species move around quite a bit following their food.
We were quite lucky, as we ended up seeing pods of orcas (killer whales) twice, several minke whales (which are a bit cautious of boats as they are still hunted in Norway) and a sperm whale. Sidney got quite good at spotting the whales as they popped above the surface, and she can now easily identify the orcas by their unique black and white markings and large dorsal fin.
In addition to the whales, we saw puffins flying along the water between the island they live on and their feeding grounds. It was a very nice trip and something we will all remember for a long time to come.
Our hotel room was the largest of any on our trip. It was apparently the royal suite, and we were informed the room was used by Norway’s next king when he visited Andenes.
The next day, we wandered the town, stopping at a couple of playgrounds for Sidney’s pleasure. We also walked along the beach and a jetty near the fishing boat docks. This area, while not having any natural harbor, has been an important fishing port since at least the 1500’s. Kimber took a tour of the lighthouse, a key Andenes landmark, while Sidney and I (Sidney was too young for the 150-step climb in the lighthouse) took in a video presentation on whales and the Northern Lights. We did a bit more wandering, then went for dinner at the Lysthuset restaurant beside the hotel. The food was excellent (I had a fish stew and Kimber had a seafood pasta), the portions were generous, and the prices were quite reasonable by Norwegian standards. The atmosphere was nautical, with the decor being sailing paraphernalia and photographs.
We left Andenes Sunday morning and boarded our Wideroe Airlines flight back to Bodo, then on to Sandefjord and Stavanger. A little note here on Wideroe - this is an airline that serves primarily small airfields all over Norway. The specialize in STOL (short take-off and landing) flights, and are equipped with DeHaviland Dash 8 100, 300 and 400 turboprops. 40% of their routes are called Public Service Obligation routes, and it basically means they are the flying bus service of Norway. We are doing the “Explore Norway” ticket, which basically gives us 14 days of unlimited flying on Wideroe’s routes for a fixed price. We wondered what “technical stops” were when we booked, as most flights listed a couple, and one even listed five. We found out these are the stops in all the little airports between our points “A” and “B”. While it does make for some longer flight times, the scenery is wonderful, and the pilots try to make the best of it. An example was our flights into and out of Honningsvag, when the pilots flew around the North Cape to give us a spectacular aerial view.
Another positive aspect to Wideroe’s flights is that they are quite family-friendly. They had unaccompanied minors on most flights we were on, and they always try to make sure families are sitting together. We were greeted by friendly crew each time, and one flight attendant even remembered us from a previous flight we had with her. They are also good sources of information about the little towns in Norway and the sights to see in each place.
The sun has finally set on our 10 day journey to the Midnight Sun. Sorry for this being such a long post, but I got a bit behind on posting. The next and final post of our trip will be about Sidney and I visiting Oslo.
No comments:
Post a Comment