Pulling out of Trondheim shortly after noon back on January 22, and continuing our northward journey along Norway’s spectacular coastline. Had we done the journey a week earlier, I believe I’m right that when we woke up inside the arctic circle the following morning, the sun wouldn’t have nipped above the horizon at all for the rest of our journey. Glad we timed it as we did, for that and various other reasons such as storms and weather which meant our journey was both calmer and more northern-lights productive than the same boat’s journey had been going both up and back on its prior rotation :-).
Above, the footbridge / steps up and over the highway wedged between the lake and the mountains in Bissone. Below, left to right: foot and bike paths next to a big bridge across the Ij during my bike ride out to Muidersloot last May; bridge in Parc de Bercy last October; and a foot bridge at Ålesund in January.
All taken in Bodø between 14:30 when we docked and 15:30 when we pulled away. It was the first significant port call after we entered the arctic circle.
16:55 the 22nd of January, above; 08:58 the next morning, below. In between, roughly 20 minutes before the photo below, our boat entered the arctic circle. I thought this series would mostly be northern lights photos, but the general lingering light in these short northern days was endlessly fascinating as dawn and dusk lasted so long.
No, that ice bear is not staffing the actual reception at the Snowhotel Kirkenes – that happens in a brick and mortar type building with heating, computers and so on. But this is the entrance the actual place you sleep on your actual (literal) ice bed. (Ice = water = source, as a reminder of this weird little series I’ve begun.) When I first showed you Kirkenes, I promised a photo of said ice beds. But it turns out I neglected to photograph the actual beds themsevles- sorry. I really thought I’d done so. Allow the various other ice furniture shown below to spark your imagination, along with the instruction manual from the (regular building, heated) changing room. For orientation, the ice sculptures below are just inside the entrance in the snow mound you see at the bottom. That mound is the thing itself, but to be clear: one only sleeps in the room; one does not linger in it during the rest of the non-sleep time of one’s stay. One instead catches King Crab or hangs out in the heated guest lounge drinking hot tea :-)…or feeds the reindeer, pets the huskies or sits by the outdoor fire, all of which we’ll show you in future posts.
…and the next day our port call at Trondheim was long enough for a lovely walking exploration of this city, which I used to think of as quite far north until I went much farther north in the days after our boat pulled away at the end of the port call in which I took all these photos :-).
Above, the view as we pulled away from Ålesund, which of course is Møre og Romsdal county’s largest city. Below, everything else we still have from that lovely little city :-).
Though our port call in Finnsnes was only about 30 minutes (meaning I had 15 minutes to walk the waterfront since we had to be back on board 15 minutes before departure), I was determined to see this statue below, of a seafaring Viking known to Norwegians as Ottar who traveled the world. We’d attended the lecture on Vikings earlier that day and were told one of his legacies is this statue in our next port call :-). Pretty sure this is the same guy known elsewhere as Othere, whose exploits you can explore here, should you wish.
…and the following day our main port stop was at Trondheim, one of whose cafes claims to have probably the best espresso in the world. And since I can, I’ll share below the first time in my life that I’ve photographed a drink, which was the first (and so far only) cup of chili hot chocolate that I’ve drunk. Which I did the day before, in Ålesund. And yes, it was definitely the best chili hot chocolate I’ve ever had and I drank it all with gusto. Contrary to my hopes, however, this is not a common offering in any of the other many cafes we visited along the coast of Norway, in our quest for a second cup.
(so much world, so little time....) 