NB Day 6: Honningsvåg … Nordkappmuseet

By 11:00a, m/s Havila Castor was at its berth in Honningsvåg. By 11:15, we were off the ship to enjoy today’s long stop— 3½ hours — in the city that claims it is not only the northernmost in Norway, but Europe as well. (That claim is disputed, by the way.)

We visited Honningsvåg on Oceania’s Nautica in 2019. On that occasion, we did a tour that, amongst other places, took us to Nordkapp (North Cape) — Europe’s northernmost point. (That claim should come with a caveat, by the way, as it is the northernmost point ‘accessible by car’. The actual northernmost point is only accessible on foot and lies a bit of a distance from the visitor center at Nordkapp.)

Nordkapp is considered a milestone landmark by visitors, so I imagine today that’s where practically all the passengers on the ship went. Certainly, we encountered very few during our wander around Honningsvåg.

(For photos we took at Nordkapp in 2019 … https://eenusa.smugmug.com/Cruises/NoGlow/Hnngs….)

Our explorations took us to places we’d not had time to check out during our previous visit, including the museum. I’ll leave the rest of our visit to another footprint and focus this one on the museum, so let’s go back to disembarking the ship.

We were busy talking with other passengers as the clamshell gangway deployed, so we didn’t immediately notice that it was raining. Pouring, really. The rain was coming down in sheets.

Just steps away from the ship’s berth, Nordkappmuseet is small, but filled with many interesting exhibits. And it served as a good place to while away some time while it rained. We purchased our senior admission — NOK 80pp = $8.60 at today’s exchange rate — and set about wandering from one display to another over the two floors of the museum.

Founded in 1982, it is a cultural and heritage museum … the mission of which is to preserve and showcase both. On display are archival photographs and artifacts that range from early settlement … which dates back some 9,000+ years; to WWII … the Nazi invasion; the forced evacuation of the people of the north; the destruction of the city as the Nazi’s pulled out … scorched-earth policy; the post-war reconstruction; to the history of tourism in the North Cape; to the importance of fishing to the region and what coastal life in the far north of the country entails; to “Verdde” … a tradition in Finnmark that links the inland people with the coastal people.

There was also two art exhibitions on the ground floor … temporary installations, I believe.

Definitely worth spending time at the museum.Read more