• Escape the Heat (August ‘26)
    Town Hall; the town embraces the polar bear as its symbol even though there are no bears here.
    Town Hall; the town embraces the polar bear as its symbol even though there are no bears here.The statue was a gift to the town by US Ambassador Bay; his mother hailed from Hammerfest.Harbor view ... with m/s Havila Castor at the ferry terminal.Norwegian Chef/Adventurer; amongst his many voyages is the one that took Amundsen to the South Pole.M/S Mårøy (white ship) ... served as a passenger vesssel in Finnmark from 1959 to 1980.St Michael's Church; built with donations from Germany for compensation for WWII destruction.Mosaic mural on the exterior of St Michael's Church ... featuring the saint fighting the dragon.Carved entrance doors of St Michael's Church.Stained glass window featuring the previous churches — St Michael's Church.Stained glass window in the stairwell at St Michael's Church.Stained glass wall at the St Michael's church.Colorful mural one one of the side streets in Hammerfest.The Blue Pavilion from the path behind the park.The Blue Pavilion was a gift to Hammerfest during the town's 200th jubilee in 1989.A remembrance selfie at the Blue Pavilion.Street art entitled "Around the World."Hammerfest Church ... built to resemble traditional fish drying racks.Destroyed by the Nazis in 1944, the current church was built in the 1950s.Stained glass window by Jandar Lunde.Pipe organ from 1782; chandelier is one of two from 1750.Children's art work depicting the last supper — Hammerfest Church.Memorial commemorating the British attack on Hammerfest during the Napoleonic Wars in 1809.Info panel at the Church Park, which was the site of at least two churches that were destroyed.Hammerfest Harbor; building on the right is the Arctic Culture Center.2Can't resist a reflection; Stril Barents is a multi-purpose off-shore Arctic support vessel.Bunkering LNG in Hammerfest.LNG Bunkering ... from our cabin window.Hammerfest church as the ship continues south.Located on Melkøya Island, Hammerfest LNG Plant is Europe's first large-sale LNG facility.The natural gas processed here is transported 88+ miles (143km) from a field in the Barents Sea.At the supermarket, Mui found one of favorite Turkish beverages.

    SB Day 8: Hammerfest

    August 15 in Norway ⋅ 🌧 57 °F

    We had the most number of ports of any given day of our voyage today — starting with Mehamn, Kjøllefjord, and Honningsvåg … all in the wee hours of the morning. Slept through all of those. We stopped in Havøysund at 8:00a … heavy rain, so no photos.

    Thus I am moving on to today’s long stop — Hammerfest — where, on our first visit in 2019, Mui and I became honorary members of the “Royal & Ancient Polar Bear Society.” Of course, there are no polar bears in Hammerfest. But that hasn’t stopped the town from embracing the great white bear as a symbol in its coat of arms. In this instance, the polar bear apparently represents the importance of the town as an Arctic hunting and trading post.

    Our stop here was about 1½ hours. No rain; just overcast with threatening clouds … unlike the blue-skies we had when we were here seven years ago. We docked at the ferry pier in the city center, so no long walk this time to get where we wanted to go.

    We had previously hiked the Sikksakkveien — a path that was developed to stop the locals from using the ‘less-than-safe-for-humans’ trails created by goats as they browsed the grass on the steep hillside. So we skipped it this time. Instead, we followed the DIY-walk recommended by the author of the “Coastal Ferry Guidebook.” Some of the stops along the route were familiar. Nonetheless we enjoyed this chance to stretch our legs.

    One memorable experience we did not get to experience this time was seeing Hvaldimir … the beluga whale that was a fixture in the harbor for a while. He left Hammerfest for points unknown soon after we saw him 2019 and hasn’t been back since.

    (Here’s a link to my footprint about Hvaldimir: https://findpenguins.com/52z11qkijr3ou/footprin….)

    We returned to the ship a few minutes before the appointed all aboard time. As we were preparing to go up the gangway, we noticed that the m/s Havila Castor was bunkering LNG. Clouds of cryogenic vapor was floating around at ground level … the transfer hose was encapsulated in frost. No wonder … the LNG flowing through the hose is at a ‘balmy’ -260F (-162C) … yes, those are minus temperatures, folks!

    I later read that Hammerfest LNG, which is Europe’s first large-scale LNG facility, is the one we saw as we passed Melkøya Island on our way into Hammerfest. No surprise then that the bunkering was done here.

    Once we were onboard, we got so busy that I didn’t realize our departure was delayed. No idea why and not sure exactly when we left … but it was almost 1:30p when we passed Hammerfest Church, with its distinctive shape … mimicking the traditional fish drying racks of the region.

    (To see photos from sunny Hammerfest: https://eenusa.smugmug.com/Cruises/NoGlow/NoGlo….)    Read more