Sørøysundet

I am very slack today...it is 10pm and am just getting to remembering the day. This is partly because this afternoon Carole suggested we do one of the jigsaw puzzles that they have (and games etc) and we chose one with 1000 pieces, and of course got obsessed (and have succeeded in doing just a very small amount...but that was the time I would usually be writing. So am going to be quick as tomorrow we have an early start...we are off on an excursion at 8am, first on a bus, then a ferry, then a 5 km walk...then we get back on the boat at the next stop...

Anyway, today has been fairly leisurely. We are now back round the top of Norway and the first stop long enough for getting off was Hammerfest, the northernmost town in the world. It said 2° there but it felt icy. It is equal in latitude to northern Siberia. And it felt like it, and this is only October, not even winter. We had a walk round, and like most of the towns, it is fun to walk round but not very exciting. They look very pretty as you sail in and the houses are all very rectangular and neat, and often colourful, but at this time of year not much is open - cafes etc. there are often very modern and beautiful churches. A far cry from the huge medieval ones we see on the Camino! And it is all very friendly and easy, but usually we come back to the ship before too long. All these towns along the coast were bombed or burnt down during the war, and so almost all the houses are built in similar practical style which is why they look so uniform (except the art nouveau town we visited on the second day). Today we got back before the excursion people would be back and leapt up to the jacuzzi and were in a lovely bubbly hot tub as we left port!! Felt very decadent!

Hammerfest is the richest town in the area because of oil. It has a big LPG plant where they freeze the oil and liquefy it so that it can be exported. The plant actually was made in Spain and then brought to Norway and set up here!

So this afternoon we cruised along and all the big craggy mountains we had seen before now have a dusting of snow on top and look even more like postcards. I realised as I was doing the puzzle that I was doing it and not looking at Norway, so maybe we will never finish it!! Tonight we had dinner of pollack, another very favourite fish here (after cod and salmon)...very delicious white and firm. The cod however is famous and joked about. It is the livelihood of many Norwegians and Amr tells me he heard it has now replaced someone famous and is on the 200 kroner note! There are many funny cod songs!! I went out on deck after dinner, really to look at the full moon, and there were the northern lights again! I spotted them before they announced it, we are getting so used to seeing it almost every night - because of the clear sky.Read more