Arctic Circle, Trollfjord and Vesterålen

Dinner last night was served by Johan and we exchanged more idioms. He knows “other fish to fry “ - our go-to idiom for foreign nationals - so we try him with “pissed as a fart”. He likes that one. We follow it up the next morning with “rat-arsed”. Culture, eh?

Everyone last night was getting very excited about crossing the Arctic Circle, which we did yesterday evening around 9:30pm. The location is marked by a steel globe on an island and the faithful felt it necessary to have ice cold water poured down their necks in return for a glass of rhubarb wine. We left the area and came back to our cabin for a nice cup of camomile. Much more sensible. Incidentally, this year we have crossed the equator twice, approached close to the Antarctic circle and crossed the Arctic circle twice. Or we shall have done in a week’s time. The Arctic circle seems a long way north but in reality it’s at about 66 degrees whereas our northernmost destination on Svalbard is 80 degrees - well on way to the North Pole.

Land of the Midnight Sun has finally been fulfilled as the picture above by Gabrielle shows. Apparently, as I was asleep. It’s an eerie light that’s neither dawn nor dusk. It never gets fully dark and this effect will be more marked the further north we go.

Stokmarknes was our landing spot this afternoon - the area that is the birthplace of Hurtigruten (which means “fast boat”) and their original post boats that serve the isolated coastal communities of Norway. Cruise ships are a whole new strand to their business. The morning was bright and sunny as we entered a complex negotiation of multiple islands that were leading past Svolvær to our destination of Stokmarknes.

We walked the deck for 35 minutes to get our steps up and then retired to the upper deck to sun bathe - the afternoon reached 18C. The weather was a complete contrast to the day before’s drizzle and grey skies.

The scenery was stunning and it was hard to know which way to look. At the same time we were on constant watch for whales which should be a feature of this trip at some point. Isolated houses could be seen on tiny islands - escape spots for Norwegians rather than full time homes one would suspect. There are salmon farming circles in the sea at many places - fishing industry is of course huge here with everything from herring to cod and salmon and beyond.

There’s a massive contrast between jagged spikes of the mountain ranges on one side and the more rounded ones that provide a gentler backdrop on the other. Could it be different origins or older and more eroded rock? We enter the magnificent Trollfjord which is 100 metres wide and 2.5km long. This is a cod-rich area and the Battle of Trollfjord in the 19th century was over fishing rights. The oldest mountain here is supposed to be 3 billion years old. Sea eagles with 2.5 metre wingspans swoop through the dizzying heights although our experience was more of sea horse flies though, but we did see the eagles and they were magnificent. Blooming’ things - they would not give up!

All announcements and commentary on this ship are in four languages, reflecting the diverse audience which includes Germans, French, English and Norwegian plus a smattering of other cultures. This fact can make the sessions very long indeed and people frequently wander off after their turn has been and gone.

On this ship is the bathroom with the best view. Seriously. If you go to the bar and then finally locate the, admittedly well-hidden, bathroom on Deck 8, you will be treated to a vista as you wash your hands … no, not as you do anything else. Please do learn to behave!

Onto our tour bus for Vesterålen, which was to be narrated in Norwegian and English. The sun was beating down and the bus was very hot - it was not what we expected and we were quite uncomfortable as we were last on and sitting at the very back with a lumpy Dane next to me.

The archipelago of Vesterålen’s islands is connected by bridges. All the largest bridges are in the north of the country, allegedly. The highest mountain is 1264m high which is not actually massive, but it was snow capped though.

Every house seems to have a shed and Gabrielle finally worked out that this was their sauna. The trip all seemed rather pedestrian after the thrill of Trollfjord. We stopped to see an old house by the side of the fjord. Not sure why but it was a chance to cool off and stretch our legs. Then back on the bus to ooh and aah at Sortland - the blue city. Houses here are painted in a deep blue. Well, some of them. Many residents apparently didn’t get the memo.

Then on to a concert in a giant tank that used to contain herring oil - yeah, seriously. It had great acoustics and the lovely Ingrid sang to us all, to the wall and up to the ceiling and it was all very ethereal.

It’s a sad day today. Johan, our server, is leaving us at Tromsø tomorrow. Who will we get in his place? Will they understand our specialised needs? Will they be nice looking? All vitally important questions that will be answered tomorrow.