Bergen, Norway

Bergen, Saturday June 12th

Firstly, here are a few more photos of Finland.

Reindeer tend to run away!

The white lichen is preferred reindeer tucker

Boats on Lake Inari

Sami hand knitted mittens for sale

Here is a map showing our ports of call

Last Monday, a minibus picked a Swiss couple and ourselves in Inari and drove us to Kirkenes. It was still cold and inclined to rain, but visibility was good. We were driving through birch and pine. The trees are not huge, but may have taken two hundred years to grow to that size. We saw several groups of reindeer, including some calves, and the driver stopped for photos. All the reindeer belong to someone and are identified by ear marks. When the mosquitoes are at their most vicious, the reindeer go up onto the open fells in an effort to escape them. The Sami are then able to lasso the calves and mark them with the same tag as their mothers.

As we drove North, the trees became more stunted and the pines disappeared altogether.

Most of the people living in this area are Sami, and the schools are taught in one of the Sami languages. One school has only 9 pupils and 4 teachers. Also as the Sami prefer to live in a fairly isolated way rather than in villages, there is a school taxi service!

By the time we crossed into Norway, there were no trees at all. Although there was a joint Finnish Norwegian border post we did not stop. It is a road with little traffic and few settlements but there is a supermarket on the Finnish side, as Finland is much cheaper than Norway.

In Kirkenes, the Kong Harald was already in Port and we boarded straightaway.

Overnight on the way to Hammerfest there was a bit of a swell and some people did not make it to dinner.

Hammerfest has a population of about 7000 and is at about 71 degrees North. In the southern hemisphere, this is the same as Cape Adair in Antarctica,and noone attempts to live there. The difference is Hammerfest has the magic Gulf Stream which makes an incredible difference.

Hammerfest and all the other Northern settlements as far south as Tromso, were razed by the retreating Nazis in 1944.

As we sailed south we usually called into 3 or 4 ports each day. Sometimes we stopped for only 15 or 30 minutes, but other times we stayed 2 or more hours. At each port, passengers got on and off and forklifts scurried around loading and unloading pallets of cargo. At one place we picked up a huge number of pallets of fish, then elsewhere it was peat potting mix and fertilizer, to say nothing of the odd lounge suite. In most places we had a short walk around town. In Stokmarknes we visited a fascinating museum about the history of the coastal ferry and nearly got left behind.

When we crossed the Arctic Circle south of Bodo, we were given Cod Liver Oil and Aquavit. It might be good for you, but I think I can manage without it.

I will mostly let the photos illustrate how the scenery changed as we came South and the weather improved.

Hammerfest

In Hammerfest I am not surprised people want to add some colour!

Plenty of snow and not much vegetation near Hammerfest

As we came south Tromso was the first town we saw any buildings older than about 1950.

Tromso at midnight

Trollfjord

Cod drying racks at Svolvaer

 

Shipboard life.

Torghatten mountain - south of Trondheim. The hole is 160m long, 35m high and 20m wide.

Trondheim

Gamle bridge in Trondheim

Stave church at Kvaernes (near Molde)

One of the bridges on the Atlantic Road (near Molde). Sometimes in winter storms, the waves break across the road and it has to be closed.

The narrow Steinsundet Sound near Bergen

Laburnum and lilac in Bergen.

Waterfront of the Bryggen area in Bergen

One of the alleys in the Bryggen area. This area has looked like this since the 12th century. It was burnt several times, but always rebuilt to the same plan, the last time in 1702. All restoration is done using seasoned mature pine (from 150 to 200 year old trees) and only traditional tools are used.