Kay and Sylvia's Norwegian Adventure 2015: Honningsvaag and the Northernmost Point in Mainland Europe

Sunday, July 5 (Day 6)

I brought my Garrison Keillor book about the Lutherans and have been reading it at night to go to sleep. I feel I should say "It's been a quiet week on the MS Kong Harald..." There yet there are so many wonderful things to see and people to meet - but all done in a leisurely fashion. We happened to meet Ramiro & Moraimo at breakfast at 8:00. (I must remember to take photos of the beautiful buffet offerings for breakfast and lunch.) After breakfast we went up to the Panorama Room on Deck 7 to relax and see the view. Mother worked on her cross-stitch quilt top and I did some prep notes for the blog as we were to have 3.5 hours in Honnigsvaag.

We had lunch at 10:30 today as we arrived in Honnigsvaag at 11:00. Many people left the ship for the excursion to the North Cape; I went to Scandic Hotel to 'get connected!' (This is when I did Days 2-4 of the blog.) There were two lovely photos of the North Cape on the walls in the hotel so, in a sense, I got to see it! Thanks to the Scandic here and the Radisson in Tromso for allowing me to use their wifi :)

Once again, Mother and I were able to take a short nap before dinner. And, yes, Mother is able to sleep! After dinner we went back to the Panorama Room to take photos and had our good-byes with Ramiro & Moraima. They will go to Scotland for a six-day tour, then London for a few days before returning to Mexico.

At 7:00 pm we passed Nordkyn, the northern most point on the mainland of Europe (71 degrees 08'00 N). (Many people spent $190 to go to the North Cape on an excursion; we decided not to do this. Mother talked with some Norwegians on the ship; they said it was too commercialized so they wouldn't go.) At 7:15 pm, we stopped in Mehamn, the northernmost port on our trip. One of the exciting things to me was to see the city Berlevaag where we made a stop from 9:45 to 10:00 pm. Berlevaag was made popular in a noted documentary film, "Heftig go begeistret" ('Cool and Crazy'), from 2001 about the Berlevaag Men's Chorus. There were about 35 singers who were mainly fishermen and having the men's chorus was an important part of their lives during the dark winter days. They were rehearsing to perform in Murmansk. I saw the film in Stavanger the year it came out, which was the summer I was in Norway to establish the student teaching program. I have heard that it has been shown to many Sons of Norway groups in the U.S. We passed the MS Trollfjord at 10.00 and then went to bed!