So, on February 9 we had 2 hours in Hammerfest in the morning. Hammerfest claims to be the northernmost town in the world – even though there are plenty of villages further north, Hammerfest is bigger, with a population of around 10,500 people. Kirkenes, by comparison, has about 3,400 people.
Our first stop off the boat was at the Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society, located right at the pier. This society is not particularly old, having been founded in 1963. But you can only join IN PERSON. So, I joined so I can officially claim to have been in Hammerfest. It was about $8.
Anyway, here are some photos:
Had to watch out for the polar bear!
Avalanche breaks:
Hammerfest Church. It opened in 1961. The church is part of the Hammerfest parish in the Hammerfest deanery in the Diocese of Nord-Hålogaland. The design was meant to look like the racks that Norwegians dry fish on. The photo after this one shows an example of the drying rack so you can compare for yourself! (And it also kind of looks like the ‘Pedestrian Crossing’ sign!)
And here are some photos of the interior of the church:
Well, 2 hours went by pretty fast. We walked around town a bit, but it was pretty slippery and we didn’t think to bring our spikes with us, so, it was slow going. I think we did pretty well covering ground though. Here are some more scenes from Hammerfest – looking out over the harbor, and around town.
After that, it was back on the boat. No chance to get off the boat again until Tromso so here are some beautiful landscape and boat photos! We had some beautiful killer sunsets! (Oksfjord and Skjervoy were the only two stops in between Hammerfest and Tromso)
Here we are approaching Oksfjord. It’s after 3pm here – getting dark already!
We only stopped here for 15 minutes so couldn’t really get off. It was funny – as we were pulling up we could see the village hotel and I saw a guy get up and shut his curtains when he saw us! And I didn’t circle it, but at about the center of the photo you can see the cargo door opening (white ramp at any angle – it was still on its way down)
And here is Skjervoy, taken from inside our cabin (hence the rain drops). You just make out ‘Skjervoy’ in the second photo above the open door.
All righty then! Next up is our stop in Tromso for a midnight concert at the Arctic Cathedral.
Until next time! (which may be today since we’re having a big snow blizzard. Either that or I’ll do my taxes. We shall see …)