Oohhh, it is bleak and dreary today. Our string of good weather days has definitely moved on and we are now into the typical Northern weather. We are in port from 8a to 5p today, but there is absolutely no need to rush off the ship. Hammerfest is the world’s most northernmost town in the world (although other towns argue that designation) and it was the first town in Europe to have electric street lights. Besides its two claims to fame, Hammerfest is otherwise a teeny tiny little town, with only 1 building that survived the Nazi scorched earth retreat. Everything else is post-war era, and, in addition, it is Sunday. We’re relaxing!
We all meet for breakfast, sitting as far away from the “Cho’s” as possible. I bring my extra pair of gloves for Krizzy to borrow when she goes to NordKapp the next day. She is quite concerned about being cold, has been talking about it for days, so I offered to lend her the gloves. She is quite ecstatic.
About 10 or so, we gear up –rain jackets, umbrellas – and make our way out of our warm, dry ship. There is a shuttle for the ridiculous cost of $15 each – but it’s only 1 mile to the main town area, so this is our morning exercise. It is definitely brisk as we walk around the harbor to the town. It’s chilly and wet, not raining quite yet, but that cold, humid/wet feeling that seeps into your bones. But that’s what we expected for the whole trip, so we’re prepared.
It doesn't take us all that long to get into the tiny town. We pass some really cool stone sculptures on a plaza on our way. Look! An Elephant!
And also a neat fountain of a mother and children on the Radhusplassen.
We are heading toward the main square and the Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society. We really had thought about joining, even though membership is pretty pricey, but the money is used to protect endangered Arctic animals. Buts, darn it, they are closed. Sunday. Pooh. The consolation prize are photos of some awesome silver Polar Bear carvings.
We troop on, around the water front and up to the Hammerfest Kirke, which was built in the 60’s with a design that is inspired by those fish drying racks we’ve seen all over the country.
The inside is beautiful with loads of stained glass windows, and surprisingly no altarpiece, just stained glass window at the end of the church. I’m fascinated with one of the side windows, so I take a bunch of pictures of it hoping to get one we can blow up and frame.
After exploring the church, we walk to the graveyard and see the little chapel that survived the Nazi devastation, then, as the church bells toll 11:00am, we retrace our steps to the main part of town passing these great painted mailboxes…
…ending up at the grandstand at the base of the Salen hill that commemorates our location in the northernmost town.
From here, we begin our climb up the zig zag path to the look out point on top of Salen. It’s less than 100 meters an 300 feet up, but its rocky and rough in places, so we watch our step and stop often on the way up to let people pass us in both directions. Using the handrail is a definite necessity – and you know we’re not necessarily faint of heart with this sort of stuff.
You can definitely see everything from up here – the whole panorama of the town…there’s the church in the distance, our trusty ship (yes, we walked all the way here and back), both sides of the harbor and of course the intrepid hikers!
After a brief rest at the summit, we head downhill, barely avoiding a collision with one of the “Cho” children who is whining as she drags herself up the hill, using an NCL umbrella as a walking stick, planting it in the ground while the father tells her not to do it because the umbrella will break. Does she listen? Probably not, but we’re not waiting around to find out. Darn those Cho’s stalking us!
Back down to sea level, we walk back around the harbor to the comfort of our warm ship, lunch in the lounge and snacks on the balcony. We get some great shots of the town and the church as we sail out….
…getting ready to spend another enjoyable evening aboard our floating home, being entertained by the “boys” at the bar and generally just relaxing and enjoying each others company.
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