Tromsø (again). June 17, 2013

Stopped in sleepy Tromsø before our flight to Amsterdam.  Said goodbye to friends and family on The World and watched her sail out of town.

Honningsvåg. June 16, 2013

Honningsvåg is a sleepy town with one main tourist attraction, the North Cape.  Instead of driving out to most northerly point of mainland Europe, which is not part of mainland Europe, we went for a lovely hike above the town.

Home to the Cruise ship.

Statue of Knut Erik Jensen.

Beautiful tree-less and rugged land.

Kirkenes, Norway to Arkhangelsk, Russia.

We left Kirkenes, Norway, at 6:30pm on June 2nd and arrived in Arkhangelsk, some 38 hours later on June 4th. Since this was The World's first port-of-call in Russia on this trip, it took some time to get cleared. We were told that, since TW is the first foreign ship to be allowed in The White Sea, it took a new Russian law to make this happen (!).

Map of our sea voyage.

Kirkenes. June 2, 2013

We docked for the day in the quiet town of Kirkenes.  Since there was not much going on here, being Sunday didn't help either, we decided to do a 15km / 10m bike trip to the Russian border. The weather was nice, the climbs gentle so a good day was had by all.

At the border.

Lunch at the lake.

Back at The World.  With a local who happily
volunteered to be our guide.

Northern most point in Europe. June 1, 2013.

June 1

Today we sailed past Hammerfest which claims to be the northern most city in the world.  This claim is in dispute with Honningsvåg which is further North but maybe is not a city.  Barrow in Alaska which is further North yet again but does not claim to be a city.

Later in the day we sailed past North Cape which claims to be the northern most point of mainland Europe.  An unusual claim since this point is on an island not connected to the mainland.

Hammerfest, Norway.  Claims to be the Northern
most city in Europe.

Caroline and Stephen at the Northern
most point of mainland Europe

June 16

Passed by the North Cape, this time heading south.  We toasted to the Cape with Champagne.

Beautiful Evening sail past North Cape.

Tromsø. May 30-31, 2013

Thursday, May 30th

Caroline and I reunited in Oslo just as we boarded the 90 minute flight to Tromsø.  Caroline was coming from Belgium and I from Los Angeles.  After 1 month apart it was certainly good to see each other again.  We also reunited with friends and residents of The World heading in the same direction as us.

The flight took us north of the Arctic circle over rugged and desolate countryside.  At 69°40′33″ North Tromsø is some 300 kms or 190 miles north of the Arctic Circle.  We had a magnificent day for the flight and had stunning views.

With 24 hour sun at the moment, it is hard to believe that Tromsø is covered in snow 7 months of the year and has no official sunrise for 2 months each year.

Arctic terrain on the flight to Tromsø

Beautiful day as we approach Tromsø

On the wharf waiting for M/V The World to dock.
Our home for the next 3 weeks.

Friday, May 31st. (Caroline)

First on the agenda, for me, this morning was a visit to the ship's doctor to have a follow-up x-ray taken of that heel spur.

Then we set out for a walk over the Bruvegen Bridge, past the Arctic Cathedral, towards the cable car, Fjellheisen. From the top we were rewarded with sweeping views over Tromsø and surrounds on a gorgeous sunny and warm day. Oh how nice to be in warm weather again! Let's hope it lasts a while.
On the way back we visited the Polar Museum, which, amongst other things, has a nice exhibit on Roald Amundsen, the Arctic explorer.

Arctic Cathedral.

View from the top of the cable car.