Hammerfest and the Taste of Vesteralen

While on our way back to Bergen we docked at many of the same places that we did on the way up. Hurtigruten is a ferry/transport system that delivers goods and people all along the coast of Norway. We had stopped at Hammerfest briefly on the way up but at a very early hour for just a quarter of an hour. This time we got nearly two hours!!

The port is far enough away from the centre of town that transport was needed so Hurtigruten provided a return journey on chartered buses for a nominal fee.

Sadly,, I was having one of the attacks I get when I am naughty and have too much fatty food. I boarded the bus and wandered the town but took every opportunity to sit down as my back was terribly sore. When I was researching the trip and saw that it stopped at Hammerfest I was "oh that's the place where they had the Olympics" but then I found out later it was Lillehammer. Well, I knew there was a hammer in there somewhere. Don't ever get me on your quiz team for Olympic trivia.

Those trolls again!!!

This is Hammerfest church which was built in 1961.

This gazebo in the park was so pretty.

This "Mother and child" fountain was created by sculptor Ornulf Bast and gifted to Hammersmith by former US ambassador to Norway Charles Ulrich Bay in memory of his mother who was from the town.

Polar bears are the symbol of Hammerfest. Not that there are any polar bears in or anywhere near Hammerfest but Polar expeditions began from here.

This is a sculpture of a sailing ship in an ice pack that sits beside Hammerfest Harbour.

Yikes, there ARE polar bears in Hammerfest!! This one doesn't look as lively as the ones I saw in Churchill though!! This guy resides at the Polar Bear Society museum where I had a quick look around before getting the bus back to the ship.

Goodbye Hammerfest. It was an early night for me without any evening meal.

The next morning I was fine. Today we had two stops where we could get off the ship. The first one was at Harstad where I FINALLY was able to take a tour. A Taste of Vesteralen was one of the best rated if not THE best of all the tours offered on Hurtigruten. Did I mention it was raining? However, I didn't realize it would rain quite as much and I was desperate to take a tour and this had been on the list. So off I went.

Our first stop was Harstad church which was completed in 1958.

From there we headed slightly north to Trondenes to see Trondenes Church which dates from 1435 and is Norway's northernmost medieval stone church as well as the world's most northerly surviving medieval building. Sadly it was in the midst of restoration so we could not visit it. I would have loved to have seen the interior as the pictures look fabulous. As you can see it doesn't really look like what we would consider a church.

We visited the nearby (as in right behind me as I took this picture) Trondhenes Historical Centre to learn more about two thousand years of history and the Vikings who dominated this area. I do like my Vikings even if they were a bloodthirsty lot.

Next up was a short ferry trip over to Hinnoya island. The highlight of the ferry trip was sharing a plate of brown cheese and some lefse.

On the island, we drove around but of course everything was misty.

Sometimes you just have to look hard to see the beauty in something but it's there.

It rained for most of the day but this was a short time frame when it didn't.

Apparently, the island is stunning but not when it's pelting rain. Ah well, you can't control the weather. It's like life, sometimes sunny and sometimes downright sh*tty.

We drove around in the rain until it was time to get back on the ship. While we were touring around for four hours our ship was steadily making its way south and we met it going over the bridge into Stokmarknes while the Polarlys went under the bridge. Our driver honked and the ship blared its horn back. I think that was the highlight of the tour!

Then it was back on the ship for lunch. There was a bit of excitement an hour or two later. I usually sat at one of the tables on the same deck as the restaurant to read or write in my journal, drink tea and look at the scenery and all of a sudden a boat came roaring up to the side of the ship. Pirates??!! All very exciting and very James Bond vibey. Turns out it was the navy or some kind of military doing training exercises on how to approach a moving ship. They came so close I couldn't see them so not sure if they tried boarding or not.

Then we went back through the narrow Trollfjord which is 2 km long but only 100 metres wide (328 feet). If you remember, a few days earlier we had gone through in the dark only guided by strategically placed lights.