This Post Ought to be Called Part 3.5!

This is out of chronological sequence—I should have written this before the post on Murmansk and Hammerfest. Thanks to having a camera which catalogs all my pictures by date, and thanks to examining the pictures carefully to refresh my memory, I realized this afternoon that I had omitted this most exciting segment of our cruise to the Lands of the Midnight Sun.

On July 28th we crossed the Arctic Circle. Once in this vicinity, and until we turned back South on August 5th, the sun didn’t set. More about this when I get to the Spitzbergen, Magdalen Bay, and the Polar Ice Barrier section of this condensed journal.

Some of the most dramatic scenery we saw on the cruise was that on the North Cape. We didn’t go on any of the North Cape excursions, but nevertheless, what we saw from the ship was breathtaking. It was cold and misty, so the pictures don’t really capture the beauty.

After cruising around the North Cape, we came to the little village of Honningsvaag. We got off the ship briefly, and I was struck by how much the brightly painted wooden houses reminded me of those in Greenland, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands, seen on our last cruise.

In the picture above, Bairds and Cannons are enjoying champagne on July 28, the day we crossed the Arctic Circle. This event is celebrated on North-bound ships, just as crossing the Equator do.

Now here are some of the dramatic North Cape photos, followed by one of Honningsvaag:

where we were--see how far North?

Honningsvaag and the brightly-painted houses