6/1 -- Above the Arctic Circle, Bodo

About 7:15 this morning, we passed a globe mounted on a sea rock, marking the Arctic Circle. We made several short stops and a long one in Bodo.

As we were working on catching up on the blog (an internet outage all yesterday afternoon slowed us down), an announcement came on about a scenic view, so we bundled up and rushed outside to see Ornes,  nestled in below several snow-covered mountains and wooded hills. Most of our stops have been relatively near the sea and not deep into the fjords, as is this one, but the scenery was more of what we were expecting than most places so far.

At 10am, there was an Arctic Circle celebration with King Neptune 'baptizing' those making their first Arctic Circle crossing (at least those willing to go through the ordeal!). We watched them pull the back of people's shirts out so King Neptune could dump a ladle full of ice and cold water down their backs and add a few ice cubes to their hoods in case they thought their hood would warm them up. I was all for only being an observer, but Jim was all in on the baptism and dragged me in too. We ended up very wet and initially  horribly cold all the way down to the bottom of our undies. Fortunately, I was not wearing the pants and shoes I had planned for later in the day, but our down jackets got a little wet and our shirts were still soaking  a half hour later.. As a reward, we got a shot of schnapps, and a certificate of accomplishment.

There was a big crowd at the celebration when Neptune
put in his appearance.

The big metal bowl in front of Neptune is filled with ice and
water and he randomly scooped it up and tossed it behind
him. We had no idea what awaited us.

There had been a contest to guess to the
closest second, when we would cross the
Arctic Circle. Nobody asked about the
prize. The winner was not present (smart
girl) and so the second place winner got
all the attention.

Below, the captain is wrapping a Hurtigruten flag around
the winner, just before she was taken over to the ice
bowl to be the first to be baptized.

Three of our compatriots: Linda, Mary, and Ariel, with their
schapps, though I can't say I remember them getting iced.

Nothing like ice down your back to wake you up.

Our impressive certificates.

After an early lunch, it was time for our exploration of Bodo. It didn't start to rain til we got off the ship. It was chilly, but VERY windy, dropping the perceived temperature to freezing. Plus it was blowing right at us. Just when we thought it couldn't get worse, the rain turned to tiny pelting hail, the second time in more than 22 years that I have been outside in hail.

Bodo has a population of about 50,000 and is growing. Industries are herring and apparently oil, based on the storage tanks we saw. All over Norway, younger people are moving to the cities from the country where they grew up. There are lots of new apartments being built and a decent-size shopping center. The Bodo Cathedral was holding a 30 minute free organ concert, so we went there to get warm and dry. The music was great and the stained glass windows very modern. Afterwards, we walked back toward the ship and looked around the shopping center and got a couple small things before heading back.

This is the same artist we saw in the hippie area of Oslo.

Veera presented a lecture about WWII and both Norway and Finland. While Norway was occupied by the Nazis, Finland engaged in a couple wars with Russia over territory and finally joined the Allies against Germany toward the end of the war. In part, this was in preparation for our visit in Svolvaer to what was billed as a WWII Museum, but in reality was an extensive personal collection of war time uniforms, arms, and other memorabilia. The owner actually had a grandmother from Minnesota! He had spent years collecting everything he could find related to the war and labeled it all, some in English. His most interesting story was about a sailor's shirt he found in the ocean, with the sailor's name at the hem of the shirt. After quite a bit of searching, he located the man in Canada and learned his story.  He had been captured and sent to a POW camp in England before being transferred to Canada, which he came to love. After he was repatriated to Germany, he emigrated to Canada as soon as he could and has been there ever since.

First three photos: approaching Svolvaer

 

 

The upper part of the photo was propaganda from the
Norwegian Resistance.

Next set of photos: leaving Svolvaer

 

Above and below: active fish drying racks

We kept seeing red lights on the land and wondered what
they were until I zoomed in to discover a control tower
for a what looked like a small  landing strip.

The next big event was the ship's plan to sail into a narrow fjord, which required calm water. Unfortunately, we got there way past 11 pm, which is horribly late for both of us. Because we are above the Arctic Circle, the sun does not set and it looked like about 6 or 7pm outside. It was cold and drippy, so we watched the approach from our window, and went out at 11:15pm, as we were approaching closer. There are only so many photos you can take of coming into the narrow passage, so we left the viewpoint at the prow and went to the side to show how close we were and came back to our cabin and crashed. 

This reminded me strongly of a view of the
Yangtse River in China as we approached
one of the three famous gorges!

 

Fish farm

I am trying my best to look happy, but it's
tough when you are cold. I underestimated
my need for cold weather gear in an effort
to make room for my Italy wardrobe. OOPs.