Month: March 2020

Our final port of call for this trip was Bergen, one of Norway’s oldest cities. On our first day in town, we took a tour which started in Bryggen, a trading post established by the Hanseatic League in 1350. The colorful storefronts of Bryggen The two storefronts at left, and the brown triangular roofs behind them, are actually the Radisson Blu hotel, where we stayed during our final two nights in Bergen. Bryggen’s primary export was dried cod. In its dried form, it could be preserved for years (decades) and reconstituted later on, retaining most of its nutritional value. I’ll take their word for it. Why don’t I have this sculpture of a royal cod in my front yard? One of the alleyways between the shops We visited the Hanseatic Museum and Schøtstuene, in which rooms and artifacts from the original buildings have been preserved. The “talking stick” in the central trading hall. A man could speak during a meeting only if he...

The port of Narvik was our last stop north of the Arctic Circle. Although it’s a very small town, Narvik’s ice-free harbor at the terminus of a railway bringing iron ore from Sweden made it a key strategic objective of both Britain and the Germans at the outset of WWII. After a fierce naval battle that sent numerous ships to the bottom of the fjord, the British held Narvik for more than a month, surrendering it only when they had to send their resources south to evacuate their troops from France. Freighters lying in the fjord at Narvik The town was hosting an alpine ski event during our visit. The ski slopes are just off the center of town. Lights illuminate a ski run at dusk As if having a ski event in town wasn’t enough, NATO forces were conducting wintertime exercises in the area. We passed columns of troop carriers and also saw tanks in the field along the highway north of town....

Our northernmost port of call for this voyage was Alta, a city of about 20,000 inhabitants. Alta was the German navy’s largest base of operations outside of Germany in WWII. The Germans burned the city to the ground when they retreated in 1944; only one church remained standing, and the population was forcibly relocated. Today, Alta is a center for salmon farming, Arctic research, and mining. Alta’s museum is built on the site of an amazing set of petroglyphs that date back more than 6,000 years. Ancient artists decorated the rocks by pecking at them with a pointed tool and adding red iron oxide to the excised area. The “Pippi” rock, named for its resemblance to Pippi Longstocking The museum also houses historical artifacts from the first scientific studies of the northern lights. In the city center is the unique Northern Lights Cathedral, built in 2013. It’s made of wood and concrete and clad in titanium sheets. Reindeer sledding In the afternoon of...