Hooray! We are docked at Honnigsvag instead of having to tender in. The Celebrity Constellation is anchored and tendering. The Braemar of Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines just docked near us. After we went off to North Cape, the Braemar cast off, anchored out, and started tendering. As we got back the big, slab-sided Costa Deliziosa was just docking. I think the Braemar will dock in our spot after we leave at 6:00 pm because she isn't leaving until 9:00 pm.
Since about the only thing to do here is to go to North Cape, there were hordes of buses taking people up there. I counted 21 buses that I could see, and there were probably more than that as they just kept shuttling up and back. The trip up was very very foggy. I could barely see the bus in front of us part of the time. The main difference from last year was that most of the snow was gone exposing the treeless hillsides and mountains. We did make a short photo stop on the way up at the Sami camp where everybody, including me, got out to take a photo of a reindeer and a guy in Sami costume.
At North Cape itself the Nordkapphallen (visitor center) was fairly full when we got there, but nothing like it will be this afternoon! It was also so foggy that you could barely see 50 feet. You certainly could not see the globe statue from the building, and probably couldn't see the whole thing from far enough away to get a photo of it. We watched the nice film and poked around in the souvenir shop then came back to the ship for lunch. The fog had cleared a little on the way back down so we could see occasional groups of sheep, goats, and reindeer grazing on the hillsides. The scenery is just as stark without the snow as it was with snow, but still interesting.
We got another view of North Cape after we sailed. Going west, we were a lot closer to it than we were the other day en route to Kirkenes. The Captain slowed the ship down and did a do-si-do turning in a complete circle so that everyone had what view there was of it from the sea.
Tromso
To get to Tromso we needed to go under a bridge that is 45 meters high. With her mast stepped down, Prinsendam is 44 meters high. We made it. The Costa ship is here today also, but couldn't fit under the bridge so is docked a good distance away from the center of town while we are right there.
Our tour today, again under low clouds but no rain, visited the "Arctic Cathedral" which is actually a Lutheran church with the biggest stained glass window north of wherever. Then, after driving around town, we visited the Tromso University Museum. It is a very nice museum where we saw a beautiful slide show of photos of the Northern Lights, then had plenty of time to look at other exhibits on things like geology, animal and bird life of the region, Sami culture, and arctic exploration. The university, which is the northernmost one in the world, has several unique specialty research areas including the Northern Lights, fish health mostly for salmon and other fish farming operations, and a center for peace studies.
After we got back, Jill went to a particular shop in town that she wanted to see. I watched the always interesting process of raising lifeboats and tenders on our side of the ship until she got back and we went for lunch. After lunch was lazy time. We carefully did not go up on deck to witness the "polar swim" with "Thor" and "Odin" in attendance, an event which is akin to the "Neptune" festivities when crossing the equator. I learned years ago to avoid things like that on ships.
We were over two hours late leaving Tromso. At first it was because of two missing passengers. They had evidently wandered off on their own and hadn't paid attention to the time to be back on board which was two hours earlier than usual. But then there was some sort of trouble with one of the engines that delayed our sailing, so the couple were able to board even though they arrived an hour and fifteen minutes late. I bet they always pay strict attention to the departure time after this.
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