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The North Cape - Part 8
Written by: Dominick A. Miserandino
Photography by: Margherita Miserandino
The toppermost of the northernmost of the highest place in Norway.
As I mentioned in yesterday’s story, the Fjords are beautiful. Magnificent. However, we were now on the boat for two days and we’ve seen more Fjords than you can ever see in Detroit. Corny joke. Nobody else liked it either.
The beginning of the day was okay, but it was the afternoon when it got exciting.
We were arriving at Nordkapp- The North Cape or the Northernmost point in Europe. We actually pulled into Honningsvag to go to the North Cape, but that’s besides the point.
Going to the North Cape reminds me of a story in the book, "The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy." The characters are on this journey to see God’s final message to his people and all along the way, the anticipation, signs and talk seem to be a bigger deal than the final message itself.
We got into our buses and rode from Honningsvag to the North Cape. I should digress to point out that Honningsvag is in a bit of a political battle with Hammerfest. It seems that Honningsvag is much further north than Hammerfest, thereby making it the northernmost settlement in Europe, however Hammerfest is officially a town, thereby it has the title. It’s all based on the political designation of the word town.
Anyway, back to the bus ride. About thirty minutes into it we stopped to see a real Sami village. It seems that the Sami People were too far north to be wiped out and they live across all of these northern countries. The Sami are the native people of Norway who don’t fit the typical assumption of native, in that you might think of Native Americans- blue eyed, blonde and raising reindeer.
You can buy some final North Cape trinkets and then it’s another 30 minutes to go.
At this point the fog was thicker than anything I’ve ever seen. Thicker than anything I can adequately describe. You could see maybe three feet outside of the bus and the bus just continued driving 60 miles an hour on turns. Maybe he was steering by sonar or something.
And then you pull up to the North Cape Museum. I would say it’s a glorious site, but we couldn’t see it. We saw fog and went on faith that the museum was up ahead. The parking lot held literally hundreds of buses. I should note that the building at this time actually held double the entire area’s population.
Then you walk in and the chilly lit night air turns warm. With thousands of people in the museum, it’s hot and sweaty. You have your choice of the gift shop, the large screen film about the North Cape, or a restaurant and a champagne bar looking out over the cape.
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Statues in the fog outside the North Cape | |
We decided to walk straight out and take a picture of the Cape. It’s an anti-climactic and climactic feeling at the same time. You’re at the top of Europe, the northernmost point you’re most likely ever to travel to, but in this case we saw nothing. Everybody is celebrating like it’s New Year’s Day and looking out into the fog, over the supposed cape.
We got on the bus and rode home through the bright sunshine of nighttime in Norway... through the fog. On the ship, they had a midnight buffet to celebrate the North Cape where they ranged from the fancy hor'douvres to nacho chips. We sat there eating our nacho chips looking out into the lit sky, wondering why the fog only happened to have appeared on the Cape and not by the ship.
Later the ship reimbursed everybody half the cost of the trip as nobody could really see anything. See what I was saying about service? The fog wasn’t their problem but they still reimbursed everybody.
SilverSea Cruises - Part 1
Copenhagen - Part 2
SilverSea at Sea - Part 3
Alesund - Part 4
Geiranger - Part 5
Trondheim - Part 6
Traveling the Fjords - Part 7
The North Cape - Part 8
Hammerfest - Part 9
Cruising the Fjords - Part 10
Cruising the Fjords - Part 11
Bergen - Part 12
Gudvagen and Flaam - Part 13
Cruising - Part 14
Copenhagen and Departure - Part 15
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