As Far North as we’re going

The Arctic Circle is around 69 degrees north. We eventually got up to 71 degrees north, the most northern point in Europe. To our dismay and to my disappointment, it was “warm” at 5 to 10 degrees Celsius (in the 40’s Fahrenheit) .

So there’s a “ceremony” on crossing the Arctic Circle… King Nojo (????? No idea about the name) appears and dumps ice and water down your back. Glenda and I opted out.

And then there’s the towns, hamlets, fjords and everything that makes Norway what it is… Norway. Trolls abound everywhere, people are friendly. It’s very surreal.

Then there’s the story of the bird. We sat down outside to have coffee and pastry in Tromso the biggest city north of the Arctic Circle. It was “warm”, in the 40’s Fahrenheit, and down swoops this very large sea gull, grabs the pastry (as big as a dinner plate) and off it goes to consume our snack.

And at 71 degrees north this was as far as we got. The place is called Northcap and there is only one thing there, a building. Barren does not adequately describe it, windy only works if you add “hurricane force” to it. It was amazing though.