Post by Low Light Mike on Oct 28, 2006 10:49:19 GMT -8
from Vancouver Sun:
www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=6c8a7a4f-92e1-4e2f-ad4d-7293dbce899f&k=70502
==========================
Saturday » October 28 » 2006
Sailing far above the Arctic Circle
Terese Loeb Kreuzer
Travel Arts Syndicate
BERGEN, Norway - On an afternoon in mid-August, Bergen was awash in sunlight. Crowds basked in the cafes lining the wide wharf in front of wooden warehouses built centuries ago by Hanseatic merchants. In the busy fish market, shoppers eyed filets of wild salmon, king crabs, tins of caviar, glistening fruit, handicrafts and racks of sealskins. Musicians from the Andes piped cheerful music.
Across from the troubadors, a few rays of sunlight filtered into the dark, half-shuttered rooms of the Hanseatic Museum at one end of the historic wharf. On the ground floor, stacks of salted fish from cold, northern seas indicated what brought the German traders to Bergen in the 14th century, and what kept them there until 1754. Almost two centuries later, the Germans returned.
The UNESCO-heritage buildings that line one side of the Bryggen harbour are not mirrored on the other side. Those buildings were destroyed during the Nazi occupation of Norway (from 1940 to 1945) when a ship carrying tons of explosives blew up and burned.
Germans and fish and the beckoning north -- these occupied my thoughts on that sunny afternoon as I waited for 6 p.m. -- the appointed time to board the coastal steamer, Nordnorge, and begin the 4,000 km journey along the Norwegian coast to Kirkenes -- far above the Arctic Circle.
Since 1893, the Coastal Express (Hurtigruten in Norwegian) has been a lifeline to the towns and villages along the coast of Norway. Many communities are on islands, only accessible by boat. The packet boats come through twice a day -- one going north, the other going south -- year round. They carry tourists plus cargo, cars and Norwegians who use them for relatively short trips between islands.
There was no fanfare when the Nordnorge pulled away from the dock at 8 p.m and turned north.
North! The poles of the earth are magnetic. The idea of going north to the very end of the European continent pulled me like a magnet. I could understand the quest (if not the courage) of the great Norwegian explorers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries -- Fridtjof Nansen and Roald Amundsen -- who were captivated by the idea of getting to the earth's polar extremes.
After dinner and nightfall, I went to my cabin and tried to sleep but couldn't. I took a blanket and went out on deck. There, I propped myself on two chairs in a sheltered corner, somewhat out of the wind, and watched the dark shapes of islands, the Big Dipper pointing towards the North Star and a sliver of moon rising over the water, cutting a brilliant path of light. Eventually, I dozed off.
The ship's round-trip journey from Bergen to Kirkenes and back takes 12 days. In each direction, the boat makes 34 stops. Some passengers take the whole trip so they can see the places the ship passed in darkness. Others sail one way and fly the other.
Around 7 a.m., just as the dining room was opening for breakfast, we arrived at Torvik on an island with 8,500 inhabitants. A typical stop, the ship stayed half an hour -- long enough to load and off-load cargo and passengers. Neat red-and-white houses bordered a sloping, green field with darker pine trees clinging to the sides of a small mountain. I wondered about the group waiting for us on the dock -- four adults and two children. What was it like to live in such an isolated spot?
From a later perspective, Torvik seemed verdant, accessible and populated. In Geiranger Fjord, which we visited that afternoon, we saw farms perched on the sides of steep mountains, only reachable by climbing. Young children who lived in such places had to be tethered to keep them from falling off the cliffs.
Most of these farms are now abandoned. Norway has grown prosperous from oil. Prices are high, but so are wages. "We do live on the very sunny side of life, most of us," said Hilary Sem, a guide from Oslo.
Nevertheless, there are shadows. On our third day aboard the boat, we stopped in Trondheim, which was founded by the Viking king Olav Trygvasson in 997. Nidaros Cathedral where many of Norway's kings have been crowned or blessed, is dedicated to another Olav -- Olav Haraldsson -- who died at the battle of Stiklestad in 1030. When he converted to Christianity and decided others should, too, he brutalized and killed them if they balked. However, after his death, and several miraculous cures, he became Norway's patron saint.
Nidaros Cathedral, the world's most northern medieval cathedral, was a former pilgrimage site and has become so again. Portions of St. Olav's body, once housed in a golden reliquary behind the altar, were displaced during the Reformation in 1537, when the cathedral turned from Catholic to Lutheran, and are now buried somewhere on the grounds -- no one knows where.
Relics of more modern events are carefully displayed. In the south transept are two flags. One was flown from the HMS Norfolk, the ship that brought King Haakon VII back to Norway from England in 1945 after the German occupation ended. The other came from the HMS Mackay, a British ship that was the first Allied vessel to reach Trondheim in 1945.
Much of northern Norway was bombed and burned to the ground during the Second World War. Bodo, where we stopped on the fourth day of the trip, lost two-thirds of its buildings in April and May,1940. Bodo is now the site of northern Norway's defense headquarters. As we sped over Bodo harbour in rubber Zodiacs, searching for sea eagles -- Europe's largest predatory bird capable of carrying off lambs and other large animals -- F16s flew overhead.
On the morning of Day Four, at 12 seconds after 7 a.m. we crossed the Arctic Circle -- 66 degrees 33 seconds north of the Equator. The landscape was growing sterner, the sky more somber, layered with heavy clouds through which sunlight sometimes streamed with awesome majesty.
We threaded our way through rocky islands where we saw isolated houses and small settlements. Eli Karine Pedersen, who was on the boat with her father and aunts, runs a guest house on one of those islands -- 22 kilometres long with a population of 150. Dyroy -- "Eli's island" as I began to call it -- is two hours by boat from Tromso, northern Norway's largest city (population, around 60,000). Pedersen had once worked as a nurse in Tromso, but moved from there 10 years ago into an old farmhouse.
"It's so good to have all the air and light around me from the nature," she said, explaining her choice. "People on the island make parties...I don't feel it's isolated. Most of my neighbours are old people. But it's really nice people. We care about each other."
On Day Six of the trip, we reached Hammerfest, said to be the northernmost settlement in the world with a population of 6,000 or more. Artifacts from Stone Age settlements have been found there.
Hammerfest has burned down on several occasions. In 1890, the fire started in a bakery, and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, who had visited the town several times, provided funds to rebuild. Most recently, the town was burned down by retreating Germans towards the end of the Second World War.
Honnigsvaag is north of Hammerfest. A sign on a building by the dock says "71 degrees north, 1,311 miles to the North Pole."
Reindeer graze on the steep slopes above the town. Here we boarded buses for North Cape. Except for one wind-swept rock, this is the northernmost point in continental Europe.
The road was an insignificant human interpolation in a treeless, barren landscape canopied with dense clouds.
At North Cape, then, what a shock to find a visitors' centre with a cafe, store, exhibits, a film -- and a marker outside pointing to an orb purporting to be Europe's northernmost point. Hordes of people went in that direction to have their pictures taken beside this monument.
I turned the other way, towards the rough, empty land sloping towards the Arctic Ocean. There was nothing to break the horizon, which was as vast as anything I had ever seen.
I bent down and saw tiny, brilliantly coloured flowers and miniature mushrooms growing in the thin, rocky soil. Thousands of years ago, I thought, people must have come here to say their prayers.
I looked up the slope. At the top were large, round discs and a statue of a woman and a boy -- a peace monument designed in 1988 by seven children from various parts of the world.
From a distance, the discs resembled the boulders of Stonehenge.
- Terese Loeb Kreuzer is the editor of the Travel Arts Syndicate and has written extensively about destinations around the world.
- - -
IF YOU GO
- Excursions
Excursions vary in price from $27 to $150. Don't miss Geiranger Fjord and the hair-raising zig-zags of the Trollstigen (Troll Road); a tour of Trondheim and Nidaros Cathedral where Norway's kings have been crowned or blessed; a close encounter with sea eagles (Europe's largest predatory bird, with a wing span of two metres) in Bodo; a tour of Tromso, with its polar exploration museums and its interesting cultural museum; and most especially, a tour of North Cape, with the exception of one windswept rock, the northernmost point in continental Europe and home of the Sami people whose reindeer trot along the road and graze placidly beside it.
- Getting around
Bergen: The Bergen Card offers free bus travel within the city limits, free admittance to most museums and attractions and other discounts, including parking. Cost, $30 to $40. Available online at www.visitbergen.com and at the Tourist Information office in Bergen. Also available at some hotels and at the railway station.
Oslo: The Oslo Pass, good for 24, 48 or 72 hours, offers free public transportation (excluding the train to the airport), free admission to most museums and attractions, free parking in municipal lots and discounts on sightseeing tours and car rentals. Cost, about $35 to $65. Available online at www.visitoslo.com/the-oslo-pass.49104.en.html as well as at hotels and tourism offices.
- Recommended reading
They Painted Norway by Arvid Bryne; Andresen & Butenschon AS (2004). This slim book of Norwegian landscapes by Norwegian artists illuminates Norwegian history and culture.
- For more information
Bergen Tourist Board: www.visitBergen.com
Oslo: www.visitoslo.com
Norway: www.visitnorway.com
NORWEGIAN COASTAL VOYAGE (HURTIGRUTEN)
Year round, 11 ships in the Norwegian Coastal Voyage fleet ply the coast of Norway between Bergen (pictured above) and Kirkenes. The oldest, built in the early 1980s, have half the passenger capacity of the newest ones, which entered service in 2002 and can carry around 700 passengers plus cars and cargo. (In addition, there are two ships dating from the 1960s that make special, limited excursions during the summer months.) Prices vary widely, depending on the choice of ship, the number of days on board, cabin choices, whether meals are included and the time of year. Optional excursions add to the cost. During some months of the year, backpackers can travel using a special ticket that allows them to get on and off any of the boats during the course of a month for $185. They bed down in the lounges and are awakened at dawn by the cleaning crews, who vacuum noisily around them. Double cabins, including three meals daily, start at $1,593 US for a 12-day sailing with discounts for seniors, 67 and over. For more information, prices and reservations: 800-323-7436; Brochure orders: 800-666-2374; www.norwegiancoastalvoyage.us.
© The Vancouver Sun 2006
www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=6c8a7a4f-92e1-4e2f-ad4d-7293dbce899f&k=70502
==========================
Saturday » October 28 » 2006
Sailing far above the Arctic Circle
Terese Loeb Kreuzer
Travel Arts Syndicate
BERGEN, Norway - On an afternoon in mid-August, Bergen was awash in sunlight. Crowds basked in the cafes lining the wide wharf in front of wooden warehouses built centuries ago by Hanseatic merchants. In the busy fish market, shoppers eyed filets of wild salmon, king crabs, tins of caviar, glistening fruit, handicrafts and racks of sealskins. Musicians from the Andes piped cheerful music.
Across from the troubadors, a few rays of sunlight filtered into the dark, half-shuttered rooms of the Hanseatic Museum at one end of the historic wharf. On the ground floor, stacks of salted fish from cold, northern seas indicated what brought the German traders to Bergen in the 14th century, and what kept them there until 1754. Almost two centuries later, the Germans returned.
The UNESCO-heritage buildings that line one side of the Bryggen harbour are not mirrored on the other side. Those buildings were destroyed during the Nazi occupation of Norway (from 1940 to 1945) when a ship carrying tons of explosives blew up and burned.
Germans and fish and the beckoning north -- these occupied my thoughts on that sunny afternoon as I waited for 6 p.m. -- the appointed time to board the coastal steamer, Nordnorge, and begin the 4,000 km journey along the Norwegian coast to Kirkenes -- far above the Arctic Circle.
Since 1893, the Coastal Express (Hurtigruten in Norwegian) has been a lifeline to the towns and villages along the coast of Norway. Many communities are on islands, only accessible by boat. The packet boats come through twice a day -- one going north, the other going south -- year round. They carry tourists plus cargo, cars and Norwegians who use them for relatively short trips between islands.
There was no fanfare when the Nordnorge pulled away from the dock at 8 p.m and turned north.
North! The poles of the earth are magnetic. The idea of going north to the very end of the European continent pulled me like a magnet. I could understand the quest (if not the courage) of the great Norwegian explorers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries -- Fridtjof Nansen and Roald Amundsen -- who were captivated by the idea of getting to the earth's polar extremes.
After dinner and nightfall, I went to my cabin and tried to sleep but couldn't. I took a blanket and went out on deck. There, I propped myself on two chairs in a sheltered corner, somewhat out of the wind, and watched the dark shapes of islands, the Big Dipper pointing towards the North Star and a sliver of moon rising over the water, cutting a brilliant path of light. Eventually, I dozed off.
The ship's round-trip journey from Bergen to Kirkenes and back takes 12 days. In each direction, the boat makes 34 stops. Some passengers take the whole trip so they can see the places the ship passed in darkness. Others sail one way and fly the other.
Around 7 a.m., just as the dining room was opening for breakfast, we arrived at Torvik on an island with 8,500 inhabitants. A typical stop, the ship stayed half an hour -- long enough to load and off-load cargo and passengers. Neat red-and-white houses bordered a sloping, green field with darker pine trees clinging to the sides of a small mountain. I wondered about the group waiting for us on the dock -- four adults and two children. What was it like to live in such an isolated spot?
From a later perspective, Torvik seemed verdant, accessible and populated. In Geiranger Fjord, which we visited that afternoon, we saw farms perched on the sides of steep mountains, only reachable by climbing. Young children who lived in such places had to be tethered to keep them from falling off the cliffs.
Most of these farms are now abandoned. Norway has grown prosperous from oil. Prices are high, but so are wages. "We do live on the very sunny side of life, most of us," said Hilary Sem, a guide from Oslo.
Nevertheless, there are shadows. On our third day aboard the boat, we stopped in Trondheim, which was founded by the Viking king Olav Trygvasson in 997. Nidaros Cathedral where many of Norway's kings have been crowned or blessed, is dedicated to another Olav -- Olav Haraldsson -- who died at the battle of Stiklestad in 1030. When he converted to Christianity and decided others should, too, he brutalized and killed them if they balked. However, after his death, and several miraculous cures, he became Norway's patron saint.
Nidaros Cathedral, the world's most northern medieval cathedral, was a former pilgrimage site and has become so again. Portions of St. Olav's body, once housed in a golden reliquary behind the altar, were displaced during the Reformation in 1537, when the cathedral turned from Catholic to Lutheran, and are now buried somewhere on the grounds -- no one knows where.
Relics of more modern events are carefully displayed. In the south transept are two flags. One was flown from the HMS Norfolk, the ship that brought King Haakon VII back to Norway from England in 1945 after the German occupation ended. The other came from the HMS Mackay, a British ship that was the first Allied vessel to reach Trondheim in 1945.
Much of northern Norway was bombed and burned to the ground during the Second World War. Bodo, where we stopped on the fourth day of the trip, lost two-thirds of its buildings in April and May,1940. Bodo is now the site of northern Norway's defense headquarters. As we sped over Bodo harbour in rubber Zodiacs, searching for sea eagles -- Europe's largest predatory bird capable of carrying off lambs and other large animals -- F16s flew overhead.
On the morning of Day Four, at 12 seconds after 7 a.m. we crossed the Arctic Circle -- 66 degrees 33 seconds north of the Equator. The landscape was growing sterner, the sky more somber, layered with heavy clouds through which sunlight sometimes streamed with awesome majesty.
We threaded our way through rocky islands where we saw isolated houses and small settlements. Eli Karine Pedersen, who was on the boat with her father and aunts, runs a guest house on one of those islands -- 22 kilometres long with a population of 150. Dyroy -- "Eli's island" as I began to call it -- is two hours by boat from Tromso, northern Norway's largest city (population, around 60,000). Pedersen had once worked as a nurse in Tromso, but moved from there 10 years ago into an old farmhouse.
"It's so good to have all the air and light around me from the nature," she said, explaining her choice. "People on the island make parties...I don't feel it's isolated. Most of my neighbours are old people. But it's really nice people. We care about each other."
On Day Six of the trip, we reached Hammerfest, said to be the northernmost settlement in the world with a population of 6,000 or more. Artifacts from Stone Age settlements have been found there.
Hammerfest has burned down on several occasions. In 1890, the fire started in a bakery, and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, who had visited the town several times, provided funds to rebuild. Most recently, the town was burned down by retreating Germans towards the end of the Second World War.
Honnigsvaag is north of Hammerfest. A sign on a building by the dock says "71 degrees north, 1,311 miles to the North Pole."
Reindeer graze on the steep slopes above the town. Here we boarded buses for North Cape. Except for one wind-swept rock, this is the northernmost point in continental Europe.
The road was an insignificant human interpolation in a treeless, barren landscape canopied with dense clouds.
At North Cape, then, what a shock to find a visitors' centre with a cafe, store, exhibits, a film -- and a marker outside pointing to an orb purporting to be Europe's northernmost point. Hordes of people went in that direction to have their pictures taken beside this monument.
I turned the other way, towards the rough, empty land sloping towards the Arctic Ocean. There was nothing to break the horizon, which was as vast as anything I had ever seen.
I bent down and saw tiny, brilliantly coloured flowers and miniature mushrooms growing in the thin, rocky soil. Thousands of years ago, I thought, people must have come here to say their prayers.
I looked up the slope. At the top were large, round discs and a statue of a woman and a boy -- a peace monument designed in 1988 by seven children from various parts of the world.
From a distance, the discs resembled the boulders of Stonehenge.
- Terese Loeb Kreuzer is the editor of the Travel Arts Syndicate and has written extensively about destinations around the world.
- - -
IF YOU GO
- Excursions
Excursions vary in price from $27 to $150. Don't miss Geiranger Fjord and the hair-raising zig-zags of the Trollstigen (Troll Road); a tour of Trondheim and Nidaros Cathedral where Norway's kings have been crowned or blessed; a close encounter with sea eagles (Europe's largest predatory bird, with a wing span of two metres) in Bodo; a tour of Tromso, with its polar exploration museums and its interesting cultural museum; and most especially, a tour of North Cape, with the exception of one windswept rock, the northernmost point in continental Europe and home of the Sami people whose reindeer trot along the road and graze placidly beside it.
- Getting around
Bergen: The Bergen Card offers free bus travel within the city limits, free admittance to most museums and attractions and other discounts, including parking. Cost, $30 to $40. Available online at www.visitbergen.com and at the Tourist Information office in Bergen. Also available at some hotels and at the railway station.
Oslo: The Oslo Pass, good for 24, 48 or 72 hours, offers free public transportation (excluding the train to the airport), free admission to most museums and attractions, free parking in municipal lots and discounts on sightseeing tours and car rentals. Cost, about $35 to $65. Available online at www.visitoslo.com/the-oslo-pass.49104.en.html as well as at hotels and tourism offices.
- Recommended reading
They Painted Norway by Arvid Bryne; Andresen & Butenschon AS (2004). This slim book of Norwegian landscapes by Norwegian artists illuminates Norwegian history and culture.
- For more information
Bergen Tourist Board: www.visitBergen.com
Oslo: www.visitoslo.com
Norway: www.visitnorway.com
NORWEGIAN COASTAL VOYAGE (HURTIGRUTEN)
Year round, 11 ships in the Norwegian Coastal Voyage fleet ply the coast of Norway between Bergen (pictured above) and Kirkenes. The oldest, built in the early 1980s, have half the passenger capacity of the newest ones, which entered service in 2002 and can carry around 700 passengers plus cars and cargo. (In addition, there are two ships dating from the 1960s that make special, limited excursions during the summer months.) Prices vary widely, depending on the choice of ship, the number of days on board, cabin choices, whether meals are included and the time of year. Optional excursions add to the cost. During some months of the year, backpackers can travel using a special ticket that allows them to get on and off any of the boats during the course of a month for $185. They bed down in the lounges and are awakened at dawn by the cleaning crews, who vacuum noisily around them. Double cabins, including three meals daily, start at $1,593 US for a 12-day sailing with discounts for seniors, 67 and over. For more information, prices and reservations: 800-323-7436; Brochure orders: 800-666-2374; www.norwegiancoastalvoyage.us.
© The Vancouver Sun 2006
