Honningsvag, Norway

 

June 24

    So here we are in another Norwegian town.  This one is really small.  The fjord is beautiful, as they all are.

The ship stops here because it is near the northern most part of mainland Europe.  As you might remember, the last port at Longyearbyen, is the northern most populated place on earth.  But to the north of where we are, in Honningsvag, is North Cape.  The “northern most part of mainland Europe”.  I make a point of this because we were given a map of the town and it looks like this:

                                                      

You should note that we are on an island.  An Island.  How is this the norther most part of “mainland” Europe?  I asked.  Well, it is connected by a tunnel, I was told.  So based on that explaination, England is on Mainland Europe, too.  Who knows…..it works for them and our ship stopped there.

We walked around the town for a couple of hours.  Seems 2 hours of walking is my limit.

First we walked to a church.  This is not unusual.  Churches are a serious draw, especially for me.  Why?  Don’t know.  I love cemeteries, too.  Especially ones with old tombstones.

                                                             

Duane could not resist seeing what it was like in the pulpit. 

                            

We were unable to find any old tombstones, which was very strange.  It seems this church is the only building that came through WWII.  So where are the old tombstones?  I found someone placing flowers at a tombstone, and luckily he spoke English.  It seems that you pay to have someone buried and you have to pay again every 50 years.  So unless the family still lives in the area and pays the fee, the plot will go to someone else.  So, no old tombstones.  Interesting.

We found a recycled items art gallery.  The artist, who wasn’t there, is from the US.  She collected over 1200 shoes and boots that washed up on the shore and made them into art.  Here are a couple of examples.

      

This is the latitude of the town

                                                

and here is a native dressed lady in a shop of just handmade stuff.

Of course there are trolls here, too.  This troll hit me in the head

   and this troll lives with me 

I just had to take this picture…..FEED ME SEYMOUR !!!