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Tuesday, 1/22 - Narvik & its battles in WWII

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We are beginning to hum (VERY softly) "Homeward Bound."  We arrive Narvik around 9AM, but only one of us can work up the energy to get moving at 11:45.  It is, for better or worse, another little town on a fjord, where the steep cliffs surrounding provide panoramic views.  It has a charming, old white wooden church (this one octagonal in honor of the eight beatitudes).  Its future was determined when the railroad arrived, bearing high-quality iron ore from nearby Sweden (where the port was NOT ice-free all year). octagonal church View of Narvik from across the fjord Route E-6, dubbed the longest road with a single route number for its entire length, runs through the town (and all the rest of the places we visited).  They  boast the second-longest suspension bridge in Norway and the 22nd-longest in the world, which replaced ferry service in 1964. There are three types of stone carving currently pursued, and Narvik is the only pl...
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Friday, 1/18 -- Tromso, the end of the Tirpitz

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We docked at Tromso around 1P, and promptly set off for Sommaroy Island.  This is a popular summer destination, but it offers winter charm as well.  We learned a variety of things about the town and the area on the way over ... such as, the difference between a "sound" and a "fjord."  Both words have been adopted into English; a sound is open at both ends (and therefore is all salt water).  A fjord, in contrast, is closed at one end (which usually is fed by a river flowing into it from the nearby mountains).  Therefore the water varies from salt at the sea end, to brackish, to fresh at the closed end.  Just what salmon need! Tromso itself is also a fairly new-construction city; it's the largest city north of the Arctic Circle (did I mention that we'd crossed that line?).  There's a major university here, focused on aquaculture and research on astronomical phenomena (such as the elusive Northern Lights), as well as more liberal-arts majors....
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Thursday, 1/17 -- Bodo, home of the U-2

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We arrived in Bodo about 1PM, having sailed all day and all night and all morning.  Norway is LONG from south to north. It's also far enough north that our town tour, starting at 4PM, was entirely in darkness.  The town was hard-hit as the Germans pulled back toward the end of WWII, emulating Sherman's march to the sea and burning everything in sight (except, usually, the churches).  There is quite a large section of town that was built after the war from lumber sent from Sweden, the homes look quite similar.  What a generous donation! There's a cathedral and an ancient white church, and the remains of a fort on a high overlook.  (I lost my footing on the way down the steep snow-covered slope and wound up just pushing myself down to level ground, where anxious Viking staff were more than happy to help me to my feet.  In a weird way, kind of fun ... haven't sledded down a hill in a very long time!) Did we mention it's DARK all the time?? The...
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