On day 5 (May 18th), we arrive in Tromsø, the arctic capital, having officially crossed the arctic parallel at 66°33’.

We set out on our own to walk the city and attempt the 1300 Sherpa steps up the mountain Fjellheisen.

We learned that Sherpas from Himalaya came to Norway to carve out steps in several areas to make the hikes safer.

Once off the boat we realize that the hiking trails begins on the other side of the long bridge (1.5Km) and are worried about timing so we take a cab to the beginning of the trail. Thankfully because we doubt we could have found them on our own!

We begin hiking up a very muddy trail in search of the steps. We arrive at a beautiful viewpoint and take a short break on the bench. Up we go on the steps, to discover after about 250 steps that they become more and more covered in snow and ice! The hike up becomes more traitorous but we start being concerned with the way down as the cable car is closed for maintenance. We come across locals who are hiking down with crampons and poles and decide to turn around a bit short of halfway for our safety.

Nonetheless, we were able to take in beautiful views of the town, high and long bridge and the ski jump.

Once at the bottom, we decide to walk back to the boat, crossing that bridge!

We walk by a small Sami museum and spend time admiring their intricate costumes.

We found a lovely small restaurant by the harbour to enjoy a well deserved beer, fries and reindeer sausage and purchase great beer mug with the map of Norway.

On day 6 (May 19)

We take an excursion to the North Cape, where the arctic globe is installed!

From Honningvar, it is 40 minutes straight North. This road was only opened in the 1950s.

It is never very cold and never really hot here because of the Gulf Stream. But in the winter, they have a lot of snow and strong winds.

We see many many herds of reindeers, which I was really hoping to see. There are 6000 reindeers on this island. Beautiful, peaceful animals!

They are only on this island in the summer, brought here by boat to have their young ones and to eat and regain strength after the winter in the mainland. There are no predators here which is why there are brought here in the summer. But in the winter, it is too icy for them to break through and find grass to feed so they must go on the mainland where the snow is softer. The Sami herd them back and forth

In September, they swim back 1.8km to the mainland for the winter.

We see a Sami house in where they domesticate reindeers. There are roughly 30,000 Sami in Norway which is the largest population in Scandinavia.

We go up 300metres in altitude and the views are beautiful, of course with more lake and snowy peaks

We arrive at the North Cape on the small island if Vikingen with a bit of fog but are still able to see out towards the North Pole. We are now at 71°10’.

There is a lovely exposition of 7 sculptures. Years ago a Norwegian children’s book author was the driving force behind the children monument. They invited 7 children from around the world to come and create a sculpture representing world unity. They then turned them into big sculpture exposed across from the Madonna sculpture.

It is truly impressive.

I finally find my norvégien sweater in the store at the top of the world!

Day 7 (May 20th)

On our way around and down to Kirkenes which is close to the boarder with Russia, the sea beside rougher with much larger rolling waves. I get sea sick a bit and realize that laying down is the best solution!

We also learned that several of the town in the North suffered severe bombing during WW2 and were taken over by the nazis and they were freed by the Russian.

Kirkenes is a dull town and the scenery is not as spectacular with bare hills on the horizon. The town is also completed deserted as they are closed in Monday for Pentecost day. A local tell us that most people leave to go to their cabins for the long weekend.

As soon as we leave Kirkenes, we turn around and begin the journey back south.

Day 8 (May 21st)

The first stop on our voyage south is Hammerfest.

We decide to attend the hike called Gammelveien (old road) on our road as it zigzags up to provide a view of the town and harbour.

But we quickly discovered that winter was not over here and the trail is covered in snow and ice after about 10 minutes hiking up. We still enjoyed a nice view and made our way back.

We stop by the town that was rebuilt after the bombing to admire a beautiful work of stained glass.

The view from the church yard is also beautiful!

Tomorrow we continue our journey south with two excursions!

Better have a good night sleep.