Honningsvag, Norway

 We arrived on schedule at 7:00 am and the Jewel of the Seas (2,500 passengers) followed shortly.  Pretty much the only thing going on here is to go up to North Cape and our bus left at 8:00 am.  North Cape (Nordkapp) claims to be the northernmost place in the world that you can reach by car at 71°10′21″N  25°47′04″E.  The weather here was overcast and as we climbed the 20 miles up to North Cape, it got worse.  The fog at times was so thick that visibility seemed to be down to 50 feet or so.  When we arrived, it was windy, foggy, and rainy all at once.  We raced out to the famous marker and took a selfie.  It wasn't as windy as it was when we were here in 2010, but at least that time we could see more.  This time you couldn't even see from the marker to the edge of the 1,000-foot cliff, which is probably about 30 feet away.

Windy and gray again!

And here's what it looks like when we're not there.

We dashed back to the beautiful visitor center for a cup of coffee and a shared chocolate croissant.  Then off to the souvenir store to pick up a few things for the grandkids.  There is a movie that was nice to watch because it showed what Nordkapp CAN look like, which is stunning.  You go down about 3 levels for the movie and some other exhibits, including a tiny chapel built into the rock.  It's all very well done.  By the time we finished visiting down below, the main level was packed.  We returned to our bus a few minutes early and counted around 16 buses there by then.

There is a souvenir shop back at the pier and it was absolutely jumping.  We spent a couple of minutes before skedaddling out of there.  I did go back later when the great crowds had left and bought a tea towel.  

This is Bamse (pronounced Bump-sa), a famous Norwegian dog who, among other things, sailed with his master on a minesweeper that escorted the King of Norway to the US during WWII.  I just thought the statue was cute.

And later the weather improved a bit and so I got this picture from our balcony before we sailed.

We missed out on points again in Trivia.  Terry  Bishop lectured about Raold Amundsen, the Norwegian Explorer and then we had dinner with Lois and Patrick.  We went to the show which was a wonderful guitarist from Greece named Dimitrius Dekavallas.  Then off to bed for another night with no sunset.  Sure glad I remembered my sleep mask.