Steve and Cathy's Blog

Sirena docks at 7am at the one cruise dock in town. Our tour starts at 8:15 today, so we eat breakfast at the Terrace Café. Our good weather karma is apparently taking a couple of days off. It’s cold, damp and windy. We are taking a bus trip to Nord Kapp, or North Cape in the English language. 

Since our visit will be completely out of town, here’s just a brief Wikipedia intro to Honningsvag: “ …the northernmost city in mainland Norway. It is located in Nordkapp Municipalityin Troms og Finnmark county. Honningsvåg was declared a city in 1996, despite its small population. The 1.05-square-kilometre (260-acre) town has a population of 2,484 (2017).” Now, you might recall that Hammerfest refers to itself as the northernmost city in mainland Norway. It actually depends on how you define “city.” Hammerfest uses the technical definition of any community over 10,000 being a city. Honningsvag, however, because it was designated a city in 1986, before this definition was applicable, claims the honor. Whatever. Both communities are way, way up north. The dispute seems in good fun for both towns.

This is the perfect trip on a day with disagreeable weather. It’s an unguided tour that begins with a bus ride of 20 miles over a very hilly road with constant curves, which is why it will take 45 minutes. It begins with foggy skies and 25-knot winds. We’ve been warned to be ready for this kind of weather. We see a few “teenage” reindeer, and dozens of lakes, some as small as 100ft in diameter. Switchbacks back and forth as we ascend a mountain. Then only other vehicles we see are camper vans passing us going the other way. Apparently 200,000 people per year visit North Cape. These camper vans are everywhere in Norway, where you are allowed to camp anywhere for two days – anywhere.

Halfway there at the top of a mountain, the wind is howling and intermittent rain has started, eliminating the chance to take decent photos out the window. Steve admires the driver’s skill in this wind, because the road is narrow and it must be difficult to drive something as big as a bus in such wind.

We arrive at 9:20. We leave the bus, and the wind has to be gusting to 50mph at times. We enter the large and very modern exhibition building. 

It has been suggested that we begin our visit by watching the 20-minute introductory movie, so we trek the two floors down to the theater. The production is excellent. There is no narration, just music, but it gives a wonderful initiation to the area. There are segments on the midnight sun, and a Sami reindeer drive, and plenty of scenes with snow.  It begins with late fall, then at least ten minutes spent on winter, followed by video of spring scenery, and then summer. It finishes with beautiful fall scenes. It is a beautiful part of the world as seen through the producer’s lens.

After the movie ends, we check out the dioramas showing special historical events that have taken place on the North Cape.

After that, we separate for a while. There’s lots to see: several dioramas, other exhibitions of Nord Kapp history, a large café, a fully-stocked gift shop (naturally) and a sitting area looking north. Steve takes special interest in the exhibit on Murmansk convoys that passed this way all during WWII bringing supplies to the Soviet Union. Incredible bravery and dedication of thousands of civilians in wicked, miserable conditions.

By now, it’s 10:00am and we’re due to depart at 10:45, so Steve finds Cathy in the sitting area that looks out to the north. She is enjoying the people-watching activities, and has already checked out the gift shop. Steve feels compelled to venture out into the weather to take some photos of the area. She thinks he’s nuts. He heads out and is back in ten minutes, mission accomplished.

He takes a stab at the gift shop because we want to buy postcards to send the kids and mail them from this farthest point inn continental Europe. Then we write out the cards and put them in the special post box. Time to leave.

It’s raining pretty steadily now, and we just watch the starkly beautiful tundra scenery as we make the 45-minute trip back to Honningsvag. The driver has to take it easy, and he does a great job.

Back to town in time and back on to the ship for lunch.

Weather is still cold, damp and windy. Terrace Café for lunch, then Cathy watches an enrichment lecture on Mary Queen of Scots to prepare for our visit to Edinburgh. Then we both nap to prepare for the two special events we will be attending this evening. 

The first is a Captain’s Cocktail Party in the Sirena Lounge at 5:45. We normally pass up these events, but tonight we are to receive recognition for achieving Platinum Level membership in the Oceania Club by accruing 20 points for having cruised so much with Oceania. It’s a marketing gimmick, of course, but this level comes with some pretty good perks. So we go, and it’s much, much more fun than we expected. The Oceania Band is playing, the Captain and General Manager greet the must-be 100 guests, we get free cocktails and the atmosphere is very festive. Cruise Director Julie James begins the program around 6:10 by calling up the Captain, the General Manager and the Oceania Club Ambassador (aka, the salesperson on board). She thanks the captain and crew (many of the ship’s officers are also in attendance, standing at the rear of the room, all rocking in unison as the ship gently rolls, as Cath notices), and then the awards ceremony begins. They announce names for various levels, then comes Platinum. Individuals or couples that are receiving commemorative pins are called up individually, and the audience claps and cheers. It’s fun, mainly because it’s an unusual thing to do on our cruise.

By the way, it’s when Julie thanks the captain for all the hard work that day that we get the answer to a question we’ve had all day. From the time we docked, it has seemed to us that the ship’s engines are still running, sometimes quietly and sometimes with significant vibration. Well, it was true. As said above, the wind has been a big weather factor today. Because the dock in Honningsvag is so short, it has not been possible to adequately secure the ship with enough lines, making it necessary to use the ship’s propulsion systems to keep us fast to the dock in this wind. Not an easy day for the bridge, but an interesting situation to have observed.

Well, we have to leave the party a few minutes early, because our second departure from our daily routine is to begin at 6:30. We have made a reservation to have dinner at one of the two specialty restaurants, Toscana Steak. This is a hybrid of two types of cuisine: Steakhouse and Italian. It is up on Deck 10, right on the stern. It’s decorated quite differently than the Grand Dining Room, as you would expect. Of course, it has a completely different menu, and is pretty upscale. Unlike on most cruise ships, there is no charge for dining here. They just require reservations. 

The dinner is a huge amount of fun. We are seated overlooking the stern, just where we wanted to be. The service is excellent, of course, and we see several of the staff members we normally see in other dining venues, which is fun in itself. It’s a great change of pace, and you almost feel as if you’re on a different ship. We both have 6-ounce filet mignon steaks and creamed spinach, sauteed mushrooms and tiny popovers. 

Well, this has been quite a day for us. We’ve been heading for Tromso, Norway since 4pm and the sea is active but behaving. Just enough motion to rock us to sleep around 9pm.