June 18 - Honningsvag (North Cape) Norway

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Happy Father's Day, to all the Fathers reading about our adventure.

We arrived in Honningsvag Norway, which is also known as North Cape. This sits on the north part of Norway, between the Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea. There had originally been one more port on our cruise even further north, but it was cancelled some time ago for "environmental reasons". It's been light at night lately, but tonight we will try to actually get a photo of the sun at midnight from this northern most location.

The excursion we have booked today is a dinner on shore, so we had most of the day to do whatever we wanted on the ship. Janet got to spend some time with a few of her knitting friends. We also worked on the BLOG from yesterday. We were never able to upload the pictures, so we sent it with just text and will insert some pictures in a few days. We also had a chance to update our laundry situation while many people were off the ship. Then we had a light lunch before getting ready for our excursion.

The temperature today was in the high 40's with a steady but light breeze. It was sunny most of the day but started to get a little foggy when our excursion was finishing. This is actually pretty good weather for the farthest north place we go on this cruise. We've been told that the weather here could turn wet and cold with very little notice, So we were lucky today.

We had to meet the excursion on the pier at 3:50. We were directed to the bus, and it left soon after we got aboard. There were people in the front seats, but we got on/off via the mid-bus door, and it was manageable. The bus was only half full, so we didn't have to share a seat. We drove through a 4 km tunnel, and we were disappointed that it didn't have round-abouts. But we got to our destination in about 15 minutes.

We were at a the "King Crab Restaurant". This also included an explanation of how the crabs are caught, what the rules are for catching them, how much they can cost, how to determine a male from a female, and a lot more information. Then we were given the opportunity to hold one and get our picture taken with it. You are going to love the pictures from today when we can finally get them posted. They also demonstrated how to kill the crab and cut up the parts for cooking. They said that throwing them in a boiling pot of water would be painful to the crab and not humane, so he stabbed it in the head with a sharp knife. Apparently, there was no pain, but who really knows?

Then we adjourned to a building that looked like an Native American Teepee, but it was made of wood, was large enough to have 10 tables around the sides, and a very warm wood fire burning in the center. We were served fresh King Crab in the shell, and it was really delicious. It wasn't an all-you-can-eat meal, but we were full by the time we finished anyway.

Then the bus took us back to the ship to end the excursion. We skipped telling you the part where we had to climb down the 28-step gangway, walk about 3 blocks to the bus, get off the bus on the side of the road and walk across to the restaurant driveway. That may have been an exaggeration. This was just a gravel path with a very steep grade. Approaching the restaurant was steeply downhill, but the return to the bus was equally steep uphill and the gravel made it very difficult to roll the walker. Once the bus brought us back to the ship, we still had the long walk back to the ship and back up the 28-step gangway. All together it was another physically challenging day, but we made it and the meal was terrific. Yeah!

We spent the evening in the cabin watching another old movie - too tired to go to the Princess Theater. Good night.

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