Crossing Arctic Circle plus Bodo & Lofoten Wall Friday 8 December 2017

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Crossing Arctic Circle plus Bodo & Lofoten Wall Friday 8 December 2017



The Arctic Circle marks the border to the Arctic region. Today was the day for crossing the Arctic Circle. This occurred about 7.30am. On the land was a lit-up globe which I almost missed but got to take some terrible quality photos of it in the distance!!!



We continue sailing along the beautiful coast of Helgeland up to Bodo. Later this afternoon the sight of the 1,000m high Lofoten Wall appeared on the horizon. The charms of the Lofoten Islands were revealed in all the small, picturesque fishing villages with their bohemian atmosphere. Crossing the Arctic Circle is when the hunt for the Arctic light began. We are hoping for clear skies but that might not happen until arriving in Lapland.



Stopping at Bodo we walked around the town admiring the street art as well as more Christmas decorations, on the advice of the lady at the Visitors Centre. There was an old bus parked in one of the streets. I noticed Father Christmas was driving the bus – well an inflatable Santa!!. Inside the bus was full of gingerbread buildings, similar to what we saw in Bergen. Fantastic!!



After getting back on the ship, I was desperate to go to the gym so did an hour’s stint on the stepper machine and bike. It felt great.



Later, King Neptune payed us a visit to celebrate our crossing of the Arctic Circle. King Neptune baptised everyone (who wanted to) by pouring ice blocks and water down each person’s back. Not me – but Tom took part in the ceremony. He immediately went back into our cabin to change his clothes while Sheryl and I had a Champagne!! Unfortunately, there was none left by the time Tom got back so I shared mine with him.



Inger gave us all our Certificate for crossing the Arctic Circle and we all had a shot of Norwegian cherry liquor to celebrate.



Before dinner, we were all invited to help decorate the ship’s Christmas tree and drink mulled wine and coffee, which was a bit of fun.



Later, around 9.00pm we all met of Deck 3 ready to go with Inger to a WW2 Aviation Museum in Svolvaer. We were waiting for the door to open but heard from a loud speaker announcement that they had cancelled the stop due to high winds. There were a dozen people who were to get off at Svolvaer but they had to stay on the ship.



We spent the rest of the evening chatting then catching up on photo management and diaries. We even had time to play a few rounds of bridge.



In this area we were experiencing sunrise at about 9.30am and the sun was starting to set at 2.30pm.

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