into the blue

Norway Tuesday 1 December 2015

When I took a look at today's photos from the ship I realised I'd hit the blue hour when the low light and the surrounding snow reflect off eachother with breathtaking effect.

And Joe Cocker's Out of the Blue, which I've always loved, comes to mind - have a listen

So here we go . . .

During the night we stopped at Hammerfest but I drifted back to sleep and by morning there was this wonderful vista from our porthole

Had a stroll around the deck after breakfast, which was a veritable feast of porridge, fishes, meats, cheeses, fruits, boiled eggs (of course) and all you could name.

and next we swing into an icy Honningsvåg, the most northerly city in Norway.  Tiny as cities go - but magical all lit up against the darkening day

Then a walk round to our coaches for the trip to Nordkapp.  Loved the look of Cafe Corner, but sadly no time to sample it's delights which, according to this lovely blog, are many - Cafes to Contemplate 

quick peek back at our mighty Finnmarken, towering above the fishing vessels and lying in wait until our return. 

and so we were whisked off on the half hour or so coach trip through snow covered mountain passes - this is probably the last day they won't need to be preceded by the snow plough they said!

And here we are at land's end - the northernmost tip of Europe with next stop, across that cold dark sea, the Svalbard archipelago and then the North Pole itself.  An awesome sense of place.  Freezing and windy and incredible.

My first snow this year - wahoooooo

Mike just about visible what with the thermal layers and the pitch dark and it's only 2pm! 

When we got back to the boat they were serving up hot chocolate and freshly-baked warm apple cake - extremely welcome and exceedingly tasty.

Had a few more ventures on the outside decks to see hauls of king crabs being delivered (which were later served up at dinner!) and our arrival at Kjøllefjord.

It was really exciting being up on deck in the freezing cold with the ship ploughing on through the dark seas and the wind whipping about our hooded figures.

Rain tonight so no clear skies for the aurora but last night was so spectacular we weren't expecting another display (but how wrong we were . . . .)

Spotted a poster of all the Hurtigruten ships and this was the MS Narvik that we caught for a couple of stops one summer all those years ago from the Lofoten Islands to Honningsvåg - happy memories . . .

Read on here for Wednesday - almost in Russia . . 

And if you've missed the start of our sea adventure - then just click here to go back to Monday