The Arctic Circle and beyond plus five thoughts about Norway…

I'm so short, they left me back at Sandnessjoen.  Notice how I'm clutching my Hurtigruten coffee mug.  It was early.

The globe marks the place where one crosses the Arctic Circle.  Those people in the boat seem to be fishing.

1)  Bet you’re pretty sick of my Norway pics by now.  I won’t be posting too many more.  Believe it or not, this has been barely a dent in the number of gigs that are still on my computer.  In any case, these particular pictures are ones I took around the time we were crossing the Arctic Circle.  Before we left, I read a review of this part of the Hurtigruten trip.  The person said that it was a big disappointment because they were expecting more than this goofy monument.  I’m not sure what that person wanted…fireworks or a laser line showing the demarcation, I guess.  But I found that it was enough for me and I considered us to be very lucky to have such beautiful weather.  Greg made sure we were going to cross on the Summer Solstice and we actually crossed just about a half hour past the actual Solstice time.  I liked that!

2)  Here are a few things we learned about trolls on this trip.  Trolls turn into rocks if they don’t make their curfew or, in other words, if they are found out in daylight.  That is why Norway is so rocky.  Trolls have four fingers and four toes and a bushy tale.  They can have one or two heads and sometimes one eye.  They come in all sizes.  They like to live underneath bridges and in waterfalls.  They can be good or bad, but mostly they are good.  Those big white rolls you see in fields that you thought were hay bales are actually troll toilet paper.

3)  We took the boat all the way to the end of the voyage in Kirkenes, Norway, which is way up north.  The day we were in Kirkenes, we were surprised to find that it was ten degrees warmer there at the top of the world than it was in Oslo almost 2,000 miles to the south.  Whether or not this is a common occurrence, I have no idea.

4)  The weather in Kirkenes that day wasn’t the only thing that surprised me about being above the Arctic Circle.  One is that there are a lot more people living up there than I thought there would be.  Another thing was that there are actually mallards up there.  I have to wonder if there is any place on earth with water where mallards aren’t.  I need to look that up.

5)  When I was sitting in the hotel lobby in Bergen one day, I overheard a conversation being held by two distinguished looking, older British women.  I wasn’t eavesdropping really, but I couldn’t help hearing them.  They talked about their gardens and a book both liked.  Then one of them said, “There is the summoning.”  A man was standing across the lobby gesturing impatiently to them to come along.  The other said, “Oh, yes.  He’s always summoning me to places I don’t want to go.”  I had to smile.

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