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Newsletter #49 - May 20 to 27, 1960 |
Newsletter #49 Hello Folks: [May 20] We're still enjoying our days at sea and had a good excursion today in Trondheim, Norway's third largest town. Trondheim's outstanding monument is the Nidaros Cathedral, dating from 1090, where seven of Norway's kings have been crowned and nine of her monarchs are buried. We visited the Ringve Museum where we saw and really enjoyed a mag- nificent collection of musical instruments of all ages, amusingly described by an English girl, with a fascinating Norwegian girl demonstrating many of the instruments by playing short tunes on them. Here we were welcomed by a vivacious lady who was the creator of this fine museum. The center of the town is the peninsula between the fiord and the Nid River and here we saw many old and interesting buildings, broad streets, low wooden buildings, narrow alleys, old-fashioned warehouses and a picturesque bridge which certainly added to the charm and grace of Trondheim. On the hills around the town and the slopes that run down to the river the more modern part of the town has grown up and in both sections we saw new and old architecture blending happily. It seems the greatest charm of this northern boat trip is seeing the sights when they appear, no matter how awkward the hour. The 800 foot stone mountain, Torghatten, is passed about one a.m. and there's enough light to observe the famous hole clear through the rock about halfway up the mountain. This hole is a good 500 feet long and geologists say the action of waves washed out Sis tunnel when the shore line was much higher, but local folklore has a far more colorful explanation. [May 21] We have crossed the imaginary parallel of 66° 33' North, or the Arctic Circle, and we are now in that much-advertised, much-described "Land of the Midnight Sun." We sailed along lovely islands this morning and at noon docked at Bodo, a town which has been reconstructed as it was practically destroyed by German bombs in 1940, just as Molde and Kristiansund were. Here we visited the Nordland Country Museum with a fishery, agricultural, handicraft, aquarium, mineral and bird section, as well as collections from antiquity and the Middle Ages. Outside the museum we saw a ten-oared boat of the kind used by fish- ermen in the olden days, as well as other craft. (It was a most fascinating museum, of which Norway seems to have so many.) From here we went to the lovely Bodo Cathedral, which was dedicated in 1956 and has an exquisite interior, stained glass windows of beauty and an organ on which we heard a very excellent recital. After leaving Bodo we encountered the unusual jagged peaks of the Lofoten Wall, which stretches for 60 miles and consists of mountains of granite and volcanic rock. The small local glaciers have given these peaks their wild and alpine appearance. Our next place of interest was Stamsund on the Island of Vestvågøy where we saw up to date quays, modern fishing equipment, a cod liver oil refinery, several shops and, of Bourse, a most interesting fishing village as it is a very important fishing center of the Lofotens. We took an overland trip by
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bus to the neighboring village of Svolvaer with a nice ride on a ferry and here we enjoyed seeing the many fish drying rocks which were literally loaded with codfish, even though it had been considered a very bad season. We next crossed the Kabelvagfiord and visited the Fisheries museum, as well as the modern Lofot Aquarium, where we especially enjoyed seeing the sea anemones and sea carnations, as well as many unusual fish. The village of Kabelvag has the oldest fishing village in the Lofotens. [May 22] We met our coastal steamer at Svolvaer and started to again worm our way to Harstad, a beautifully situated town on the northeast side of Hinnøya, Norway's largest island. Here we saw North Norway's only floating dock, several canning factories, a modern shipyard and their famous Frondenes Church, which was built during the 12th century and has walls over 8 feet deep and is one of the very few church fortresses in Norway. The church had a very interesting in- terior as well as an ancient churchyard with unusual inscriptions on its old markers. Harstad has a lively fish export trade and is also the military headquarters for North Norway, which all put together gives this garrison town an air of bustle and hustle. [May 23] After leaving Harstad we steamed north across the Vagsfiord and entered the Solbergfiord where we caught a glimpse of Bjarkøy, a town whose most valuable products are eiderdown and the eggs of sea birds which are collected here in large numbers. The inhabitants of this island take good care of the elder duck and even build homes for the more gregarious birds while in return for this kindness the ducks pro- vide large quantities of valuable eiderdown. After several more hours at sea we arrived at Tromsø, the capital of Troms Province, and the largest city above the Arctic Circle, where we saw much more snow than we've seen on the other islands. This city has the Weather Station for Northern Norway, the Observatory for Northern Lights, which devotes the long Arctic nights to studying the Aurora Borealls and the well-known scientific institution called the Tromsø Arctic Museum. Tromsø for many years has been the port for departing Arctic expedi- tions and it has been said some of Norway's most wonderful sailors come from this city. As we sailed northward from Tromsø we could see Skjelnan whaling station, which sailors return to after months of whaling off the coast of Iceland, on the Greenland banks or in the Barents Sea. Today [May 24] we stopped at Hammerfest at the foot of Mount Salen. This town is the world's northernmost, its latitude being 70°39'48" north and here the summer day lasts from May 17th to July 28th and has dark- ness from November 23rd to January. In order to lighten the darkness Hammerfest procured the first hydro-electric power station in Norway as early as l891. This town has been trading and fishing center for centuries and was used as a naval base by the Germans during the last war, but in 1944 they razed the town to the ground so what we saw today was a new town risen from the ashes. This area of Norway is known as Finnmark and from here we saw the North Cape, which rises a - 2 -
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Newsletter #49 sheer thousand feet from the sea. We were to land at the foot of this North Cape so that we could climb the zig-zag path to the top, but be- cause of the tremendous amount of ice and snow our tour guide would not allow us to make the climb. We next traveled by bus to Honning- vag to visit a Lapp Encampment, which we thoroughly enjoyed, as we saw several herd of reindeer, which included a few hundred deer, and bought antlers and souvenirs from two large families of Lapps, who were dressed in their colorful summer clothing, consisting predominately of red, blue and yellow woolen material with deer and sealskin footgear. The coastline in this area is grim and barren and there is no in- tervening land between here and the North Pole. Be traveled another night on the open sea and by morning were in Kirkenes, the mining town of Norway, as here there is a tremendously important iron mine which produces by magnetic separation about one million tons of iron ore concentrate annually. Here a very fascinating Norwegian Army Major took us to the Norway-Russian border, where we saw two Russian guards and, of course the impenetrable barrier; and later he took us to visit both the elementary and secondary schools of Kirkenes, where we were absolutely amazed at the modern and well-equipped educational system-- which I must admit puts ours a bit to shame, as even their swimming pool aid gymnasium were far superior to our very recent structures, as well as their home economics and industrial arts and scientific departments. He also took us to their very modern hotel which was terrific considering its location. One of the most amazing phenomena of this delightful cruise thus far is the gorgeous "Midnight Sun", which we have been able to see the past two nights. It is a spectacular and unforgettable picture with an afterglow etched in gold among the clouds, consisting of every color and hue. Truthfully, words cannot describe the beauty, solitude and magnificence of this trip, as it is like an exciting adventure with endless variations of beauty in the sea, mountains and clouds. Today marked the halfway point of our trip and from now on we will be seeing the places we passed during sleeping hours in the regular daytime, although we've really had daylight the entire trip so far. The scene has been continually changing and every port of call has its own personality as there seems to be a tense expectation in the air when the rhythmical beat of the engine suddenly dies down and the steamer glides almost noiselessly through the water toward the quay, where a teeming crowd of people always is waiting. Today [May 25] we viewed "The Seven Sisters", seven mountains which owe their shape to the six glaciers which have lain between them and it seems the granite rock has been left standing in ridges between the hollows scooped out by glacier action. A lovely Norwegian myth goes with these "Seven Sisters" but it is much too fantastical to write about here. Our ship still seems to be threading its way between many islands, in fact we never before realized there were so many islands in the world - 3 -
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Newsletter #49 as every few minutes we pass islands of every size and shape, some with snow mantled mountains or glacier crowned, others just a mass of sheer rock and shaggy green with trees and others too small to be of much shape at all. We are never out of sight too long of the magnificent scenery of the Norwegian Coast and we are sure it is one of the wonder voyages of the world, as beauty is around you every waking minute. Even the climate and the profusion of flowers sur- prises us, but they claim the Gulf Stream really works in these high altitudes and the weather is often warmer above the Arctic Circle than it is below. Another week seems to have gone by, so I guess I'll close and tell you about our last four days aboard the ship in my next letter. Forgot to mention we do have some rough weather occasionally and the ship really gives us a bit of a tossing about, but it only lasts a few hours and then we are again in narrow sounds and sheltered waters. We now know all of the passengers and feel quite at home and seem to be busy the entire day, either talking, relaxing on deck, reading or writing. We are still enjoying good health and looking forward to our return home. Fondest regards to all, Meredith and Charlotte
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