Our European Adventure: Go North Young Man

The last time we went through the North Sea we were on our way to the Baltic and the seas were so rough neither one of us felt much like dinner. Fortunately this time was a bit calmer and we made it to our first destination without getting thrown about our cabin.

On our way into port.

Ålesund occupies seven islands and lies about a quarter of the way up the coast of Norway. There’s not a great deal going on in this sleepy little town and its primary claim to fame are the multitude of art nouveau styled building that were constructed throughout the city after a 1904 fire that destroyed virtually the entire town and left 10,000 of its citizens homeless overnight. A majority of the buildings were constructed in the three years following the fire and the city received its initial shipment of supplies from Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany who often vacationed in the area.

Apart from touring the city for its architecture there is also a hill in the city of the main island that promised panoramic views of the surrounding area. Of course as soon as someone mentions hill you know Amanda and I feel compelled to climb it. Okay, actually it’s more me that feels compelled to climb every hill I can but I glad share my enthusiasm with my lovely (though occasionally whiny when she has to climb anything steep) wife. Thankfully for me the weather was good and the views were truly breathtaking.

Amanda taking aim at the ships below.

Are we done climbing yet? The ship is down there.

When there's an obstacle on your path...

...limbo your way under it.

Apparently I wasn't amused.

Amanda was a bit hungry after our hike.

There also might be a statue of a local doing their best Captain Morgan impression.

The next day was a day at sea but to keep it interesting the Norwegians went ahead and provide some sights for us to look at along the way. The first was a monument to the 66° 33’ 44” N latitude that marks the crossing into the Arctic Circle. I believe this officially makes us arctic explorers.

The second sight of the day was the Svartisen Glacier. Svartisen is technically a compilation of two glaciers in the area, Vestre and Ostre, and has a combined area of approximately 145 square miles. The actual bit we got to see and is pictured below is a small arm of known as Engenbreen and maintains the lowest position of any glacier in Europe, ending a mere 20 meters (65 feet) from the ocean’s surface. It also has a thickness of approximately 450 meters or 1,475 feet. That would be 20 feet thicker than the Sears Tower in Chicago is tall! {Amanda editorial note: The Sears Tower is now the Willis Tower; and has been for the last 5 years.} It’s also a rather surprising shade of blue. {Amanda editorial note: The glacier is blue; the Willis Tower is kinda blackish.}

On the up side, it was raining so the glacier was freshly washed and shinny. On the less than up side, it was cold and raining which made viewing the glacier less than ideal. We stayed on the deck as long as we could stand it before the captain turned the ship around and made his way to our next destination of Narvik.

There is evidence of settlement in and around Narvik dating back to the Stone Age and it is known that the Vikings often had settlements here as well, however it wasn’t until the 1870’s that Narvik began to be established as a modern city. It was around this time that the Swedes began to recognize the importance of iron ore and realized they would eventually need a port on the Atlantic coast from which to ship the mineral from its series of mines high in the mountains. So the Ofoten Railway was built to transport the ore from Sweden to Narvik and the area began to flourish as an industrial hub for the exportation of iron ore. It also served as a base for German warships during the World War II and the Battles of Narvik were eventually fought from the 9^th of April to 8^th of June 1940. The Allied forces ultimately won the battle for Narvik in early June only to evacuate the town buy the end of the same month, thus seeding the town, its people and port to the Germans after losing the Battle of France making the allied occupation of Narvik ultimately untenable.

One of the more touristy things you can do in Narvik is ride the cable car to the Narvikfjellet Ski Resort for more panoramic views. Unfortunately, the weather at the top of the mountain was apparently not conducive to swinging objects on a rope and the lifts were closed for the day. So what did we decide to do instead you ask? Why, walk up a hill of course. About a mile and half from the base of the lifts was a symbol for what I believed was a scenic lookout. Still armed with our camera and needing to kill some time before boarding the ship again we set off for the “scenic overlook”. After about a mile and half walk up a rather steeply inclined road we arrived at the Narvik Hydroelectric power station. Not an official scenic overlook at all. In fact, it turns out that the symbol on the map indicates were the Narvik Water Spout is released at 1pm and 9pm by the Hydroelectric station. Apparently the spout shoots up to 75 meters into the area and can be seen clearly by residents in the city below. And while not an official scenic viewpoint the views are all that bad.