Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Svartisen

On Monday the ship anchored off the shore of Svartisen and the tenders brought people back and forth. There was no town to explore; the main attraction was another glacier. I chose to stay on the ship and John and the others hiked to the glacier. Since we could view it from our room I really didn't see the need to hike again :)))) and I enjoyed some time alone without a group chattering loudly.
The glacier.


Some scenery along the way.

We had a leisurely afternoon while the boat sailed on to our next stop.

More scenery.


Another wonderful dinner which included beef carpacchio.


That's it!

Monday, June 2, 2014

Mount Torghatten

Today (Sunday) we are in the town of Bronnoysund. Early in the morning it was foggy as we sailed in:

And then it cleared and we could see the bridge which joins the town with Torget Island home of the legendary  Mount Torghatten which we could see from the water.
My pics do not show the hole in the mountain (stupid!) which is its claim to fame. The dark spot in the middle is the home of the hole which is quite large:

The trail up the mountain was a LOT more difficult than described in the marketing material...harder than the climb to the glacier the other day. Here are some pics:
Norwegian "gravel" trail.

This is NOT John but it is the hole at the top.


The weather continues to be warm and sunny once the morning fog burns off. Before this climb the breeze had picked up and most everyone was in parkas and hats and a few even wore gloves. We were warned about how cold it could get. Of course, we ended up overdressed and HOT! John and I were dressed more lightly since we didn't bring clothes that warm and we still got hot. Forgot to mention that a few admitted to wearing long underwear.

Our intrepid friends didn't sign up for the sponsored excursion and chose to rent bikes and ride 9 miles to the mountain (over the bridge), climb it and then ride back to the boat, into the wind. I can't tell you how happy we were to opt for the bus ride to the mountain.  On Saturday night we discovered the reason our friend has been so misguided in his planning of our day trips: he is a Democrat!!!! OMG!

Tonight around 2:00am we will sail north of the Arctic Circle. Another OMG!