Wandering Harper: Hammerfest and the midnight sun

June 9

We had checked in the night before, so there was no rush as Alix took us to the bus stop to catch the bus to the airport for the 9:15 am flight. We’d compressed what we needed into the one small suitcase and Wayne’s pipe bag and my tote bag, so we could travel light. It’s so nice not to be carrying around sheets and towels and extra shoes anymore. Check-in was easy, and we found a place with chocolate breakfast pastries to start our day. The flight, about 2 hours, was gentle, but cloudy.

When we arrived in Alta we were disappointed to learn that the express boat to Hammerfest is only running once a day (7 am) so we couldn’t take the boat up, as we’d planned. That meant taking the bus, which departed in about a half hour after our arrival, directly from the airport. This proved to be a fun way to go, as we saw reindeer all along the route, including a family standing in the road at one point. There were also lovely views of the coastline and towns. Although the bus was much more full that all of our previous bus rides this trip, it was generally quieter because it wasn’t one big group. We also got to sit up front again. I didn’t get any good photos of reindeer, so I was hoping for a better chance once we reached Hammerfest.

We arrived in Hammerfest to find our hotel, the Rica Hotel Hammerfest, is right next to the bus station and right on the water. Our room has a lovely view of the town. It’s also two rooms – a sitting room with a desk, sofa, and chair, a kettle for hot water, and a double bed! We are so thrilled to have such a big, pleasant, lovely space after so many of our recent, non-private nights. We are reveling in it.

We didn’t stick around the hotel right away, however, but immediately headed out to see the town. We’d arrived just too late to take the boat tour of the harbor area, so we just started walking. We toured the Hammerfest Kirke (church) and walked about town, entering a few stores. We saw reindeer up close and personal a couple of times as we walked!

We climbed up the road towards the end of town and took photos with the town mascot, the polar bear. Then we walked back, along the quay, At this point we were cold (perhaps the first time all trip) and decided to come in for a nice cup of hot tea. We ended up watching a construction shovel work moving boulders around on the quay for a good while out our window – it’s amazing how that can fascinate you even when you are in a foreign country so far from home.

Disappointingly, it is clouding over here, and they are calling for clouds through tomorrow, so I’m afraid we’re going to see the midnight haze rather than the midnight sun. It also appears that the boat schedule won’t work for us – we can’t take a boat and get back to Alta in time to see the rock carvings, so we will be taking the bus again early in the morning. However, it is beautiful here none-the-less, and we are having a good time.

We had dinner at the hotel – very nice fish, although too gourmet in style for Wayne’s taste. I had catfish with shrimp in sauce and he had salmon with scallops. During dinner the power went out, which made things very quiet. When returning to the room all the fire doors were shut and it was confusing trying to find out way through the hallways. We found our wing of the building still had power, while the rest of the building was out.

I picked up a Norwegian bird book at the bookstore today, which has wonderful photos and the Norwegian names of all the birds we are seeing. Today we saw a Teist, which I’ve seen before in Scotland.

We had planned to go walking up the hill behind the town late at night to watch the midnight sun, but since it was so cloudy and we now need to get up early we set out earlier than planned – around 9:30. We had a great, long walk. We headed to the back of town to take the zig-zag path up the hill overlooking the town. The views were spectacular, even though the fog had rolled in with the clouds, making most of the mountains on the horizon disappear. We enjoyed the steep climb and wandered about looking at the tourist spot on top of the hill, climbing up a tower to get an even higher view, and then hiking further up to reach a stone cairn we could spy beyond.

I started to feel that this cairn was moving every time I looked down. It seemed to get farther and farther away as we walked. Wayne said the trolls were playing tricks on me, so when we finally reached the cairn we each added a stone to appease the trolls.

It must have worked, because no sooner did we turn around to head down when we met up with a herd of 10 reindeer. There were two full-grown bucks and one younger one. They seemed pretty unconcerned about us, so we stood watching for a good while.

Then we headed down the path and through the little park, again featuring polar bears. One nearly took my head off, as you see.

You might think that the overcast evening ruined our midnight sun experience, but it didn’t. Shortly after midnight we settled down on a park bench on rocks right at the water and watched the gulls fly by while eating chocolate. It was brighter than it normally is at home on an overcast day. You can see by these photos, taken between midnight and 1 am , that there is no sign of dark. I’ve seen overcast days at home look darker than this at 4 pm, in the last month.