Sailing Back Below the Arctic Circle

Next we visited Honningsvag, the northernmost city in Norway.  From this northernmost city, we took a trip to the northernmost point in Europe, the North Cape, or in Norwegian, the Nordkapp.  There's a visitor center at this rocky plateau more than 1,000 feet above the sea.  On a good day you're looking across the Arctic Sea at an expanse of water that leads to the North Pole.  Here, the sun never sets for 77 nights a year and the midnight sun is a big draw.

Of course the view must be thrilling, but what we saw was the inside of a cloud.  Here's our view:

If you want to see it on a good day, check out this website https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/north-cape-norway  or just search North Cape Norway.
But the drive up and back was beautiful and there were plenty of reindeer around to gawk at.  There were a couple of hotels along the way that looked like good bases for hiking adventures, and lots of trails around.

Onward past the Arctic Circle to our last stop in Norway, Kristiansund.  What a lovely place!  Overall, we were really impressed with Norway.  There are several places there where a person could spend some time just walking or hiking.  Leaving the ship, we drove the Atlantic Road to Haholmen, then caught the locally reproduced Viking ship over to the island.

 The island was a fishing village originally and it was the home of a group of people who rebuilt three Viking ships (from diagrams and pieces of wrecks).  They sailed them around the world on a goodwill tour in the 60's but lost two of the ships in a storm on the way home.  All were rescued, including a portion of one of the ships.  A building was erected around the salvaged portion, and they proudly show a film about the adventure.  Really a neat place.

Then, back onto the Atlantic Road and a stop at an amazing viewpoint.

And then we landed in the Shetland Islands.  At Lerwick we headed off for the Jarlshof Prehistoric Settlement.  A violet storm in 1905 uncovered this site, revealing remains from the Stone Age and settlements from the Bronze and Iron ages.  Also an ancient Viking community set up shop on the site.

Along the way:

At Jarlshof:

We'd talked with the Scottish Restaurant Manager, Douglas, about things we all wanted to find when we got back to the UK.  Douglas wanted black pudding, and we wanted Walkers Sensations Thai Chili Crisps.  Well, while we were off touring Douglas found the local Co-op and brought the crisps back for us!

Back to Rosyth, Scotland with a correction of pronounciation.  It's "Ros-eye-th".  Lots of people headed into Edinburgh, but this time we took the shuttle into nearby Dunfermline to shop a little.  So did Douglas.  Found him at the Tesco.  He was getting more pudding and we were buying more crisps.  And candy.  Tesco has the best hard candy.  Just about everyone in the UK knows Marks and Spencer's gummies, "Percy Pig".  We now have not only Percy himself, but Percy's Parents, Percy's Pigtails, and Percy and Penny.

So long for now, Scotland.
 

Final stop in the UK was Newcastle, where we had stopped earlier in the cruise.  We were going to go into town from our dock at Tyne, but it was a grey day and we decided to hang around and do nothing after we had our usual Sunday breakfast of champagne, caviar, and eggs benedict.