Hammerfest to Kirkwall

 We're happy to report that Mikkel, our favorite Reindeer Sami, and his family continue to thrive. This time, we had the good sense to take the bus up to the camp rather than climb.

Mikkel's traditionally-built "home". This is their tasting room where guests try reindeer meat, smoked, boiled, jerky...an actual Sami home would be not one-third the size.

This is what we meant about the climb up to the camp. Here's the ship, sitting alongside.

Enroute: 71 degrees, .0861 minutes north. The Arctic circle is 66 degrees north. There was no sunset.

 

Midnight, July 29, 2022:

At Honningsvag, Norway, we again took the trip to the North Cape. Last time, it was so foggy that there was nothing to be seen. This time:

Yep. Foiled again.

We were soon on our way to Lerwick, UK, via Molde, Norway. Tempting to pronounce it "Moldy". It's "Mol-day". Of course. Many of the tours were the same as in Kristiansund, so we stayed aboard. It was this portion of the cruise that was a bit redundant since all port calls to Russia were canceled. We stayed aboard and goofed off: you know, reading the dinner menus and drinking champagne. Stuff like that.

Wait! A sunset!

We visited Scalloway Castle, where they like to make a point about defense readiness. 

Nice digs and a beautiful garden:

Aye, bonnie Scotland:

Shetland Ponies! Little baby Shetland Ponies! They are not sweet! They bite!

Next we stopped in Kirkwall in the Orkneys once again. We stayed aboard since the number of tours there are pretty limited. 

This from the culinary corner: some traditional dishes that are still (occasionally) eaten in Scotland.

Krappen Head: (pronounced Crap in Heed) is a mixture of oatmeal, flour and chopped fish livers. It's seasoned with salt and pepper then packed into the fishs' head and poached in salt water. Crap, indeed.

Reestit Mutton: Legs and shoulders of mutton are soaked in brine for several days, then air dried outside till they stop dripping (!). Then they are hung in peat smoke before being taken into the house and hung in the kitchen ceiling for several months. Yeah.

Sour Skate: (pronounced Soor Skate). A reputed aphrodisiac, skate wings were hung on the clothes line for a few days before being boiled and eaten. Also known as Guffin Skate, because it would repeat on some people with an ammonia aftertaste. This could cause one to be so scunnered (disgusted) that one would need a wee dram (a little, or not so little, drink) of the amber nectar (whiskey). As they say in Glasgow: PURE, DEAD, BRILLIANT!