We reached the north most point in this cruise route - North Cape at the island of Mageroya. In Norwegian language, North Cape is spelled as Nordkapp, that is also the name of the ship we are in.
The North Cape (Nordkapp) is a 307-meter-high cliff on Magerøya Island in Northern Norway. Located at 71°10′21′′ N, it is famous as the northernmost point in Europe accessible by car via the E69 highway, featuring the iconic globe monument and the North Cape Hall visitor center.
We had an excursion to visit the North Cape. We first took a 45 min bus ride from the port Honningsvag to the northern tip of the island. The scenery is beautiful, with fjords on one side and rolling hills on the other side dotted with small houses and reindeers. The native people in Norway is Samis. They farm reindeers for a living. In the summer time, they herd the reideers from the main land to this island by crossing the sea. They set reindeers free on the island until the fall and then herd the animals back to the mainland for winter. The reindeers would swim back with Samis rowing small boats next to them.
North Cape has a visitor center with a cinema, a cafe, a gift shop, and a small museum. Outside, there is the famous globe monument for photo shoots. It was very very windy outside, blowing almost like hurricane speed wind such that we could hardly stand still. The weather was very unpredictable, raining in one minute and sunshine in the next minute. We toughed out to snap a couple of pictures and rushed back into the visitor center.
That is the Children of the Earth Monument (Barn av Jorden), created in 1988 and 1989 on the North Cape plateau in Norway.
In 1988, Seven children aged 8 to 12 from different parts of the world (Tanzania, Brazil, USA, Japan, Thailand, Italy, and the former Soviet Union) met at the cape to spend a week together. They made clay reliefs symbolizing friendship, hope, joy, and peace. In 1989, these designs were cast into seven large bronze disks arranged in a semicircle. The bronze sculpture of a woman and child titled "Mother and Child" was crafted by artist Eva Rybakken.
At the port, there was a fish rack with scary dry fish heads (only fish heads!!) hanging there. The fish meat was dried and exported or consumed already. The fish heads were left there for tourist's photo ops :)
We met a couple from Minnesota, Niki and Mike. They are the youngest couple in the group - Mike is 60 and Niki is only 51. We sat next to each other for dinner tonight and we happened to mention that Christina is teaching at Purdue. Coincidentally, their neighbor’s daughter is also teaching in Chemical Engineering department at Purdue. Her neighbor’s daughter’s name is Tayler Hebner. She got Ph.D. at age 23. It turns out that Christina knows her but not acquainted with.
Today, we have solar eclipse. In our area, we can see partial solar eclipse with the maximal coverage of 83% starting from 18:47 to 20:20. Unfortunately, no one on the ship is equipped with proper filter or glasses and it was impossible to see the eclipse. One person in our group using his iPhone 16 Pro Max to shoot a pretty nice picture. Also, we had a perfect double rainbow on the opposite side of the sky. [15]
