"" Writer's Wanderings: Norway--Arctic Circle Crossing

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Norway--Arctic Circle Crossing

Shortly after breakfast our ship, the Century, turned inland and began navigating through the outcropping of islands that fringe the coast. We passed remote clusters of homes, some small villages and a few areas where there were fish farms.

At noon, the announcement was made that we were about to cross the Arctic Circle. On a small island there was a large sphere that marked the latitude of the Arctic Circle. North of this imaginary line, there are periods of time during the summer when the sun does not set and in the winter, when night lasts all day.

The scenery we passed continued to get more beautiful as we progressed north. We noticed a fish farm where we assumed they were raising salmon. Whatever was in the round fenced in areas kept jumping out of the water.

After lunch, the captain deemed the weather good enough to turn into a fjord that contains the largest glacier in northern Europe. While it didn’t come all the way down to the water, what we could see from the ship was very impressive.

A day at sea usually means a formal night for dinner on a cruise ship. This evening was worth getting dressed up for as we were invited to the captain’s table in the dining room to dine with the staff captain, Capt. Panagiotis Klousis (Capt. Panos). We had a great dinner, enjoyed the Captain’s good humor and met two other wonderful couples besides our tablemates who were also invited.

At eleven, when it was time to call it a day, we looked out our window to see that it was still quite light outside. We were truly entering the land of the midnight sun.

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