A tender port but due to low winds and calm seas we docked on a lovely sunny 65 degree day. After much research, we chose to do a ship’s excursion in spite of our stance of trying to avoid ship excursions – the private excursion was identical in price and proved not only to be a hassle in arranging, but we were advised by the locals to go with the ship since bad weather is more likely than not in Norway and the ship would wait for us if we were with the ship’s excursion vs private. Like cattle, we were loaded onto one of the many buses and began what I thought would be a standard touristy trip, only to be amazed with the unbelievable scenery along the way to North Cape. The trip took approximately an hour, including a quick stop at a local Sami area for pictures of the culture, native dress and reindeer which were roaming around the hills eating and gazing at the tourists. When we arrived at North Cape, we were told that we could take ‘ANY” ship excursion bus back into town, allowing for about an hour and a half at North Cape. The day was picture perfect but very windy at the top of the world! In spite of our expectations and all our research that this would be a dreaded tourist trap, the whole experience totally blew us away – the view and feeling of ‘having arrived’ at the northern most town is hard to describe. There are a number of view/lookout points, and the underground chapel, lounge (where many weddings are held!) and “kings view” are stunning. The museum and souvenir gift shop were nicely done, and we did the touristy thing and mailed postcards to our family from the top of the world. Back in Honningsvag, we walked around while waiting for our reservation time at the “Artico Ice Bar” which we arranged on our own. The bar is located 300 meters from the pier and very easy to find. Make sure you have a reserved time as entrance is limited! The inside of the Ice Bar is very nicely done out of local ice from lakes, broken down each year and rebuilt again, making each year a unique design. After crawling through the igloo and ‘sledding’ around inside the ice bar, we still had enough time to explore the small town before returning to the ship. The town even though small has some interesting sights to include the only building surviving the Nazi burning of the entire town. The whole day was absolutely a one of a kind experience
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