Day 8 - Bodo and Lofoten Islands

Crossing the Arctic Circle

At 7.20 this morning we crossed the Arctic Circle.  Many of the guests, including us, were on deck to witness it.  There is a small globe on an island marking the exact spot at 66 degrees, 33 seconds latitude.   Shortly after we docked at a very picturesque village called Ornes for a short time.  The scenery is now much more dramatic with higher cliffs and rocks and there is more snow about.

Crossing the Arctic Circle - Globe on island shows the 66.33 latitude

Ornes

Later in the morning there was an official ceremony to mark entering the Arctic Circle and a baptism for the guests.  This involved the Captain pulling back the neck of our coats and jumpers and “King Norde” poured a very large ladle full of ice and ice water down our backs.  I was near the front of the queue and it was very cold.  The ice cubes found their way under my thermal vest and even down through my trousers.  Paul was “persuaded” to go through the same thing and I filmed it even though my whole back was soaking wet with many whole ice cubes still intact somewhere next to my skin.  We then went back to the cabin to dry off, warm up and get changed .

Arctic baptism ceremony - Pauls turn

Scenery

Scenery

Bodo

After lunch the boat docked in Bodo for 2.5 hours.  We took advantage of the bus that was laid on to get us into the town centre as it was about 1 mile away.  So far this has been the least appealing of the towns we have visited and there is a lot of building work ongoing.  It had an interesting modern cathedral which is far more attractive on the inside than the outside and a modern city hall and shopping centre.

Bodo Cathedral

Bodo Cathedral

Onto the Lofoten Islands

After leaving Bodo the ship sailed across open water towards the Lofoten Islands.  On approach there are snow covered cliffs of 1000m plus which is known as the “Lofoten Wall”.  Steph contacted us and we went and stood at the bow of the ship where the webcam is and she waited until it refreshed and took a screen shot.  So next photo is of us.

Us on the bow of ship as it approached the Lofoten Islands

There were 2 stops during the evening at villages on the islands and then between 23:00 and 23:30 the ship went through a fairly narrow channel with very high cliffs either side and it then positioned itself at the mouth of the Trollfjord and put on floodlights, supposedly to bring the trolls out of hiding, but I think it was to show us how beautiful it is even in the dark.  This is the coldest we have experienced so far with the temperature down to -5C tonight.

Trollfjord, Lofoten Islands.  Ships searchlight in the snow