Sunrise: because of the missing sunset, there was also no sunrise
As promised mum woke us as soon as the sun came out, unfortunately this happened at 7 a.m. I am really not an early bird, therefore I struggled to wake up, as well as all the other children. We probably needed more than 10 minutes and till we managed to come out, the sun was already gone. Still, we could see the sea and the cliffs at least, and a little more than the day before.
We really expected to catch the midnight sun, but Franzi (my roommate in Austria) would say: “Everything happens for a reason” and maybe it does. Maybe one day we will come there again, maybe even with our own children, and fully enjoy the sun at midnight. However, on the way back it was cloudy, but we could watch the landscape and the Norwegians mountains passing by. For those who wonder, what means “on the way back” here an explanation. North cape is a blind street, so we had to drive a part of the road again, which was not bad at all, because this gave us an opportunity to see the things we couldn’t see the day before, since it was so foggy. It looks almost exactly like the photos you find when you google Norway – endless streets along the coast, hundreds of meters above the sea, eventually with a red wooden house next to a small lake and many reindeers. There were so many that we could describe them as our evermore company.
But we didn’t drive all the way back, at some point, we took another street, that lead us to Hammerfest. Some years ago, I would say it is the northernmost city in Europe, but not anymore. Nevertheless, it does not change a thing, it is still a beautiful city, or more a town, since there live only 9.000 residents. We first visited the Meridian Monument, then the fountain and a music pavilion and lastly, we climbed a hill along the Zik-Zak path. From there up we had a nice view over the whole town and saw everything we hadn’t seen before.
Hammerfest is as well as North cape a blind street, so we once again drove a road for the second time and over the most northern hanging bridge on the world (it is about 740 meters long). It seems like everything here is the most northern. We already crossed this bridge twice today, but on the other side there was a small surprise. A closed road and no possibility to decoy, since this road was the only one leading from Hammerfest south. To our relief this blockade didn’t last more than thirty minutes. For all the curios people, the road was closed due to an accident, where helicopters were needed and they had to land somewhere and because there was no other place, they landed on the street. As soon as they took up, we could drive further.
Now we are still driving in the direction of Alta, where we want to spend the night. It is funny how different the landscape of Norway to Finland’s is. There are still quite many lakes, but the vegetation is completely different.
Kilometer: 4.398
Sunset: 23.57