Twenty-sixth day

Honningsvåg - Nordkapp

30km

Average speed of 11.9km/h (!)

Weather: see yesterday, continuous rain

Headwind, but today the elevation gain was more challenging.

A bit of a strange day. Lazy, very exhausting, extremely lazy.

As planned yesterday, we didn't stress ourselves today. First, sleep in (eight-thirty was the maximum for me), have a cozy breakfast (luxurious with yogurt and tea (Thanks Daniel)), and then plan my return journey. It became much more complicated than expected. At first, I wanted to take a ferry to Tromsø, then a bus to Bodø, a train to Oslo, a ferry to Germany, and then another train. Sounds complicated? It is. After weighing various bus and ferry options to Bodø, I ended up with the above-described combination. Regarding the Hurtigruten from Honningsvåg to Tromsø, I assume that I don't have to book in advance because the journey only takes 20 hours and I don't need a cabin. Unfortunately, I arrive in Tromsø at midnight and the bus only continues from 10:00 onwards. Then I encountered a problem that I did not expect. Taking the bike on the train would have been possible, but there were no available seats from Bodø to Trondheim, and since the train only runs twice a day, I had to replan everything again. After some research, Daniel and I realized that the most practical and even cheapest option is to fly from Tromsø to Oslo and continue the Odyssey from there.

This planning and also the flight booking took up a large part of the morning. The weather was and remained continuously rainy, but we could easily ignore that from the warm living kitchen. At 12, we had to vacate our cabin and first we (especially me) played with the idea of just staying in the living kitchen. But we had to cover the last kilometers at some point today, and the weather forecast did not indicate any spontaneous improvement. So pack up and go. And what's 30km anyway? Sometimes I've already cycled almost twice as much before 1 p.m. But we quickly realized that we had to work hard again for the last kilometers to the cape. On the relatively short distance, we had to conquer 800 meters of elevation gain, all in continuous rain, cozy 4-5 degrees Celsius, frozen fingers and toes, and headwind. We were so relieved when we arrived after almost 2 1/2 hours and could dry off and warm up in the huge building (souvenir shop, museum, restaurant...). Of course, we also took the obligatory photos at the North Cape globe, but we didn't stay outside for long, the weather was too nasty. And so we wasted hours and hours first on a bench, then in the restaurant (expensive, bad food) where we listened to our neighbors. We felt very sorry for the grandparents of a precocious 8-10 year old boy. But in our state: exhausted, relaxed, slightly euphoric because we had made it, we would probably have laughed at anyone.

Unfortunately, we have to go out again soon and set up our tents on the barren, wind and rain-whipped highlands. I would prefer to just sleep on the bench in this restaurant. It's time for me to return to civilization and gradually adopt civilized standards again.

Later in the evening, we explored the building and apart from the ground floor, which houses the huge tourist shop and the cozy but bad restaurant, it is an exciting and successful construction. It has 2 1/2 basement levels. The first one houses a museum about the region's role during World War II. Despite its remoteness, some decisive battles took place here. In the Langfjord and another side fjord of the Altafjord, which I cycled through, the Tirpitz and the Scharnhorst were located, trying to prevent the Allies from supplying the Russians - until they were sunk in the Altafjord (at least the Scharnhorst).

One floor below was a small bird museum and the North Cape cinema, where an impressionist documentary about the North Cape was shown with accompanying music. I was very impressed by the beautiful shots, which were shown simultaneously on three screens and created a great 3D effect. However, the middle screen froze and showed a grid in the wind, while the film continued on the left and right. But the film is free and we will probably sit in there again tomorrow once or twice.

From the cinema, a hallway led diagonally downwards, lined with large dioramas showing historical events at the cape (first tourist, King of Norway cutting some ribbon...).

Two small rooms branched off from the hallway. One was unexpectedly furnished. It was a small Thai museum. At the beginning of the 20th century, the King of Siam visited the North Cape, and a mini museum/memorial room was set up in his honor.

Diagonally opposite, there was a modernly designed chapel that I really liked. Hardly any decoration, the raw rock was still visible on three sides. In little fur pockets, flickering tea lights were standing, and the ceiling was covered with blue glowing tiles, from which illuminated plexiglass rods protruded (creating the impression of northern lights). Calm jazz music was playing in the background.

The hallway ended in the 'Cave of Light', which was actually almost completely dark. On different seating areas, you could sit down and experience the cape as a sound and light installation. I really liked it because it provided an almost meditative impression of the region and the four seasons (northern lights, reindeer hooves, bird chirping, cracking ice, rain (!), storm...). Unfortunately, a Hurtigruten ship apparently arrived shortly before, and groups constantly crowded into the meditation room, talking loudly and making it difficult to concentrate on the colors and, above all, the sounds. We stayed in the room for '3 years', but we couldn't fully enjoy it. Conclusion: great idea, very well implemented, unfortunately for the wrong audience for whom 6 minutes is clearly too long of an attention span.

Back upstairs, it briefly stopped raining and we left the protective building and set up our tents in completely open space 200m away. Quick dinner, watch an episode of The Simpsons, and fall asleep around 1:00.