The port of Narvik was our last stop north of the Arctic Circle. Although it’s a very small town, Narvik’s ice-free harbor at the terminus of a railway bringing iron ore from Sweden made it a key strategic objective of both Britain and the Germans at the outset of WWII. After a fierce naval battle that sent numerous ships to the bottom of the fjord, the British held Narvik for more than a month, surrendering it only when they had to send their resources south to evacuate their troops from France.
The town was hosting an alpine ski event during our visit. The ski slopes are just off the center of town.
As if having a ski event in town wasn’t enough, NATO forces were conducting wintertime exercises in the area. We passed columns of troop carriers and also saw tanks in the field along the highway north of town. [EDIT: I have been informed that these are Swedish Infantry Fighting Vehicles/Combat Vehicles CV90.]
Our excursion for the day took us about an hour north of town to visit Polar Park. It’s the world’s northernmost animal park. There are only 12 enclosures in the park’s 270 acres, providing a lot of room for the animals to live in a natural habitat.
The park’s inhabitants include musk oxen, Norwegian wolves, moose, lynxes, brown bears, red deer, reindeer, wolverines — and a lot of magpies, who swooped in to pick up scraps of meat that our guide was using to entice the animals to come closer to the fences.
Our guide cupped his hands to his mouth and made wolf calls, which were answered by the five Arctic wolves in the park.
Speaking of bathrooms: Our guide ask if we had noticed photos of the king or the royal family in Norwegian bathrooms. She said that back in the days before in-house plumbing, people used newspapers as toilet paper. The problem was that you were forbidden by law from wiping with a picture of the king or the royal family, so people would tear those pictures off the page of the paper and stick the pictures to the walls of the outhouses. That subsequently evolved into establishments hanging pictures of the royals on the walls of public restrooms!
We got back to the ship just after sunset. The Viking Star set sail shortly thereafter. As with so many other stops on this cruise, I wish we’d had more time to spend in this beautiful little town.
