Day 22: Arriving in Bodo

July 23, 2024

Crossing the Arctic Circle by water

“I wonder when the beautiful pictures of the fjords are taken for the travel brochures?” Rachel asks. “About two days out of the year,” Patrick jokes. The day is still gray with occasional drizzles. The weather forecast for the next few days keeps changing, but there will be clouds and rain for sure.

Our cabin is on the lower level near the front of the boat. Throughout the night we’d hear the bow thrusters when arriving at a port. Otherwise we are very comfortable in the cabin, watching the bow of the ship and scenery on the TV. We will vacate the cabin tomorrow at noon checkout. We spend the morning sitting in the nice big lounge chairs, and listening to the various announcements throughout the morning.

The first major announcement is around 0730, “In about 16 minutes we will be crossing the arctic circle,” in four languages: Norwegian, English, German and French. We join about 100 others on the back open deck. There is an opportunity to buy champagne to celebrate the occasion. A little later there is an announcement that there is a Crossing the Arctic Circle ceremony. Later in the morning, there are lots of reminders to people who have signed up for excursions.

We scan our cabin cards for disembarkment around 1300, and go to the bikes. The French gals are there also and we say goodbye, we may run into each other, but they are on a tighter schedule than us and will be riding longer days. As we leave the pier Patrick is scanning the layout to figure out where to catch the ferry to Lofoten Islands tomorrow morning.

At the SmartHotel very near the pier, our room will be ready at 1400. There’s a nice lobby and free coffee to wait. The room is small but Patrick makes it work. We go for Thai food and then shop for supplies.

We’ve seen 9 touring cyclists so far, we are on a cycling trail.

Today's ride: 1 km (1 miles)
Total: 1,002 km (622 miles)

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