Insight Guides Pocket Norway by Insight Guides

Author:Insight Guides
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Travel, Norway
Publisher: Apa Publications
Published: 2018-07-15T16:00:00+00:00

The stunning Arctic Cathedral

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Across the bridge in Tromsdalen, the Arctic Cathedral, (Ishavskatedralen) built in 1965, is an unusual and daring structure in stark white, and in the shape of a massive triangle. It is open year-round, and in summer there are late-night concerts to coincide with the midnight sun.

Tromsø to the North Cape

North of Tromsø, the Lyngen Alps (Lyngenalpene) mountain range, bordered by the Lyngen fjord on one side and the Ullsfjord on the other, is an area of high peaks, reminiscent of the Alps. The highest summit reaches 1,833 metres (6,014ft) and several glaciers can be found here. This remote region has a good mountain lodge open year-round, the Lyngen Lodge (www.lyngenlodge.com).

Crossing into Finnmark, Norway’s northernmost county, Alta, with some 20,000 people, is the main population and administrative centre. Perhaps surprisingly for such a remote place, Alta is on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites (for more information, click here). On the southern outskirts of Alta, at Hjemmeluft, as many as 5,000 rock carvings were discovered in 1972, dating back over 6,000 years. The carvings can be visited at the World Heritage Centre for Rock Art – Alta Museum $ [map] (www.alta.museum.no; mid-May–early June and late Aug–mid-Sept daily 8am–5pm, early-June–mid-Aug daily 8am–8pm, mid-Sept–mid-May Mon–Fri 9am–3pm, Sat–Sun 11am–4pm).

Further north along the coast is Hammerfest, which prides itself on being the northernmost city in the world, although with only 9,000 inhabitants this might be stretching the definition of ‘city’. However, by Norwegian law you only have to have more than 5,000 inhabitants to qualify. Honningsvåg, further north still, is in dispute with Hammerfest as to which is the northernmost city, but Honningsvåg has the advantage of attracting the tourists as a gateway to the North Cape % [map] (Nordkapp), on Magerøya island. Although not strictly speaking the very northernmost point of mainland Europe, since it’s on an island, it is now renowned as such and pulls in the visitors accordingly. The journey across Magerøya to the North Cape takes under an hour and the landscape is starkly beautiful and barren. Honningsvåg is the main hub, but there are another four fishing hamlets on the island, three on the east coast and one on the west.

The North Cape itself, at latitude 71° north, has a large, modern visitors’ centre, looking somewhat out of place in this landscape of natural beauty (www.nordkapp.no; May–Aug Mon–Fri 9am–8pm, Sat–Sun noon–7pm, Sept–Apr Mon–Fri 11am–3pm, to coincide with buses). The cliff plunges 307 metres (1,007ft) into the Barents Sea below, but it’s not just the cape itself that is worth a visit. The scenery surrounding it is quite remarkable – barren at first glance, but home to some 205 different plant species.

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