Day 10 - Mon - 10/06/2025 - Narvik
After bad weather caused the Captain to skip our planned port in the Lofoten Islands, arrangements were quickly made to dock in Narvik. But I need to backtrack a bit. Our baseball team is in the playoffs for the first time in 25 years. But today's game came on at 2:30am. I woke up at 4am and listened to the last two innings before falling back asleep. This certainly had an adverse impact on my sleep.
Around 8:30am we awoke to the ship docked in Narvik. We had planned based upon the destination specialist's video to visit the 3 museums and the stone church. All of the venues didn't open until 10am, so we took our time getting ready and eating breakfast. From our breakfast table we could see the little town and huge iron ore docks across the bay.
It turned out that this little city was the center of major WWII conflicts because the Nazis needed the iron ore natural resource even though Norway was neutral at the start of the war. The region became a brutal area of prison camps and slave labor to build infrastructure such as railroads and bridges and roads. It remained occupied for 5 years.
After breakfast we scanned off the ship and walked up the slight incline towards the town center. We soon encountered a little church which is the seaman's church. It was rather plain but they had a little souvenir shop and friendly people. We walked on into the town center and walked further up the hill to the stone church. Unfortunately it was closed for renovations, but we got exterior pictures. We walked back down the hill to the AMFI shopping mall and toured all 3 levels of this cute little mall.
Nearby was the War Museum which graphically presented this dark part of Narvik's past. There were many exhibits and military hardware. Most descriptions were in Norwegian and English. The sentry entry fee was $15 per person.
We headed out to find the car museum and Google maps sent us down a road which had a McDonald's. So we partook of a meal which made us 3 for 3 in eating at available McDonald's in our Norwegian ports of call.
We headed back to downtown and the Google map app wanted to send us back down which we knew wasn't correct. So we went back to the war museum and learned that the museum was in the same building but on the ground floor. Plus we had to buy the $8US tickets here before going down. So, now armed with tickets and new knowledge, we headed down some stairs and found the museum entrance. Initially our tickets wouldn't scan but eventually they did.
The museum is a small collection of vehicles, memorabilia and a large well done large train layout modeled after the town. It takes about 15 minutes to see it all. From there we headed out to find the Narvik museum. Along the way we shopped and found a Red Cross thrift store and for about $3US for each piece, I purchased two nice dress shirts and Angela found a couple nice tops.
The Narvik museum is located in the old and vintage railroad administration building. There are two stories of exhibits of town and railroad history. Outside under cover are two retired electric locomotives on permanent display. One can crawl through them which was pretty cool.
We were so pleased that the ship called at this port as there's so much to do here within walking distance. I even sent a comment card to the Captain praising his decision to come here.
We headed back to the ship and were on board around 5pm. I took a short nap before joining Angela for dinner in the Lido. After dinner the evening stage show was Duo Claudio who were an excellent husband and wife professional gymnast act. They were excellent.
Before the show started the Captain came on the PA system and announced that due to weather we may need to skip our last port of call. He'll let us know by noon tomorrow. Such is the nature of cruising.
After the show I went to O'Malley's Irish Pub and listened to the last part of Emerald Tide before joining Angela at Spotlight Kareoke. Besides singing solos, she got drafted to join the Mad Hatters in a rendition of Country Roads. The Mad Hatters were a group that celebrates Mad Hatter day on 10/6.
Tomorrow is a scheduled sea day and the weather is forecasted to deteriorate bringing about motion to the ocean on the ship.
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