We were prepared for cool weather, but the first thing that greeted us as we got off the ship was a little snow squall! It only lasted a few minutes before the sun came out again, but it was a good harbinger of the day to come, with rain and clouds and cool weather.

This was our first challenge at disassembling Jane’s scooter to fit in the trunk of the tiny Toyota. But we managed to Tetris it all in, although we left the trunk cover with the rental car agent. I barely had the little diesel up to 30 kph when I had to slow down for an animal in the road. Some poor Reindeer had wandered into town and was taking up the whole road. It finally found a way off and we were free to go. We didn’t expect to see them everywhere! We learned later that there are about 6,000 on this island that are herded by five families.

The drive out to the North Cape was only about 30 minutes but very hilly and scenic, there are almost no trees this far north but the morning sun gave everything a golden glow.

The North Cape is the farthest north point of Europe at 71 degrees 10 minutes 22 seconds north. North of the Arctic Circle. The globe monument is there as a reminder that we are all in this together. The visitor center at the North Cape has several reminders like that many of them made by school children around the world.

It was quite cool and windy at only 4ºC according to the car’s thermometer. We ended up with a LOT of pictures of Reindeer!

There were several small fishing villages on our way to the Cape, and lots of very lonely looking houses in the middle of the tundra.