Honningsvåg

29 July 2002, 12:00 noon

Honningsvåg is a small but very important fishing village. The municipality has about 4,000 inhabitants, of which 2.800 live in the village.

But 4,000-5,000 ships enters the harbour each year, for trade, industrial transports and to bunker. And the local airport has 20,000 passengers a year.

One reason for the heavy traffic is the location of Honningsvåg, on the main shipping route to and from Northern Russia, but also because Honningsvåg is the capital of North Cape.

Honningsvåg Church, built in 1884, is one of the very few old buildings left in northern Norway. It is one of the few churches that was spared at the end of the war, despite being a wooden church.

1 Hurtigruten Pier

2 Honningsvåg

3 Honningsvåg wooden church

When I disembarked off MS Midnatsol, the sun was shining brightly but the wind was blowing very strongly. I headed off straight to the Tourist Office about 300m from the pier. I wanted to know how to get to North Cape. I was told there were only two bus trips to North Cape daily. One departs at 11:00am, which I had missed and the next was at 8:15pm! Taxi was just too expensive at NOK 900 for a return trip with 1-hour for the visit to the North Cape hall. So, it looks like a long wait at Honningsvåg. I didn't have a hotel room booked in Honningsvåg as I hoped to catch the bus to Ivalo the next morning at 2:00am from North Cape. I began to doubt if it was such a good idea to expect the 2:00am bus to be there after all.

Since I had a long wait ahead, I deposited my heavy backpack in a locker by the Hurtigruten waiting room.  I then started looking for a nice restaurant to try out some nice traditional Norwegian seafood dish. After a few days on the Hurtigrutnen, eating ship cafeteria food, I was looking for some nice fresh seafood. The tourist office had recommended "Corner" restaurant, Fiskeriveien 2A, N-9750 Honningsvåg (http://www.corner.no), located in the centre of Honningsvåg. Well, Honningsvåg is that big so it was very near the Tourist Office. The steamed Cod fish with boiled potatoes and vegetables meal was very tasty. After the tasty lunch, I started exploring Honningsvåg thoroughly with a Honningsvåg Tourist Information guide pamphlet in hand. I had 6 hours more to kill!

As you would have noticed above, there were not much to see or to photograph!