July 10, 2006 Norway
Reminds me of the north woods, with lots of sunlight in summer (all night 
here north of the Arctic Circle). 500 passengers on the boat, mostly Europeans. Watched the World Cup last night with people who knew and cared. Probably more interested on the boat than in the US.
July 12, 2006 Norway
We are south of the Arctic Circle, which means we get some darkness during the night, but not a whole lot.
Norway is a long country, with a lot of coastline. Most of the north reminds me of Canada-Wisconsin (where the North Woods folks are probably Norwegians and Swedes anyway). There were few trees way up north, but as we have worked our way south, there is more and more, and, as I said, it looks like Trees. Unlike many other countries, the Norwegians settled on farms (rather than villages) and so there are settlements almost everywhere along the coast. The coast has been blessed with the Gulf Current (I understand, however, that is changing) and lots of fish. Norway exports about 4 million tons of cod, which is about 1000 pounds per person.
The North Country has many newer buildings, a product of the scorched earth policy the Nazis pursued as they left the country in 1944 and 1945. In addition, the Norwegians now own many summer and second homes up north, so there may be only 4.5 million people, but there seems to be almost nine million homes.
We have seen some really neat churches, especially Trondenes (farthest north medieval church) and Trondheim, which resembles Westminster Abbey.