Hammerfest

Hammerfest 

On the approach to Hammerfest there is an island named Melkøya meaning Milk Island, which hints at it former use. 

Now it is home to a large liquified natural gas plant processing gas from Snøhvit meaning Snow Field.

                                        

The 690 hectare island is connected to Hammerfst by the Melksund Tunnel completed in 2003. The

endangered local black-legged killiwakes have adopted a man-made cliff at the facility for nesting, making it one of the largest bock-legged kittiwake colonies in the world.

My first stop after disembarking was the Museum of Reconstruction. It details like under Nazi occupation. Later exhibits show the destruction caused when the Germans retreated and applied a scorched earth policy, destroying everything they could. Only the cemetery chapel was left undamaged.

It was an opportunity to replan the whole town and bring living standards up to a modern level. People were housed in temporary barracks and some became almost permanent as the last occupants only moved out in 1970s. A modern kitchen.

A modern living room.

At the top of the tower at the museum is a lookout...our ship moored across the bay...

...some of the snow fences above the town centre...

...and a view of the church.

A view of the church from the ground...

...the inside...

...the southern facade.

The cemetery and the chapel, the only surviving pre war building in the town.

More snow fencing.

I climbed up the ZigZag path towards mount Salen. I had been climbing for a while and was high up but still a long way from the top and running out of time so I turned around to get back to the ship in time for its departure.

The gazebo at the foot of the Zig Zag path featuring the town's emblem of a polar bear.

Another town reference and more polar bears.

What a difference a day makes. This is partly to show the snow coming down to sea level as we head south from Kirkenes but it also shows how calm the sea is in this sheltered sound whereas just yesterday, the sea was so rough that the captain had to abandon trying to enter one harbour as it was too dangerous.

More snow covered sea cliffs.

To the right of centre is the snout of the Øksfjordjøkulen glacier.