The Northern Edge

A fishing boat returning to Mehamn harbor.

There hardly is a place in this world too remote for Man to wage war in. The tiny village Mehamn in the Finnmark province of Northern Norway, by the Arctic Ocean, is one of Europe's northernmost populated places. However, it's not remote enough to have been spared of war and destruction. Evidence of that can be found just outside of the village: ruins of a Second World War German artillery battery.

Ruins of fortifications.

In late 1944, as the German troops were withdrawing from Northern Norway, they blew up their own fortifications, laid countless landmines and burned Mehamn, as well as other villages and towns, to the ground. In addition, they forcibly took most of the civilian population with them. Some managed to escape to the mountains, but even those had no homes to return to. Generally, the German occupation during World War II is not fondly remembered in Norway, but in the Northern province of Finnmark the attitude in probably even more bitter and hostile. It is not difficult to see why.

Remains of a blown-up bunker.

After the war the citizens of Mehamn returned to rebuild their homes. They used the ruins of the fortifications as their garbage dump. It is easy to understand that they, more or less consciously, wanted to bury the stronghold of hated oppressors and destoryers of homes under waste, and forget it ever existed.

Rebuilt Mehamn seen from the ruins of the fortifications.

Today, what remains of the artillery post have been cleaned of the dumped garbage. There are information board on the history of the place, and a few tables and benches for picnics. The ruins make an excellent place to take in the incredibly beautiful scenery: the coastal artillery batteries were obviously constructed in places with good all-around visibility. It is, however, important to occasionally take a look down, too: one can easily fall in the trenches cut to the rock, or, less dangerously, step on reindeer droppings. From the Mehamn fortifications, one can see, for example, Kinnarodden, the northernmost point of continental Europe - Nordkapp gets a lot of hype, but ir is actually situated on the island of Magerøya and isn't even the northernmost tip of that island.

Sharp stones like these are typical for the Finnmark coast - they are natural formations, not remains of destroyed fortifications.

View to the north from Mehamn. Kinnarodden, the northernmost point of European continent, can be seen to the left.

In and around Mehamn there are many other places to enjoy the scenery, and like everywhere on the Norwegian coast, the scenery is great.

The rugged beauty of Nordkinn peninsula by the road to Mehamn: mountains...

...and sea.

We  visited Mehamn in late June and early July 2020, about two weeks after Norway re-opened its borders to visitors from Finland and a number of other countries after closure caused by the Covid-19 epidemic. Northern Norway is a very good place to travel while maintaining some social distance. We stayed at The Blue House at the End of the World, which we warmly recommend. Mehamn can be reached by car - your own or rental - or Hurtigruten , which at the time of writing is resuming normal daily operations.

Hurtigruten's Midnatsol in Mehamn.

We stayed in Mehamn June 29th - July 1st, 2020.

What should you do in New Orleans?

You should go to New Orleans, and there you should...

...take a guided tour of a cemetery... 

...which are arranged, among others, by Save Our Cemeteries.

...listen to jazz...

...while sipping a cocktail.

....walk in the French Quarter (and Marigny, and Treme, and elsewhere).

...go paddlewheeler-watching on the riverfront.

...eat gumbo, eat red beans & rice, eat po'boys, eat beignets, and, well, eat. Recommended places include Dooky Chase's, Gumbo shop and Coop's place, but it seems that there is no way to get bad food in the city. We ate everything before thinking of taking pictures, so this bowl of gumbo is from Wikimedia Commons. Picture by Elliot Lowe (CC BY 2.0).

...stay in an old New Orleans house, like in Olde Town Inn as we did.

...ride streetcars.

...and go to Bourbon Street like everyone else, at least briefly.

Me kävimme New Orleansissa 22.-26.5.2017.

Maritime History of San Francisco

Balclutha, a full-rigged ship built in Scotland, 1887.

Once upon a time San Francisco wass the most important port on the United States West Coast. No surprise then that there are several interesting museum ships there. If you're as interested in them as I am, you can easily spend a whole week day exploring them.

The San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, another gem ran by the National Park Service, is situated on the touristy Fisherman's Wharf. It includes several museum vessels, many of which are accessible to visitors. Full-rigger Balclutha sailed in commercial freight traffic from 1887 to 1930, and has an interesting and eventful history. For example, she was the last ship ever to fly the flag of the independent kingdom of Hawaii. There's a well-designed exhibition in the cargo hold about different cargoes transported by the Balclutha. All of the ship is accessible, but climbing the rigging is prohibited. In the captains's salon, in the galley and in the forecastle the visitors can imagine what it felt like to sail an ocean-going sailing vessel, when trips lasted several months.

Captain's salon.

Crew quarters in the forecastle. I don't think the anchor windlass in the middle of the room did much for comfort. The picture is taken with a fish-eye lens and is therefore distorted.

Balclutha's figurehead.

The paddle-wheel ferry Eureka is also very interesting, in a completely different way than Balclutha. She was built only three years later, in 1890, and she's almost as big as the ocean-going fullrigger. She originally transported trainso over the Golden Gate from San Francisco to Sausalito. After the First World War she was converted to a passenger and car ferry. After the Golden Gate Bridge and Bay Bridge were completed in th 1930s, most of the numerous ferries of the San Francisco Bay were decommissioned. Eureka, however, remained in traffic until 1957.

Entrance to the Eureka.

The car deck.

The passenger deck. It only took about half an hour to get from Sausalito to San Francisco, but there was a restaurant serving full meals on the Eureka.

Technologically Eureka was quite old-fashioned already when built. Paddle-wheels had largely been replaced by propellers, and the one-cylinder steam engine was based on 18th-century technology. The machinery was simple, and reliable on a vessel designed for continuous short trips. It was important to keep maintenance costs low and time required for repairs short.

Eureka's engine, picture taken with a fish-eye lens..

The engine explained.

The Historical Park's collections include other vessels as well, like thid paddle-wheel tug.

The museum, also included in the Historical Park, was under renovation, but we could see some nice scale models in the lobby. This one depicts San Francisco harbor around the 1849 gold rush. The sailing vessel Niantic had arrived from the U.S. East Coast, sailing around Cape Horn. The owners decided to convert it to a shop and tavern - at the time, the potential profit was greater than in shipping industry.

Another model featured the crew in masts.

A few blocks away there's a Liberty-class freight steamer Jeremiah O'Brien, built during the Second World War. She's not a part of the Historical Park but ran by an association. She is seaworthy and in navigable condition, and does sail every now and then. In her hold visitors can see an exhibition on the Liberty ships, which were built for war material transports. Between 1941 and 1945, 2710 were built.

Liberty-class freighter Jeremiah O'Brien.

The telegrapher's cabin.

Fist mate's cabin. The radio equipment is not original but for the modern use of the ship.

The Jeremiah O'Brienin operational main engine.

The rescue ladder of the engine room. Would you want to climb this to escape a burning engine room after the ship has been hit by a torpedo?

There's another WWII vessel next to the Jeremiah O'Brien, the submarine USS Pampanito.

Fisherman's Wharf is probably the most touristy area of San Francisco and it is not my favorite place in the city. The museum ships are great, but in addition to them there are mostly plastic, overpriced theme restaurants and souvenir shops. However, there is one more reason to visit the Fisherman's Wharf: The sea lion colony on Pier 39. Jolly creatures. Smelly, though.

Every now and then one should show off for the tourists...

...but mostly it's best just to relax.

We visited the ships on June 5th and 28th 2015.