The King's View

by Anne Rothwell

Through the coach window, I spotted some wild reindeer, then suddenly, quite close to us, a mother and baby running to escape the intrusive noise of the bus engine. A little further on, we stopped at a Sami camp where the indigenous people still wear their colourful red and blue national dress. They had a shop and, even so far off the beaten track, had credit card facilities. As everyone admired the hand knitted hats and gloves, I decided to buy a bone-handled cheese slicer. After many years of travelling and filling the house with ornamental souvenirs, I now only buy things I know I shall use.

Having left the boat at Honningsvag, we were travelling along a scenic road in the late evening - no problem seeing the views at this time of year. We arrived at North Cape, a 300 metre high cliff in the most northerly part of mainland Norway (though strictly on an island reached by an undersea tunnel) and disembarked to explore. Unfortunately, although it was light, it was quite overcast, so no sign of the midnight sun.

As well as the Globe on the cliff top, nearby was a monument called ‘Children of the Earth’, which consisted of a statue of a woman and child facing a group of 7 large sculpted discs, each designed by a child from a different part of the world.

Inside the large modern Visitor Centre, called the Nordkapphallen, there were plenty of fascinating things to see as well as a restaurant, a shop and a post office with its own postmark. I started by going downstairs to the large wide-screen cinema where I saw a wonderful film showing the area through the seasons.

Leading from the cinema was a long corridor which contained tableaux of events in the region’s history as well as doors to unexpected goodies: a bijou and beautiful chapel, sometimes used for weddings and, strangely, a small Thai museum which was opened after a visit by the King of Thailand in 1907.

But at the end of the corridor was the place which delighted me most. Known as the Grotten Bar, it was a huge and magical cave cut out of the rock and twinkling with the lights of dozens of candles. Along the back was a bar where champagne and caviar were served. In front of this were tiers of tables and chairs sloping downwards like an amphitheatre and to cap it all, ahead the whole frontage was glass, letting in the 24 hour daylight. Beyond the glass was a large balcony, known as the King’s View looking out on to the waves of the Arctic Ocean. I sat at one of the tables, savouring the scene. There were no large groups of people to disturb my reverie.

After a while, I looked at my watch and realised there wasn’t too much time before my coach was due to leave. I went back upstairs and as I strolled around the shop, I suddenly became aware that numbers of people were heading outside. Following, joy of joys, I saw that nature was sticking to her timetable - it was just midnight and the sun was bursting forth from behind the clouds. My night was made!

 First published in VISA 84 (Apr 2009)