Chapter 5: Kattegat Strait to the North Sea
Norway's Fascinating Place in Today's World and It's Stained History
07.23.2023 - 07.23.2023 59 °F
Chapter 05: Sea Day
Sunday, July 23, 2023
Overnight, we sailed northwesterly through the Kattegat Strait (In Danish, Cat's Throat) to the North Sea. (If you watched any of the "Vikings" or "Vikings: Valhallah" Netflix series about Ragnar Lothbrok and others, (good TV says I) Kattegat, a term you remember well, turns out to be less a village evolving into a city and more a body of water.
There are three types of water surrounding us aboard Silver Dawn. (1) The Skaggerk Strait south of Kristiansand, Denmark, in the background of the lovely photograph below; (2) Vero Sparkling Water and (3) Vero Still Water, both of which are provided in our minibar aboard Silver Dawn. Love their branding.
Paul has lots to tell you about the history and the present of Norway. I thought i would tell you about today, a sea day meaning no ports. Some of our friends who don't cruise have often asked 'what do you do on a ship'? The answer is way more than any of us would do in a typical day at home. I'll start with acupuncture. No secret that i have issues with my left leg, sometimes its from stenosis and sometimes from my hip. My body is well aware of my age and likes to remind me. I, on the other hand, am determined to beat it all. Enter acupuncture which is available on the ship. After googling side effects, and seeing that both Mayo and Hopkins gives acupuncture a thumbs up, i decided to try. i'm two sessions in, i'll let you know if this ancient cure actually works. Do you want to go to a lecture? play bingo, mahjong, bridge? Pamper yourself in the spa? Relax with a book in any one of multiple cozy spots. Maybe a trivia contest is more up your alley or a cooking lesson with one of the chefs on board. Then for those who are contemplating joining the Polar Bear Club, you can relax in the pool or the hot tubs. Hungry - pick one of 7 or 8 places for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. On a cruise, your meals are included. I learned from our friend Jami, that if you want to try three things on the menu, just order them all. No big deal, it's all included. Before dinner enjoy the Jazz pianist. After dinner chose between a show, the piano bar, the casino, or go have a drink in one of a half dozen places catering to drinks and conversation. There is plenty to do!
July weather in this part of the world offers daytime high temperatures seldom reaching 70 while nights don't dip below 50. Sunrise is around 4:00am and sunset around 11:00pm. One in the morning feels like twilight as the sun doesn't dip far below the horizon.
Norwegian place names are simiplified by an understanding of suffixes. Vik means inlet or bay; vatnet means lake, breen means glacier, dalen means valley and fossen means waterfall.
Our 700 foot long ship is far and away not the largest vessel to recently ply these waters.
Two months ago, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford, cruised off these fjords in a show of strength in this, an area of rapidly increasing geopolitical significance. These waters off Norway’s coast are contested by Russia, China and NATO. Russia covetousness is more easily explained than China’s as Russia is Norway’s neighbor wtih a 125-mile-long shared border. China eyes the area as an Arctic and North Atlantic lane for both commerce and military use.
Norway, the only founding member of NATO that has a land border with Russia, has previously eschewed an American military presence but that changed after Russia’s grab of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula back in 2014 and changed again with Vladimir Putin’s even more aggressive “special military operation” illegal invasion of Ukraine a year ago. Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store let it be known that American military presence in Norway “transcends mere symbolic value.”
Our carrier visited Oslo (inexplicably and sadly we aboard the Silversea Silver Dawn did not) and planned to engage with Norway’s military in training activity off Norway’s coast and further into the Norwegian Sea. That isn’t the first time Norway engaged militarily in this fashion. In 2018, American troops joined 50,000 Allied Forces in an exercise here named “Trident Juncture.” It was NATO’s largest military exercise since the Cold War’s end over thirty years ago.
As the Gerald R. Ford claims the title of “the world’s newest and most technologically advanced aircraft carrier,” her presence in this part of the world—she plans to sail north of the Arctic Circle while she’s here—caused the Russian embassy in Olso to remark, “There are no questions in the (Arctic) north that require a military solution, nor topics where outside intervention is needed. Considering that it is admitted in Oslo that Russia poses no direct military threat to Norway, such demonstrations of power appear illogical and harmful.”
That statement belies the new Cold War atmosphere taking hold here. Russia has naval bases and nuclear missiles stationed near here and stations most of its nuclear armed submarines to the northeast of its border with Norway. Climate change has reduced polar ice allowing more Russian navigation here. Partially in response, Finland, Sweden and Denmark have combined their air forces with Norway’s creating a force with more planes than either Britain or France. Finland was recently approved for NATO membership and Sweden's application is pending.The fear is that the Russian Northern Fleet would sail down through the straits between here and Greenland and Iceland in a move NATO calls a “red right hook” to block sea lanes and cut underwater cables and threaten the east coast of the USA with cruise missiles. Who knew? Now, us.
Left unsaid is any reference to the fact that after the European boycott of Russian natural gas, Norway has become Europe’s largest gas supplier. Its offshore oil and gas platforms are strategic and perhaps even threatened after the undersea sabotage explosions far to the south of here less than a year ago disrupted gas flow from the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines beneath the Baltic Sea. That pipeline formerly carried natural gas from Russia to Western Europe. According to the New York Times, intelligence seen by U.S. officials “suggest” that a pro-Ukrainian group is responsible for blowing it up. Ukrainian government officials deny that with President Volodymyr Zelensky saying that Ukraine “has nothing to do with the Baltic Sea mishap.”
Complicating international relations even more, a Russian deserter by the name of Andrei Medvedev, who joined the mercenary Wagner Group after serving four years in a Russian prison for robbery and more, and who admits killing Ukrainians, escaped from Russia by running across a frozen Arctic river early this year. Now seeking asylum, the Norwegians have to consider if he is a political refugee or war criminal. Norway has committed $7.5 billion in economic and military aid to Ukraine and accepted 40,000 Ukrainian refugees. But, with Medvedev, they must find a way to balance their “humanitarian ethos against an increasingly assertive national security policy,” as reported in the New York Times in late May.
Even more Russian intrigue arrives in the form of a white beluga whale named Hvaldimir. First sighted far to the north of here near Hammerfest in April of 2019, Hvaldimir’s name is a pun based on the Norwegian “hval” which means whale and Vladimir which refers to Mr. Putin.
Why is Hvaldimir suspected of being a Russian spy? He wore a “tight-fitting camera harness labelled Equipment St. Petersburg.” Since the Russians opeated a military training program for dolphins, seas and beluga whales during the 1980s and 1990s, it made sense to Norwegians that Hvaldimir is—or was—a spy. He has recently been arrearing again, this time at Oslofjord, at the same time and place as our aircraft carrier.
In any event, this is where we are today, blissfully ignoring all but the amazing scenery which surrounds us and ignorant of Russian spy or military activity in our midst.
The world never tires of stories of the Nazis and World War II. That's ok, the world must never forget in hopes that helps history from repeating itself. Here, Germany invaded neutral Norway so it could use naval bases along the vast coastline to fight against the Allied navies. Critical to the German war industry, important iron ore from neutral Sweden needed protection. That protection was enhanced with Norway’s surrender to Germany in 1940. We gave you some of that history in yesterday's blog so we won't go there again.
Non-Jewish Norwegians resisted Nazification while the Germans instituted martial law and death sentences. Large-scale industrial sabotage and other forms of resistance—from passive to general strikes—complicated the Nazi occupation.
On May 8, 1945, Germany’s military forces in Norway surrendered to the Allies and Quisling was arrested, tried for treason and war crimes and subsequently executed. 19,000 other Norwegian collaborators received prison sentences.
In recent history, on July 22, 2011, a gunman killed 65 young people on the island of Utøya a short boat ride from the capital city of Oslo. My son Cianán and I had left that city only three days before.
Norway has distinguished itself by mediating between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization and between the government of Sri Lanka and the Tamil insurgents there. Norway sent troops to join the NATO force in Afghanistan.
Famous Norwegians include Edvard Munch (artist of “The Scream”), playright Henrik Ibsen (A Doll’s House and Hedda Gabler), Anni-Frid Lyngstad of ABBA, and Leif Eriksson (first European to set foot on North American soil). King Harald V is the current King and has served since he was crowned in 1991. His son Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway, is heir to the throne.
Sweden has Swedish meatballs; Norway boasts of Kjøttkaker, balls of minced beef rolled in nutmeg, pepper and ginger which are served with potatoes, cabbage stew and a brown sauce.
Brunost brown cheese is a favorite and not produced anywhere else in the world. Hot dogs served in a waffle are popular in the eastern part of the country. Tilslørte Bondepiker is a layered dessert of apple sauce, whipped cream and breadcrumbs roasted in sugar.
QUIZ:
Where is the world’s longest tunnel? That would be the 15 mile long Lærdal Tunnel.
Where is the Nobel Peace Prize awarded? Oslo
What countries does Norway border? Sweden and Russia
What personal information is a matter of public record? Annual income, income tax paid and “total wealth”
What winter sport was invented here? Skiing
By what do Norwegians call their country? Norge
Hydroelectricity provides most of Norway’s electricity. It was the first country to generate electricity from sea-bed tidal power. It was the first country to operate an industrial-scale carbon capture and storage project. The country boasts the largest fleet of electric vehicles per capita. Norwegians take their green politics seriously. However, fossil fuel exports provide the lion’s share of the money needed for their welfare expenditures—from pensions to health care.
Norway is one of the planet’s largest exporters of oil and gas—40% of the country’s total exports—creating the vast revenues that fund its social network. Fluctuations in the price of oil and gas can create havoc for the nation’s economy. Since the implementation of the embargo on Russian oil and gas, Norway is now the largest provider of gas to Europe earning $100 billion last year using up all of the capacity of a network of pipelines to run to the continent. Six percent of Norwegians are employed in fossil fuel operations. There has been a burst of drilling activity in the last two years.
Norway not only is not a member of the European Union, it also decided to “stay out of OPEC.” But, of course, it pegs the price of its energy exports in line with world markets. The oil and gas fields here are owned by the government as are large shares of stock in the companies that are operating those deposits. B4 and I loved the three season Netflix series “Occupied” which prophesied a Russian “soft invasion” of Norway to take over it’s energy revenues.
So, as Norway works to cut its greenhouse gas emissions at home, it unapologetically sells carbon dioxide emitting fuels to its European neighbors. Some Norwegians decry this engaging in self-criticism for benefitting from “war profits.”
The head of Norway’s Greenpeace bemoans that “Norway is locking Europe into what is really a problem for the climate.” The mayor of the City of Stavanger boasts, “I am a proud oil kid” noting that 50,000 jobs in her region are related to oil and gas. They are having their cake (kage) and eating it too.
As I walk the deck (five miles today) while B4 undergoes a bit of acupuncture, I notice a large population of ladybugs which, here, are known as ladybirds. I've no explanation for that other than to cite this: The seven-spot ladybird (Coccinella septempunctata) is Norway’s most common ladybird species.
On the Silver Dawn (596 passengers), we’re cruising in the North Sea today. As for the entire Silversea line, it now sails with eleven vessels. Two more are joining the fleet soon: Silver Nova (728( and Silver Ray (728).
Here’s the active fleet, their passenger capacity, from where they sailed this week and where they are today:
Silver Muse (596) out of Seward, Alaska, at Juneau, Alaska;
Silver Whisper (388) out of Vancouver at Icy Strait Point, Alaska;
Silver Origin (100) in the Galapagos Islands;
Silver Endeavor (200) out of Churchill, Manitoba, Canada;
Silver Cloud (254) out of Kangerlussauq, Greenland;
Silver Wind (298( out of Tromso, Norway, at Skarsvag, Norway;
Silver Moon (596) out of Reykjavik at Heimaey, Westman Islands, Iceland;
Silver Shadow (388) out of Southampton at Holyhead, Wales;
Silver Spirit (608) out of Athens at Mykonos, Greece; and
Silver Explorer (144) out of Broome, Australia, at Hunter River Regio, Australia.
Hi Ho.
