It's -3°C but the wind chill reduces it to -10°C and its snowing.

Our last afternoon in Alta before we head back south to Kristiansund. We have a day at sea tomorrow so we can all regroup ready.

Today I was going to go out in the afternoon but the numbing cold was eating into my ankle so I stayed on the ship, did my Spanish, washed my hair and sorted things.

Saga informed us they would be doing our Passenger Locator Forms so one less thing to concern myself with. 

Bet its probably easier with the number of technophobes on board. 😏

So it was a trip to the Alta heritage museum which for me was great but for many was probably a bit boring. Part of the exhibition was closed so their Northern lights section another I can't remember were closed off.

I was more interested in the Sami exhibition downstairs and had a wonderful time wandering around their pieces of clothing, tents (very much like a teepee) and then watch a wonderful film showing northern Norway and the Sami through the seasons.

The music track was based on Sami music/songs and the sort of ambient you get in this region. The photography was stunning and did leave me wanting to come back to Finmark (its correct name it seems) at a different time of the year. 

It must be amazing in the breeding season ... must look it up when I get back.

We stopped off at the cathedral for a photo opportunity but apart from that it was there and back.

The WW2 history of the place is quite something though.

During the war the Germans occupied the whole of Finmark using the houses, churches, industries etc for the German Reich but when they retreated they operated a burn policy and raised everything to the ground including telegraph poles, destroyed all the trees and wrecked agricultural land so the place was useless.

The locals on returning resorted to the Sami way of building their homes which is an upturned boat and turf walls. They used these structures whilst they rebuilt their homes and returned their lands to how they'd been. It must have taken ages.

Oh yes, and the retreating army left two buildings standing, two churches which had graveyards around them, so there are only two buildings in the whole of Finmark which are older that the 1940s.

Amazing.