Spitzbergen via Norway - Grip Island Page

We had to muster after breakfast at 08:15 & then, walked to the ferry to Grip Island. This was quite old, smelly & very fast but Grip Island is quite a way out to sea. We went past the Klipfisch Museum & new housing built on the bare, glaciated rock.

Klipfisch musuem

One of the big bridges

Suburban Kristiansund from the ferry

Grip is the original fishing village in the area, with a church dating from the early 1500s at least & a survivor building, as it is on the island’s high point of 40 metres. Some of the other buildings had been swept to sea & rebuilt, some I gathered, several times. We walked to the church to be told the history & then, on to the café for coffee & pancakes, filled with something sweetish. Then, we had plenty of time to walk round the village, which comprises houses now owned by Rich Bastards & buildings associated with boat repair. 105 minutes was plenty of time to ‘do’ the whole place but it was interesting & a bit like a Scottish village with the housing scattered. Indeed, there had been Scots fishermen living there.