August 11 Museums (Day 319)
Rain squalls today, but in between we each ventured out to stretch our legs. Robert explored the waterfront.
Scenes from the active fishing and pleasure boat docks.
I explored two museums. The Narvik Museum is housed in the original administration building of the Ofoten Railway, the line that extends from the border with Sweden to the dock in Narvik for the transport of iron ore.
Built in 1901, the building looks across the fjord to the dock where the ships take on the loads of iron ore.
The second museum is the Narvik Krigsmuseum, the Narvik War Museum. The first floor describes the circumstances of 1940. Norway declared neutrality when the war was started by Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1940. But due to the continued shipment of iron ore to Germany by Sweden (also a neutral nation) through Norway via the harbor at Narvik, Norway was targeted by both Germany and Great Britain. Narvik was bombed, invaded by Germany, bombed and retaken by the Allies, then lost again to Germany, and ultimately almost totally destroyed. The exhibit then descends to a lower level, the Zona.
In this exhibit space you are challenged to look at all perspectives. Who is a Terrorist? What choices do ordinary people have when war comes to them? What choices would you make? 
You then enter an exhibit about the ongoing war in Ukraine. It makes it real with stories of real people who made hard choices, the outcomes of which we will not know.
Remember, it can happen anywhere under certain circumstances. Will we be able to recognize those circumstances in time?
Outside the War Museum are two iconic Narvik structures, in the background is the Scandic Hotel, and in the foreground is the sculpture Trinigon 3, The National Freedom Monument, installed to mark the 50th anniversary of Norway’s liberation in 1945. We sure were glad we went up on the mountain yesterday because today the mountaintops are covered in clouds!