Blogs from Kirkenes, Northern Norway, Norway, Europe

Last full day on the ship. Today we have 2 excursions. The North Cape and then a Sami experience. Beautiful sunny day again so we reckon we are in for a treat at the North Cape. Wrong. Got on the bus. Guide says we might have fog to deal with. We think he is full of it until we get closer. Sure enough, fog. Get to the visitor Centre and walk out the door towards the point where everyone has pics taken. A large globe structure. This is about 100 meters from the Centre. Can’t see the globe. Get there and we can see a bit. Take pics but can’t see anything else. Cold as buggery so head back indoors where they have a movie experience of the cape to watch. Those with glasses have de-fogged ... read more

We spent a week cruising southbound on the Norwegian ship, MS Richard With from Kirkenes. We had varied weather- grey, moody skies, heavy rain and cold, bright blue skies and sunshine and lovely warmth and heavy winds, making for an interesting journey. Norway's coastline is beautiful- rugged, with choppy water and water tucked away in fjord which is clear and smooth, like glass. There have been many seagulls, some terns and sea eagles, but I unfortunately missed the Puffin I wanted to sea. In fact, there was next to no wildlife by comparison to Antarctica. We were too far south for Polar Bears and penguins too... next trip we need to go to Svalbard and back into the Arctic circle - a little further north next time. Without doubt, our favourite day was in the Vestæralen ... read more

The transport system served us well again the following morning when we were able to leave Maya’s apartment at 7.00am for a 7.14am train that took less than thirty minutes to take us 60 km to the airport with a stop along the way. The plane journey to Kirkenes was one of keen anticipation, as our destination was remote and cold way beyond Peter Dutton, our first time inside the Arctic Circle, by several degrees of latitude. Also, not unexpectedly, several degrees colder than we had been used to. The downy jackets from Iceland were starting to work for their keep. A not-so-new shuttle bus took us to one of the two hotels in a small port/industrial town with tourist overlays, just 10 km from the Russian border. There is a kind of passport-free zone for ... read more

Wednesday 6th June 2012 This morning we reached the halfway point of our cruise with many passengers getting off and a new crowd ready to move in. Kirkenes has little more than this to offer the tourist we finding it a very drab and uninteresting town. The lack of interesting architecture is due to the town being completely destroyed during WW2 probably because, as continues now, iron ore is mined here. The Russian border is only 10kms from the town, busses taking interested tourists to view it. Having been to Russia a couple of years ago certainly didn't make this a priority. The boat was delayed for an hour waiting for a tour group to return, as the ship disembarked we had our lunch. Later in the day we stopped at Vado for about 30 mins ... read more

October 16 to October 27, 2009 Bergen to Kirkenes ....6,206km ... And Back -twelve days and eleven nights on the MS Nordcapp; built in 1996, holding 691 passengers, 464 berths, 45 cars, 123.3m long, travelling at a service speed of 15 knots and owned by HurtigrutenASA. -have crossed the Arctic Circle, seen three rainbows in one day, been to the northern most point in Europe, been to the point where Russia,Finland and Norway meet, witnessed the Northern Lights, stood under the Milky way, saw seals swim in the harbour and looked for trolls in the TrollFjord. -have gone on tours to see the Art Nouveau in Aalesund, seen the Arctic Cathedral and Polaria in Tromsoe, looked into a replica of a Sami tent on the way to North Cape, visited numerous museums which all mentioned the ... read more