The last port of call northbound is a place called Kirkenes. On the surface, this town is very much like the others. The colours and styles of building are very similar to the other small villages we have seen on the way north. Kirkenes is located on a fjord which freezes over in winter. They have a snowhotel which is made of snow and only operates in winter. They are about 15kms from the Russian border and not too far from the Finnish border. Looking at a map of this area, you can see where Norway shares a border with 3 other countries – Sweden, Finland and Russia. We were taken to the Snowhotel (which is a hotel made out of ice and snow) and were able to get a close up look at some reindeer, ... read more

The snowfall continues as we head north to Tromso. We stopped at Finnsnes for a short time – enough to be impressed by the land(snow)scape. This must be where people got inspiration for winter wonderland pictures, songs and so on. Quite magnificent. Check out the photos. Tromso is the largest city in northern Norway, population 70,000. We arrived amidst falling snow and it continued to snow sometimes lightly and other times heavily for the whole 3 hrs we were there. Despite the weather, we headed up the mountain on the cable car. Our visibility at times was only 10-20 metres but on some occasions we were able to see down onto Tromso. We had a great time up on the mountain. Check out the photos. The northern lights appeared again tonight. Again they were weak, but ... read more

We crossed the arctic circle. We knew this because there was a little globe on a stand on an island we passed by. There was also an onboard activity where you were initiated into the Arctic Circle by having ice cubes and ice water poured down your back. Your reward was a shot of spirit of some type. So glad I don’t drink …. I have been working hard to stay warm – ice cubes down my back was not part of my plan. We got ourselves a certificate saying we had done the crossing so all is good. We had an hour or so in Bodo. Not a lot to see, but was kind of nice to get off the ship and just wander around. Weirdly we have been meeting our 10,000 step goal every ... read more

The MS Spitsbergen was waiting patiently for us as we boarded among 200 plus passengers (19 Feb). We could check in at 3pm but had to wait until 6pm to get into our cabins. Fortunately we located our travelling buddies, Kim and Stuart Grierson, fairly quickly, so we had a lovely few hours chatting and meeting other passengers. This ship is beautifully finished with good quality furnishings. The cabins and common areas both are very pleasant to the eye as well as being comfortable. The absolute best part of the service on the ship is the food. The breakfast and lunch offerings on this ship are buffet style. Some who know me well will attest to the fact that I have never been a fan of the "buffet" but the food selection and quality here is ... read more

Kapadokya (Cappadocia) is an area in middle of Turkey on the Asian continent. It has snow in winter and we were told some very hot days 35+ degrees in summer. The topography here is interesting. There have been a few volcanoes erupt in the last 60 million plus years and the resulting ash and lava has left the area with reasonably soft sandstone. This sandstone is impacted by the wind and rain over the centuries to leave odd looking structures known as fairy chimneys. In this region, there has been evidence of the Hittites then Romans then Turks from 1071. The Turks came from Central Asia. In 1299 the Ottoman Empire took over the area and in 1453 Istanbul captured and made the Turkish capital. The hills and fairy chimneys have also been used over the ... read more