Woke up to a sunny morning in Kirkenes and after some breakfast Louise and I walked around town.
Here are some scenes:
This one is in the town square in Kirkenes – a tribute to mothers
I thought it was cool that this house had a camper trailer parked outside
Another neighborhood shot
A war monument commemorating the liberation of Kirkenes from Russia during the war
Kenn paying his respects
OK, so then we got on the boat. I took a bunch of photos on-board the boat because a lot of people were curious about how nice a cruise on a cargo ship / ferry / cruise ship would be. I must say I was very pleasantly surprised at how nice the ship was. Remember, we were on the Hurtigruten Nord Norge, and we had an Expedition Suite, which is the nicest suite you can get on the boat! It was well worth it! (And not crazy expensive when you cruise in February!)
Dropped off by the bus – a short walk to the boat
Walking the gang plank!
The entrance to our suite – the living room
Closer in – showing the door to the bedroom
The bedroom
Didn’t know we were going to get bathrobes and slippers. And didn’t notice until after I got home that it was for “Men” otherwise I would have asked to change the size. Dang it!
Pretty decent size shower
Got some flowers to brighten things up
The crew on our ship – far right was the pilot / captain, Kjell-Inge Jensen.
Public areas on the boat:
Gift Shop / Reception
Cafeteria. If you didn’t get the meal plan, or you were just riding the boat as a ferry for the day, you could get stuff to eat here.
Breakfast. Breakfast and Lunch were open seating Buffet. Dinner was assigned seat 3-course meals. Food was very good!
Deck 7 – panorama deck. There was a little coffee shop here that you could get snacks also.
There were 2 outdoor jacuzzis, at the back of the boat. We used them once. Note the icicles hanging off the steps!
The following two are ‘regular’ rooms with windows. They were empty so I took photos through the windows.
OK, so, we boarded the boat and then departed Kirkenes at 12:30. Our first stop was at Vardo. We had an hour from 3:45 to 4:45pm. Yes, it was very dark! Vargo is almost at the very top of Norway! And it is the easternmost town / village.
And it was very cold! As I recall the wind gusts were 39 MPH! And temps were around 10oF! So just imagine what the wind chill felt like…
We walked to the Vardohus Festning
https://www.forsvarsbygg.no/no/festningene/finn-din-festning/vardohus-festning/
You can’t tell but the fortress is star shaped. Vardøhus Fortress is located in the town of Vardø on the island of Vardøya on the Barents Sea near the mouth of the Varangerfjord in northeastern Norway near the Russian border. It is the northernmost star fort in the world. In the seventeenth century, this fortress was the setting for the numerous witch trials that were held in Vardø, and the alleged witches were held for trial in these buildings.
Entrance to the fort:
After Vardo, the boat went to Batsfjord, Berlevag, Mehamn, Honningsvag, and then Hammerfest. Most of those stops were in the middle of the night, or the stop was so short we weren’t really allowed to get off the boat. So, next post will start with Hammerfest, where we had a 2 hour stop the morning of Feb 9th.
Talk soon!