Hurtigruten Day 1 - on the Richard With

I am SO out of synch!  It’s partly the result of a day of traveling – why is it so tiring to be sitting still in a plane?  I was safely in bed by 11pm – and then wide awake at 4am!  It’s partly the light outside, I guess, though I had the room fully darkened.  I think I might do the melatonin thing tonight...

Overlooking Kirkenes - a memorial to the Russian liberation
of the town from the Nazi occupation

Looking down from the memorial

So – an early-morning start, with a bit of a walk – there’s not much to see, though.  Kirkenes was used as a Nazi base during the war, and liberated by the Red Army in October 1944. Only 13 houses survived the war.  There is a monument to the liberation, and a Russian cultural presence – though how that’s going, with the Ukraine situation...   Kirkenes is actually located further east than much of Sweden and Finland – and lies further east than both St Petersburg, and Istanbul in the south, both of which mark the European border with Asia.

A fishing town - and king crab is a favourite!

Watching the ferry arrive from the northbound passage

As the northern point of the Hurtigruten (express route) that runs cargo and passengers up and down the coast, tourism has a presence – but it’s mostly geared to winter activities.  I watched the ferry come in at 9am – it bases at the terminal about 15 minutes walk from the hotel.  There’s a Hurtigruten bus, and there are cabs, but though it was grey, it wasn’t actually raining, and I opted to do the walk – bags and all – and be there before the rush.

A grey day - with patches of brightness

The ship is MS Richard With – named for the founder of the Hurtigruten company. Built in 1993, it was refurbished 5 years ago and upgraded last year to a green hybrid ship. It has a passenger capacity of nearly 600, but apparently only around 350 on board for this trip – much more bearable then those mega-cruise ships!  We don’t go deep into the fjords like they do – our job is to get from A to B efficiently – but there’s legislation coming from the Norwegian government that will seriously restrict those big vessels in order to preserve the environment. My cabin is mid-level, window-less, and tiny – but I don’t anticipate being in it much!

The route in the first two days

At we headed up the inlet from Kirkenes, we became aware that were were really on the ocean – the Barents Sea, to be precise. There was quite a lot of motion, and the unsteadier among us learned to watch for something to grab. The first stop was Vardø, just after 4pm – it’s on one of the islands joined to the mainland by one of those archetypal Norwegian tunnel-highways.  We had just under an hour, and the guides led a group of us on a walk up to the star fortress – built originally in the 1730s – and to a monument to the 91 people burned as witches in the 17th century. I wish we’d had more time there – but that’s one of the Hurtigruten things – it’s always running to a tight schedule.

The northernmost NATO installations near Vardø

The star fortress at Vardø

Meeting the mares and their foals

This installation commemorates those killed as "witches"

I’d managed to change my dinner sitting assignment from 8pm (way too late for me!) to 5:30pm, and found myself sitting with three very nice people I’d been sitting near on the flight from Oslo, and who had also shared the bus ride to the Thon Hotel; Mark and Mary are from Minneapolis, and traveling with Mary’s sister Kathy from Colorado. Dinner was really nice – Hurtigruten makes a thing of sourcing locally and offering manageable portions, well presented. I suspect I’m going to indulge myself for the next few days, and pay for it when I get back! 

Båtsfjord, at 8pm, was a shorter stop than Vardø, and didn’t allow for exploration, and I will probably sleep through Berlevåg, Mehamn and Kjøllefjord – all of them 10-minute deliveries