Day 9 Saturday, March 7th Kirkenes and Vardo

The skies clouded up during the previous evening and again it was a disappointment not to see the Aurora.  We slept very well and awoke to another fine day as we approached Kirkenes.   We breakfasted and were the boat with most of our insulating clothes on by 0930.  Our last experience in May 2009 of Kirkenes was not so good - then it was a dreary, drizzly day and 

snow in Kirkenes

we could not find any attractive points of interest.  Today it was crisp and cold with plenty of 

Russian liberation memorial

snow plus the sun was shining.  We had planned some points of interest to visit, we had a town map and off we set.  It took about 15 minutes walking to reach the town and the first stop was at a memorial built by the Russians to commemorate the liberation of Kirkenes by Soviet troops in 

the bomb shelter

1944.  It was well looked after with wreaths at the bottom marking a significant moment of the town's history.  On retreating from Kirkenes the Germans employed a scorched earth policy destroying all buildings and anything else which could be of use to the Russians.  We walked on and found an air raid bunker which is normally open to the public but unfortunately not on our day.  

We carried on to the town square 

Kirkenes town square with snow

where there was a mother and children memorial which was special.  The town square had huge piles of snow which had been scraped from the surrounding roads.  We walked on to the town church but sadly the doors were 

mother and children

locked.  In the main shopping street there was a tribute to the king spider crab which is caught in large numbers locally.  We found an open café and enjoyed a delicious hot chocolate each (it was certainly cold outside) and 

Kirkenes church

then decided to make our way back to the boat.  On one of the shops (a Spar!) Russian was written as well as Norwegian.  The area is close to the Russian border as well as Finland and 

Kirkenes Hight Street with crab

Sweden.  In past times country borders were not recognised by the Sami people or anyone else.  We found in a park a memorial to the Norwegian minister of 

Stoltenberg memorial

foreign affairs (Stoltenberg) who arranged with everyone to reset these ideals and so we now back happily to where we were (they obviously like their memorials).   

Spar shop with Russian sign

As we approached the boat there was a spur of the main fjord which was frozen over - the gulf stream does not reach everywhere!  Our experience of Kirkenes had been much better on this visit.




spur of fjord frozen

We boarded and sailed at 1230 and thus we started our return journey to Bergen.  Coming out of the fjord provided again spectacular scenery but it was a bit parky on deck.  We lunched, sorted some things out in the cabin, blogged and knitted during the afternoon.  The boat made good progress 

the Vardo observatory

and by 1530 we were approaching Vardo.  There was an observatory on the headland

Vardo fort

above the town which looked even more grander than the one on St Martin's!  We are further north than anywhere in Russia, Greenland or Alaska.  We turned into the harbour and were soon disembarking into this 

at Vardo fort

attractive little town.  We went to the old fort which was well snowbound but we did 

Vardo main church

have a little look.  We spent more time there in May 2009 but it was a lot warmer then.  We took some photos but as it was cooling and the light fading we decided to go back to the boat.  We did not have time to get to either of the attractive churches in the town.  

another Vardo church

The leaving of Vardo was atmospheric with the lights and the fishing boats.

We boarded the boat and warmed up before it was time for dinner.  

leaving Vardo

At dinner we met new travellers with us, our previous adjacent diners had left the boat at Kirkenes to return to Frankfurt and we now had a Dutch couple who seemed very pleasant.  The day had been very pleasant but as soon as darkness came the skies clouded and so again no Aurora - hopefully tomorrow?