Last nights trip around the top of Norway sorted out the men from the boys as we were in open sea and there was defiantly a swell, luckily Chris and I were ok so we had dinner a drink in the bar and a couple of games of crib – which I won! Then went to bed. This morning we arrived in Kirkenes which is the mid point of the round trip, about 100 people got off here and we are expecting 100 to get on. Talking to the lady in the shop quite a few people only do one leg or the other but that way you miss some of the towns. All the trips today are to the Russian boarder which is only 50km away you can go by bus, boat or rib but pretty much that is all there is to do. We decided against this having actually been to Russia and to be honest not being that sure about the fascination of looking at a stretch of land with a fence on it so we took a walk into town. Kirkenes only exists because there was a big mining operation here, iron ore was discovered and mined at an open pit called Bjornevatn, it was the largest mining company in the 1900s with 1660 employees, it closed between 1997 and 2009 when they started mining again but unfortunately it closed down for good in 2015. However as they had all the infrastructure they seem to have reinvented the town as a transportation hub for both tourists and goods. We had a walk round then went back to the ship and just relaxed in the relative peace and quite as most of the passengers are either on a trip or have left. At lunch time we effectively turned round and started the return journey. Our first stop on the way back was Vardø, this is an island that has a fortress, which we got off to walk round. The current fortress is the third one to have been built on this site, the first one was built in 1299 for King Hakon V, the same time as Akershus fortress in Oslo. At the time there was no drawn border so the purpose of this fortress was to Mark Norwegian territory. The second was Danish and built in 1460 when Norway was united with Denmark, during this time people all over Europe believed that Vardø was the devils centre on Earth. Between 1621 and 1692 as many as 80 women were burned at the fortress as witches having failed the ‘water test’ ie if you drown you are innocent but if you survive you must be a witch! The current fortress was built between 1734 and 1738 also for a Danish king and prisoners were sent here from Denmark. There were two types of convict, Honest ones – those who had raped or killed and Dishonest ones – those who had committed minor crimes! The ones ones claimed to be insane when they committed their crimes and were therefore treated better than the dishonest ones. Today it is still manned by 4 soldiers and 1 commanding officer their duties include saluting the canons and hoisting the flags on key days such as 21st January when the sun reappears! Vardø is the only city in Europe in the Artic climate zone, it is said that in October the soldiers wrap up for the winter and they unwrap in May. This fortress was the last place in Norway to surrender to the Germans during the Second World War, Norway surrendered on 10th June 1940 but the commander of this fortress didn’t surrender until 2nd November the same year, something he ended up spending 4.5 years in prison for, but he did receive the Order of the British Empire for his actions. We had a good walk round then it was back on the ship to continue the journey, we don’t stop for any length of time until tomorrow when we have another trip planned. It will be interesting to see how the new people cope with the open sea section of this journey as that is what they are starting with and it is very bouncy outside the protection of the fjords!
