Hurtigruten; Sunday, 03 February, 2013

After an early morning stop in Vadsø before breakfast the ship continued on its final leg into the port at Kirkenes. This has always been the furthest-most terminal of the Hurtigruten located in the borderlands between Russia and Finland – just 15 and less than 40 kilometres away respectively.

We had originally booked to go on a tour to the Russian border, but unfortunately, not enough people had signed up for it so it had been cancelled the previous evening. In the end this proved to be no bad thing as we were able to get the bus out to the spectacular museum in Kirkenes to have a look around that.

With the ruthless precision that nobody ever gives the Norwegians credit for (perhaps it’s the accompanying laid back attitude that make everyone think things just happen) the bus reappeared at the museum just before 12:15 and took us back, via the town centre to the Hurtigruten waiting at the quayside, ready to start the Southbound journey (albeit with a day’s sailing North to begin with)

Getting back on the boat was a slightly strange experience as many of the people we had been sailing with for the last 6 days had only been doing the short cruise, and had left the ship at Kirkenes to go to the airport and then home, and with only a handful of people joining the ship to do the 6 day Southbound cruise the boat suddenly felt a lot quieter.

The ship set sail on time, for once, and headed out across the mouth of the Varangerfjorden towards its next stop at Vardø, the most easterly point of Norway, further east than Istanbul or St Petersburg.

At Vardø there was enough time to have a look around the tiny, but perfectly preserved Vardøhus fortress made all the more pretty by the deep snow piled up in the moat and on the ramparts.

Whilst we had dinner the ship stopped at Båtsfjord and then a couple of hours later pulled in for a very quick stop at Berlevåg, then it was time to turn in for the night during which we would turn again and begin the actual journey South.