Northern Lights

We have been blessed with two sunny though cold days in Kirkenes. We've also had clear nights, and last night, right outside our front door, we were treated to a lovely show of Northern Lights. We just go nuts for Northern Lights - it was hard to go to bed.

We don't have a car, so today was another day to walk around town. I went up every hill I could find. It's wild to walk up and up and up neighborhood roads, emerging to bedrock hilltops and a high mountain lake that was obviously set up for summer swimming. There were also power poles all over - in the winter (remember those 50 days of full dark), it's a lighted walking/ski trail. Photos never do justice to the views from high places - but I'll tell you that it's amazing to see the whole landscape, then hike higher and see even more!

Mountain lake

View of Kirkenes

Andersgrotta

Kirkenes is a mining town, with deposits of iron ore. During WWII, the Germans invaded Norway in 1940, and were quite interested in Kirkenes despite its remote location. The Russians (the Russian border is a mere 8 miles away) also wanted it, and Kirkenes was one of the most heavily bombed towns in Europe. 

When they got word that bombers were on the way, the town folk headed down into the bomb shelter that their miners dug for them. As many as 2,500 people ducked down into these freezing cold, unventilated caves for 20 minutes at a time. By the end of the war, almost the entire town had to be rebuilt. 

The entrance is a very modest opening near downtown. The tour took us inside to watch a movie and hear more stories about that time.

Havila

There are actually two companies that run these "mail boats" along the Norwegian coast. Yesterday there was a Hurtigruten ship in town - today there was a Havila. I love watching boats come and go!

Tonight we're hoping (fingers crossed) for more northern lights - and tomorrow we board our ship!

Arctic Circle - Norway

I come to you from a city 250 miles north of the Arctic Circle - Kirkenes. 

Arctic Circle

The Arctic Circle marks the point that experiences 24 hour midnight sun, and also polar night. Here in Kirkenes at 69.7 degress north they get 64 days (~2 months) of midnight sun, and 50 days of polar night. 

It's not so extreme today - but it still feels really different from home. It was sunny and 90 when we left Minnesota - it was sunny but 27 degrees this morning! The water in the puddles was frozen. I packed for fall - but this is winter! I bundled up - and then remembered that 27 degrees (and sun) really isn't that cold :). The day is a little shorter here, but the really strange thing is seeing the sun so low in the sky. According to the stats, the sun reached an angle of 13 degrees at noon, compared to 37 degrees at home. It makes for pretty interesting light!

Hurtigruten

Why Norway? In a word, the Hurtigruten. In 1893, the company started "mail" boats, carrying goods and people up and down their coastline. It turns out that Norway is the country with the second longest coastline. What is the country with the longest coastline? 

Anyway - they still run their ships, and it's possible to travel the whole way from Bergen in the south to Kirkenes in the north. We're taking the cheaper southbound trip, making 33 stops in 6 days. We'll board the Kong Harald on Wednesday. Today I looked down a the fjord from our airbnb - and there was its sister ship, Nordnorge. 

Getting Here

It was not easy to get here. We took a really full and cramped 6 hour overnight flight to Iceland, followed by a 3 hour flight to Oslo, followed by a two hour flight straight north from Oslo to Kirkenes. Who knew that you could fly for two hours and still be in Norway!

We left Minnesota in the dark of the evening, arrived in Iceland in the dark of the morning, and by Kirkenes it was dark again. We were crazy tired but we made it.

Kirkenes

Today we've been exploring Kirkenes. We started with the grocery store - we needed breakfast. Some of the simplest things were difficult, like finding the few real butter options among all the varieties of margarine, all listed in Norwegian. The loaves of bread looked fantastic, and it's very neat to have a machine to fresh slice your own bread - but we finally had to ask for help to use it. The store employee didn't seem to know English - so we got by with gestures.  A lot of locals don't speak English.

Fjords

In the dark, the terrain didn't look that different. But in the light of day - I can definitely tell we are not in Minnesota anymore. I thought it might be flat and swampy here, but it's not. There are granite outcrops all over, lots of hills and of course the fjords. During the last ice age, glaciers carved away at the river valleys, making U shaped valleys that flooded with sea water. These reach far inland and usually stay open all year - even at this latitude.

This is the view from near our airbnb. We're up on a hill, and straight ahead is the open ocean. 

We have another day to explore Kirkenes tomorrow!

Iona and Mull - The Necessity of Taking Turns

The first time we came to Scotland, I looked at the single track roads out on the islands and absolutely refused to rent a car. We planned our whole trip around trains (which were mostly cancelled due to flooding and track damage) and buses. Now that I'm rated for left-side driving, left-side stick shift, and roads from motorways to A roads to smaller B roads to single track - we were ready to drive across Mull to Iona. Here's my favorite photo from the day (which I'm listing first just so it becomes the thumbnail of this post):

Mull

Mull is the large island just off the mainland - clearly visible from Oban. There are many ferries from Oban to Mull every day - the crossing takes around an hour. The fare for three people and a car, one way, was 31 pounds - or around $35. Alternately, we could have taken the ferry as foot passengers then caught the local bus across Mull. Later I wished we'd done that, but the bus was both more expensive and more limited, we would have had to take the earlier sailing. 

Mull was a surprising mix of forested areas, coast, and big baren hills. 

I don't have many photos of he 35 mile single-track road across the island from Craignure to Fionnphort because driving took ALL of my attention. My job was to drive like a bat out of hell - as fast as I reasonably could - watching like a hawk for oncoming vehicles. As soon as I saw one, I had to quick figure out if there was a passing place ahead (or behind me) - or if they were going to stop. I learned to flash my lights, and I did that steering wheel wave at every car. The road was NARROW and the oncoming vehicles were tourists, locals, RVs, vans, or full sized buses. I must have passed 50 vehicles on the way there - it added almost 30 minutes to the trip. 

The trip back was almost restful in comparison. That's when I stopped and got that picture of the highland cow. And these sheep that let me slowly squeeze by without giving up their place on the road....

Iona

There's evidence of human habitation of Iona as far back as the Bronze age, 2,000 BC, but the island is mostly known for the monk of Columba who arrived in 563 from Ireland - one of the first Christian communities in Scotland. The island still hosts religious communities. Otherwise, it's kind of a small, baren rock off the coast of Mull. A pretty rock - but not much room for farming. We joined the throngs of people off our ferry to see the ruined nunnery, the Abby, the heritage center, some shops, and back to the harbor to take the ferry back to the mainland. That's Iona, sorted. 

John O'Groats to Oban

John O'Groats
John O'Groats is the most northerly part of the UK/Scottish mainland. Lots of people talk about John O'Groats as sort of the northerly end of the world. So when we were nearby, we decided to stop. 

I was expecting this signpost. I was not expecting a huge parking lot, souvenir shops, cafes, ice cream shops, a Christmas shop, and more! However, I have to say it was fun - and the ice cream cones were delicious. The wind was still blowing like mad - and dramatic waves were crashing against the shore. 

Loch Ness

The next morning dawned bright, sunny and with almost no wind! We were so excited. We resumed our drive south, passing Inverness and turning southwest along the Great Glen, the fault that bisects the highlands from Inverness to Fort William. The Caledonian canal is the series of lochs, rivers and canals that follows the fault - and allows boats to traverse from one side of Scotland to the other. 

Driving along Loch Ness is tricky, because the mountains plunge right into the loch, which just enough room for a twisty road on one side. But we found a road-side stop with stairs down to the loch. 

Later we stopped at Oich bridge to stretch our legs - and marvel at the bridge. 

Oban

And finally, we made it to Oban, on the western side of Scotland. We stayed here in 2019, and I have to say, it's a cute town. It was a gorgeous day - sunny and warm - so it was *covered* in tourists - but cute. 

And while the view from this apartment isn't as good as last time (w were in one of these waterfront buildings last time) - we're still enjoying watching the boats come and go. 

Old Man of Hoy

From almost any place we visited on Orkney (or the north of the Scottish mainlan), we could see the tall "hills" on the island of Hoy. It's no wonder that we wanted to visit them! So finally we drove our car onto yet another ferry, headed for Hoy. At least this time I just had to drive forward, unlike the time I had to back the car down a narrow ramp onto the ferry for the island of Rousey. After that - driving forward down a narrow ramp is a breeze!

The absolute best spot on the island of Hoy is the Old Man of Hoy - a 400 foot sea stack. That's a place where part of the cliff has worn away, leaving a tiny island of a cliff just off shore. So we drove across the island on a single track road along the coast, then up through the hills to the hamlet of Rackwick. The hills weren't exactly beautiful - but they are very striking. They're covered with low scrub - heather - and look pretty baren. The hike to the Old Man was another 3 hours from Rackwick - so outside our range this trip - but we did get to see the pretty beach. 

Back at the ferry terminal, we had time for a quick visit to the Scapa Flow museum. Scapa Flow is the fairly protected bay in the south part of Orkney, which was used as a naval base during both WWI and WWII. At the end of WWI, a number of boats from the German fleet were captured and held here. After six months, the Germans scuttled (sank) their own ships to keep them from the allied forces. Most of the ships have been removed by now, but people still come here to dive and see the remaining wrecks. 

We did finally get to see the Old Man of Hoy from the Northlink on our way back to the mainland. What you can't see very well from these pictures is how VERY windy it was! The wind was blasting us, we could hardly stand up, and after I took the picture below, after Wendy went inside, mom and I got totally soaked by a rogue wave. The passengers further down the rail were dry, but we had wet hair, coats and pants. Ugh. No pictures were taken!

Skara Brae and the Broch of Gruness

At home, I don't think or talk about the neolithic very often, but it's top of the mind here in Orkney. The neolithic is the new stone age - the last age before bronze and then iron. It lasted from around 6,000 years ago (4,000 BC) to 4,500 yeas ago (2,500 BC) and during that time period, the Orkadians build a lot of houses, tombs and standing stones that survive today. 

The top site in all of Orkney is Skara Brae, a complex of interconnected houses from the neolithic that amazingly preserved. Seeing sites like this in person makes it even easier to imagine that real people, who looked almost identical to us, lived in these houses a very long time ago. On average, they were 2" shorter than us - so you wouldn't even be able to pick them out of a crowd now. 

But my favorite part of this site was the re-enactment house they built. It wasn't dug into the ground at all - just a round stone house built to the same plan as the old ones, with a thatch roof and filled with likely pots, furs and even a coracle boat. It was cozy! It was out of the wind and was probably nice and warm. 

We also visited Gruness broch. Brochs are usually from the iron age, but this one had old stone houses surrounding it. 

The Best Airbnb Ever

I have stayed in a lot of Airbnbs (last count - 37). This one now tops the list of my absolute favorite - ever. 

The house is in Stromness, right on the water - the edge of Scapa Flow. And by on the water, I mean that we have our own anchorage/ramp into the water, and that we have an enclosed porch on the front of the house with views at the water in three directions. We watch the weather, the boats, the birds, the tides, and today a human swimmer. It is gorgeous and endlessly interesting. Which is good, because it's been windy and rainy and hard to be outside for too long. 

We brought our own binoculars - and they provided a whole basket more for watching boats and birds:

The Northlink ferry is my favorite - and we get to see it coming and going to the mainland six times a day! Plus the Gramsae ferry to the nearby islands and assorted fishing, diving, and cargo boats. We've all got the Marine Traffic app on speed dial. 

At night - the lights are gorgeous.

The RNLI is the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, a charity that maintains lifeboats all around the UK. This boat is coming back from a "shout" - we don't know what happened. 

We've seen a bunch of female Eider ducks - which are a lovely but unremarkable brown color. We finally saw some of the males - which are much more distinctly colored. 

The shags are a hoot to watch, because they're diving ducks, and they almost jump out of the water as they dive down. A whole flock of them clustered in front of our porch earlier today.

The water level changes dramatically with the tides. Obviously, the top picture is high tide - by low tide, the ramp is completely exposed along with a lot of sea weed.