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!