After a two-hour flight from Oslo, we landed in Kirkenes– 30 shades of black, grey and white – lots of snow and ice. It is –2 degrees C. The single runway is all ice, so our aircraft could only stop by using the reverse engine thrusters. THEY WORKED! The small terminal is capable of handling only one flight at a time. Like magic, a sufficient number of taxis show up to take the passengers away.
Kirkenes, Norway
Kirkenes is nestled on a peninsula in the Northeastern area of Norway. It is the end port for the Hurtigruten coastal ferry line. It is also the end point of the national highway that runs the coastal length of Norway. Here, we’ll embark on our week-long, water based journey down the coast to Bergen. But first, Kirkenes is reportedly one of the best places to view the Aurora Borealis. So we’ll spend two days exploring the land and sights before moving down the coast. We’re armed with three different Aurora Borealis Apps on our iPhones, which supposedly predict probabilities of when and where we might see them. Hmmm…great visuals, but short on information. So far, it looks like zero probability while we’re in Kirkenes.
Main Street, Kirkenes
The City’s Single Church
It is a small city, with population of only about 4,000 people. The peninsula was a Norwegian, Russian district prior to defining the border in the 1800’s. Norwegian and Russian is spoken and most signs are written in both.
With the discovery of iron ore in 1906, Kirkenes became a major supplier of materials to Germany’s WWI and WWII war machines – for tanks and artillery. Given the availability of iron ore and proximity to shipping, the Nazi’s invaded and occupied the town in 1940 and eventually bivouacked more than 100,000 soldiers. This was a critical, strategic asset for the Wehrmacht. In order to thwart Germany’s war machine, Russia and some Allied forces rained hundreds of bombing raids on the little town. Most of the town was destroyed, with residents taking shelter in the mines. In 1944, as the Russians marched in to liberate the city, the retreating Nazi army destroyed most of the infrastructure and supplies to hinder the advancing Russians. A museum and memorial honors 11 freedom fighters who spied on German movements and passed the information on to the Russians. They were discovered in 1943, and promptly executed.
The Horrors Of WWII in Kirkenes
View From The Museum
The Sun Is Beginning To Set – 1:30 PM
The Norwegian-Russian-Finland relation, formed in the WWII era, continues to be an important component in the fabric of the local culture. The museum captures the brutality and courage of that era, and honors the freedom fighters and the local residents. A section of the museum is dedicated to the iron ore operation, given its importance as the lifeblood of the city for many decades.
Our visit coincided with a special artist and musician conference. We discovered a delightful art exhibit dedicated to the Russian soldiers who liberated the city just before the end of the war. During their stay in the city in 1945, the Russians were discharged from the military service. The exhibit attempts to visually describe the ‘lostness’ and sadness of these soldiers – young men and boys, suddenly stripped of the safeness provided by military structure, and how they dealt with this abandonment, with fear, hopelessness, and disorientation. No assistance was provided other than what the grateful residents of the city offered. On this basis, the affinity with Russians continues to thrive.
The town was rebuilt and continued to provide iron ore to most of Europe, until the 1990’s when mining became economically non-viable. Some mining was resumed in 1996 when a non-Norwegian company invested significant monies to resume operations. However, production never returned to its former level, and was completely shut down last year. The economic epicenter moved to tourism. Chinese, Japanese, and European tourists come for the Northern Lights and the natural beauty of the area. However the largest tourist segment is Russians entering via the border, 10 km east. They come to purchase goods that are less expensive and more available than in Russia. Seems like the town is Russia’s Walmart. The ‘blue light’ top-selling item at this time, in case you want to know, is disposable diapers. Some are resellers who purchase large quantities for resale in Russia. In the opposite direction, Norwegians frequently enter Russia to purchase gasoline – much less expensive than in Norway.
The Areas Only Shopping Center
View From Our Hotel
We were there on Saturday and Sunday. The sun, which doesn’t go higher than about 25 degrees above the horizon, set at about 2:30 PM. By 3:00 PM all stores closed. There were 4-5 eateries that remained open, and of course the ever important pubs. Sunday, the weather was beautiful, the church bells rang, the pristine whiteness of last night’s snow fall, and the almost total absence of people or sounds, made it feel like a ghost town. As we learned in Oslo, religion is not important. Despite the beautiful church and church bells, there was no evidence of services or anyone attending church. With the exception of two pizza parlors and one bar, all restaurants were closed. Fortunately we had made plans to visit and dine at the Snow Hotel tonight – hmmmm, well ‘dine’ might be an exaggeration.
First, we took advantage of the weather and walked to the museum mentioned earlier. Along the way we stopped at the waterfront to observe a couple of fishing boats. An old, rusty, semi-abandoned, and obviously unloved Russian fishing trawler seemed to be an appropriate metaphor for the fishing industry in this region. We’re looking at the consequences of overfishing and climate change. Fifty years ago, fishing was a thriving business with a healthy fishing fleet feeding on the abundant schools. Thereafter, the fish population declined to the point where fishing is only viable for sport fishing. The fish business is transforming into fish farming. Locals say that within 10 years, all fish coming out of Norway will be farmed fish, and the fish ‘farmers’ will be the economic drivers of the future.
A Neglected Russian Fishing Boat
One of the challenges to fishing is the ‘bug of the sea’ – king crabs. King crabs were artificially introduced into the Barents Sea by Stalin in the 1930’s to provide work and food for Russians along the north coast. While it was successful on those dimensions, the unintended consequence was the introduction of an invasive species that has no natural predators. The growth rate is tremendous and is continuing to expand both down the coast of Norway as well as to the northern Svalbard islands. They devour everything they come across. So the greatest risk is to the salmon, cod, and chard fish farms that are now emerging. Norway is encouraging everyone to catch and eat crab. Currently there is no acceptable method of controlling the growth rate and migration area.
Snow Hotel
The final event of the day was the Snow Hotel visit. The Snow Hotel seems to be the main tourist attraction. This ‘hotel’ is a temporary building, constructed of snow and ice. It therefore must be constructed fresh every year once the winter temperature declines to -4 degrees C. The hotel includes an ice bar, ice chairs and tables, some very beautiful ice sculptures, plus about 20 chambers of sleeping rooms. Overnight guests are provided with wool hats, gloves, a face/head mask, sheets and a down mummy sleeping bag. They sleep on an ice bed. The walls in each room are decorated with beautiful snow sculptures – each unique. Spending the night? Thought about it… for a minute… but no thank you! We’ll return to our hotel room.
Ice Bar In The Snow Hotel
Hallway In The Snow Hotel Leading To ‘Rooms’
A Typical Room In The Snow Hotel
Ice Sculptures Decorate The Inside Of The Snow Hotel
We stayed for dinner with all the hotel guests. First course was a reindeer sausage on a stick, roasted over an open fire. The story behind these famous, local sausages is that the sausage maker was going to retire and shut down the business a couple of years ago. The hotel convinced him to stay in business and to keep making those sausages – but he had one condition. The hotel had to commit to never serve his reindeer sausages with ketchup! After all, ketchup belongs to McDonalds…not to him. Despite eating reindeer meat, none of us experienced bad dreams of Rudolph chasing after us.
Roasting Reindeer Sausages
A Reindeer Watching Us Leave the Snow Hotel
We’ll embark this morning for our one-week trip to Bergen on board the MS Midnatson. It will stop at 34 different ports along the way, with many short 1-2 hour stops. Several stops will take place at night. The good news is that if the sky is clear, we’ll have a chance to see the Northern Lights every night. The crew will notify us via the ship-wide PA system if any are sighted – day or night.
No Northern Lights to date!
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