Up, up and away . . . away . . . vroom vroom

It was a day of travel.
We left Kirkenes this morning just as it began to rain.
The Taxi Cab office was in the same building as the hotel and we had been told to just knock on the door when we needed to go to the Airport. There were about 6 drivers all in out of the weather in a smoke filled room. They decided that the youngest driver was the one to take us and told him so.
So we loaded our bags into a fairly new Mercedes station-wagon - we only travel in style. The driver made small talk, found an English music station on the radio (Tina Tina a la 70s) and was rewarded when we left the balance of our NOK with him. He had quoted us 350 NOK, the meter said 305 NOK and he said just to pay 300 NOK. Smile on the dial when he

realised that we gave him 550 NOK and told him that we were leaving Norway. Sometimes it pays to be at the bottom of the ladder!

We arrived at the airport about 9 am so we could be well ahead of the Hurtigruten bus of people.
Doesn't really matter as we have allocated seats. Plane was full and we got on near to last so that people did n't need to be pushing past. Getting out to the plane was interesting in the rain. Like at Hervey Bay, you need to walk out to the plane and climb the stairs. People bunched up and hurried in small groups so that you did not have to wait to long in the (light) rain. It was however quite cool at about 8 degrees. We left a few minutes late and landed at Oslo late. Oslo is a balmy 26 degrees.

At Oslo we thankfully disembarked via the flybridge, and with about 30 minutes only to our next flight, had to hurry from one terminal to the other at the far end - as always!
Our flight from Oslo to Helsinki is leaving from one of the outer parks on the tarmac. We are cram into a bus and are taken to the planeside. Smaller plane, and they are not allowing bigger hand luggage to be carried on - instead, they are stowed under the plane - a few disgruntled people, but honestly, some of them take 'hand luggage' to the extreme. They do not police it half as rigorously as they do at home.

The steps up into this plane are very steep and we wait until the last to get on so that Donna can give me a 'bottom' nudge to help!
This plane is a 2+2 combination so we can sit together without feeling pressured to let others off in a hurry. There are a number of people hanging back to get off so I take the opportunity to go. Trouble was, those stairs were worse going down with the rails not starting until the very edge of the first step.

Helsinki airport is spread out. Again, it is warm when we land 24 degrees (at 5 pm). It takes a bit to find the hire car desks, but when we do Giulia is very helpful and efficient and we are on our way over to find our car about 15 minutes later.
We are driving an Opel Astra stationwagon with 3842 kms only on the clock. Nice to drive and very roomy.

And so we head northeast for Turku. It is 168.3 km and the speed varies from 50 kph in the city to 120 kph on the open motorway. We drove in to the street where our accommodation is right on 8 pm. Can't find the apartment anywhere and although we have phoned the owner who is meeting us with the key, we need to phone again and talk through instructions on where the unit is. Turns out that the street number relates to the block, not the building. Funny how a Lidl supermarket can be a placemarker :)

The apartment is a 3 bedroom, with tiny lounge and reasonable kitchenette (not that we intend using it!) and not one but two bathrooms. It also has a washing machine so we make use of that. There is no parking at the apartment, but street parking is free between 6 pm and 9 am and we found a spot about 100 metres away.

We are going through the bags in the morning and deciding what to donate via Riikka, and what to send home via post - we seriously need to shed some weight and get rid of all the useless winter clothes - hardly needed anything really.

Went for a quick drive to find somewhere to have dinner after a foot reconnaissance didn't come up with anything in the immediate area. End up at the Pinella Bar and Restaurant on the River Aura. Set menu of three courses:
Entree - Gravlax Tartar (1960) with whole grain mustard and dill oil
Main - Parilla Grilled Beef Steak (1940) beef fillet, Cafe de Paris butter and garlic potatoes
Dessert - Ice Cream Cake (1950) sponge cake, Frozen berry

coulis, chocolate icecream topped with torched marshmallow and minute flowers.

The city is filled with new University students tonight, out celebrating 'O' week.  Noisy, boisterous and all having fun.  Lots of groups ranging from 10 - 20 people. And we watch some people trying to manoeuvre a speedboat into a berth on the river without any lights. 

Back at the apartment now tired as! Time for bed.

We visited the Russian today

Last night we spent quite a bit of time finalising transport route for the next week.
We have succumbed to the tyranny of the Norwegian Krone and given up on our plans to drive from here down through Finland. It was going to cost us in excess of $3,000 AUD (20,000 NOK) to hire a car one way between Kirkenes and Helsinki over 5 days. Instead,we will nowfly to Helsinki (ironically, via Olso) and then collect a car there for 6 days for the princely sum of $461 with full insurance - what a difference. Even with the $800 for the two fares added, it still comes in at less than half the cost! 
We arrive in Hesinki about 5:30 pm tomorrow and will drive to Turku (1.5 hours) spend some time looking at their 13th century castle and cathedral before driving 3.5 hours to Jyväskylä to visit Riikka and Runo before heading back across the Arctic Circle into Lapland and the permanent home of Santa Claus on Thursday. Back then to Jyväskylä and off to Helsinki with the family for a day or two. Later plans are yet to be made, but we don't think we will get to Tallinn, our time is starting to run short!

Quieter day today. When we were at North Cape a couple of days ago, I stumbled on some loose rock and did a little jig to stay upright. Last night the ankle was starting to swell and stiffen a bit, so we decided that a quieter day today would be smart.

This morning Donna walked across to the local Joker supermarket and came back with the makings for a couple of simple meals. We are so full from the big meals of the last couple of days, it is nice to just have some snacky stuff. Choc chip croissants and cinnamon scrolls for breakfast, two juices, two sparkling water with apple, two UHT Mocha drinks, two cokes, a pack of 8 biscuits, a pack of rye crackers and cheese slices and a couple of chocolate bars. What do you think that set her back?

477 NOK or $79.50 AUD. Its a wonder anyone can afford to live here!!

We are definitely learning that Kirkenes exists for the fishing industry and perhaps to service the needs of the visiting Hurtigruten ships. One arrives here daily and then leaves for the southbound journey. Passengers come off here and also embark here.
There are two 'international' style hotels - Scandic and Thon and both appear to accommodate guests from / for the ships. The taxi company does a roaring trade to the airport and the bus company does daily tours for Hurtigruten excursions.

Our room is stiflingly hot. It appears that the heater that heats the water for the entire building runs straight through our room. Donna turned it down as far as she could get it, but her temp app on her phone was still registering 32 degrees in the room. Thankfully this afternoon, we got access to a fan and that has cooled it significantly - will make sleeping tonight a little easier.

Around 2 pm we headed out for a walk.Donna still wore her jacket, but I was pleased to just go out in a summer top into the crisp air at around 10 degrees.  Cool and crisp with a light breeze, but not cold.

Found the memorial to the Russians who liberated the town from the Germans in 1944.  The incoming soldiers were welcomed as heroes, never mind that they had bombed the town to oblivion with only 13 original homes left standing, nor that they then burned the ruins.  Most of the townsfolk sheltered in a bomb shelter tunnel Andersgrotto - with 10 babies born there. We found the tunnel, but had missed the 12:30 pm guided tour.

I came back to the hotel while Donna continued down the hill to the waterfront where she saw one of the trawlers unloading some of their catch. A seabird of indeterminate make was waiting for the next trawler, still coming in to arrive.

Tomorrow will be a travel day - we will leave here about 8:30 am to get to the airport before the next shipload is disgorged on to land - we know that about half of them fly back to Helsinki once the ship docks. 

Night all. More tomorrow.

Boring borders - anti-climaxes followed by a crazy crustacean!

Had to repack our bags last night - boy was that interesting. We seem to have expanding 'stuff' and I am not talking about our souvenirs which are minor.
Still, managed to get everything in to the bags and had them out for collection well before midnight so we could go to bed a little earlier given that we had an earlier start today.

This morning we were at breakfast earlier than any other morning - 7:30 am, wanting to beat the 8 am 'must be checked out of the cabin' rush.  Same sort of food on offer as previous days - good and hearty to start the day - especially as we won't be getting lunch today.

We pulled in to our last port of Kirkenes and we were all told that the gangway would not be lowered until all the luggage of people leaving the ship here had been deposited on the dock. Donna was pretty sure she saw ours on one of the baggage carts - a little askew.  There were throngs of people waiting in the departure lobby when we finally got down to level 3. We just managed to squeeze into the crowd as we stepped of the lift.  The people in the next left to go back upstairs to wait.

There were a range of tours on offer today - bus visit to the Russian border, fishing for King Crabs, boat tour to the Russian border, quad bike drive and a town walk.  

We had chosen the bus visit to the Russian border because supposedly there was still an opportunity to see brown bears, but nope not one to be seen.  The only animal we saw was the lone souvenir seller's Malamute dog - very cute but I think he is somewhat bore with the tourists!

When I had looked at Kirkenes on Google Earth, it appeared to be an industrial city that was not too well developed. So it was kind of surprising to see very good infrastructure here including all streets paved with gutters.  This used to be a iron ore mining town, although this industry has now folded, as has the local timber industry.  There is a 8 km railway still visible that connected the mine and the town. doesn't go anywhere now other than to lead your eyes to the huge slag heap.  

In their place there is now power generation - seven power plants in all on the Pis River - four owned by the Russians and three by Norway; communications and King Crab fishing.  This is the largest area of processing of this delicacy and the local port has a number of impressive sized trawlers and a million large crab cages - way too big to be called pots!

We see lots of new commercial buildings - fire station,shopping centres, a school and the new hospital that was purchased in pre-fab form from Germany and constructed with all equipment etc  installed ready for patients and staff to walk into in a total of two weeks.

We learn of the loss of Sami names when the government mapped the local area and could not be bothered to retain the names and re-named the three local lakes, First Lake,Second Lake and Third Lake.
The vegetation is interesting - there are plenty of trees and abundant flower beds in some houses.  On the ship until here, the landscapes had been very barren - mosses, lichens and stones on rocks!
We are told that Kirkenes is as south as Tromso, so we are just north of the Arctic Circle.

Our guide, fluent in Norwegian, German and English explains that the local climate is a topic of debate here.  Some of the locals insist that there are four seasons here - a winter of seven months, a spring of two days - 16 and 17 May with May 17 being Norway Day, an indeterminate summer and then autumn before you rush back into winter; while others describe it as seven months of white winter and five months of green winter.  Today has been warm and I did not even put a jacket on.

The Russian border was the biggest anti-climax. A road, a brick fence and a gate and signage that announces the end of the Schengen area, and a 'no walking '(across the border) sign.  It was explained that over the past couple of years, there have been an increasing number of Russians wanting to come and live in Norway.  The Russian government made it particularly difficult. Even though many could afford cars, they were refused the paperwork,you are not allowed to walk across the border and buses were refused to these 'refugees' also.  They got clever - all road pushbikes across!  Yes, necessity is the mother of invention.

We make a quick stop for souvenirs at a little shack run by a lone Norwegian man and his dog. He lives here in what looks like a hovel and refers to all the tourists who enter his shop as his new friends.  Very personable and spoke English very well.  I bought a little fur purse, thinking it was bear, only to be told it was seal! And then there was the Russian man with his bicycle that only wanted me to take a photo of the Norwegian house on the hill on the opposite side of the river!
Hurtigruten has invested in a small lakeside restaurant near here where we are served samples of borscht and a wildflower tea.  Donna enjoyed the soup, I liked the tea!

Coming back into the town of Kirkenes we are told that in the summer of 1941 North-Eastern Norway became the staging area for the German assault on the Soviet

Union. The target for the German Wehrmacht was the harbour city of Murmansk, just 200 km from the border. However, at Litsaelva – halfway between Kirkenes and Murmansk – the offensive ground to a halt and hardly made any further progress during almost three years of hostilities.  Kirkenes found itself in a very exposed position, and was subjected to constant bombing attacks from the hard-pressed Soviet forces. The air raid sirens sounded more than 1,000 times in Kirkenes, and the town was actually bombed over 320 times, making it one of the most frequently bombed towns in Europe. As such,there are few

buildings more than 80 years old and the houses all have a uniformity about them, just different colours.

Tonight we are in the Frokosthotell in a room about the same size as the ship's cabin that we recently left with the exception that the bathroom is tiny - think we might get wet and then need to step out of the room to soap up before rinsing off!  But it right in the centre of town and easy to get to.  It is Sunday and nothing is open here, so we went up to the Arctic Restaurant at the (international) Scandic Hotel for dinner.

Crab and prawn soup - tomato and Paprika based - a little heavy or the crab flavour and prawns that at home wouldn't even make bait.

King crab - you can check ours out at http://www.nkc.no/track/?id=1381832

Mud Hill Sav Blanc from NZ

Finished with a coffee and a Frangelico and a waddle back to our hotel.

Donna is now in a can't move - crab coma!