Sailing from Harstad, with still some habitation to be seen here; the houses and dwellings would soon become sparse.

The view from the observation desk, facing forward.

Our cabin, home away from home for 5 nights. Most time was spent in the restaurant or on the observation desk, however.

The MS Finnmarken had a comfortable size, the observation facilities, with a 360 view, was located on deck 8, the highest deck.
Other decks also had viewing and seating facilities. The Finnmarken was also very nicely decorated.
Note how one looks down on most of the houses here, so it wasn't a small ship by any means.

Enjoying the quiet and relaxing atmosphere. Photo by Ada Leeuw.

A visit to the Polar Museum.

Very wet conditions, our clothing fitted for the cold rather than rain. Others, I noticed, had come better prepared.

Naval vessels of Norway

Some cleaning done on the barrel.

The weather kept changing rapidly.

Some of the passages were quite close to land.

Finnmarken on the dock at Honningsvåg.
There was an excursion to the 'Nordkapp' but we decided to explore Honningsvåg instead.

Honningsvåg is the northernmost city on the mainland of Norway. It is located in Nordkapp Municipality in Finnmark county. Honningsvåg is situated at a bay on the southeastern side of the large island of Magerøya, while the famous North Cape and its visitors center is on the northern side of the island. Honningsvåg is a port of call for cruise ships, especially in the summer months. The ice-free ocean (southwestern part of the Barents Sea) provides rich fisheries and tourism is also important to the town. [Source: Wikipedia]

No, not our hotel!

An obvious landmark to walk to, but we found the church closed.

Rain and/or snow were never far away.

Nighttime at where? Could be Kjøllefjord; we sometimes docked and left within 30 minutes, loading & unloading. Sometimes a group left on an excursion and picked up at the next brief stop. This may have been a stop where a group left for a nightly trip on a snow scooter. Warm clothing required, and sometimes rainclothing was issued, as conditions shifted between snow and rain.

Library in Kirkenes. I have a fondness for local libraries and will step inside for a visit when I can, for a talk and some photos.
My personal fight for books and libraries, against e-books (though I see limited use for them).

A very kind librarian informed us on the large selection of Russian books available here. Many Norwegian men in the region have married a Russian wife, while also a considerable number of Russians work and/or trade here. If you have lived in Kirkenes for at least three years, the border crossing into Russia is much easier too, facilitating import/export and family visits.

The High Street of Kirkenes. The trees must have a hard time growing here.

The librarian advised us to check behind the hotel for the dogs resting from the 'Finnmarksløpet'.
This is a Iditarod-like race, Finnmarksløpet is the world's northernmost sled dog race. The race starts on Saturday of the 10th week of the year and goes across Finnmark in Norway. The race was first run in 1981.

When we arrived the teams still participating had gone, only three teams were still there.
We were told the storm we had experienced earlier that week had also effected this dograce; a number of teams had slept in the field, not able to make the resting stops. Also, since the temperature had been mild, the food caches for the dogs en route had not remained frozen and gone off, so dogs had developed stomach problems. These three teams were resting and recovering while a 'vet-team' kept a close watch on the condition of the dogs.

We opted for making our own way to the Snow Hotel, as on the map available on the ship it looked like within walking distance. Aboard these ships the food is real good and available in abundance, so a little exercise seemed advisable. But while walking we found that the Snow Hotel had moved 10 kilometers! So after visiting the center of Kirkenes, with still some time available, we took a taxi. Walking on our own, without a guide, I mistook these blue doors for a shed instead of the main entrance and could not find my way in. We left it at that, having only 20 minutes for a general look around here.

Outside entrances to the rooms of the Snow Hotel. Photo by Ada Leeuw.

These huskies are so enthusiastic when they are allowed to run. But these here look spent.

There was also a compound with a few reindeer.

Driving back to the dock, anxious not to miss our departure, we noticed how close we were to the Russian border.

Vardø is a municipality in Finnmark county, in the extreme northeastern part of Norway.
We sailed from Kirkenes to this town, the most easterly destination of our sailing, and arrived at 17:00

We had only an hour here, less if you did not want to cut it too close and miss the ship's departure. Walking was difficult,
the roads all iced up and we realized we should have brought spikes. It made the going slow. I knew not better than to walk
to the fort, but later I found there was a statue of Willem Barents here and am sorry to have missed it.

A grim place with a grim climate.

The Old Norse form of the name was Vargøy. The first element is vargr which means 'wolf' and the last element is øy which means 'island'. The first element was later replaced (around 1500) with varða which means 'cairn'.
Historically, the name was spelled Vardöe. [Wikipedia]

Over breakfast we were treated on an 'evacuation by helicopter'-exercise.

Good facilities (besides the abundance of food and friendly service) but I wasn't brave enough to try the pool nor that hot tub.

Hammerfest

Snackfood, polar style

A Hammerfest resident quite comfortable with the cold.

Hammerfest, with the MS Finnmarken on the dock.
Only after I had taken this photo I found out that the icy path we had climbed was even harder to get down.
Next time we definitely should bring something with spikes.

Near the dock we came across another library!

After a quick explanation why I took these photo, I was allowed to take my pictures.
There was a brilliant exhibiton of photos by Kåre Kivijärvi. Must get that book!
Thanks to Ada for spotting this library!

Leaving Hammerfest.

Soon the fog would envellope us.

Blizzard conditions, fierce and impressive.

Visit to the Bridge, as an exception to the strict rulees, to console us from more delay and cancelled sailings.
Thanks to Kier Bijl for the initiative and persistence!

Very much like the cockpit of an aeroplane. But weather put restrictions to all this technology all the same.

Harstad. The weather turned against us again. It kept snowing but it was the stormy winds that cancelled the
sailing through the Lofoten again. The ship kept to the dock for five hours, then at 14:00 we boarded the bus.
Before that time roads had been closed after a bus had been blown from the road.
But our bustrip would meet some problems too...