We're almost there, the voyage north is almost over. We're at the port of Kirkenes. We are 400
kilometers north of the Arctic Circle, as far east as Saint Petersburg, and yet it's
forecast 21 degrees here today and the sun is coming out! That is one voyage that
I really want to do again... but anyway let's see wha Kirkenes has to offer!
Well this is a great start to the Kirkenes experience, we've checked into the
Thon Hotel and we have a wonderful view of the shimmering fjord.
It's definitely coffee time before we go exploring and we're gonna try the
Amundsen bakery.
Well I did not expect this. I packed a winter raincoat an expected Kirkenes to be absolutely freezing and I'm here in a T-shirt. Unbelievable!
Fine dining in the middle of nowhere! You've got to love obscure travel - it's full of
surprises! Kirkenes is a port and mining town right up against the Russian border
and that meant that during World War two it was on the front line. In fact nowhere
else in mainland Europe was bombed as heavily as Kirkenes. It was completely
razed to the ground. In fact, when the Soviet Army liberated the town in 1944
they found the townspeople hiding in the iron ore mines. The Germans had just obliterated the city.
These turbulent years are brought
to life in the Borderlands Museum, which is where we're going now.
Now this is a place that I really wanted to come to. This is the Museum of John
Savio... now Savio was a Sami artist of the early twentieth century and famous
for his woodcuts and although he had a tragic life ( it was cut short at
the age of 36) and he didn't have much recognition in his lifetime, since then his
woodcuts have become renowned and he's now seen as the finest Sami artist of
his generation and someone whose paintings really portray, unlike any
other, the life of the Sami in that period.
There are surely very few
monuments in Western Europe to the Soviet Army yet this one here on a hill
in Kirkene's is flanked by the Norwegian flag
demonstrating that this town will forever be grateful for its liberation
by the Red Army.