In April 2015 we flew from Heathrow to Oslo where we spent a couple of days before joining MS Finnmarken in Kirkeness. MS Finnmarken then visited 32 ports in a six day voyage from Kirkenes South to Bergen on Hurtigruten’s Coastal Voyage. On the first two days on-board we travelled from Kirkenes to Tromso.
Day 1 – April 14th 2015
We caught an early morning internal flight from Oslo to Kirkenes to meet the ship. It was overcast cold and there was a lot of snow on the hillsides.
We were taken by coach to the dock.
Here’s our first view of MS Finnmarken.
We had passed through Kirkenes and the supermarkets all decked out with Cyrillic signage. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to visit any of these or to take pictures of the roadsigns pointing to places across the border in Russia. Kirkenes was destroyed except for 13 houses when the Red Army invaded in the Second World War. The region of Finnmark was subjected to massive destruction as the German Army retreated with its infrastructure and most of the houses destroyed. Here’s the view as we left Kirkenes.
After arriving on-board we soon left Kirkenes and set off for our next port – Vardo.
Here’s my video of entering the harbour at Vardo.
Vardo is Norway’s easternmost town and is situated on the island of Vardoya. We had an hour in Vardo and we found the supermarket close by the dock to stock with essential supplies and to take pictures of street art decorating some of the warehouses by the dock.
More of Vardo’s urban art can be seen on my Pinterest board here. After leaving Vardo we had a lecture on “The Life in the sea” which was fascinating. Dinner was at 19:00 and the main course was reindeer from the local Sami tribes in Finnmark. And the desert course of blueberry pavlova was delicious. I had to take a break from dinner as we entered Batsfjord.
I waited in the lounge for the next port of Berlevag.
And left the ship for a few minutes to watch the loading and unloading of cargo.
Summary of Day 1 – April 14th 2015
| Port | Arrival | Departure |
|---|---|---|
| Kirkenes | 12:30 | |
| Vardo | 15:45 | 16:45 |
| Batsfjord | 19:45 | 20:15 |
| Berlevag | 22:00 | 22:15 |