October 5-13, 2006
The Hurtigruten ('Fast Route')
Norway Coastal Voyage
Bergen to Kirkenes (Russian Border), Norway
KKS-OSL-BGO
The Hurtigruten: http://www.hurtigruten.no
The Hanseatic Hotel, Bergen: http://www.dethanseatiskehotell.no
The Hurtigruten ('Fast Route') is the working ferry system which plies the Norwegian coast between Bergen in the south and Kirkenes on the Barents Sea at the Russian border. The Hurtigruten is billed as the 'Most Beautiful Voyage in the World' but is also the supply lifeline for a myriad of towns and cities along the Norwegian coast.
We spent 6 days on the MS Finnmarken, one of the three largest and most modern ships. The Finnmarken can carry 1000 passengers, however as it was October we were three of only 110 passengers taking the one-way passage. Some take the round trip which stops at different towns on the way south, for a total of 11 days.
We had 3-1/2 days of rain, wind, clouds and at times 15-20 ft. waves, and one and a half days of sunshine. Temperatures ranged from 5-10 degrees Celsius as the Gulf Stream warms the coast of Norway far past the Arctic Circle (66 deg 33 sec latitude). Our farthest north was more than 72 degrees latitude.
The photos include shots of a firefighting exercise which saw firefighters from Bodø arrive by helicopter, slide by rope onto the top deck and set off fake smoke canisters in one hallway. We also took a speedboat tour on Zodiac-like craft to the 'Saltstraummen' which is a narrow gap between a long fjord and the open ocean through which the tides rush. The water boils through the gap and a higher velocity than any other place in the world. We also went by bus to 'Nordkap' which is the farthest north point on the European continent.
In Kirkenes we were less than 100 miles from Murmansk, Russia and even the signs on the Spar (European 7-11 type chain) store was in Cyrillic. From Kirkenes (pronounced 'Shirk-en-ess') we flew to Oslo and then back to our starting point in Bergen, where we rode the funicular to the top of one of the 7 mountains that ring the town. The 5-hour drive from there home to Stavanger involves two ferries and three undersea tunnels. The longest undersea tunnel is 8km long and is over 230m below sea level at it's deepest point.
