Arctic Things to Do

by globetrott

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Things to Do
by globetrott
Things to Do
by globetrott
Things to Do
by globetrott
Things to Do
by globetrott
Things to Do
by globetrott

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Reviews from VirtualTourist Members

Murmansk

by globetrott

Murmansk is the place, where most of the russian submarines of the Northsea have their homeport and so it is an important strategic point as well. In 1985 our cruiseship M/S Vistafjord was the very first western cruiseship that was allowed to dock in Murmansk and we had a great day there ! I remember that the crew was taken around in lousy local buses organized by the russian seamen-club, there were giant potholes in the streets that were not asphalted at all, a weird tour, but we had a lot of fun !In my picture: the Soviet submarine U-434 that is a museum now in Hamburg ! NOWADAYS you can see lots of russian submarines in many cities of the world, back in 1985 you would have had really big problems if you would have taken a photo like that in the port of Murmansk !

Kizhi is a highlight on every cruise in Russia

by globetrott

Kizhi is an amazing place, an openair-museum of old wooden buildings and churches that were partly taken from other parts of Russia, but for instance the giant wooden church in my main photo was built directaly there in the 18th century. Kizhi / Kischi / Kishi - those are just the most common spellings for this great island in Onega Lake , north-east of Petrozavodks.Almost all cruiseships taking passengers between St. Petersburg and Moscow will get there at least for a few hours, and that is also the way that I came there in June 2009 on my way from St.Petersburg to Moscow.The Church of the Transfiguration / Verklärungskirche is the most beautiful building of the museum-island Kizhi and it was also built there back in 1714, a long time before anybody ever thought of making a museum there and it was in use till 1937. At the moment it is under restauration untill 2014 and this is why we...

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Archipel Gulag was at Ostrov Solovetskiy

by globetrott

This is an interesting place in the russian Arctic: Everything that you have read about "Archipel Gulag" , the famous book tells the story of this remote island that was once built as a monastery and turned into one of the most horrible prison-camps of russian history.We got there as a fullday-trip from the end of Belomorsk-canal, at first 3 hours in a horrible bus on terrible roads and then another hour by ship to the islands, but it was really worth all the trouble.This monastery is really impressive, the walls around the monastery built of giant natural rocks and a lot of great antiques and works of art in its museums and churches.

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Vardoe

by globetrott

Vardoe is a place along the cruise of Hurtigruten, where you will stop for 1 hour and are able to explore quite a lot within that time: There is a park around the fortress with some nice decorations and fences. This lovely fence with a great entrancegate was built when the king had visited Vardoe. Inside that park you will find also some interesting buildings covered by grass and there are some old machineries and cannons as well on display.All of these things are in the area of the fortress-park when you walk from the fortress to the city-centre instead of the direct way back to the ship !In my last 2 pics: Behind the only hotel of Vardoe you will find a monument for Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930), who was a polar-explorer, winner of the nobelprize and a diplomat. In 1882 he made the first crossing of Greenland on skies and he also made several expeditions to the Arctic by his ship "FRAM"...

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Bjørnøya - a remote island in Svalbard

by globetrott

Bjørnøya / Bjoernoja Island is halfway between Iceland and Svalbard / Spitzbergen and it is uninhabited now but it was an important place during the time of whale-hunting with big ships in 1850 - 19..Bjornoja was a landmark we always passed shortly before we arrived in Spitzbergen / Svalbard.We never landed there unfortunately, as cruise-ships would normally not get permission to go there in order to protect the invironment.

At the russian border close to Kirkenes

by globetrott

This is the Arctic as well: The border-station between Norway close to Kirkenes and Russia. Hurtigruten offers an excursion to the russian border, where you will see a bit of the great landscape plus this very special point at the border that had a lot more sense to go to in the times of the Cold War of course. There is a large parking at the russian border, there are some souvenirshops, toilets and that is all. And there are the flags of Russia and Norway of course. And the borderline of Russia does not look any special,it rather looks like the entrancegate to a big company that is fenced in and in the distance you see the counter for the formalities, but you almost never see anyone of the russian guarding-staff there.On the total it was a nice excursion, but you will miss to see the town of Kirkenes, except for a few minutes, when you are driven through some of the streets in the very...

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The Lofoten

by globetrott

The Lofoten are a group of islands in the north-west of Norway. 25.ooo people are living there on 80 islands with a total size of 1250km2 and there are lots of mountains as well on these islands. I have taken my pictures from the Hurtigruten-ship, that makes several stops on the Lofoten on their way up and down the norwegian coastline.The Hurtigrutenships will stop in Stamsund, Svolvær (that is the capital of the Lofoten), in Stokmarknes and Sortland and in good weather-conditions they will also enter the Trollfjord, a narrow Fjord with a dead end, where it needs a lot of experience to be able to turn around the ship again.

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Magdalena-bay ~~~ Don't expect to see pinguins ;-)

by globetrott

no matter how long you are searching - you will not see any pinguins - but on each of my cruises into the Arctic some of the passengers asked for them, as they did not know , that polarbears and pinguins never meet - except in a zoo..and sometimes we simply could not resist to make some jokes about having just seen pinguins....and the very best stupid question I ever was asked by a passenger, was during a meal on our way to Iceland, 2 days after the last port :"Michael, please tell me, are YOU ALSO living on this ship ?? "...maybe she expected the crew-members to fly home to Austria by helicopter each night...

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Magdalena-bay in Spitzbergen

by globetrott

Even if Spitzbergen looks like a country outside of restrictions, cruise-ships have to stick to their routes and have to ask permission for each landing they are planning to do - so don't expect to be able to go ashore.Once in 1978 we were lucky to be able to land on a small island close to Magdalena-bay in perfect weather-conditions. We had a picknick there with hot tea and Aquavit, a great adventure, but also something against the rules and on that same cruise we went aground in another Fjord of Spitzbergen, when the Captain made a side-step into a fjord that was not on our schedule !

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Kirkenes - at the end of the Hurtigruten-cruise

by globetrott

Kirkenes is the endpoint of the Hurtigruten-ships . It is an interesting outpost close to the russian border, the next russian town is Murmansk.Hurtigruten offers an excursion to the russian border, you will see a bit of the landscape plus this very special point at the border that had a lot more sense to go in the times of the Cold War of course. It was a nice excursion, but you will miss to see the town of Kirkenes, except for a few minutes, when you are driven through some roads.I had the hope to see the distance-pole that way that they show in many brochures of Kirkenes, but that place is not so easy to get to.What we saw as well was the "Jet d'eau" of Kirkenes: it looks a bit deplaced out on a lake and surrounded only by empty landscapes, but all citizens of Kirkenes seem to be very proud of it and this is why it is also shown on each and every sightseeingtour there (my 2nd pic).The...

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