MS Spitsbergen

This article is part of the series “2019-02: Northern Norway”.

Today it was cloudy and much warmer in Bjørnevatn than yesterday day and evening. Chris and I took breakfast at the Thon Hotel Kirkenes. This breakfast is just superb! There is a wide variety of food and the quality is excellent. While we had breakfast it started snowing. I looked out of the window and watched a small icebreaker. Two years ago the Elvenesfjorden was completely free of ice. This year however it had been so cold the last weeks that the whole fjord is frozen. Or would be, if the icebreaker wasn’t going back and forth and crushed the ice.

Kirkenes is the endpoint of the Hurtigruten line, that connects many Norwegian coastal towns as e.g. Bergen, Trondheim, Bodø, Tromsø, Hammerfest and Kirkenes. As long as the weather allows the ship arrives at 9:00 and departs at 12:30 every day. Many tourist go ashore to discover the city or to go dog sledding in the Snow Hotel.

Today it was the MS Spitsbergen that was in the harbour. It is possible to visit the ships and so Chris and I took a small tour to explore the ship.

The MS Spitsbergen both operates the Hurtigruten line Bergen—Kirkenes but also makes cruises to places like Iceland (from 4373 EUR), Svalbard (from 7058 EUR) or even Franz Josef Land in Russia (from 7696 EUR). Great destinations but much too expensive for me.

P.S.: Don’t ask me why there is dried fish on the top deck of the MS Spitsbergen.

4 comments to “MS Spitsbergen”

  1. Johanna 2019-02-12 19:44

    wer weiß denn schon , womit die Schiffsbesatzung rechnet ! Getrockneter Fisch als Überlebens -Ration ?

  2. Ricarda 2019-02-12 21:12

    Getrockneter Fisch ?……Vielleicht einfach nur als Touristen-Attraktion. Wobei der Geruch ja sicherlich nicht Jedermanns Sache ist ;-)
    Wusste gar nicht, daß man die Hurtigrutenschiffe so einfach mal besichtigen kann, finde ich aber toll !
    Gruß, Ricarda

  3. Annika 2019-02-13 13:08

    Man kann auf jedes Schiff als Hafengast. Es gibt eine kleinen Ort da oben, der berühmt geworden ist für seinen Kaffeetrinkclub. Da treffen sich ein paar Leute jeden Tag, um auf dem südgehenden Schiff ein halbes Stündchen im Café zu sitzen und zu plaudern. Ich meine, es sei in Båtsfjord, habs im Wahrheit aber vergessen.

  4. way-up-north 2019-02-13 22:46

    I quote a Facebook response:

    They have dried fish on the top deck to explain passengers how Stockfish is made

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