And again it was time to travel inside of Norway. Burn some more bonus points from SAS. Traveling to a place I have not been before, and which is not the first choice of holiday destination for me under normal circumstances. Kirkenes, at the Finnish-Russian border (on the Norwegian side of course).
4 nights in Kirkenes. Flight from Molde with Widerøe, which I still like a lot. The normal Dash 8-300 to Bergen with a flight time of under an hour. Then a hop into one of Widerøes E190-2 jets with the worst imaginable legroom you have seen. 90 minutes with nearly no movement on a full plane.
In Tromsø I got some time to move my legs and take a short trip out of the airport to find on Geocache close by. But then back inside the airport (that was quite empty) and waiting for one of the last flights from Tromsø with direction Kirkenes. This on the smallest plan they offer – the Dash 8-100. Free choice of seats. Also this a full booked plane. I made it out first, sine I wanted to have a seat to film the flight (I still have to do some video editing…). A nice flight into the midnight sun. A little over an hours before it was time to land at Kirkenes.
Luggage came out fast (faster than the SAS flight that had landed before – people were still waiting when we all got ours.
Then I had to wait. I booked a HERTZ rental car for the duration of my stay. A nice small (VW Golf class). I didn’t read everything, so the 62 Euro fee for getting the car “after opening hours” and I forgot the insurance that reduced my co-payment from 6300 to 900 Euro. But well… I needed the car and there was no chance to get it earlier. No (bonus-)flights. The paperwork was done via mobile phone (contract and everything) and I got the keys.
The car was outside, close to the terminal and it was a 4×4 Suzuki – nothing to complain about,. Very nice car. After the mandatory check for damages I could start my tour to the center of Kirkenes. But first I had to stop twice for reindeer that thougt the street was a perfect place to stand and look funny. Never had that before. Sheep – yes but reindeer – never. Northern Norway at it s finest. 😀
Just a short 15 km drive to the center. Found a parking spot directly at the hotel (Scandic Kirkenes). Asked if I could park there and “Of course, we have nobody who checks the parking in this city”… Ok. 😀 I like that.
The hotels exterior is a little bit dated, but the room is totally OK. Luckily you can close the windows that it gets dark in the room. There is sun at midnight (as the name says). Tomorrow I will explore the area around.