Stone me

Snow!

Excrutiatingly rare on the Isle of Man at sea level at any time. There was some on the roofs and ground this morning and at 2:45pm it started again.

So, in memory of the last time I saw a white Yule - and indeed of the last time I saw snow at all - I give you a small Yule gift: another little package of Norway.

Nollick ghennal from Ellan Vannin!

Norway - Day 9: Kirkenes

So far, we've not been struck by the beauty of Finnmark. This is the last stop. We're already heading south – on account of there being nowhere much to go north of North Cape – but after Kirkenes, the ship turns around and heads back towards Bergen again. Kirkenes is the region's last chance to redeem itself as a place of beauty.

And what is here in Norway's most remote corner, east of Istanbul, north of Sweden and Finland both? We're 1,150km from Helsinki – less than half as far as the 2,500km to the capital Oslo, and our starting point in Bergen is 2,600km away.

What is here is a disused mining town.
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