It has been another beautiful day here today, we had been expecting some wind which with the already low temperatures can be pretty bracing, thankfully we managed a walk before the breeze arrived. 

Lovely sky colours at this time of year

Following the pathways, great area for walking

Something we had overlooked a little was that throughout the winter as soon as we get off the boat (or indeed on the boat..) we will be fighting with ice, after having both taken a wee trip already we are on the lookout to buy some spikes for the bottom of our shoes. walking like a penguin to the shower might soon be a thing of the past! Hopefully it will make exploring easier anyway, we have found the well walked forest and hill tracks to be lethal, spending more time holding on to trees or sliding on our bums, tourists eh!? 

After effects of studded tyres... icy car park

Despite the slippy ground we had a lovely walk today, we were earlier this year pointed in the direction of the Trondenes kirk but had ran out of time for going to it, so we made our way over the hill towards it. 

Trondenes kirk

Impressive old building

The Trondenes kirk is the most northernmost medieval kirk in Europe, completed around 1435 it's an impressive building, the church from what we read on the information boards has some extraordinary features due to the church having vast funds at the time. There are three German triptychs and an incredible pulpit, this kirk stands tall noticeable from the surrounding area. The area of Trondenes was of great religious importance between 1030-1500s. 

Religious history is just part of this areas past, within a stones through of the church there are remains from WW2, where a nazi prisoner of war camp stood between 1942-1945. The prisoners were from the Red army, Russian Soviet army. Captured during the summer of 1942 in Russia, the German army moved the POW to Norway to exploit as slave labour. The poor treatment of the POW saw many die during the winter months of 42-43, several young men died on a daily basis as a result of low food rations and ill treatment.

1200 POW at a time were held at the camp, living in basic plywood huts, surrounded by armed guards on watch towers and double layers or barbed wire fences. Through the war around 14000 of the 100000 soviet prisoners of war died, there was graves of some 403 of these at the kirk, but when the Cold War broke out the Norwegian authorities decided to move all soviet POW graves to one place and so there are only photographs as evidence. 

Back in Hagan

It is said time travels fast when you are enjoying yourself, well we must have been because we can't believe we are back aboard after almost a month away. With all things sorted in the south west we headed back to a fairly mild Evenes... certainly a few degrees warmer than Aberdeen on Thursday. A flight, an overnight ferry, a night in Aberdeen (thank you Leigh and Chris!) and two further flights saw us arrive pretty much as planed in Evenes, only short delays due to icy runways in Oslo. 

Treats we bought ourselves... snow shovel and heater!!

Events airport is about 50km out of Harstad and we caught the airport bus into town, glimpsing the first of the Christmas decorations on our journey to the bus station. The bus station just a few miles from the boat we walked the last leg to Hagan, something we quickly began to question as our wheeled suitcase crunched and scrapped along the gritty pavements, carrying the 20+kg case the remainder just didn't appeal!

Looking towards Grytøya in the decreasing light

Amazingly the case along with us made the marina and down the pontoon towards our little home. Quickstep seemed none the worse for being abandoned. Even though we had someone kindly keeping an eye on her we were relieved to get back aboard. Getting the heating on was a high priority as were removing the icicles that had formed inside in our absence. We had left the time lapse camera running a photo every few minutes and amazingly no snow had fallen in he marina area although about two weeks of icy windows where captured.

Over Hagan

After what seemed a fairly long day or two of travelling we were looking forward to an early night and so with bags left packed we rolled the bedding out, impatient we didn't even wait for the boat to warm up, having started at -5C this took some time, but by morning it was nice and cosy, maybe a little too cosy; getting up proved an effort! 

Solid paths through the hill

With so much sitting in airports and planes the day before we were keen to get walking today and took a new route we had discovered in to Harstad. We had found some muddy paths up and over the hill between us and the city so made our way to them, they are now long since muddy, solid with ice, makes for cleaner walking anyway! We found a loch along the way which was thick with ice too, have to look out some ice skates...joking! Walking proves tasking enough, we are yet to build up skiing or skating confidence. 

Frozen puddles

We can't believe how quickly it's getting dark now, with sun setting by 1pm and twilight just lasting until 3pm, that will all change within the next few days anyway as we prepare to say goodbye to the sun for this year. It's great to be back and planning again, we would love to get the boat out and about if weather holds up and if not we have found some fun places to walk to, even winter BBQ at! 

Christmas lighting outside the library and culture house

Harstad and Hagan are looking particularly lovely at the moment too, something Christmassy about the house lights and long nights, unfortunately we forgot the camera on the boat as we rushed out so only a few phone camera photos, we will be sure to get more over the next few days!