The ferry does a turn around and we head back on a southerly course to Bergen. We stop at many of the same ports on the return trip, but the times are different and we can get out and explore some that we missed. We are also through with the formal "Viking History" lectures and movies, and are starting the WWII phase of our experience.
A great and moving experience was walking to a bomb shelter cave made by the people of Kirkenes. A local man, who's parents had fled to the cave 100's of times durning the bombing raids by the Russians who were trying to rid the area of the Germans. It was creepy and inspiring to enter part of this dank dark cave that held hundreds of the towns people. The residents slept in their clothes because the raids would come at any time and sometimes 5-6 times in a 24 hr period. Our local guide had much passion in his delivery and made us feel how terrorized the local people became. The cave worked to save many many lives, but the devastation the Germans played, left the town a "scorched earth". Before the Germans fled, they leveled the entire town by burning it down. The feelings still run long and deep in this town against the Nazis. There is nothing "old" left in Kirkenes, as it was rebuilt completely since the war, and is now inhabited by a mixture of Russian and Norwegians.
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