Day 8 - Murmansk, Russia

Feeling a little sleep deprived from the additional 2 hours we lost last night, we got up and out for our morning tour of Murmansk.  Russian ports are a little more complicated for disembarkation. Officials came on board when we docked to check all our passports, which the ship's crew had collected when we first came on board. That took about 2 hours.  Then they began calling tours. We were in the second tour - "Murmansk and the Museum of the Northern Fleet". Once called, we picked up our passports, got our bus assignment, showed our passports with the bookmark at the page where it had been stamped to the officer at the exit, and finally left the ship. On the way back on board we had to show the passport with the bookmark to a Russian officer again, then give it back to the ship security officer for safe keeping.  Being a small port and a relatively small ship, at least this was not as time consuming as when we visited Saint Petersburg.

The city really shows it's age. You don't see private homes, only large apartment buildings from the 1950's with very worn facades. The guide talked about new ones being built, but I only saw one of these.  I saw a total of 4 people doing modest maintenance as we rode around on the bus. 2 men were repairing some plaster on the outside of a building at street level, and later I saw 2 women painting a metal street barricade.

Our first stop on the tour was to take pictures of a building called the "Palace of Culture".  This was one of the first buildings in Murmansk, build by the Tzar in the early 1900's.  Our guide said this was the start of Murmansk and is now a club.  I am a little confused by her concept of a club, but it sounds like there are clubs for people of various occupations that provide training, libraries, and social events.  At the end of the tour she pointed out a Seaman's club with similar functions. She also mentioned there is a children's club where they learn arts such as singing and dancing, and which is also daycare.

Next we visited the "Memorial to the Defenders of the Kola Land."  This is a giant statue of a soldier that stands on one of the highest points in Murmansk. We had a great view of the harbor and the city from there. The statue was rather plain artistically, but it's size was impressive.

From there we headed to the main destination of the tour, the "Museum of the Northen Fleet."   A local guide explained the displays in Russian and our guide translated.  This made the tour a little longer than most people expected.  Since all the text around the exhibits were in Russian, we couldn't read things on our own. Without her explanation we would have been looking at objects with no context.  However, it was obvious that some of the women were bored and they just found a place to sit in the hall while the rest of us followed the guides from room to room.  The museum was not spectacular.  It was mostly ship models, photos and memorabilia, with a few artifacts added in.  I think it was good as local museums go, but I know I would have appreciated it more if the texts were at least in our alphabet in some language. I can usually figure out a little German, Spanish, Italian, etc, but I'm list when it comes to the Cyrillic alphabet. 

The last stop was to visit  a Russian Orthodox Church.  Everything I can find about the church says the name of it is St  Nicholas.  However, our guide called it something like "Savior of the Sea".  It is an active church, so although we went inside, we did not take any photos inside.  It was filled with beautiful icons, as one would expect in any Russian Orthodox church. The soldier statue we visited earlier can be seen from this church.  

Also, there are about 80 steps down from the church leading to a memorial to sailors lost at sea, in the shape of a lighthouse.  To the left of the lighthouse is a piece of the Kursk, the submarine that sank on a training mission off Norway in 2000.  In case you don't remember this tragedy, I've included a wikipedia link.  There was a small display in the Northern Fleet museum commemorating this as well.  I will withhold my opinions on this, deferring to the wikipedia entry, and just add my prayers for the 118 men who died on that ship, now as I did then.




Back on the ship we rested a bit for the rest of the afternoon.  At 5PM Ray watched the ship's sail away while I went to bingo.  I don't think I mentioned it before, but I have not missed a bingo game on board yet.  I don't usually play bingo at home, but I do enjoy playing on cruises.  The games tend to be light-hearted and fun.  Yesterday I actually won the 2nd game.  They always play 4 games, usually around noon on sea days, but they scheduled 5pm games yesterday and today.

Now we will be at sea until 1pm tomorrow, when we arrive at Hammerfest.  At least we get our 2 hours back tonight, as we head west again.