Varanger NSR Day 2.3

Our next stop was Vardø which is an island! We took a tunnel under the water and parked and wandered around.

One of the main attractions is Steilneset, a memorial for the 91 people found guilty of witchcraft and burned at the stake here. It is the long white thing which looked like cement or something, but then we went in and realized it was canvas. Inside was not what I expected (it was really dark inside. My photo/video look brighter than it was) and was really interesting. They had booklets in different languages so you could read about the people and what they were accused of (the signs on the walls were Norwegian) so that was nice they provided that. I was really surprised by how many men were burned as witches. I don’t think I’ve ever hear that happening to men too so that was really interesting to me (update the next day - i just started reading the booklet and had missed the explanation pages at the front, with more info about the witch trials and added photos of that if anyone else is interested)

Then in the black box at the end (in the outside photo) was the chair on fire with these giant oval mirrors surrounding it in the air and that was also super interesting. The whole memorial was way more impactful than I imagined it would be. I’m going to read about all the people when I get time on this trip. I’m ready glad we stopped and saw this. I included the video of inside as it was so windy it was a little crazy.

Then we wandered by the fort and saw a Least Weasel! He was so tiny and darting back and forth across the path!

Then out to the fun sculpture on the water (we’ve been listening to Moby Dick while driving and we were both like is that him? Is that Moby Dick?? Of note - we finally got to the part where they try and get their first whale and I guess I never really thought about how they went about it, but it is crazy to me that they would go out in little row boats and try and harpoon the whale from there! Those people who were whalers are crazy!! Also this book is so funny I love it. I asked Raymond how he was enjoying it and he was like I had no idea it was so humorous! It is a lot of fun!).

After a short break we wandered back through town and found some fun sculptures! We ate lunch when we got back to the van and while we were eating it started raining! Not very hard, but still it was perfect timing for us! Then stopped by the grocery store to get some things we needed and found some vegan Christmas cookies already! We tried one and I really love them! Not very sweet, kind of like a mix between a sugar cookie and a scone. I will have to keep my eye out for more!

Then it was on down the road to our next stop and when we got to Domen pass 2 reindeer crossed the road in front of us! We didn’t see any yesterday, so that was fun.Read more