Our journey to the North Pole started with a flight from Helsinki, Finland, and then a tour of Murmansk including the museum before being taken to the Murmansk shipyard. The temperature was a most unusual 22 degrees (it normally averages 10 degrees at this time). We wilted in the coach whilst undergoing the scrutiny of our passports and documents to be allowed into the shipyard and onto our ship.

Murmansk is home for the Russian fleet of ice-breakers, which are owned by the state but operated by the Murmansk Shipping Company.