Vardø is the easternmost town in Norway, further east than Istanbul, sitting on a small island off the tip of the Varanger peninsula and connected to the mainland by an undersea tunnel, the first of its kind in the country when it opened in 1982. The town is small and weathered, with a harbour full of fishing boats, colourful houses, abandoned buildings and an air of having seen better days, but it has a powerful history and a few sights that are worth the long ride.
Vardøhus, the octagonal star fortress built in the eighteenth century, is the northernmost fortress in the world and still garrisoned, with ramparts you can walk on and a rowan tree that the soldiers nurse through the harsh winters. Vardø also has a darker past. In the seventeenth century, dozens of people, most of them women, were accused of witchcraft and burned at the stake here, in one of the worst witch-hunts in Norwegian history. The Steilneset Memorial, a long timber and fabric structure designed by Peter Zumthor, with a glass pavilion containing an installation by Louise Bourgeois, commemorates them on the shore where the fires burned. It counts as one of the most moving monuments in Scandinavia.
For centuries, Vardø was a centre of the Pomor trade, when Russian merchants from the White Sea came to buy fish in exchange for grain and goods, and the town has a long relationship with Russia, visible in its history and architecture. Out in the sea, the bird island of Hornøya, reached by boat, hosts huge colonies of puffins, guillemots and kittiwakes in summer, and it counts among the best places in Europe to watch seabirds up close.
The road to Vardø follows the coast from Vadsø, part of the Varanger National Tourist Route, and it is long, open and atmospheric, with views over the sea and tundra. The surface is generally good, and traffic is light. The wind can be fierce, and showers come through with little notice.
Vardø has fuel, shops, a few cafes and accommodation. Beyond the town the road continues north along the coast to Hamningberg, an abandoned fishing village at the end of the road, open only in summer. Bring warm clothes and plenty of time.