A few photos from the trip from the Russian border to Murmansk, and then several of Murmansk. Murmansk is an ice-free port year round, making it a major port and the home of the Russian Northern Fleet, including submarines and the nuclear icebreakers. Just before the collapse of the Soviet Union, it had a population around 450,000, but since then that has dropped to just over 300,000, still the largest city north of the Arctic Circle.