2025 March 08 | Around the World in 80 Trips (Or Less)

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Northern Lights Tour Day 13

Day 13, Feb 10, 2025, To Svolvaer, Norway

Another morning arising at 7:00 AM. Go to the breakfast buffet and fill up. We load our luggage and board the bus at 9:00 AM. The weather is dreary this morning and we drive around a fjord. Even in the dreary weather, the mountain scenery is spectacular. Shooting through rain soaked windows is difficult but our cameras insist! We pass through small enclaves of picturesque towns. There are a lot of one way bridges which forces us to stop a lot.

We stop at a Kafe for lunch and rest break. The scenery around the Kafe is interesting and I take a walk. My camera thanks me! I even see what appears to be a tipped over outhouse? What’s up with that? There is an electric charging station in front of the Kafe. We are told that over half of all the cars purchased are now electric!

We experience light rain all day but our parkas and hoods protect us. There are fish drying racks everywhere. This area is famous for “Lutefisk”, mostly Cod that is dried and stored. Then it is reconstituted and put into soups and stews.

Today we are traveling to Svolvaer by way of Evenes. We come across Henningsvaer, a part of Evenes. Evenes is a fishing village with a soccer stadium. We hike up a very picturesque trail overlooking the stadium. We find unique angles of a small lighthouse behind a hill from the stadium.

It is unlikely to have a chance of seeing Northern Lights tonight due to the weather. We walk around the town of Moloen on the way back to the bus and have a brief stop for a drink. I find another IPA and all is well!

We are in another Scandic Hotel tonight, apparently a favorite hotel chain of the Tour we are on. The rooms are a bit cramped as a rule but they are comfortable. Add to that the breakfast buffets and there you have a popular package.

We all meet at a pub a few blocks away for drinks and jokes. We have effectively taken over this pub as we are 25 people and the pub holds about 30. There are a few patrons in the pub but all but one leaves. The one left is a genial man who sits and observes us. Upon buying drinks for Elee and I, I also buy the man a drink from our group and everyone cheers! People take turns telling bad jokes and we all laugh.

Then we go our separate ways for dinner. We meet up with new friends John and Di and go to a fish restaurant, ‘Bacalao’. Here we order their signature dish, “Bacalao”, which is a stew featuring dried, salted Cod that has been reconstituted. This is similar to a famous Norwegian fish, called “Lutefisk”. If you look it up, it sounds unappealing but we found it amazingly good!

It has been a tiring day, so we turn in. Elee is nursing a sore ankle after taking a light fall in the crowded pub.

Northern Lights Tour Day 12

Day 12, Feb 09, 2025, Travel to Narvik, Norway

We get up at 7:00 AM and go down to breakfast. The typical breakfast buffet is, once again, very good! Then we go back to the room and pack up our bags. We head for the bus at 9:30. Today we make the drive to Narvik. It will be a three and one half hour drive. We stop at Go2s for pizza and beer. We underestimate the size of the pizzas and can only finish half of it between the two of us! They have a local IPA and I indulge. After all, it’s 5 O’Clock Somewhere! We end up taking half the pizza with us back on the bus!

The scenery is breathtaking! Watching the river ice is intriguing, sometimes frozen, sometimes not. Driving along fjords gives a scenic view that is mesmerizing. Viktor drives down one side of a fjord and then back along the other. We have lost count of the tunnels we go through.

Norway has over 1000 road tunnels, the longest is twenty four kilometers long! Very few tunnels have any guardrails and the walls are rough hewn rock! I can’t imagine the mess if you left your lane and came in contact with the side! We are told that some tunnels even cross and have roundabouts in them, but we haven’t encountered one of those. We do see a couple random emergency lay-bys for safety.

I mistakenly thought the architecture in Norway would be unique. We do see some grass roofs but photographing them is near impossible from the moving bus. I will keep trying. Most buildings are wood frame houses and barns throughout the countryside. Buildings in the cities are typical, with the occasional uniquely designed library or museum.

Narvik is an interesting city. We visit the Red Cross War Museum next to our hotel for the night. Having never been interested in history as a child (not classes I excelled in), I find it more interesting as an adult. I feel educated about Norway’s involvement in WWII. It seems that Norway was rich in iron ore and steel and was much sought after by Germany. Not to mention the protection all the fjords gave to the military ships!

After spending hours in the museum, we check in to our room and then take a walk around town. The weather is wet and snowy. But it’s not so severe that it stops us from our hike. There is a bar on the top (16th) floor of our hotel that opens at 6:00 PM. So guess where we find ourselves at 6? We find most of our tour group there and we queue up for drinks and tapas.