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Posts tagged ‘adventure’

Northern Lights Tour Day 18

Day 18, Feb 15, 2025, The Trip Home

We arise at 6:30 AM for the trip home. One last breakfast in the hotel. I’ll miss the breakfast buffets! We take our bags to the train station, which happens to be right outside the hotel. A 25 minute train ride takes us right into the airport. We check our bags and walk to the gate. Soon we are on the first plane to Kopenhagn (Copenhagen) and it’s an uneventful flight. We have aisle and window seats. Our monkey in the middle friend is from Kopenhagn and heading home after cross country skiing for a week.

It’s snowing in Copenhagen. We have about an hour until boarding. By the time we board, it’s snowing harder. The top of the plane and the windows are covered in snow! We board and are delayed an hour at the gate. Suddenly there is something happening, something is pouring on the plane. Rusty red fluids run down over the windows. It turns out we are being de-iced. I guess that means we will be taking off soon. It’s a strange situation though.

Sure enough, we taxi and take off within minutes after the deicing. The 11 hours ticks away and I try to sleep, in vain. I chat with my seat mate who lives in Greenland. She is on her way to Santa Barbara to do some kind of Marine Research. I have paid extra for extra leg room. That leg room turns out to be a little bit of space in a high traffic area. I have to be constantly aware of all the Passengers AND Flight Attendants to avoid being stepped on! Be aware of paying for extra leg room, especially on SAS Airlines!

Several movies later and we arrive in Los Angeles. A shuttle ride home and we have a bite to eat before going to bed. Now it’s time for a new adventure! Stay tuned!

Northern Lights Tour Day 14

Day 14, Feb 11, 2025, Lofoten Islands

Today we board the bus without luggage as we will return here tonight. We are off to see more of the Lofoten Islands and possibly another WWII museum. It is raining lightly. We travel to “A” (yes, that’s the name!) at the end of the road after driving through another tunnel in the Lofoten Islands. We see bridges, islands and fish farms. The tunnel at the end opens to a parking lot. There is a Kafe here and rest rooms. We stop for pics and a comfort stop.

Then we drive back to Reine where we stop briefly for a photo stop at a large waterfall. Shortly after we stop for lunch at another Kafe. There is a marina here on the edge of this fjord. It is very picturesque and our cameras are happy! Fish and Chips and another local IPA and we’re good to go!

While we are stopped, a rock slide falls near the road we need to drive on. The road is closed. We are stuck. So everyone walks around the picturesque town with their cell phones, the only cameras that this group knows. Still a mystery to me that people travel around the world with only a cell phone camera. But we find some grass roofs!

The authorities send up drones to assess the damage. Apparently, the slide fell near the road but didn’t block it. Good News! One hour later the road opened. We drive away and shortly come to a surf beach where we stop for photos. Fun surf. There is a surf rental shop nearby. Not exactly a choice in the winter!

Viktor drives us back to the hotel. Some of the group goes to a (new to us) WWII Museum and then to a sauna. I opt to go back to the hotel, having learned enough at the last museum. Saunas are not my thing either. The rain obscures photo taking through the windows so we just watch the landscape in the rain.

We eat dinner in the closest restaurant tonight to avoid the rain and have duck and halibut.

We visit with new travel friends and turn in for the night.

Northern Lights Tour Day 09

Day 09, Feb 06, 2025, To Alta, Norway

After getting up and dressed at 5, I go outside but there are no Auroras. So it’s back to bed. Then it’s up at 7:00 AM. We get on the bus at 9:00 AM. We see lots of moose today and reindeer. Someone calls out every 5 or 10 minutes. Photographing them is a different story through moving bus windows.

The temperatures top out at -4C today (26F). We will be driving to Alta today. I spot Some Sami girls in costume getting into a car. I playfully point my camera at them and they smile, hop out of the car and pose for our cameras! The Sami girls in costume are on their way to a celebration. It is National Sami Day!

The winds are strong. There is a “Truc Dies” flag at Circle K. The winds have destroyed the flag. We believe it originally read, “Truck Diesel”, LOL. We all agree that we would prefer -30C to the winds.

The terrain is different here. We see a lot of Norwegian Birch. They are scrubby trees, almost what we would call bushes. It never gets warm or sunny enough here for a lot of tree growth. On the other hand, it makes it easy to see wildlife. The animals we see are very difficult to photograph from the bus moving at 60-70 KPH (45 MPH).

We arrive in Alta and visit the Alta Museum. It tells us all about the Sami culture and sits overlooking a fjord. The views from the open deck are fabulous. We move on and arrive in downtown Alta. We stay tonight in the Scandic Alta Hotel. We arrive in time to take a nap before dinner.

Dinner tonight is at Erica Mat & Vinbar (food and wine bar). Tonight we indulge ourselves and have a Smoked Whale Meat Tapas appetizer. Add to that Reindeer Steak for the main course. Now before you get all upset, it is allowed in this part of the world to hunt a certain amount of whales, usually “Minke” whales. Minke whales are commonly in over abundance and are not on the endangered list.

The Smoked Minke Whale is on the top grey plate, Reindeer Filet on the bottom! It is interesting that the whale meat is almost black in color!

Then a walk back to the hotel for the night in the brisk air. There is a church outside the hotel that charges for entrance, but it is closed so we can’t go in. This is a new experience for us to see churches charging entrance fees. We are finding Scandinavia expensive, from the food to entertainment.

So it is to bed for us! See you all tomorrow!

Northern Lights Tour Day 05

Day 05, Feb 01, 2025, Rovaniemi, Finland

It is not an early day and we get to sleep in a little. Viktor drives us to Santa’s Village. This is, supposedly, the official home of Santa Claus! It is very commercialized. But it is fun walking around and seeing reindeer and other attractions. We first go into a gift shop and are told to walk a circular hallway and get into a queue. We follow instructions and Mikael is there lining us up for a photo with Santa! We then get in line for a private photo with the jolly old elf by ourselves! Then we venture back outside to see the rest of the village. It is here we find the Arctic Circle and officially cross it! When we get cold we just go inside any given restaurant (and there are many) and have some hot cocoa.

Back on the bus, our next stop is Kemi Jarvi (Kemi Lake) where we have hot drinks and walk around the town. There are churches here that glisten in the sunrise light. Any time the sun is out in February, it is either sunrise or sunset. The sun never gets very high off the horizon!

Then it’s time to get back on the bus. We go back to the hotel and have about an hour to relax. Then Mikael takes us down the hill to the river. We go into a store and suit up in one piece insulated suits. Once we’re all dressed, we have a short briefing and climb onto snowmobiles (2 per machine) for the next couple hours. Elee drives first but has never driven one before! But it’s not difficult and we find ourselves enjoying a snowmobile ride. It is a fun afternoon and it brings back memories.

I used to ride and race these machines back 50 or so years ago! This afternoon’s ride is a bit different though as we are instructed to stay in line and follow one another. No deviating from the path is allowed! We ride for most of an hour where we get off the machines and have hot berry juice and cookies. The juice is very good! Then we switch drivers and Elee rides behind me. I break the rules a little and steer out into fresh untracked snow. It is much more fun and I am not yelled at or corrected. These machines have governors built into the keys. Ours is the ‘Green’ key and has a maximum RPM of 5000, which is low for this type of motor. I eek out 41 KPH and have to settle for that. Back when I raced these machines, that would have been a very slow corner! LOL

The one advanced addition to snowmobiles that I wished I had back in the day is Heated Hand Grips! That kept my hands nice and toasty! We go back to the store and change out of the snowmobile suits into our other clothing. After the ride, we stop at the earlier agreed upon pub and everyone joins us for some drinks. I find some IPA. My stomach is feeling good after 2-3 days of BRAT diet and I take a chance. We have some fun chats among the group as we are feeling like we know each other much better!

It is uphill all the way to the hotel and it’s dinnertime. So we walk to Gustav’s for dinner and have some local fare. Back into the cold and back to the hotel. I sleep well.

Northern Lights Tour Day 03

Day 03 Jan 30, 2025, Helsinki, Finland

We get up and pack up. A leisurely breakfast consists of more bananas and toast. My stomach is better, but not good enough yet.

We check out of the hotel and join the tour bus at 10 AM. Fun sights and monuments entertain our cameras as we travel through the Finnish countryside.

We visit the “Rock Church”, dug into the rock. The acoustics are amazing! With a pipe organ and a choir section also. After that, we visit the Sibelius Monument, made from 600 stainless steel pipes, representing the music of Helsinki.

Today’s bus tour finishes at the Oodi Library. It is a very modern museum with book robots, 3D printing, free Meeting rooms and gaming rooms. They even make some windows look as if it is raining! I snack on more bananas and tea. We find a supermarket and get bananas, rice cakes and applesauce, etc.

We walk back to the hotel and nap and relax for 2 hours. Then we walk our luggage to the train station. We will ride a sleeper train tonight. It is probably our best sleeper train yet. We have a bathroom and shower in the room! Albeit an airline size bathroom, it has a panel that folds over the toilet to reveal a shower! We even get some sleep. Elee lets me have the lower bunk to placate my upset stomach. A photo of some of our fellow travelers shows how narrow the aisle in the train is!

We walk through several train cars and find the bar car. Yes, it seems that every train in the world with sleeper cars has a bar car! I smuggle a banana and a bottle of water in as I am keeping to my strict BRAT diet. Elee and others in our group order food and drinks from the bar. The conductor walks through and I hide my banana and water under the table. The conductor inquires about our tickets. Luckily, he accepts our story of being in a group and seems to recognize the validity of the group.

We continue to get to know the members of our group and all chat amicably together. The Aussies are a very friendly group! I take my leave and make it back to our car and sleeper unit for the night.