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Posts tagged ‘norway’

Northern Lights Tour Day 10

Day 10, Feb 07, 2025, To Tromso

We climb out of bed this morning at 7:00 AM. Breakfast is the usual buffet and is good. I’m getting addicted to European Coffee. It is very rich! This morning there are Forest Rangers in the restaurant. We don’t find out why. Then it’s back to the room to pack up the bags as we will be in a new city tonight. We load the bus and climb aboard at 9:00 AM. Here’s a shot looking from our room down at the breakfast buffet!

The scenery is fantastic today, driving to Tromso by the fjords. Bits of blue sky and green water assault our senses. Colorful houses and towns along the way. Our cameras are happy! We go through many tunnels and over bridges. Frozen waterfalls are in abundance!

It is a whopping 8 degrees C today! That’s 45 F! Quite the change from a couple days ago! The landscape continues to impress us and the sun even makes brief appearances! There is much less snow here and no more frozen trees. This country has more tunnels than we have ever seen.

We stop at ‘Pa Taket Kafe’ for lunch. The Cafe overlooks a small picturesque harbor. Then it’s back on the road through the countryside and our cameras purr like kittens. More frozen roadside waterfalls and tunnels to go through! We stop at Circle K again for a break! We must be officially members of the Circle by now! I take a chance with what appears to be a chocolate bar!

As we head out from the break, rain sets in as the afternoon moves along. But the scenery stays fabulous.

We arrive in Tromso and check in to the Clarion Collection Hotel. We walk around town in light rain and come across the world’s smallest restaurant and bar! It is a tiny kiosk on the street! It has a huge line and we decide we really want to find a place indoors out of the elements. We find a place and order drinks. It is then we are told they stop serving food at 4 PM. What??? They do have a small charcuterie board that we call dinner! I also find a wine I’ve never had before and add it to my growing list of wines I’ve tasted! I’ll be able to join the Century Club soon!

We stroll the few blocks back to the hotel and call it a night. But not before finding a few sights for our cameras and even a troll!

See you again tomorrow!

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 07

Day 07, Feb 03, 2025, NL Village to Karasjok, Norway

We wake up at 6:30 AM and walk across the Village to get breakfast in the hotel. We board the bus at 8:30 AM. This will be our longest driving day so far, we will drive 5+ hours today and end up in Norway.

After an hour in the bus, we stop at the Sodankyla Old Church. It is -36C, or -33F. Yes, you read that right! Walking around outdoors, we pull up our Neck Gators and pull our hats down over our ears! We have icicles forming on our eyelashes! The old church and adjoining graveyard make interesting sights for our cameras, which surprisingly work!

Driving on for several hours we come to the SIIDA Sami Village. The museum is interesting showing the ancient Sami culture. There is an interesting kilometer long trail to hike that shows the animal traps used and buildings the culture used. It is still -36C and I start out without my Gator pulled up. By the time I pull it up, I have icicles in my beard! The clever yet primitive animal traps are intriguing to see. There is even a courthouse and jail where errant residents were punished!

Moving on, we stop at a set of stores for sundries. It is interesting that in this part of the world, grocery stores cannot sell alcoholic beverages higher than 8% ABV (Alcohol By Volume). For reference, wine is normally 12-14% so wine is watered down here. There are separate stores for the good stuff and these are harder to find. But Mikael and Viktor find the “Alko” stores where the good stuff is found and a bottle of wine is purchased for the room.

The bus drives on through the night and the dusky view is eerie. We come to a sign announcing Norway and the bus pulls over. We all get out and Mikael pours shots of good Russian Vodka. We all drink to Norway!

Shortly ahead we make the actual crossing into Norway and arrive at our hotel, Scandic Karasjohka, for the night. It is snowing fairly heavily. We have 1.5 hours till dinner and settle into our room.

Temperature today stays around -30C to-36C. It feels good to be inside and get out of all the layers of clothing. Dinner comes with the Tour today and we are glad not to have to walk into town in this temperature! After dinner, we settle down for the night.