Tromsø with Marco

Tromsø!!! It was really time to show Marco the North of Norway and best in winter when it offers so many fantastic activities and especially the magnificent magic Northern Lights. Actually this trip was a long due redemption of the flight tickets I had given to Marco as a present over a year ago.
We had considered quite a lot of days for our trip. There is so many activities available in Tromsø in winter which I always wanted Marco to experience. At the same time this was also the occasion for me to meet and personally test a few of the many suppliers we work with. Additionally, my cousin Florian and my dear friend Jana live in Tromsø who I really wanted to visit and see again. So we had planned 6 days for our trip to the North.

Thursday, 03/03:
Morning departure from Oslo with Norwegian Airlines. About 10:15 a.m. we approached Tromsø.

Upon arrival we left our luggage at Jana's flat conveniently located in the city centre of Tromsø. However, Jana had to work so we just stayed for a cup of tea before heading out to town to visit the Polar Museum. It's a small museum with a lot of accessoires and items exhibiting and presenting the tradition of polar seafaring and the essentials for a life on the sea and in the arctic. It tells about overwintering in the arctic, seal hunting in the arctic ocean, about the lives and expeditions of Fridtjof Nansen and Roald Amundsen and the discovery of and whaling in the region of Svalbard in the 16th-18th century.
Later in the afternoon we went back to Jana to get our luggage and meet with my cousin Florian who picked us up after his work. That night we stayed over at his place in Kvaløysletta (a part of the city of Tromsø on the eastern shore of the island of Kvaløya). We didn't only get to know Florian's new house, we also had the pleasure to meet their new family member: Tasse, their dog, some arctic/polar breed :-) What a cutie! After dinner we went for a walk with Tasse down to the sea at Kvaløysletta where Marco tried his first Northern Lights shots - only that there were no Northern Lights that night.

Friday, 04/03:
The next morning we woke up with beautiful weather and a nice view from Florian's house towards Tromsø.

My cousin had already gone to work, but Tasse kept us company.

Tasse couldn't actually wait until we finally woke up. The second she heard the first noise coming from our "bedroom" she rushed up the stairs to greet us :-)

Perfect weather to take Tasse out for a beautiful morning walk.

We went back to the shore we had been the evening before.

 Having fun in the deep(!) snow.

Later in the afternoon we met with Jana and Helder to visit the Hurtigruten ship MS Kong Harald docking that day in Tromsø. Hurtigruten had started a long series of renovations of their fleet, mainly by redecorating the interior of their ships. The MS Kong Harald was the first boat to be renovated and Jana and I didn't want to miss the occasion of inspecting the new look.

View from the outdoor deck.

In the evening we went on our first tour chasing the Northern Lights - with Northern Shots. Northern Shots is a company founded by Jana's boyfriend Helder and his partner Francesco. They are running this business now successfully for the third winter season. Northern Lights tours are actually a pretty big business in Northern Norway. There is loads of suppliers offering this; Northern Shots is focusing on photography of the Northern Lights. At 6 p.m. we left on a big bus taking us up to 7 hours around Northern Norway - wherever the weather and aurora forecast gives the best chances to spot these magic appearances.

However, auroras remain a natural phenomenon which cannot be guaranteed or 100% predicted; they are so much depending on the solar activity and the weather during a night. No matter how strong the aurora/solar activity is in the atmosphere, if the sky is not clear and covered with clouds, one won't see the lights. Unfortunately, when we went on this tour, we had no luck at all in seeing auroras, not even the tiniest bit of green showed up, despite the pretty clear sky. That evening there was simply no aurora activity. Zero, niente, nada - simply nothing to see at all :-( In all February and March there were in total only 5 days in which people on that tour didn't get to see the Northern Lights - and that evening we managed to hit exactly one of those 5 dates.
Though he knew there is never a guarantee, but you could see how disappointed Marco was. Unlike me he had never seen the aurora before. He had even bought a new lens for his reflex camera before that trip. But he had no other choice then just playing with his camera taking some night shots of the surrounding area, without aurora.

The first couple of hours passed pretty quickly as the guide (by the way a professional photographer) talked a lot about the aurora phenomenon and explained how to correctly set your camera for taking pictures of it. But not seeing any Northern Lights makes the remaining 4-5 hours pretty long. I'm sure, if there had been auroras time would have just flown. But of course, for people travelling from far that have most likely never seen this phenomenon before, those hours are the only "hope" they have - and they paid for it.
Within those hours the guide took us to a couple of their favourite spots to see Northern Lights (if they do show up then). During one of those stops we were served cookies and hot chocolate/tea.
At around midnight we were back in town. That night we stayed over at Jana's and Helder's place.

Saturday, 05/03:
Weekend! Means Jana didn't have to work and Helder only in the evening. We used the free day for an excursion to the island of Sommarøy, located about 36km west of Tromsø. The island Sommarøy with its fishing village is a popular tourist destination due to its sand beaches and the scenery.

Immersed in the deep snow.

Wildlife on the way: an eagle.

Arrived in Sommarøy we took a little walk.

 

On the way back heading into Tromsø we spot this kite surfer.

We spent the evening (and night) at home, at Jana's and Helder's place. They had also invited some friends and together we had a nice evening with great food, lot of fun playing games and chatting - while always having an eye on the sky outside if maybe some aurora would pop up (but eventually didn't).

Sunday, 06/03:

Today we tested another supplier we occasionally work with: Sørøya Havfiskecruise. The owners, Gulli and Cato (the captain), live on this catamaran on which they take tourists out on various boat trips from Tromsø. In winter they offer fishing trips, day and night boat tours, Northern Lights dinner cruises or they take people on a whale safari (only until January). The common inside area of the boat was basically their living room (in a bit old-fashoned style/furniture), so you really felt "meeting the locals" and staying in their home. The whale season was already over, in the evening we had already plans and the fishing trip was not available that day. So we opted for their simple 2 hours day cruise which takes you once around the island ofTromsø, during which Gulli served a yummy home made cake, coffee/tea and biscuits.

Cormorants.

The tour was ok, but nothing breathtaking. Honestly, I remained a bit disappointed with regards to what we got to see as I thought the tour would take us a bit further out into the beautiful mountain surroundings and not just around Tromsø island. On the other hand it’s logical they can’t reach those places in such short time (we underestimated a bit the distances and the speed of the boat). However, for tourists that usually only see and stay in that one part (the south-east side) of Tromsø where you have all the hotels, the Hurtigruten quai, the city centre with many restaurants and bars and the most important museums, this day cruise certainly allows you to get another perspective of Tromsø and see it from the Kvaløya side. Nevertheless I think their selling price is quite expensive for that. Using Sørøya for a whale safari, a fishing tour or to see the Northern Lights might probably be a more special experience that pays off more.

In the evening we got a second chance to see Northern Lights. I had booked a tour with Tromsø Friluftsenter, a supplier we have a very good cooperation with and which we use a lot for our tourists. With this tour I finally had the chance to meet Trine (our contact at Tromsø Friluftsenter) in person - and I tell you: she's a character! I'm so often in contact with her for work, especially in winter season. We know each other well from the phone and from emails, but I never personally met her before. It was great to be on tour with her and experience one of the products/tours she offers. Trine was driving and guiding and you could feel that she was doing that job with all her heart! Being proud of continuing the family run business. It seemed she really loved what she was doing, enjoyed staying out there with tourists and never getting tired of it. What she was saying when guiding didn’t seem to be the same repetitive words learnt by heart and recited every evening over and over again. Just more like “free style talking”, what just came to her mind to tell. Trine was happy to share those special moments of Northern Lights appearing with her guests and took professional individual pictures of everyone with the aurora – which are then available for free download on the internet. During the excursion she lit a little camp fire, offered a couple of cakes, marshmallows to roast in the fire and hot tea/coffee. During the moments driving in the van, she played music and showed videos. A pleasant way of making time pass by.

However, the best part of the evening were the Northern Lights. Yes, that evening we were lucky! Very lucky :-)
The screenshot from my mobile shows the solar activity (77,28 GW being a pretty high value) that night as well as the visibility of the aurora on the Northern hemisphere with red indicating extremely good visibility. On that picture you can even see that the aurora that night was that strong that it was also visible in Southern Norway (which is already pretty unusual) and even in the Northern parts of Great Britain it could be seen! Usually it can only be observed above the polar circle.

What a beautiful, colorful night this was! Also Marco was excited by the spectacular lights and was so happy to finally see them. He could now use his camera and the new lens he bought to take some really great shots of these fantastic lights. Marco was so captured by the auroras that continued popping up over the sky and dancing over our heads that he didn't even realize the -10 degrees while spending over 2 hours constantly outside.

The blueish and pink parts of auroras are usually not visible with the naked eye, but the camera is able to catch them. It's incredible what the camera sees what your eye can't.

 



 

This picture was taken by Trine :-)

Later on, when the Northern Lights vanished where we had stopped first, we moved on to a second spot. But the activity wasn't very strong anymore and thus not much Northern Lights could be seen.

For tonight I had book us a room in the pretty new Clarion Hotel The Edge.

Monday, 07/03:
Scandinavian breakfast buffet at the hotel to start the day.
After that we went to the Polaria Museum, the world's most northerly aquarium. Rather than a mainly scientific aquarium, Polaria is designed to be an educational experience, with particular emphasis on displays for children. They have a seal pool (very popular for the regular seal feeding and show) and show several times a day in their auditorium about Svalbard. The building hosting Polaria Museum represents ice floes that have been pressed up on land by the rough seas of the Arctic.
Afterwards, I went for a quick site inspection of the Scandic Ishavshotel which recently had a little make over of the common areas.

At 17:00 we met up for the pick-up for yet another adventure: dogsledding, overnight and snowmobiling at Camp Tamok in the Lyngen Alps. I booked this with our supplier "Lyngsfjord Adventure". We work a lot also with them and it was great to personally try out a couple of activities they offer.

We started with dog sledding as evening activity. A bunch of huskies getting crazy for dragging you on a sledge out into the wilderness. One person is driving the sledge while the other one sits on it. Half-way driver and passenger can swap. Marco started driving.
Unfortunately we didn't take any pictures (except this one below) as it was too dark and too much movement to take any non blurred shots.

After the excursion the participants of the various activities gather in this "lavvo" (= sami tent) and are served a hot soup and lefse (a kind of pancake served with butter and cinnamon) as dessert.

After dinner the majority of the people returns back to Tromsø town. But for those who wish, Lyngsfjord Adventure offers the possibility for overnight stays. One can chose between sleeping in a lavvo, in a chalet or in a little cabin.
We actually chose to stay overnight - and were the only ones that night. So a part from the staff we had the whole camp for ourselves. It was just us - and the Northern Lights that decided to appear once more for us :-) Again we spent a long time outside, lying in the snow, watching the magic lights over our heads and taking more pictures.

Nearly midnight. Time to sleep! We had actually opted for the overnight in what they call "aurora chalet"" - a maybe 6m² sized private little room with a double bed, a little table with 2 chairs and a window in the roof to fall asleep under the Northern Lights.

Tuesday, 08/03:
Wake up and breakfast at Camp Tamok.

The building with the shared facilities (shower/WC, bathroom).

Their wilderness cabin that sleeps max. 12 people in 4 double rooms and 2 loft rooms. This is also where breakfast was served for us.

Alternatively one can spend the night in a sami tent, sleeping side by side (separated just by a sheet) with max. 10 others. Very authentic experience, but certainly not made/suitable for everyone.

At around 10 a.m. arrived the next group of tourists from Tromsø for the morning activities. The people were divided into the different groups for the various tours. For us on the programme this morning: a tour by snowmobile.

If not ordered differently, it’s 2 persons per snowmobile, also here with possibility to switch. But due to some circumstances we got the chance to drive each our own snowmobile.

If the group is proceeding fast enough they take you all along the whole track (16 km one way) and up to the lake. Here, if the weather permits it, it is possible to do some "freestyle" driving. You can just text the snowmobile at your own and speed up, do some racing. Beautiful surrounding!

Also after the morning activities they serve a hot meal (soup) at their lavvo before the transfer back to Tromsø city.
That was right in time for us to make our way back to the airport and head back to Oslo in the evening.

All in all: a FANTASTIC trip! Not only was it from a professional point of view great to test so many of the products we regularly sell to our clients and to meet the suppliers we work with. I was happy to see Flo and Jana again. And I'm also super happy that I could finally show Marco a bit of the north, have him see the Northern Lights, have him take part in exciting activities and visiting beautiful places with him - and it seems he really enjoyed the trip and had a great time and fun as well :-)

All this was only possible thanks to the suppliers. Working for a tour operator promoting and selling their services and due to our good cooperation with them, they gave me a very good agent price for their activities or even invited us, that is offered us their service for free :-) Otherwise we would probably not have been able to finance this tour as all those winter activities and tours are unfortunately pretty expensive.

And last but not least: thanks, amore, for all your great pictures!