At 69° 40′ NB, 18° 56′ OL the Norwegian city of Tromsø is the so called capital of the Arctic. From 8th. of December 2018 we would spend some days up north to catch killer whales and the northern lights.
Also we have on our itinerary some snow hiking and dog sledding…
It must be already one year ago when we booked the trip to the arctic region of northern Norway. The departure date was getting closer and closer and in the last week we were checking the weather reports almost every day to see with how many degrees temperatures will drop below zero…
Now, the 8th. December we would take off from Schiphol Airport in morning darkness to fly to the Norwegian city of Bergen where we changed planes to the capital of the Arctic, Tromso. Because of severe weather conditions on this Saturday morning KLM decided to cancel 144 flights…fortunately ours was still scheduled to leave…
The wind was blowing heavily against the KLM cityhopper resulting in a bumpy and turbulenced start, but after reaching cruise altitude the sun appeared on the horizon and quitely we were heading for Bergen.
Because Norway does not belong to the Schengen region, it was necessary to grab the luggage from the belt and check in again although the luggage actually was booked through all the way to Tromso. A bit confusing as we first almost walked happily through customs without our bags…
With a ‘De Havilland Canada DHC 8-402Q Dash 8’ airplane from Wideroe airlines we continued from Bergen to Tromso.
The first hour clouds were blocking the possibility to enjoy the Norwegian fjords from the air, but after passing the polar circle the clouds disappeared and a fabulous landscape unvealed right below us. Snowcapped mountains in between the typical fjords of Norway half lightened up by a dimmed sun as it was 7am…Soon after we were hitting the runway of Langnes Tromso airport at 1pm…
Half jetlagged because of failing daylight around noon we picked up our rental car and did some groceries before heading to Laksvatn over icy roads to get to our Airbnb along the shores of Balsfjorden. Arrival time 3pm…complete darkness had fallen in.
We met with host Bärd and checked out the apartment.
One reason to come to this area is obviously to see the northern lights or Aurora Borealis…basically it was just waiting before this Wonder of Nature would start. All you need is clear skies and luck…and we’ve got both on our hands! Around 5pm Bärd came out to tell us the northern lights were about to start from our right hand side. We on our turn put on our warm winter clothes, open up a bottle of Jägermeister and enjoyed the show from our balcony. This is the reason why you travel so far up north!
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