Friday
We had to get going fairly early on Friday, which was difficult after getting home from an unsuccessful Northern Lights tour at 1.45am. We were booked on a dog sled ride in the morning, so we hauled ourselves out and headed for the hotel breakfast. Mmm, fish chunks.
We were picked up in the town centre at 9.45am and luckily Andrew was feeling much better, so he joined us on the tour. It was a bleak, cloudy day, so the views on our 20-minute bus ride out of Tromso were not that flash. The Villmarkssenter is a tourist organisation that has over 250 huskies for its popular dog sledding rides. It also provides other activities such as snow-shoe trekking, ice fishing and Northern Lights tours.
We got kitted up and headed outside to where the very excitable dogs greeted us. The noise of so many dogs barking was unreal...and the smell was less than ideal. The dogs love pulling the sleds and the ones who were pulling our sleds were eager to start, while those who were having a day off wanted to be involved. Tim and Megan jumped in a big sled (with 11 dogs) with a driver on the back. Given that the dogs were not that big and given how much weight they were pulling, we zipped along at a very impressive pace! The dog sled ride lasted about an hour and the scenery was amazing - we actually saw a reindeer roaming amongst the trees. Alex and Andrew shared a sled and elected to take turns driving it themselves, which was pretty brave! The dogs have only one goal and that is full steam ahead no matter what. The drivers literally have to drop an anchor if they want to stop. Both Alex and Andrew took a tumble but managed to hold onto their sleds, which was a fine effort.
It started to rain towards the end of our sled ride, so by the time we finished we were wet and very cold. Luckily the tour included a traditional Sami hot lunch in a Sami tent (the Sami are the native people of the far north of the Scandinavian countries). We couldn't get into the tent quickly enough and we all gathered around the open fire in the centre of the tent to dry off and warm up. We were then treated to some hot vegetable soup and reindeer stew, which were both really good. After lunch, one of the staff members talked to us about their huskies and took us to see some of the husky puppies! Then we had chocolate cake and coffee before heading back to Tromso in the bus. The hip flask of whisky once again came in very handy on the bus trip!
Back in Tromso, we had a wander through town, grabbing some treasures at the souvenir shop, before hitting the hotel to warm up. Almost every shop, pub, bank, museum, etc etc has a stuffed polar bear guarding its doorway - some of them are massive! We had a few drinks in the hotel room in the afternoon/evening - while there was no fridge in our room, there was almost two feet of snow on the balcony outside our room, so we stashed our beer and wine in the snow to keep it cold! Later in the evening, we all went into town and had dinner at a thai restaurant. The food was fine, pretty much on a par with what you would get at a thai restaurant in London, but in Tromso it cost us £6 million each, although that might have been because Neena got out of control and starting breaking stuff...
Saturday
We enjoyed a much-needed sleep-in on Saturday morning. There had been a lot of snow fall between Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. We had to dig pretty deep to retrieve our cans of beer from the snow on the balcony! Our walk into the town centre took a little longer than normal, as Neena and Megan stoped to throw snowballs at each other about every 5 metres. The town was covered in a deep layer of snow - very pretty.
We visited the Tourist Information Centre and (eventually) booked ourselves on another Northern Lights tour for Saturday night. We then tried to visit the Ishavskatedralen (Arctic Ocean Cathedral), but sadly it was closed, so we could not go inside. The cathedral was consecrated in 1965. Its highlight is a massive 23-metre high, triangular stained-glass window on the east wall. Since the cathedral was closed, we decided to throw snow at each other and then walk back across the huge Tromso bridge. While we did so, it started snowing very heavily - and it didn't stop for the rest of the day.
We took refuge from the snow in our favourite cafe in Tromso and grabbed some delicious lunch while we tried to stay warm and dry. After lunch we headed for the Polaria. The Polaria is a national centre for research and information relating to the polar regions, particularly the Arctic. The building that houses the Polaria is pretty awesome - from the outside it looks like a line of dominoes that have been pushed over, or books in a bookshelf leaning on each other (photo below). The Polaria features a theatre, where visitors can view a fascinating panoramic film on Svalbard, getting spectacular views of the polar landscape and wildlife. An aquarium features Arctic species of fish and the red king crab (which can weigh up to 10kg). The major attraction is a large glass-bottomed pool for the bearded seals.
After watching two panoramic films (on Antarctica and Svalbard), we checked out the aquarium and watched the seals being fed and perform some tricks. We also saw a short video on the Northern Lights, which got us excited about our Northern Lights tour later that evening. However, it was still snowing and there was thick cloud above Tromso, so it didn't look promising.
Followaing the Polaria, we picked up some more supplies and got ready for our night tour. Alex and Andrew were on a different tour from the rest of us. Neena, Megan and Tim were on a private tour with a woman who works in the Tourist Information Centre. While the weather looked poor for Northern Lights viewing, it was amazing how quickly the sky changed throughout the night. We drove east out of Tromso, towards the Finnish border. Over the course of 2-3 hours, the sky went from thick cloud to completely clear, then back to cloud (and heavy snow) and then to clear again!
We managed to catch a very faint glimpse of the Northern Lights - meaning that we saw some cloud that had a green tinge to it (which showed up more clearly on the cameras than to the naked eye) - but it was certainly not the Northern Lights we had hoped to see. The tour was still very fun though - we were entertained by our tour guide's "interesting" stories and we also made it to the border with Finland. We posed for a photo by a giant roadside sign that marked the border and we all sunk to our waists in the snow, almost getting trapped! We did walk a few metres across the border into Finland, but we won't count that on the official country tally!
Sunday
Needless to say, we were even slower to get going on Sunday morning. When we finally woke, we were surprised to see that there was now a massive amount of snow on the ground outside. We packed up our things and Neena built an awesome snowman on the balcony (see photo below). Tim went for a walk and took some photos of the white-out (photos on separate blog entry following this one).
We met Alex and Andrew for "all you can eat" pizza for lunch - probably the best value for kronor we had in Norway! Then it was time to head for the Tromso airport and the long journey home.
The snow continued to fall heavily all day on Sunday. We were amazed that that much snow had little to no effect on the roads and the airport. There are dozens of snow ploughs that constantly drive around town clearing the snow off the roads, allowing the cars (with snow tyres) to drive on the ice-covered roads. It was crazy at the airport. Once we all boarded the plane and pulled out from the stand, we sat on the edge of the runway while snow ploughs cleared snow off the runway and while a special "de-icer" truck cleared ice off the wings of the plane, so that we could take off! Our next trip (just three weeks after Norway) is to Ghana, where it will be about 36 degrees warmer!
Back in Tromso, we had a wander through town, grabbing some treasures at the souvenir shop, before hitting the hotel to warm up. Almost every shop, pub, bank, museum, etc etc has a stuffed polar bear guarding its doorway - some of them are massive! We had a few drinks in the hotel room in the afternoon/evening - while there was no fridge in our room, there was almost two feet of snow on the balcony outside our room, so we stashed our beer and wine in the snow to keep it cold! Later in the evening, we all went into town and had dinner at a thai restaurant. The food was fine, pretty much on a par with what you would get at a thai restaurant in London, but in Tromso it cost us £6 million each, although that might have been because Neena got out of control and starting breaking stuff...
Saturday
We enjoyed a much-needed sleep-in on Saturday morning. There had been a lot of snow fall between Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. We had to dig pretty deep to retrieve our cans of beer from the snow on the balcony! Our walk into the town centre took a little longer than normal, as Neena and Megan stoped to throw snowballs at each other about every 5 metres. The town was covered in a deep layer of snow - very pretty.
We visited the Tourist Information Centre and (eventually) booked ourselves on another Northern Lights tour for Saturday night. We then tried to visit the Ishavskatedralen (Arctic Ocean Cathedral), but sadly it was closed, so we could not go inside. The cathedral was consecrated in 1965. Its highlight is a massive 23-metre high, triangular stained-glass window on the east wall. Since the cathedral was closed, we decided to throw snow at each other and then walk back across the huge Tromso bridge. While we did so, it started snowing very heavily - and it didn't stop for the rest of the day.
We took refuge from the snow in our favourite cafe in Tromso and grabbed some delicious lunch while we tried to stay warm and dry. After lunch we headed for the Polaria. The Polaria is a national centre for research and information relating to the polar regions, particularly the Arctic. The building that houses the Polaria is pretty awesome - from the outside it looks like a line of dominoes that have been pushed over, or books in a bookshelf leaning on each other (photo below). The Polaria features a theatre, where visitors can view a fascinating panoramic film on Svalbard, getting spectacular views of the polar landscape and wildlife. An aquarium features Arctic species of fish and the red king crab (which can weigh up to 10kg). The major attraction is a large glass-bottomed pool for the bearded seals.
After watching two panoramic films (on Antarctica and Svalbard), we checked out the aquarium and watched the seals being fed and perform some tricks. We also saw a short video on the Northern Lights, which got us excited about our Northern Lights tour later that evening. However, it was still snowing and there was thick cloud above Tromso, so it didn't look promising.
Followaing the Polaria, we picked up some more supplies and got ready for our night tour. Alex and Andrew were on a different tour from the rest of us. Neena, Megan and Tim were on a private tour with a woman who works in the Tourist Information Centre. While the weather looked poor for Northern Lights viewing, it was amazing how quickly the sky changed throughout the night. We drove east out of Tromso, towards the Finnish border. Over the course of 2-3 hours, the sky went from thick cloud to completely clear, then back to cloud (and heavy snow) and then to clear again!
We managed to catch a very faint glimpse of the Northern Lights - meaning that we saw some cloud that had a green tinge to it (which showed up more clearly on the cameras than to the naked eye) - but it was certainly not the Northern Lights we had hoped to see. The tour was still very fun though - we were entertained by our tour guide's "interesting" stories and we also made it to the border with Finland. We posed for a photo by a giant roadside sign that marked the border and we all sunk to our waists in the snow, almost getting trapped! We did walk a few metres across the border into Finland, but we won't count that on the official country tally!
Sunday
Needless to say, we were even slower to get going on Sunday morning. When we finally woke, we were surprised to see that there was now a massive amount of snow on the ground outside. We packed up our things and Neena built an awesome snowman on the balcony (see photo below). Tim went for a walk and took some photos of the white-out (photos on separate blog entry following this one).
We met Alex and Andrew for "all you can eat" pizza for lunch - probably the best value for kronor we had in Norway! Then it was time to head for the Tromso airport and the long journey home.
The snow continued to fall heavily all day on Sunday. We were amazed that that much snow had little to no effect on the roads and the airport. There are dozens of snow ploughs that constantly drive around town clearing the snow off the roads, allowing the cars (with snow tyres) to drive on the ice-covered roads. It was crazy at the airport. Once we all boarded the plane and pulled out from the stand, we sat on the edge of the runway while snow ploughs cleared snow off the runway and while a special "de-icer" truck cleared ice off the wings of the plane, so that we could take off! Our next trip (just three weeks after Norway) is to Ghana, where it will be about 36 degrees warmer!
A husky
called Sol
Giddy
up
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