Paul and Jean visit Norway: Day 9 - Vesteralen Islands to North Norway

Today we finally saw the Aurora Borealis - more later...……..

The Vesteralen Islands

We crossed from the Lofoten Islands to the Vesteralen islands during the night, stopping for a short time in 3 different locations. The ship docked at Harstad at 6.45 for an hour so we got up and dressed early and went for a walk in the town. Only 5 of us did this and were well rewarded with a fresh cover of snow and a very quiet walk through this very pretty town early on a Saturday morning. All the buildings looked so clean and bright. So much more attractive than Bodo the previous day.

Harstad Town Centre

Harstad - snow has been piled up at side of the road.

Back to the mainland and on to Tromso

We sailed back across open sea to the mainland where we docked at Finnsnes for 30 minutes and saw the weather go from bright sunshine to a very heavy snowstorm in minutes. We didn’t get off the ship as there didn’t seem to be too much that we could do in the small amount of time we had and besides there were a lot of good photos to be had from the deck. This is the first time we have seen ice on the sea. We then sailed on to Tromso where again we had a mixture of heavy snow and bright sunshine. Tromso is the capital of the arctic and we first caught a bus to the Fjellheisen cable car from where there is a great view of Tromso. It was snowing hard when we started but by the time we reached the top the sun was out. 2 more snowstorms came in while we were there. We then visited the unusual Arctic Cathedral and caught the bus back into the town centre and had a good look around but it was a bit hard going as most paths and roads were snow covered. As the sun went down it became very cold and another snow storm arrived so we got back on the boat.

Finnsnes - Ice Flow

Finnesnes Ice on Sea and part of the village

Tromso - residential street

Tromso - Town Centre square

Tromso - Statue

Tromso Cable Car Top Station

Tromso Cable Car - Top Station view over city

Tromso - Arctic Cathedral

The Crew

We are now getting to know a few of the crew. They all work a continuous period of 22 days (between 10 and 12 hours a day) and then get 22 days off. All we have spoken to say this is really good for them as they get such long periods of leave and really enjoy their work on the ship. We have an expedition team of 2 who organise all the lectures, daily reviews, points of interest and excursions that take place. They are quite a double act and can be very funny. The cabins can be cleaned every day but for each day that we choose not to have this, they will donate a sum of money to a Norwegian charity.

Deck area at bow of ship - Points of Interest talk

Life on the Ship

Today there was a coastal kitchen event on the ship where local food manufacturers organised a tasting of their products. We had some smoked salmon, Norwegian Flatbread and a blue cheese, all of which were very nice. We declined the Reindeer Sausage. We also had a very interesting talk about the Sami people who are indigenous to Northern Norway. Hygiene has to be good to avoid a mass outbreak of illnesses like the Noro virus which can spread around a cruise ship very quickly. Sanitisers are situated all over the ship and we must use it before entering the restaurant or cafe and also before coming back on the ship. Crew members check for this and will remind anyone who forgets

The Aurora Borealis - Northern Lights
We had a call to say the Aurora Borealis was showing while we were having dinner. Everyone rushed to get coats and cameras. There were no obvious signs of it except for what looked like cloud but you could see the stars through it. The first photo is a time lapse with shutter speed of 13 seconds and is what the camera picked up.

Aurora Borealis - taken with time lapse

when lights were very weak

We went back and finished our meal and I went back on deck. There were far fewer people about and it was easier to track. The Aurora got much stronger about an hour later and could be clearly seen with the naked eye. It kept appearing either high in the sky or appeared over the mountains and broke into a strong green light that expanded and contracted, then disappeared only to appear somewhere else. The following photos are also from shutter speed 13 seconds.