Category: Northern Lights

Quick place holder to let everyone know that we made it home without much grief or incident. There are a backlog of half written stories and many days of photos to catch up on, and we hope to get around to that over the next few days, as we recover from time zone differences, piles…

The trip back from Lyngen to Tromsø was longish, if uneventful. Besides the driver, we were accompanied back to town by one of the young (Australian) staff, who needed to get some tax-related paperwork sorted out, so that they could pay her. Even though it was “day light” (really civil twilight, but brighter than night)…

Bit of a no news day today, but the good part is that after dragging our uselessly wheeled luggage through the snow for five minutes this morning, the hotel in Trondheim (Clarion) had a room ready for us before nine o’clock. So we checked in to our really very nice room, established internet connectivity and…

Yesterday was the shortest day of the year – or, more appropriately in the Arctic Circle, the longest night of the year. We went out with one of the Lodge owners – Graham – on the Spirit of Lyngen, a twin diesel power boat, visiting the historic fishing village of Havness and the fjord. Not…

Friday, 19 December from Olderdalen, Norway. Arrived at the Lodge in the dark at about 17:00 yesterday, having caught sight of the first, faint aurora activity from the second ferry leg of the journey from Tromsø at about 16:30. The place is very swish – bedrooms are smallish but comfortable and stylish, there are a…

We arrived in Tromsø on Tuesday evening, just before 20:00, having changed from the train from Abisko at Narvik – meaning we’d been on or waiting for transport since midday. Luckily, our hotel was 50 metres from the bus stop, so we checked in, had dinner and fell into bed. The hotel – Clarion’s The…

According to google, Abisko is about 2,000km from Amsterdam as the crow flies. For some reason, it seems a lot further. We took the fast train from Paris as planned, arriving in Amsterdam exactly when the timetable said we would – which was a bit of a relief, as the notice board at Gare du…

Yesterday we went on a guided snow shoe hike that took up almost all of the daylight hours (about four: ten to a bit after two.) Easier going and more enjoyable than either of us expected, although I learned that puffing and panting when going up hill leads to fogging and then icing of glasses.…

In our last installment, we were safely aboard the train to Abisko, and getting ready to bunk down in our sleeper carriage. So far so good… Things started to get a bit weird when we were woken by a previously unnoticed alarm mechanism at about ten to six. Since our change at Kiruna wasn’t due…

Written on the train from Stockholm, more on which in another post. Stockholm was lovely. No actual snow, although the forecast did threaten a light fall at one stage, it must have happened somewhere else. I made good use of my heavy Norona jacket, but that was about it. Normal shoes and jeans, interchanging between…