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…

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…

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,…

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…

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…

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…

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…

I’m afraid we were having too much fun in Amsterdam to do much blogging, although there are some good stories to tell. I’ll post photos and tales ASAP. For now just a quick note that after getting up really early…

Caught the TGV as planned, after an earlier than usual start (up at 6:30!) Lugging two large suitcases up and down the stairs of the Barcelona Metro system (no, they don’t all have lifts or escalators) reminded us why we…