Today is the first day of the changed Itinerary, which I posted yesterday. It was still pretty choppy seas when we woke up this morning, and of course, it was still dark outside at 8:00 AM when I got up. Stephanie started fighting a cold yesterday and just wanted to sleep in longer, so she did.
Instead of heading down to sit in the Library Bar area with a coffee, today, I mixed it up and went down to get a coffee and a snack, but returned to the room to have it there while I did my daily blog work at the desk in our room. It is much more comfortable anyway, the desk height is better than the table height in the Library Bar seating area.
I looked through some of the photos I had taken on my phone of the aurora last night, and they were somewhat marginal. I did not look to see how Stephanie’s photos came out, we were using some different settings on our phone cameras. There was just too much ship movement, wind and salt spray in the air for the pictures to come out clear using the longer exposure times necessary to capture the Aurora.
Today, we will be arriving at Tromso around 2:00 PM. Today was supposed to be an entire day at sea and we were originally scheduled to arrive at Alta tomorrow morning on the old itinerary.
I worked for a while on the blog and woke Stephanie up to see if she wanted to get some breakfast before the buffet closed at 10:00 AM. She was content to sleep longer, so I headed there by myself to eat, and then to bring back a bowl of fresh fruit and yogurt for Stephanie to have sometime later in the room.
It was getting brighter outside at 10:00 AM. From the windows in the buffet seating area, I could see that we were now sailing in a much narrower area, probably the beginning of a fjord. It was also getting calmer outside since this was a more protected area between the mountains. It was still fairly wide. The mountains were all covered in snow and it was pretty scenery, but because of the clouds, not as beautiful as it would be on a sunny day.
I had some over-easy eggs and a couple of sausage links, as well as a couple of blueberry pastries, which were good. After I ate, I had a hard time finding a bowl for Stephanie’s fruit. There was only one bowl off to the side by the fruit, but I could not tell if someone had just placed it there or if it was where the bowls were stored since it was there by itself. I headed down to the ice cream area at the other end of the buffet and got a bowl there. Of course, when I got back to the buffet station for the fruit, there were more bowls sitting where the single remaining bowl had been, oh well.
I started to get some of the “mixed fruit” I was asked to bring back by Stephanie, but it had a lot of cantaloupe and honeydew melon in it, and I know Stephanie likes neither. There was a bowl of just pineapple, so I put some of that on top of the mixed fruit, as well as some blueberries. I grabbed a yogurt and took it to my table, and then placed them all on a clean plate, grabbed a set of silverware, and covered it all with my napkin to take back to the room.
Stephanie was still not ready to get up, so I was able to finish yesterday’s blog post while she slept. I was finally able to catch up, and plan on keeping it that way. I am not sure what we will be doing tomorrow in Tromso, so I probably will have a lot of extra time.
Finally, at about 11:40 AM, Stephanie got up and had her fruit, well at least the pineapple and blueberries and a few strawberries in the mixed fruits at the bottom of the bowl. I had forgotten that we had made plans yesterday to meet up with Suzie and Michael for lunch today in The Restaurant. Stephanie had gotten up just for that, but now needed more time, so we changed the meeting time to 12:15 PM.
We also got a text from them about a tour they had signed up for in the new port we are going to later in the cruise, Stavanger. We had a little extra time, and so we stopped off at Guest Services. They had extra agents working today so it did not take long to be helped. Michael had also come down from The Restaurant waiting area and was now in line behind us, he was there trying to change their included tour for Tromso to the same time as ours tomorrow afternoon. Unfortunately, something happened to the computers, and everyone in Guest Services was locked out of their computers for 10-15 minutes, so we just left for lunch and will just come back later after we ate.
Michael was able to get some information from his rep and see that there was no room in our tour time slot but he was told just to come down at our time and see if there was room on the bus. It was sort of funny, our tour time was at 1:15 PM, and theirs was at 4:15 PM. I told Stephaine I did not want to move ours to their time because it would be dark, and possibly still a little bit more daylight for ours. It is hard to conceive it being dark at 2:00 or 3:00 PM, but that is the case at these higher latitudes above the Arctic Circle.
The three of us headed up one floor to The Restaurant where Suzie was waiting and we went inside to get a table. We sat pretty far into the restaurant area along the side. The girls sat so they could see out the windows, and Michael and I sat across from them with our backs to the windows, so we had no view whatsoever.
We all ordered our food, Stephanie got a Viking Burger and I got an open-faced ham, melted cheese and mushroom sandwich, and we both got fries. For the first course, Stephanie had a Caesar Salad and I had chicken consume soup.
We talked with Michael and Suzie about the Aurora last night and they had some great pictures. It apparently got better with time, and we did not stay outside as long as we needed to last night on our balcony to see it at its peak. Hopefully, there will be another time and we will look for longer.
It was a nice lunch while we were waiting to dock at Tromso. We had arrived at the pier but were now waiting for a tug boat to arrive to be on standby to assist with the docking. That must just be a requirement of the port, certainly, it was not too windy to dock on our own with the ship’s thrusters.
Stephanie had some ice cream for dessert and I had a peach strudel, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I had expected it to be served hot, but it was not, so I really did not need the ice cream. The ice cream was better than the strudel, it had very little peach in it.
Unfortunately, during lunch, we missed the ship’s celebration for crossing the Arctic Circle. There was supposedly an arctic plunge after the celebration for the passengers that participated, but we had no desire to do that, especially Stephanie with her cold.
After lunch, we just headed back to the cabin to get our gear ready for our tour night, we are going with Michael and Suzie in a van to go hunting for the northern lights, and it leaves at 6:15 PM. There was still a line at the Guest Services when we passed by there first, so we thought we would just try to book the tour for Stavanger on the TV in the cabin, and after we arrived back, and confirmed which tour Suzie and Michael were doing, we booked it also. It is a paid excursion, but sounded nice.
The ship eventually docked and it was not at the location I thought we were going to be at, it was much farther away from the place where we needed to meet for our tour tonight. It was at another dock much farther away from the city. I believe we heard that there will be a shuttle bus to the city center because it is about 5 km from where we are docking to the city center and the “other” cruise port I had thought we would be at. Maybe our location has to do with the itinerary change, there might be another ship coming there today or tomorrow while we are here.
I did check later and found that there will be another cruise ship here tomorrow and it is scheduled to be docked at the pier closer to town, and that kind of stinks, I am sure that is where we would have docked on our original schedule, and it is much more convenient.
The ship docked a little after 2:00 PM and was letting off passengers at about 2:30 PM, and it was already getting dark. It was fully dark by 3:30 PM.
We just hung out in the room for the afternoon, Stephanie napped a little and I did some computer things and got our camera gear ready and all of the batteries charged for the cold weather tonight on the tour. We are doing a tour called Northern Lights Hunt with The Green Adventure. We are all supposed to meet at the cruise terminal at 6:15 PM. I had communicated with the tour provider earlier about our change in docking location and they had confirmed that all of the people on our tour tonight were from the ship, so they had already planned to meet us at this new location.
The weather forecast was not bad for tonight, the low temperature was forecast to be around 20 degrees F, much warmer than the minus 18 degrees F we had in Finland. We were still planning on wearing all of our layers just in case, we can always open a jacket or remove it, but we can’t add clothes we don’t have.
Since we had such a large lunch earlier, we were not planning on having dinner before the tour, it would be too much food. Also, the tour had specifically stated that bathrooms would be scarce, so that was another reason not to eat or drink too much before we left.
We started getting dressed at about 5:15 PM, it just takes a while to get everything together and then it put it all on. Our plan was to meet Suzie and Michael at the gangway at 6:00 PM. We were docked so that our side of the ship was next to the pier, and we could see people leaving, but then they disappeared around a building and we could not exactly see how far it was to get out of the terminal area.
We met on Deck 1 at 6:00 PM, as scheduled. While we were waiting, I took the opportunity to use the restroom one last time, and it was difficult with all of the layers on.
We all headed out through security and down the gangway. There was a lot of snow and ice on the ground on the pier and walking was tricky. We headed through a temporary tent that was functioning as a terminal and then out to a roadway. There was an area set aside for the free shuttle into Tromso, but there was not a lot of anything else there. There was a sign for a taxi area, and there was one taxi sitting there, but we saw no other vehicle activity.
At this point, we were not sure where to go. There were a few other people leaving at the same time, so I asked them if they were on a tour and their answer was yes and it was the same tour as ours, so at least we were not wandering around alone. One of the men sent a text to the tour company telling them where we were waiting, and we all waited together in the designated taxi parking area.
A few minutes later, a large Mercedes Van pulled up with the sign of the tour company, Green Adventures. The tour operator had sent us a message earlier in the day that only passengers from the cruise ship would be on the tour, but there was already one other couple on board the van.
The tour guide checked us in and said we were waiting on a few more people, so obviously the van would be full. At first, it did not seem like all of the other people we were waiting on would fit inside, but there were enough seats.
The four of us took the back row of the van which was a wide seat for four. It was cozy, but getting ahead, it was not the best place to sit, it was really bumpy and we were always the last to get out of the van.
Our guide gave us a weather briefing and explained the two options we could go, inland to the north or toward the coast to the south. According to a lot of weather information she had looked at for tonight, there was a lot of clouds and some snow inland, so she had chosen the southerly coast route for tonight. We headed out and had bout an hour drive before we stopped for a weather check of actual conditions.
There were some clouds, but it was getting mostly clear compared to what it had been in Tromso.
We stopped several more times for weather checks and then the Guide said she thought we were in clear skies and they would now try and find a place to stop. Unfortunately, we could tell it was really windy outside, we could hear the wind howling even from inside the van. We were on a road that was right next to some water, so it was completely open, there was nothing to block the wind.
We stopped at one spot, which was just a pullover on the road, and everyone got out. I set up my tripod, expecting us to be there for a while waiting for the Northern Lights to appear. Our guide gave some information on the various constellations we could see in the night sky. They had tried to park the van so that it blocked the wind, but it was not really in the correct direction, and the area was also not that large to park in. There was also one area of ice that we all had to be careful walking on.
it was a struggle to get my camera gear set up in the wind and in the dark, but everything was ready, we just needed to wait. Then, our guide said we needed to find somewhere that was less windy, so everyone got back into the van, and I had to gather up the camera gear and collapse the tripod. At least I could keep everything out, and keep it put together.
We drove a bit farther, stopping occasionally for our guide to check the cloud cover and the wind. We passed by several areas where it looked like other tour vans had already parked, one even had a fire lit. They must have started earlier and got to these places ahead of us. It was obvious that there did not seem to be a list they had previously put together of possible stopping points, they just drove until there was a side clearing, probably for snow plows or for piling up snow, or maybe just a scenic pullover. There was a lot of snow, and it was really dark, so it was hard to tell, especially from the farthest seat in the rear of the van where we were all sitting.
After about 25 minutes, we stopped at another spot and they tried to maneuver the van so it would block some of the wind. We all got out and it seemed even windier than the other location we had just left. The van was pointed into the wind, so only the back of the van offered any protection. Our guide and the driver got out some really small tripod-style camp chairs and a metal container to make a fire inside of. We were all just wondering why we had come to this spot right next to the water and not stayed at the other location, the winds seemed even stronger here.
I set up my tripod away from the crowd around the fire pit. It was way too windy for the small fore to offer much heat, it was purely for dramatic effect. I was not sure why they did not park the van sideways to use the side of the van for protection from the wind, the spot seemed large enough to me. It might have been because they needed to get things out of the back of the van for the fire pit and the chairs. In addition, they had a pile of jumpsuits, probably heavy-duty snowmobile suits that many people were putting on with difficulty while trying to stand up outside the van.
The biggest issue I had was that we were off to the side of the road across from several houses and what looked like a mobile home. They were all well-lit, so there were quite a lot of unnecessary background lights.
It almost seemed at the time that the weather was just not going to cooperate tonight, the clouds seemed to be moving in, but we were not moving to another location, and with the setup of the fire pit and chairs, we seemed to be here for a good while.
The skies did start to clear more, and we could see a lot more stars in the southern sky. After about an hour, our guide said the Aurora was starting, but it was very faint and low on the horizon. I took a couple of test photos, and there was some green light just above a far-off mountain.
It did not seem to be getting any brighter quickly, but the skies were getting clearer. If not for the wind, it would have been a nice place to stop. Stephanie, Michael, and Suzie spent a lot of time inside the van keeping warm. Stephanie was fighting a cold, so I encouraged her to stay inside out of the wind until things got better with the Aurora, if that was to happen.
Eventually, the Aurora rose higher in the sky and lasted much longer between periods of really faint appearances. Occasionally, it would be brighter for brief periods. It was still not as good as the one we saw at the Apukka Resort, but it was getting better with time.
The guide started taking pictures of couples with the Aurora in the background. She was taking long exposures for the Aurora, about 6-7 seconds. After starting the long exposure, she would use her cell phone flashlight for about a half second to illuminate the people, then everyone had to stay really still for the several seconds of exposure to capture the Aurora in the background. It was a neat concept. Everyone said how hard it was to stay still for the several-second exposures with the wind blowing, so we will see how they come out. The guide will send everyone a link in a few days to download the photos.
Stephanie had come out of the heated van since the Aurora was getting better and we had our picture taken.
After about 30 minutes, the Aurora got even better. It was spread across the sky in long bands. The guide wanted to redo everyone’s pictures since it was much stronger, so most people had them done again. Stephane was in the van, so I had one taken by myself.
It was a little amazing how the Aurora would fluctuate in strength and then almost fade out. We stayed there for another hour or so, and then packed up everything and left. It was already about 11:30 PM.
Since the skies were almost entirely clear, we drove to another location, the main goal was to stop at a campground and use their restrooms. Of course, no one was camping there in the wintertime. It was a paid toilet, so our guide paid for using two different toilet stalls and we just had to make sure no one let the door slip on their way out so the next person in line could use it without paying. Of course, none of us had any Norwegian Krona money, so we had no choice, there was absolutely nowhere else to use a restroom anywhere around, we were in a pretty desolate area.
As we were leaving the parking area for the restroom, our guide stopped the van and said the Aurora was really strong and it was a beautiful site. Of course, we all had to get out of the van, and this was where being in the very back for the four of us was a hindrance, it took a while to get out. Sure enough, the Aurora was the brightest we had ever seen it, and there were vertical column sections in red and green shimmering and moving across the sky. It was great to see it, and now I was trying to photograph it
I was trying to get my tripod set up and I did get some photos, but I am not sure it was while the Aurora was at its brightest. It was still great, and the guide set up for another round of photos of couples in our group, and we also had another one taken.
We stayed there for about 15 minutes until the Aurora subsided, and then we headed in a direction to head back to Tromso, Stephanie and I could see the Aurora out of the side window of the van and it was starting to get strong again.
After driving another 30 minutes we stopped for some more Aurora photos next to a fjord. It was a really nice area and now there was almost no wind. The Aurora got strong again, but not as strong as the time before by the bathroom. This was a great place to stop, mainly because there was no more wind, and the skies were clear. I took some photos with the Aurora in the background and the trees along the area in the foreground, with some of the water in the fjord also exposed.
The guide offered everyone some freeze-dried meals, one of which was some type of reindeer stew. No one in our group of four tried anything, I was taking photos and the rest were inside the van keeping warm. Several people tried it, so the guide had to get some hot water from a thermos, mix it with the food, and then they had to wait for it to soften.
I was getting cold feet from standing in the snow and the Aurora was not that bright anymore, so I headed for the comfort of the warm van myself.
It was at least 15 minutes before the group eating outside finished and joined everyone else inside the van. We had over an hour’s drive to get back to the ship, and by the time we left that spot, we could no longer see any Aurora activity with our eyes. It was about 12:55 AM, and we were all tired.
We did not stop any other times, maybe the Aurora was just done for the night, but we were also hoping we would not stop again, it was already going to be after 2:00 AM in the morning before we got back to the ship.
We got back to the pier and everyone was starting to get out of the van except for the people who had borrowed the snowmobile suites. They were trying to get them off inside the van. Since we were in the back, we had to ask to get by several people struggling to get the suits off, we did not want to wait on them, we were tired and wanted to be back on the ship.
Each of our two couples tipped our guide $20.00, and then we headed to the ship to board.
We headed directly to the cabin to get out of the clothes. We put everything away and thought about ordering from Room Service, which is open 24 hours, I looked at the menu and it seemed to be too much food, and we were not sure how long it would take to get it delivered. I snacked on some cookies instead.
We headed to bed at about 2:30 AM, it had been a long day, but we were glad we had seen the Northern Lights again, which was the main reason for this trip
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