Tromso

Tromso Cathedral, Tromso

After our week in Sommaroy, and happy from having seen two beautiful displays by the Aurora Borealis, we tottered through the snow and ice with our cases and got the bus back into Tromso.


We had lots of time to spare before our flight, so we left our bags at the airport and took a look around Tromso.

Arctic Cathedral, Tromso

Probably the two most notable features around Tromso are the two cathedrals. The first, in the centre of town, was built in 1861 and designed by Christian Heinrich Grosch. It is unusual in that it is wooden -the only wooden cathedral in Norway.

The other is the rather more modern, Arctic Cathedral, which was built in 1965 and designed by Jan Inge Hovig. It isn't actually a cathedral, just a parish church, but it looks impressive enough to deserve its nickname. As it was cold and wet, we decided not to brave the walk over the rather long and exposed bridge to cross the river to take a closer look, but I suspect that it does merit it.

Tromso

Tromso

There are a couple of museums here, but we preferred instead to idle over a long lunch. We picked a place that we had read about as being recommended called Emma's Drommekjokken, or Emma's Dream Kitchen. It was just across from the cathedral, and was certainly very popular. The food was great, and Nic enjoyed trying the crispy fried cod tongues.

Aside from that. we took a wander around the town, popping in to a few of the shops and picking up a few souvenirs too.

Tromso

In search of the Northern Lights ....

Sommaroy was nice enough, but we were really only here for one thing - to try to catch a glimpse of the Aurora Borealis, or the Northern Lights.

We had picked Sommaroy because it is supposed to be a good place to see them. Being a small island, with a low population, there is relatively little light pollution to get in the way, compared to Tromso or other cities.






Of course the biggest problems are the relative unpredictability of the lights, and the weather.  If the sky is covered in clouds, it doesn't matter how spectacular the lights may be, you aren't going to be able to see them! While we were at the hotel on the Friday evening, we saw many people arriving just for the weekend, and as it turned out, the lights didn't appear at all over Sommaroy those days. They may have booked onto a chase the lights tour, and found them that way, but there is no guarantee of that succeeding either.

So did we see them - yes. We had a few tantalising glimpses the first night, and sadly nothing in the later days, but nights two and three were brilliant. The first night of them they were fairly solid green lines through the sky, but created some fabulous patterns. the second night, they were more colourful, with purple in them, and they literally danced, flickering across the sky.

I'm not going to say anything else about them, I'll just leave you with a photo or two!

 

 

 

Sommaroy - Up in the Arctic Circle

Sommaroy, Norway

When we were talking about what we might like to do over the next few years, one of the things that regularly came up was seeing the Northern Lights.

We had read that the lights have a cycle of when they are at their best, and that 2016 was towards the end of the current good spell. Not wanting to wait another five years or so, we decided to go pretty much as soon as we got back to Europe.

Sommaroy, Norway

Now the Aurora Borealis is one of those things that you can aim to do, but there is never any guarantee that you actually will, especially on a short trip. So we decided to spend a week on the little island of Sommaroy, in Norway, at the start of March.

When we told my mum that this was our plan, she dropped some remarkably unsubtle hints, so she came too.

Sommaroy, Norway

We booked an Airbnb on the island, but in deference to both my mum's uncertainty about staying with strangers, and the fact that we were expecting to be coming and going at all hours of the night, we opted for one where we had a flat to ourselves.

Sommaroy, Norway

Sommaroy is only about 96 acres in size - which is about the same as fifty professional football pitches, and has a population of not that much over 300 people. It is a little over twenty miles from Tromso, which is where we flew in to, and is well within the Arctic Circle.

Sommaroy, Norway

Our host collected us from the airport, and stopped at a store on the way back, so that we could stick up on provisions for the week. There is a little grocery shop on the island, but whilst it has all the basics, it is quite limited.

Sommaroy, Norway

There isn't a great deal here of course, but that wasn't really the point. all the paths and roads were covered in snow and ice, so we weren't going to be going anywhere quickly, but we tottered our way around to see what was there.

Church, Sommaroy, Norway

We found the church, and a little shop that sold locally made woollen items, like the traditional fit-either-hand gloves.

Sommaroy, Norway

We popped along to the little café a couple of times for lunch, and went along to the one hotel for dinner one evening, where Nic and I tried the local reindeer.

Sommaroy, Norway

We also walked up to the end of town, and peered over the bridge to see if we could spot any whales. We knew we were a bit late for them, but you never know. We didn't see any though.

Sommaroy, Norway

Sommaroy, Norway

Sommaroy, Norway

 

Sommaroy, Norway

Sommaroy, Norway

Sommaroy, Norway

Sommaroy, Norway

Sommaroy, Norway

Sommaroy, Norway

Sommaroy, Norway

Sommaroy, Norway

Sommaroy, Norway