Europe 2025 | Tromsø, Norway

The second stop on our trip was a brief 2 hour flight north to Tromsø, Norway, some 350km north of the arctic circle.  The key intent of this trip was an opportunity to witness the Northern Lights, but also a chance to experience a short time in the artic cold... with daily temperatures between -6°C and -10°C it was a nice chance to really test out the thermals and puffer jackets.

We arrived after a rather large snow storm, with a light snow continuing as we queued in the cold for a taxi for some 30 minutes (it was a strange experience to leave the airport, and stand in fresh snow with our luggage waiting in a queue for a taxi that never seemed to come).

After dropping the luggage in the apartment, Skaret by Vander, we headed out to explore the little town a little and get some local delicacies from the supermarket to serve as our dinner for the first night (smoked salmon, knekkebrød, and toppings for Hanna and I, and frozen pizza and lasagna for Claire & Keira.

In the morning we woke to a quaint little town covered in a half-foot of fresh powder, glistening everywhere.  We couldn't have asked for a better moring exploring the town and enjoying the beauty of the town (that and some great local pastries).

For lunch we tried a reindeer stew and local cod, and enjoyed the brief few hours of 'light'.  We're here during the polar winter, meaning we haven't actually seen the sun for the entire stay even though we've had amazing weather.

The highlight for the day was our planned northern lights hunting trip... we jumped in a mini van and drove for what felt like hours (but was less than an hour) out into the fjords (after passing under mountains in the complex network of tunnels here - there are even roundabouts under the mountains), where nature unleashed the aurora borealis in its full beauty... everyone tells you the northern lights are bucket-list worthy - and now we can say they are! The trek included a few stops (with naps in the bus between), a camp fire and hearty soup.

The next day was a quiet day... apparently you need to book everything months in advance here, and someone (dad) forgot to book the dog sleighing - so we missed out on that... instead we took the local bus around to see a nice lookout, including a stroll through a norweigan wood, a nice lunch (reindeer burgers) and some more exploring around town...   Keira managed to find a legit Norwegian troll (cue Community S3E4).

We then headed out on a ferry ride through the fjords (which dad booked forgetting that the sun would be set and we couldn't see the fjords)....but we did get another good show from the northern lights!  Whilst the light show was incredible again, being out in the cold (-10°C before you factor the cold wet wind) was hard to manage.

And so, in the morning we head off our next flight, next stop, Copenhagen, Denmark!