Monday, January 31st, 2022

Since we got in early this morning it was difficult to get up and do our COVID test and get ready for our four and a half hour “Sommarøy Island Sojourn” excursion.

The sun was above the horizon today! This was a big deal for the residents of Tromsø who hadn’t seen the sun for several months. Our guide and bus driver were very excited.

On our way as we cross over the Tromsø Bridge.

It was a beautiful day for our drive. A white-tailed eagle flew by our bus! It was cool to see its majestic wing span. The mountains were snow-covered and sparkling from the sun!

Sommarøy was an old fishing village and it was known for its white sandy beaches but for us the beaches were also white but snow covered. The village had about 300 residents. This fishing village’s main produce was herring and was processed and packed in a state of the art processing plant where it was frozen for global export.

At the local hotel tea and waffles were served.

On our drive back from the island we went a different route and saw the Hâja which was the highest of the islands and rose 1,594 feet out of the water. It had the same shape as the Arctic Cathedral in Tromsø.

We came across a herd of reindeer and some of the native Sami people make their living from reindeer.

There were beautiful views along our ride back to the ship.

This evening the show was “Harry the Piano”. He was quite a performer and very enjoyable. He also took requests from the audience and would play a song in any style.