Tromsø – Dave and Kay's Travel Adventures

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.

Looks like the shape of 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.

Sunday, January 30th, 2022

Overnight we sailed toward Tromsø and docked before 8:00 AM.

Looking out over Balsfjorden, a fjord that is over 35 miles in length.

Tromsø has been called the “Paris of the North”! This is because of its lively atmosphere, varied nightlife, cultural activities, and restaurants abound. It is also the largest city within the Arctic Circle and is also considered to be another great location to view the Northern Lights.

This morning we had an included tour of Tromsø.

Our first stop was the planetarium on the Tromsø campus of the Arctic University of Norway and it was the first Norwegian planetarium open to the public. We went in and watched in the dome a movie from a photographer’s clips from his trips to watch and photograph the Northern Lights.

We passed by the Arctic Cathedral which was a Norway parish church and not actually a cathedral. Its construction was from concrete and metal.

The city also had an underground road system called the Tromsøysund Tunnel. It was an undersea highway tunnel and even had a roundabout! This road system connected the island of Tromsøya with the main suburb of Tromsdalen. Our bus driver took us in the tunnel and through the roundabout several times! The residents of the area have two ways to cross the water: the bridge and the tunnel.

Up a hill we stopped at a school where we had a great view of the town and surrounding area!

Even though it was dark, it was just a little after 3:00 PM, when we took a shuttle into Tromsø. There was snow all around but the sidewalks were perfectly dry and clear and that was because the sidewalks were heated.

In town we were able to visit two stores. The ship wanted to keep us in a bubble so the shops were closed to everyone except Viking passengers. We were given about 45 minutes to look around.

As we left the ship we saw a masked snowman created by some of the Viking Venus crew. There were many members of the crew that had never experienced snow!

This evening we went on an excursion called “Chasing the Northern Lights”. At first the aurora borealis was faint but given time it danced across the sky and put on a show for us. We were lucky to see them three nights in a row! We got back to the ship very early the next morning.

Watch the three videos below to see how the Northern Lights danced, changed and filled the night sky!

Northern Lights Movie 1

https://videopress.com/v/V1FSt8ZK?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true

Northern Lights Movie 2

https://videopress.com/v/DjE2KsD3?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true

Northern Lights Movie 3

Below are some of our favorite pictures from tonight’s views of the aurora borealis!