Chasing Northern lights in Tromso Norway

[xpcdoojk]

So, we are here in the far northern part of Norway, and there is a cruise ship in port.  I was thinking Hurtigruten, but it is an Aida ship.  Was wondering what ship was here while we chase the Northern Lights aka Aurora Borealis?

 

jc

[xpcdoojk]

It is, also, fascinating, how many of the tourists here are Chinese.

 

jc

[xpcdoojk]

We are back from Sweden and getting my wife’s birthday present, after spending 5 days in Gothenburg, we flew for a quick two night, one full day in Tromso which was spectacular.

 

We had a spectacular last full day in Tromso.  We first went to our 9:30 meeting place at 9:10.  Apparently, we were the only people who booked and the operator cancelled us without bothering to tell us.  So we went to the Visit Tromso office we had booked him through and they booked us on a 1PM version of a similar but closer thus shorter trip to visit a Sami reindeer herd.  I can’t imagine that the other tour would have been as good.  It was a hoot, feeding reindeer, riding in a sleigh, listening to Sami tell about their heritage.  Great tour.  If anyone on the off shoot is goings in the future I will happily recommend them.  

 

Then we took a tour with Amazingartic.com, and it was a clear and cold night with not much wind.  After 90+ minutes departing at 6PM from our hotel, and what felt a bit like a snipe hunt at first, Monsoor the guide, driver, photographer, cook, helper, and knowledgeable guy finally pulled off the mostly skinny two lane road onto a single track road and went up on top of a hill.  We found ourselves next to a mountain and surrounded on three sides by a fjord on an island west and north of Tromso.  At first my wife put on an exposure suit even though she had enough clothing on to be comfortable all day walking around Tromso.  I opted out.  There were 8 of us on the tour.  Monsoor showed us the lights, and I was like are you sure that isn’t a cloud?  It was fairly low to the horizon to the north and went from horizon to horizon.  He took a picture that made it appear green, and I was like hmmm a filter?  We stood there for a few minutes and after I finally figured out how to make my camera shoot 6400 ISO and be open for 10 seconds I got a tolerable shot.  Then on the horizon to our right a light literally started shooting up from the ground like a spot light.  Clearly this was not a cloud.  It grew and soon it to went from horizon to horizon but now directly overhead.  

 

Later that night it would move and dance and shimmer, when this happened it would change form and look completely and quickly.  Those were the most fascinating moments.  We stayed there until after 11PM before we began the drive back.  It was cold as heck.  After about 10PM I was in and out of the van as the Chinese people on our tour would start to ooh and wow, so we would all get back out and be amazed again.  

 

Then yesterday we flew home.  For those flying to the US for the next few years avoid your first flight into Chicago if you are on an international flight, as they have the connection back to your connection flights all screwed up, we had to do the regular border customs recheck luggage, but now go outside in a bad tent waiting for bus to haul you out of the airport and back to the other terminals.  We had to run thru concourse G and barely made it with time to take a bathroom break before boarding.  I could see it causing lots of people to miss flights.  Truly a mess.  

 

We got home last night at 10PM and I woke before 6AM.

 

Whirlwind for sure

 

jc

[Thorben-Hendrik]

Why is this in the RCI forum?🤔

[xpcdoojk]

Because it is me, and I sail RCI, and I knew you were interested.

 

jc

[Thorben-Hendrik]

16 minutes ago, xpcdoojk said:

and I knew you were interested.

Not really.....

[sandebeach]

Thank you for posting, I have always wondered what it would be like to travel to see the Northern Lights from Scandinavia!

[xpcdoojk]

Surprisingly, you can’t just go to Scandinavia, you have to go to some pretty remote places to have a realistic shot on a one day opportunity.  Tromso is just one of the easiest to get to.  I was surprised at how to the naked eye they are mostly just white, but when you shoot them with a long opening time on the lense you see the real colors, mostly green but some pink and red.  When they moved and started shimmering they were mesmerizing.  We were extremely lucky to be able to check off this item from the bucket list.  Lovely place.  Although in Tromso downtown the sun didn’t get to the streets because of the mountains until after noon, and was gone again by 3.  

 

JC

[Sea Hag]

Wonderful! Glad you got such a spectacular show of lights.

[John&LaLa]

17 hours ago, xpcdoojk said:

Surprisingly, you can’t just go to Scandinavia, you have to go to some pretty remote places to have a realistic shot on a one day opportunity.  Tromso is just one of the easiest to get to.  I was surprised at how to the naked eye they are mostly just white, but when you shoot them with a long opening time on the lense you see the real colors, mostly green but some pink and red.  When they moved and started shimmering they were mesmerizing.  We were extremely lucky to be able to check off this item from the bucket list.  Lovely place.  Although in Tromso downtown the sun didn’t get to the streets because of the mountains until after noon, and was gone again by 3.  

 

JC

 

When will you post some pictures 🤔

[xpcdoojk]

On 2/11/2019 at 8:22 AM, John&LaLa said:

 

When will you post some pictures 🤔

 

Probably never because they sent it here to die....  You would think they would move this to at least the Norway/Northern Europe section.  

 

JC

[John&LaLa]

On 2/12/2019 at 10:49 AM, xpcdoojk said:

 

Probably never because they sent it here to die....  You would think they would move this to at least the Norway/Northern Europe section.  

 

JC

 

I'd appreciate them. 

 

BTW, did you watch Westminster last night? Wire Fox Terrier won it all.  Good looking dog.  

Isn't yours a wire fox

 

Westies never win it seems.

[txjim09]

On 2/10/2019 at 2:10 PM, Thorben-Hendrik said:

Not really.....

I am so glad you added your thoughts to this thread, they really added to the conversation.

[xpcdoojk]

3 hours ago, txjim09 said:

I am so glad you added your thoughts to this thread, they really added to the conversation.

 

It is his nature, he banished this thread, here.  You should think promoting Norwegian travel would be appreciated by him... but apparently not.

 

Yes, Wellington aka Wellie is a wire fox terrier.  According to the people I purchased him from his father was a champion in Germany.  Unfortunately, pure bred dogs are a species on the edge of extinction because for every responsible breeder there are 50 puppy farm breeders.  I was involved in the Welsh Terrier rescue organization in the past, one of my memories was going to a dog auction in the hills of Missouri / Arkansas there were 5 Welsh terriers for sale (with AKC papers) this was 20+ years ago, and I was allowed to bid up to 1500 per dog to keep them out of the puppy mills.  When the first of these fine dogs went for sale, the first went for $4000.  I knew at that moment pure bred dogs were extinct....  that is why you can now buy a yorkiepoo, or a labradoodle.  The AKC breeders absolutely shut down the the puppy millers, and the puppy millers went to the designer dogs.  People spend as much for a golden doodle as they would a purebred, and they have absolutely no idea what they have.  

 

I am very much against these dogs, not because they are bad, but because the people creating selling them are mostly not much different from drug dealers, you want heroin, yeah, I have fentanol and you will be dead tomorrow.

John if you want to see the pictures Mansoor took send me an email and I will send you a link to those pictures.  They are pretty spectacular, despite what you see looks absolutely nothing like the pictures.

 

xpcdoojk@yahoo.com

 

jc