Mamã's dream was to see the Northern Lights, so off we went to Northern part of Norway. We flew to Bergen and enjoyed going up the steep cable car, walking in the snow on the mountain, visiting a few churches/museums before we caught the Hutigruten boat and off along the coastline from Bergn to Tromsø. We had so much fun, ice cold and then sun and then cold again, crossed the Artic circle, visited museums at the stopover points, including the excellent Rockheim museum in Trondheim, WWII museum in Svolvaer open at 9pm :-), seeing all the cod fish drying out at night (and smelling)...climbing to see the view over Alesund and also a 'whistle tour' of aviation museum in Bodø - all great memories. We even saw the Northern lights one night for 15 minutes - first very difficult to see, we all got in our beds and then a call on the tannoy that on our side of the boat you could see them and yes, wonderful clear for 10 minutes...
Mamã enjoyed just standing/sitting out on the deck watching the landscape of the mountains, scurries (1000 of them). Boat was comfortable, organized, food fine too.
In Tromsø we visited the seals, saw old ships, learnt about all the Northern artic explorations and hunting. Stuffed Polar bears were everywhere, even one visible in an ordinary office...We went on a coach to hunt the northern lights and drove all the way to the Finnish border - yes we saw them through the clouds, dancing - wonderful.
We also went on a Sami reindeer sledge evening - learnt to throw a lasso at a (non-moving) reindeer horn, took a slow sledge ride where Papá got turned upside down and headbutted by a reindeer - very scarey, but luckliy a minor cut and bruising. We had dinner and ate reindeer as well as learnt about their clothing and way of life.
I wore my ski troussers and jacket all day and just went diving into any pile of snow on the side of the road. I loved to slide on my small sledge down every road. We went by bus to the middle of the island and with our small sledges went down the hills, having so much fun :-)
A very enjoyable, happy holiday.
