Day 5: Chasing the Arctic Light
On Day 5 of our northbound voyage, the journey intensifies as we push toward the rugged crown of Norway and the vast Barents Sea. This is another action-packed day featuring seven port calls as our ship expertly weaves through the stunning archipelagos of Vesterålen and Troms.
The day begins with a series of quiet, early-morning stops:
- Stokmarknes (1:30 am): A fleeting 10-minute stop in the historic birthplace of the Coastal Express. While we sleep, we drift past the very roots of this legendary route — hopefully we’ll have a better chance to explore this hub on our southbound return.
- Sortland (2:55 am): Known as the “Blue City,” where the local architecture is famously brushed in shades of azure.
- Risøyhamn (4:35 am): A tiny village of just 200 residents and the smallest port on the entire route. Our ship navigates the narrow, shallow Risøyrenna canal with surgical precision, but by now, we’ve fully settled into the rhythm of life at sea—sleeping soundly through these overnight manoeuvres
- Even as we reach Harstad at 7:10 am, the sun has yet to make an appearance. We remain tucked away in our suite, blissfully unaware of the port activity as the ship hums quietly in the darkness of the polar morning.
We rise for breakfast and the sun is really struggling to rise this morning in fact it won’t be rising until 10:30am and we will have exactly 2 hours and 1 minute of day-light today! Our next stop is: Finnsnes at 11am and we go out on deck for some bracing artic air and take a photo of the Freia Chocolate advert on the wall. Dating back to the late 1950s early 1960s It’s one of the most photographed pieces of “commercial nostalgia” in Northern Norway!
November sits on the cusp of the “Polar Night,” or Mørketid—a period of blue twilight that creates a surreal, ethereal backdrop for our voyage. As we push further north, the darkness truly takes hold; for most of the morning, the world outside is a canvas of murky greys. We are steaming toward Tromsø, where the sun’s appearance is fleeting at best—sunrise is at 11:01 am and sunset at 12:01 pm. That’s just one hour of true daylight!
We opt for an early lunch to ensure we’re ready the moment we dock at 2:15 pm. We have four hours to explore this vibrant hub, affectionately nicknamed the “Paris of the North.” The name dates back to the 19th century when visitors were shocked to find such sophisticated fashion, culture, and fine dining so far above the Arctic Circle. Historically, Tromsø served as the jumping-off point for legendary polar expeditions, earning it a reputation as the “Gateway to the Arctic.” 40,000 people live in this modern, vibrant city, the northernmost town in Norway to escape destruction in World War II and as a result it has retained many of it’s old wooden buildings.
As we tie up at the dock, the blue twilight is in full bloom—a deep, hauntingly beautiful cobalt that settles over the city, it is, quite simply, breathtaking.
We’ve decided against any of the ship offered excursions and instead jump straight into a taxi at the pier, watching the city lights twinkle as we cross the bridge to the mainland. Unsurprisingly there’s a lot of snow and I for one am really glad that we took a cab, Brownie had originally suggested that we walk!! The drive is short but scenic, delivering us to the base of the Fjellheisen cable car. The cable car whisks us up to the ledge of Mount Storsteinen, 421 meters above sea level.
At the top, the world is transformed. We step out into a serene, snowy walk along the plateau. Its windy and icy underfoot, in fact it’s a bit trecherous as we walk to the edge as there’s no distinct path and people are just walking everywhere. We reach the edge and the panoramic view of Tromsø – illuminated like a circuit board between the dark fjords – is silent and magical. We take some photos of our own and some photos of a women who strikes her pose and then complains that she can’t see her eyes properly, Now I get that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity but to demand that strangers retake photos as she not happy about her eyes in the dark is more than a bit picky. Safe to save we’ll be avoiding anyone who’s angling for a photo in future!!
Nature has other plans for our return. As the cable car descends, the wind picks up, and by the time we hit the bottom, we’re greeted by a full-blown Arctic snowstorm. The horizontal snow turned the world into a chaotic “white-out,” blurring the streetlights and muffling the sound of the city. It was a bracing reminder of how quickly the weather turns at 69° North. Fortunately, all the cars here have winter tyres and our taxi arrives and safely navigates the thick snowy roads back across the bridge to town.
As the snowfall diminishes, we take a walk along the banks of the fjord. The water is obsidian, broken only by occasional flashes of vivid green reflecting the city’s glow. We pause at the quayside just by the bridge to frame a shot through the beautiful mosaic, Gateway to the Arctic—a perfect aperture that centres the Ishavskatedralen (The Arctic Cathedral) in the distance on the mainland. With its soaring white triangular plates mimicking jagged ice floes, it provides an excellent photo stop.
To complete our afternoon, we trek through the fresh snow to the Polar Museum. Housed in a traditional 1830s wharf house, it’s the perfect place to warm up while learning about the gritty lives of Arctic trappers and explorers like Fridtjof Nansen, Roald Amundsen and many others. Tromso’s own polar hero, Helmer Hanssen reached the South Pole with Roald Amundsen in 1911. By the time we walk back to the ship via a small Christmas Market and the heated – snow free – main pedestrian shopping street our cheeks are rosy, and our boots are caked in snow—the quintessential Tromsø experience. We ascend to the 9th deck to view our departure, it’s been an invigorating afternoon.
We adjourn for dinner and customary vino and after a stroll around deck 8 for a final blast of Artic air retreat to our suite to dream of snow and Artic explorers. The ship stops at Skjervoy at 10:10pm for 15 minutes but we won’t be interrupting our slumber to take in the view.
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