3/2026 – In Search of the Northern Lights
In 2024 we had a Northern LIghts cruise on Hurtigruten cancelled. (That story is here. ) This is our rescheduled cruise and we chose Viking Ocean cruises for this one. It was great and not very cold. Yes, we saw the Northern lights on the 12 days we were on the ship. The cruise began in Bergen, Norway and headed UP the coast to Alta, Tromso, inside passage, and Narvik before making stops in Ijmuiden, Netherlands and ending in London (sort of). The scenery was spectacular. We learned a lot about WWII history in Norway and we tried to find out why Norwegians don’t think they should shovel their sidewalks!
We made a stop in Tromso for two nights. Tromso prides itself on being FAR north. Every business wants to be the “Northern Most whatever”. We had an excellent visit to the planetarium where we learned lots about the Northern Lights science.
The ship called our room, if we opted in, any time the Northen Lights were spotted. A few times we pulled on clothes to go to the top deck to look for them. A few nights we discovered the lights could be spotted from our cabin balcony – much shorter walk!
Best story of the trip … On the bus from Ijmuiden to Haarlem for the day, Mark talked to the ship’s captain’s wife (an American from San Diego). Told her we’d been on the Silver Dawn in January with a Norwegian captain. It turns out he is a cousin of the Viking captain we for Norway. Small world, isn’t it??