Rotterdam (or Anywhere)

After the beautiful weather on Sunday, we are now back to snow showers. Lots of them! But both yesterday and today, they left enough space for the sun to peek between them, and colouring the clouds in spectacular colours. I have 2 days off now (because I’m working in the weekend), so I was able to go out and take photos…

I also took a time-lapse of the snow showers passing south of Tromsø island. This gives a good idea of how quickly the weather changes here, and you can see from the sea surface that the wind picks up just before a snow shower hits. I took 3 photos per minute, for over an hour, to make this video…

Later that day I was looking out the window when I saw a bright flash – I was worried it was an explosion, and waited for what would happen next…. THUNDER! 😀 It’s not uncommon to have thunder in strong snow showers, but up here we get very little lightning activity so I wasn’t expecting it.

Today the sun was peeking between the showers again, and inspired by Espen Bergersen I set out to find pancake ice. Luckily, my first guess was right, there was a large patch of ice near Stakken, an area with lots of old boat houses. When I arrived, the sun had already disappeared behind the mountains, but the colours of the sky were very pretty…

And of course the pancake ice was fun. It was in constant movement, and pieces keep breaking up and drifting around – I should try a time-lapse here one day!

Several snow showers were passing in the distance, but this time I wasn’t hit by one 🙂

We got lots of fresh snow in the past days, which is nice – except for having to clear the snow from the car and the doorstep several times a day 😉

The return of the sun after the long mørketid is always something special. The top of the sun comes above the horizon on the 15th of January, but at first the mountains are still blocking the sun. In the following days, you can see the sun on the highest mountain tops, moving lower down day by day. “Soldagen” is celebrated on the 21st of January, but this day is defined as the first day the sun reaches the steps of the cathedral in Tromsø centre – usually you can see the sun a few days earlier if you find the right place. Troms Turlag organized a welcome-to-the-sun ski trip on Saturday, to Austeråsfjellet. The weather looked bad for Saturday, so we decided to copy their idea, but go on Sunday instead.

We woke up early, to a cloudless sky 🙂 We went on snowshoes, as Paul wanted to try his new pair (bought on a hot day in the desert on our USA trip :D). The first part went through the forest, but we soon decided to walk straight up (a huge advantage of snowshoes) onto the treeless plateau on top. We didn’t want to miss the sun by being stuck in a forest! And wow, the views from the plateau were just amazing…

We dropped the idea of going all the way to Austeråsfjellet – not that it was very far or difficult, but with those views behind us we kept turning around for another look 😉 So instead we made our way to the highest point near us, and there she was – the SUN! 🙂

I waved hello to my shadow – long time no see 😀 and Paul opened the small champagne bottle that we brought to celebrate the return of the sun 🙂

We enjoyed the sun for about half an hour – you could actually feel the warmth on your face, wonderful! It’s funny how the seeing the sun again after such a long time can fill you with ridiculous happiness and energy and pure joy 😀

But the best was yet to come… behind us the mountains turned pink in the last sunshine, while the clouds that were moving south were turning spectacular colours…

Then the sky behind us turned a deep pink and purple…

While in front of us, the sky seemed to be on fire! It was simply incredible…

I took so many photos, as it just kept getting better and better…

But eventually we had to leave the plateau and make our way down through the forest.

What a perfect day!! We couldn’t have asked for a prettier “first sunset” 🙂 Let’s hope there’s many more to come!

Merry Christmas everyone! I took this photo this afternoon on the beach… (click for a large version)

And for my meteorology friends: there was a beautiful halo around the moon tonight! This photo is taken from the roof at work, and from there I also have a view over the graveyard, filled with hundreds and hundreds of candles and Christmas decorations. I walked around there for a while before going home, it was magical. All real candles, and nicely smelling Christmas tree branches, a very special atmosphere.

Hope you all have a very merry Christmas!