Rotterdam (or Anywhere)

Last Saturday I was invited along on a hike to Bønntuva by my colleague Misha. We left Tromsdalen early on a beautiful clear day. Just above the Red Cross cabin we found the sun – beautiful!

It was cold and windy though, so we didn’t linger on the top for very long – but nice views! We also realised we should have gone to Kjølen for maximum sun exposure… we kept seeing the top of Kjølen bathing in the sun 😉

We had a quick lunch break sheltered from the wind, but it was too cold to stop for very long.

We started making our way back to Tromsdalen, hoping for a shortcut, but quickly realising we had to go almost all the way back to the end of the valley. And hurray, we managed to find a stretch of deep powder snow – very nice, except when you don’t have ski’s or snowshoes on your feet! Misha was hoping to be back with his kids around lunch time, but our short hike turned into a 6 hour (exhausting!) 16 km trip – oops 😀 Luckily we agreed that it had been worth it 🙂

We had beautiful clear and calm weather all week, but it was going to change during the weekend. Luckily, it took a while for the clouds to roll in, and I managed to make the most of a beautiful Saturday morning 🙂 I went up Sørtinden on foot, there was very little snow and it was hard and icy so you didn’t need ski’s or snowshoes. Easy!

It was very windy at times, and on the top I had to shelter behind the cairn to avoid freezing within seconds!

The colour of the sky towards the north was amazing though…

I couldn’t stop taking photos of the sky, and the sunlight on the peaks of Lyngen 🙂

I took a different route down, and I met two reindeer who I followed for a while…

Until they were joined by the rest of the herd! They were so busy eating they didn’t seem too bothered by my presence.

It was beautiful to spend time with them, and the fantastic colours in the sky provided a nice backdrop 🙂

What a nice trip, glad I made the most of a clear morning 🙂

One thing I love about Tromsø is how living here makes you appreciate lots of things you take for granted elsewhere. Like sunshine! When the sun comes back at the end of January it has been absent for two months. Those first rays of sunlight are pure magic, it feels so good to finally see the sun and I imagine I can already feel its warmth (SUMMER! Hmm not for a while, but we’re going in the right direction 😉 ).

Today is the official “soldagen” in Tromsø, the day where the sun reaches the steps to the cathedral in town (or something like that). My work is on top of the island, so we got to see the sun 2 days earlier 😉 but today Signe and I went for a walk to Prestvannet today to soak up all the sunshine we could find 😀

The sun seemed huge today! It still doesn’t reach very high, so it “rises” and “sets” several times behind the mountain peaks in the distance.

I also wanted to share this photo. The airport in Tromsø bought one of my pictures to decorate a wall in the airport, and it’s HUGE – about 9 meters wide and 3 m high. Last Friday I was invited for lunch at the airport, so I could see my photo – I was so impressed 😀