Rotterdam (or Anywhere)

We came back from our trip to the Netherlands and Canada last Wednesday night, and found wonderful summer weather in Tromsø! There is no midnight sun anymore, but the nights are still very light. Last night, we went for a walk, to one of the easier “Ti på Topp” mountains: Nattmålsfjellet, 297 m high. It was incredibly beautiful, with large fields of cotton grass…

We really enjoyed our little walk (it only took about 45 minutes to reach the top), and to be out in nature again. In Canada we were mostly staying in cities and we were craving the outdoors!

This panorama (you can scroll through the enlarged version) shows the view from the top, with Tromsø island on the far right – beautiful!

Paul went back to work today, and I am FREE 🙂 It feels great not having to work on my thesis anymore, I feel like I have my life back now! Keep an eye on this blog during the coming week, I am preparing a lot of posts with photos of our time in the Netherlands and in Canada…

Last Friday the weather suddenly changed to sunny, while the forecast for the coming days looked quite bad, so we decided to use this opportunity to go hiking. Our car finally drives again too 🙂 it still has to go to the garage, so we didn’t want to go too far with it. We drove to Kroken, on the mainland, to climb another of the 10 peaks: Nordfjellet. We’re quite familiar with this area; this is in the same valley. It was fun to see the same area without snow! The river was big, wild and noisy now…

Crossing one of the many streams in the valley, and the path we followed…

At some point we turned right, straight up the mountain. Nice views of Tromsdalstinden!

There was still quite a lot of snow higher up, we had to cross a few snowfields. We finally reached the top at 23:00. In the photo below you can see the special Ti på Topp letterbox which has the “Turbuka” inside, the book you can sign.

The views were really nice, but it was COLD up there!! It was very windy, and we didn’t bring any gloves or other warm clothes besides a jacket. Luckily there was a cairn where someone had built a kind of bench which was protected from the wind. In the first photo you can see the view towards the open ocean, and in the other one I am enjoying some really good Milka chocolate – this photo is especially for Irene who sent us a great supply of chocolate from Austria :))

Nice sundog… in the first photo you can see the Hurtigruten ship arriving, and in the second photo you can see its enormous shadow.

Finally some panorama’s of the view…. click to enlarge. Unfortunately you can’t see all of Tromsø island from the top.

On the way down we decided that walking on snow was easier than on rocks. The snow was usually strong enough to support our weight, but I did sink down to my knees a few times. It was quite steep, as you can see in the photos below. If you enlarge the second photo you can see how much snow I was dragging along in my trousers….

The light was beautiful on our way back. A last view of Tromsdalstinden….

Paul with the midnight sun… and a small tree, showing how up there Spring hasn’t quite arrived yet!

It was a great hike, and quite special to be there all alone that late at night. When we walked back through the valley around 1 in the morning, we did meet someone who was still going up! We got home very late, but I’m glad we went 🙂

Every summer in Tromsø they organise something called “Ti på Topp” – ten (times) to the top. Basically you buy an envelop which contains maps and descriptions of 10 mountains to climb. 5 are relatively easy, 5 are moderate and then there are 5 extra ones which are a bit more challenging. If you climb more than 7 between June 1 and September 30 you get a mug. Of course you don’t do it just to get that mug 😉 but it’s a great way to climb some mountains around Tromsø. There’s also a really nice photo competition that goes with it.

So this year I decided to join, even if we’re away quite a lot this summer.  The weather finally changed, it’s still cold but at least it’s sunny! Last Sunday I worked until 22:00 but the good thing about the midnight sun is that you can still go for a walk at midnight 🙂 We started with the easiest “mountain” on the list – Varden/Romssavárdu, which is the top of Tromsø island and only 159 m high. To get there, you walk over the lysløpe (ski tracks) most of the way.

Paul having a chat to a reindeer… I think this is part of a research station belonging to the university, but I’m not sure. As we had so much rain lately, part of the path was still very muddy!

A beautiful lake we found on the way. I have skied past it a couple of times, but never noticed it!

The views were nice along the way! It didn’t take very long to reach the top. On top was a strange building which looks UFO shaped from a distance. We found out that it’s a navigation facility for the airport. On the building was a letterbox with a book to write your name in. Ti på Topp has only been going for a week, but many pages were filled already! They also put a code next to the box, you need this to register the top on the website.

The views from the top were really nice! This is at about 1 in the morning… nobody else around 🙂

Finally a few panorama images I took. This one was on the way to the top. I always find it amazing how you can be in the middle of Tromsø island and find such quiet places with great views. Ok it isn’t a very big city 😉 but still!

The panorama’s below are taken from the top. The first one is a rare view where you can see the bridges on both sides of the islands! I have put extra large versions of the photos below, click to enlarge…

It was a beautiful evening! We got home at about 2 in the morning, a bit crazy, but it was nice to get away from work for a bit and get some fresh air. I’m not sure when we’ll next have time to go hiking, the thesis is eating up must of my time at the moment. Plus we’re a bit limited as well since our car is still not working properly and it might take a while before it’s fixed. We still have our bikes though 🙂