Tromsø floodlit hike

We arrived this afternoon in Tromsø, the unofficial capital of the Arctic. I had studied the map in advance and decided that we should walk up through the town to a floodlit skiing and hiking track.

It was quite steep and the snow was powdery and deep, and I realised that I had put way too much clothes on  At the top we found the track and set off along the trail around a frozen lake.

It was getting dark by 3pm end the track was busy with school children heading home or to the floodlit park, lots of walkers, and we were passed by cyclists and cross country skiers. We both got out our cameras to take a photo of this skier and I shouted out to apologise and that we were tourists, so he changed to his best sprinting style as he went by.

As it got darker we looked out for the Northern Lights, but there was no sign and instead it clouded over.

On the way back into town we took a shortcut over a huge mound of snow and of course I fell over and then really struggled to get back up as I kept sinking back into the soft snow.

We had intended to have a walk around Tromsø once we got to the bottom of the hill, but within a couple of minutes a blizzard started so we took a quick photo of the church and hurried as fast as we could back to the ship.