Saturday march 7 : after spending the night at the Campanile in Le Mesnil Amelot to avoid driving this morning, we’re off on another trip to Norway, near Tromsø. We get up at 5:45 a.m. for breakfast. We leave our car in the hotel parking lot, and at 7:00 a.m. a shuttle take us to the airport, where we meet up with our friends Etienne, Stéphane, and Martine. After check-in and the usual formalities, we board at 9:15 a.m. Takeoff is at 9:50 a.m. A quick snack, and we arrive in Tromsø at 1:40 p.m. The sky is overcast, and there is a lot of snow. It took a while for our luggage to arrive! We pick up the car from Hertz: a Volvo XC60.
We’re going to do two days’ worth of grocery shopping at our usual Spar since the trunk is full of luggage. It’s a bit cramped with the three of us in the back. At 3:20 p.m., we head toward our house in Indre Malangseidet, about an hour and a half south of Tromsø, along the Balsfjord. We arrive at the house around 4:30 p.m.
We tour the house, which is very spacious; it has a large kitchen, three living rooms, and four bedrooms.
It's really great. We pick our rooms and settle in. Finally, we get back into our Norwegian routine: hot chocolate, drinks at 6:30 p.m., dinner! Off to bed early at 10:40 p.m.
Sunday march 8 : up around 8:00 a.m. The sky is overcast but with a few breaks, and it’s 6°C. We set out for a drive around 11:00 a.m., as usual along the fjords to take photos of the scenery. At this time of year, it’s not easy to go hiking; it’s already difficult to park along the roads to stop for photos because the parking lots and shoulders aren’t always cleared of snow, or there simply aren’t any parking spots at all. We head west toward Mestervik, then turn north along the Malangen Fjord.
We're going to see a little lighthouse in Norby.
A little further on, we stop at the small port of Vikran.
There is an old wooden boat.
Around 1:30 p.m., we take the tunnel to Kvaloya Island.
At 2:30 p.m., we stop for a blueberry waffle with brunost (Norwegian brown cheese) and hot chocolate at the Yggdrasil Farmhotel Retreat & Spa. It’s a great spot that we’ll definitely be coming back to!
We make our way home at a leisurely pace under a very overcast sky. We arrive around 4:00 p.m. There are a few northern lights at 10:30 p.m., but they aren't very bright and there are clouds.
We’re getting home at 1:10 a.m.
Monday march 9 : up at 9:00 a.m. Another overcast sky this morning, and it’s raining a little. Left around 10:45 a.m. to go shopping in Storsteinnes. It’s snowing lightly, and it’s 2°F. Back home around 1:00 p.m. We lit a fire in the wood stove—so nice! Then... we do some “molding” because the weather outside is bad. It is a hard day: snack time, molding, drinks, dinner, molding!! Outside, the snow turns to rain.
Tuesday march 10 : up at 8:30 a.m. The fog is lifting, and there’s a bit of sun peeking through the clouds, with a temperature of 3°C. We leave at 10:05 a.m. after taking a few photos from the house and enjoying the view of the fjord.
We're going to tour the Malangen fjords, which have a goose-foot shape as they extend westward.
We stop to take photos at Aursfjordgarden, where there’s a dock with a small red boat under repair. We continue on to the Aursfjordsaga mill, which we really enjoyed visiting in 2024.
We turn off onto a small headland at the end of Aursfjordbotn. The fjord is frozen, and the ice is starting to break up.
We drive up the fjord to a dead end: Perhansanes Langberget.
It's really pretty, and the reflections are great. Let's turn around. We're heading toward the third “crow's foot.” Not much to see there. Let's head back the way we came.
Back home at 4:00 p.m. Snack time. Aperitif. Dinner of crepes with jam and homemade salted butter caramel. Aurora alert around 8:15 p.m. A few green flashes, but nothing to crazy about.
The sky is clouding over again. Back home at 9:15 p.m. to finish the pancakes. Second aurora alert, but by the time I’d even thrown on some clothes, it was over and the sky was overcast.
Wednesday march 11 : up around 8:00 a.m. We left for Tromsø at 10:00 a.m. It's cloudy and 5°C. We park in an underground garage downtown. We stroll through the city and the harbor under a bit of sunshine. The welcome sign in front of a souvenir shop:
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The cathedral :
The harbor :
The Arctic Cathedral :
A few building facades in the new neighborhood near the harbor that we saw under construction last year :
Around 2:00 p.m., we stop for lunch at Egon Restaurant. We then do some souvenir shopping. We leave town at 3:40 p.m. On the way, we stop to take a few photos of the last rays of sunlight on the mountains.
We get back home around 5:00 p.m. As is tradition, we make a croziflette with some Reblochon cheese we brought from France. We go to bed around 11:00 p.m. At 1:45 a.m., I get up to use the bathroom. On my way, I glance out the stairwell window and spot something green. I check through another window. On my way back to bed, I tell David, who goes to check it out and takes a photo. Five minutes later, he wakes everyone up. And at 2:00 a.m., we’re all outside. The sky is completely green.
It's magical. We go back to bed around 4:20 a.m., just as the day begins to brighten in the east.
Thursday march 12 : up at 9:00 a.m. It’s cloudy again, and a few snowflakes are falling. Given the weather, we don’t set out on our hike until 12:20 p.m., when it’s 5°, heading south. We stop along the way to take photos.
We pass Nordkjosbotn, and further on, taking the small road called Seljelvnesveien, we come across a great spot with stunning reflections.
The sky is clearing up a bit. We head down to the beach.
We take a short walk along the beach, and the sun makes a few appearances over this magical setting.
It's beautiful. And those reflections—wow! We stay for a while. Then, continuing along Balsfjord as we head north, we stop at Laksvatnet; the lake is frozen.
Continuing along Ullsfjorden,
we head back to Olderbukt, which we also really liked in 2024, to see if the ice has broken up. It’s a little less picturesque, and besides, there’s a lot of shade—we’ve arrived a bit late.
We turn around and stop at Lakselvbukt Church for a quick snack. Then we head to Nordkjosbotn to eat at the Vollan Gjestestue restaurant at 5:20 p.m.—reindeer pasta for some.
We set off again at 6:40 p.m. We head back to the beach to see if we can catch a glimpse of the aurora. But the beach is gone—the tide has come in. As a result, the small parking lot isn’t very well positioned. There’s a faint green glow. We try a parking lot along the E8 highway. But we don’t stay; there’s too much light pollution. Back home around 9:00 p.m. It’s cloudy—too bad, because it’s green above the clouds.
Friday march 13 : up at 8:30 a.m. Cloudy with a few drops of rain. We set off at 10:30 a.m. The rain has stopped. We head to Bardufossen waterfall, but it’s frozen over and there’s no accessible parking. We then head to the Malselvfossen waterfall. There’s a large parking lot for RVs and restrooms. The waterfall is huge; we get our first view from above.
Then we head down to the water's edge to take some long-exposure photos.
On the way back up, we follow a path that runs alongside the river toward a salmon ladder—though, of course, the salmon aren’t around this time of year!
We leave at 1:45 p.m. We stop for hot chocolate and waffles at Kaffemoya café in Bardufoss at 2:15 p.m. We leave again at 2:40 p.m. It rains a little, but it doesn't last long. We get back home around 4:00 p.m.
Saturday march 14 : up at 8:00 a.m. We finish packing and tidy up the house. We leave for Tromsø at 10:00 a.m. We stop for lunch around 11:30 a.m. at Egon restaurant in the shopping area. Then we head to the airport. We drop off the car. The lobby is packed with people. We print our baggage tags and get in line. We’re not making any progress. In half an hour, we’ve moved two meters. There’s a problem with the baggage carousel. We try the self-service check-in but it doesn’t work with Air France. We go back to the line and end up at the very back. On the display, we see that boarding has started—oops! We finally get through at 2:45 p.m. Our flight is at 2:50 p.m.! We rush to security. This is definitely not our day. At the metal detector, they test our hands and belts for traces of explosives. Almost all of our carry-on bags go through additional screening. We’re wasting a ton of time. We don’t know if the plane is still there. Once we’re through security, we run. We finally board the plane at 2:55 p.m. Air France waited, knowing there had been a problem at check-in and security. We take off late at 3:40 p.m. The pilot makes up for the delay during the flight, and we land just half an hour late at 7:30 p.m. instead of 6:55 p.m. We go to pick up our luggage. Étienne doesn’t have his. We then rush to catch the shuttle back to the Campanile where we left our car. We arrive home around 10:15 p.m.
