Seeing the Northern Lights is nothing short of becoming a witness to celestial splendor. It is emotional and spiritual and supernatural. When we first stepped out off the bus there was no mistaking the arched halo that formed a bridge over the horizon. The sky was no longer dark, as the lights fanned into the sky brilliantly like a...
We traveled to Norway with one purpose in mind, and that was to see the Northern Lights.
Hurtigruten Review with Kids: MS Kong Harald
Northern Lights Cruise
When we first started planning, the first result that popped up in Google was for the Hurtigruten Northern Lights Cruise.
The advertisements for the Hurtigruten were compelling, enticing, and romantic.
We were desperate to see...
Our most magical experience during our family trip to Scandinavia was Husky dog sledding in Norway through the snow blanketed fields of Tromsø.
Truly, we had some incredible experiences in the land of Trolls - a spiritual excursion to witness the Northern Lights in Kirkenes, an authentically cultural journey through the North Cape on the Hurtigruten, and even celebrating...
Our family trip to Norway was one of those standby adventures gone wrong, but one we probably should have known better to anticipate. I was stressed for weeks leading up to this vacation. We had three flights to take after disembarking the Disney Wonder cruise ship, and making our way to our Christmas destination in Norway. That meant three...
Across town, in the opposite direction of the graffiti and promiscuous pictures was where we found our home for Christmas. This darling airbnb, with red cupboards in the kitchen and four single beds laying side by side each other in the bedroom, was perfect for our celebrations. Though we longed to be in Tromsø, we were finally in a...
Our Christmas in Norway was not as uneventful as we had hoped for and certainly did not plan, and not in the good way where Santa surprises you with something you didn't realize you wanted but absolutely have to have now that you've got it.
It was wrought with missed flights, a stinky airbnb, and a birthday celebration that...
Flights didn’t look good departing from Oslo to Amsterdam on December 30 but if nothing else we are risk takers. What do a couple too few seats even mean to a standby traveler? Anything can happen. After all, we made it on a flight from Kirkenes to Oslo that morning when the odds were against us, and not just...
With the exception of our two night Hurtigruten Cruise we spent a huge majority of our time eating items from the local 7-11, or Norwegian equivalent Narvesen, during our two week Christmas trip to Norway.
We found all the best Norwegian Candy, and not because we love "food-like" items that never have an expiration date, but because most of...
All things considered, during our eight day trip in Norway we actually spent a majority of our time at the Oslo Airport, OSL. Three of those eight days were spent at the Oslo Gardermoen Airport in fact. We had zero success getting on a flight to Tromsø for Christmas, and we had zero success getting on a flight out of...
We found ourselves in Kirkenes after debarking from our two night cruise on the Hurtigruten. Kirkenes is a tiny little town of only 3,000 inhabitants on just over 500 acres, and was upgraded from a village just 20 years ago! The peninsula is sandwiched between the Bøkfjorden fjord, and the Varangerfjord fjord that borders Russia, and the city is...
