The Purple Penguin

And we’re actually getting a bit brighter. Almost had daylight today. We cross back over the arctic circle tomorrow morning.

We went up to the deck 7 bar and had a drink before dinner, had the really good seats at the bow, but couldn’t really see anything in the dark. Still nice drinks and sorted through the photos – the Norway album should be up to date, more of less! Then dinner and then a nap before getting up around half 11 to get dressed and ready for the concert in the Arctic Cathedral in Tromsø. Loads of announcements that when we came into Tromsø, the concert goers were to leave first and those with bags should wait. So I thought we needed to be on time due to other people attending. But nope, the group from the ship were the only ones there – so it was a concert just for us!

Lovely concert, really good music, and we really enjoyed it all. The cathedral is small and lovely, but unfortunately not a lot of time for photos! And when we left it was snowing heavily.

I forgot to say that Christmas day the tour organiser had organised that a group from the ship could attend the Christmas service in Vardø – the minister agreed to hold the service until they arrived. The group that went said it was really nice, they were made to feel very welcome and the service was done in Norwegian and English, and the minister kept it within time for everyone to get back to the ship. As the Captain, Chief Engineer, and Hotel Manager were all at the service as well the group figured the ship would wait! The Captain and Chief Engineer made sure they were the last to leave so they knew everyone was back on board. Put this in because the entire trip has been like that – special effort made to make sure we see and do things. So a private concert for us is becoming normal!

So we slept in today having not got to bed until gone 2am. The weather has been pretty awful – strong winds, snow and sleet squalls, and generally bleugh. But we had some light! And more tomorrow! We also went through Risøyrenna today, which is very narrow, Joe stood out on the bow and took photos. And coming into Sortland we went under a bridge where we ‘met’ the bus from the morning excursion crossing the bridge. Now that was timing! Tonight we’re doing a fishing village walk somewhere in Lofoten!