Fun things to do in Arctic

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Harstad in the Lofoten/Norway might be a greart place for everybody interested in WW II because the so-called Adolfkanone can be seen there, it was the largest landbased Cannon of WW II !
One of the real cannons can still be visited in the mountains closeby Harstad, BUT it was not part of the tour by the Hurtigruten-excursion. At least we saw some repilca-parts and explanations in the museum.
Adolfkanone was the largest landbased Cannon of WW II, with calibre 40,6 cm. The cannon had a length of 21,5 meters and a weight of 158,664 Tons. The "Adolfshell" had a weight of 600kg and a range of 56 km.
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In case that you are interested in WW II and cannons:
In Moevik you can still see the 2nd largest Cannon of WW II
The 1st pic above is the cannon from Mövik!
click here for my moevik-page !

Hi, Please ensure you pick a time when it's a moonless sky. Check the moon (lunar) calendar for help.

Rather than the heart of winter, do consider the shoulder periods - March & October can be very good times for a sighting!

As for a 'tour', yes, there are 'Northern Lights hunting tours' which I do recommend. You will need to head for the wilderness, away from the city & it's lights, as you need no 'noise pollution' to improve your chances. And these tours will often drive you 1 to 2 hours away into the wild nature, using their weather analysts!

You need to be above the Arctic Circle, so in Norway for instance, aim to go to Bodo or further north! A good airline for economical fares is www.norwegian.com

Also refer to the weather forecast - don't want a cloudy or rainy period!

Finally, because it's a heavenly phenomenon, there are no guarantees for a sighting, just ways of maximising your chances by ensuring several factors (like the ones mentioned above) are aligned!

Good luck

The Delta of the Lena happens to be by far the largest delta in the Artic Ocean and it entirely tundra covered. The Lena delta is also the riches wildlife are in the Artic regions of the world in term of breeding and total number of species.

In the short summer mid June to mid August they have counted as in 1 2 3 4 – 17 types of mammals and 79 different birds. In fact so many birds that they now have birder tours costing real money to see this beautiful wildlife area

between dawson city in the yukon, and inuvik in northwest territories there's a wonderful lone road surrounded by the most perfect scenery one could wish for. About hald-way along the road you cross the Arctic Circle, and there's a not-too-nice sign there just to remind you of it.
As far as I know there's no public transportation along the Dempster but there's a company based in dawson city that organises tours along it, as far as the arctic cricle sign: it's the gold city tours company.

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Tromsdalen Kirke / Ishavskatedralen
Artic Cathedral / Eismeer-Kathedrale
There are different names for one of the most spektacular churches in Norway ! Some people think it is a tourist-trap but I think it is worth seeing from outside and that it is also worth to take a look inside, although it is just a modern church. From outside it looks a bit like an iceberg or maybe like a whale and it is interesting how the windows were made between the rips of that whale.
Ishavskatedralen was built in 1965 by the norwegian architect Jan Inge Hovig .Get inside and have a look,the church is mostly open for a few hours daily, whenever the Hurtigruten-ships are in Tromsoe ! The interior is simple but also interesting and the large window facing the port has the largest glass-mosaique in Europe. There is a small entrance-fee to be payed there and they have a souvenirshop there as well.
The Arctic cathedral is open for visitors:
from Aug 16th till Sept 15th : daily 03.00-06.00pm
from Sept 16th till May 31st: daily 04.00-06.00pm
from June 1st till Aug 15th:daily 09.00am-07.00pm
sundays only from 01.00-07.00pm
churchservice : every sunday at 11.00am

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Kirkenes is the endpoint of the Hurtigruten-ships . It is an interesting outpost close to the russian border, the next russian town is Murmansk.
Hurtigruten offers an excursion to the russian border, you will see a bit of the landscape plus this very special point at the border that had a lot more sense to go in the times of the Cold War of course. It was a nice excursion, but you will miss to see the town of Kirkenes, except for a few minutes, when you are driven through some roads.
I had the hope to see the distance-pole that way that they show in many brochures of Kirkenes, but that place is not so easy to get to.
What we saw as well was the "Jet d'eau" of Kirkenes: it looks a bit deplaced out on a lake and surrounded only by empty landscapes, but all citizens of Kirkenes seem to be very proud of it and this is why it is also shown on each and every sightseeingtour there (my 2nd pic).
The town of Kirkenes is flat, easy to walk though and also easy to walk to from the Hurtigrutenship to the towncentre, that is in a distance of just some hundreds of meters.
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Hurtigrute will stay in Kirkenes daily
just 165 minutes between 10.00am and 12.45
so you have a choice between exploring the village yourself
or take one of the many excursions that are offered by Hurtigruten
You can start or end your cruise in Kirkenes, Hurtigruten offers also
hotels and extended stays in Kirkenes before or after each cruise.
Every day of the year one of the Hurtigruten-ships is coming to Kirkenes !

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Hammerfest is the northernmost town on earth ! Of course there are lots of villages on earth that are further north but Hammerfest is the northernmost TOWN ! All of the town looks very modern and there is a sad reason for that :
In the very last days of WW II the german troups, who had occupied Hammerfest during the war, left this place and burned down all of the houses and only a small wooden chapel on the cemetery has survived, simply because it was surrounded by a lot of graves and the flames did not reach this tiny chapel (my last pic!).
This chapel was built in 1937 and is now the oldest building of Hammerfest.
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Every day 2 Hurtigruten-ships will come to Hammerfest:
The NORTHbound ship will dock from 05.15am till 06.45am
and the SOUTHbound ship will stay there between 11.15am and 12.45pm,
so in both cases you only have about 90 minutes to explore the town and normally that is also enough time to take a little walk and maybe do some shopping.
Passangers who take the tour "Breakfast at the North-cape" on the southbound voyage
will come back onboard their Hurtigruten-ship in Hammerfest !
The cruiseterminal for ordinary cruiseships as well as for Hurtigruten-ships is conveniently in the centre of town, surrounded by some museums and lots of shops.

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The Northcape / Nordkap is the very northern end of Europe - at least it was believed to be untill someone found out that the real northernmost place is a bit further and quite hard to go there, so they sticked to the wrong place they call the Nordkapp and Millions of tourists are going there each year.
The North Cape Hall is a large building that offers shelter in nasty weather and a great view from lots of places, restaurants and observationhalls, there is the postoffice, a selfservice restaurant, souvenirshops and even some museums, a church, a thai temple etc.
Nordkapphallen is open all year long, but the opening-times vary a bit during the wintertime.

In 1873 the king of Sweden and Norway, Oscar II travelled to the Nordkapp and inside of the Northkapp-Hallen you will see some scenes of this travel shown by small puppets of the king and other noble travellers, while hiking through the landscape to the Nordkapp.
There was no street and not even a good path to this very end of the european continent, so they had a tent set up at the Northcape, so the king could sip some champagne there.