Our journey from Trondheim to Bodø started at 0738 and saw us arrive at the northern extremity of the main NSB network just before 1730. This nine hour and fifty minute journey took us through some stunning landscapes with snow covered mountains, icy rivers, frozen lakes, ravines, gorges and remote towns all passed by as we headed north. We again travelled in Komfort Class, which for a flat fare supplement of 90 NOK (£8.50) for any length of journey was great value. Just taking into account the unlimted drinks that you can have (tea/coffee/hot chocolate), which if purchased from the buffet were 30 NOK each, it soon paid for itself. Travelling north at this time of year does mean short days and by around 1330 it was starting to get dark and this was even before we crossed the Arctic Circle. It was however warmer in Norway (at around 3 - 4°c) than at home in the UK despite all the snowy scenes outside. By the time we had travelled the 729 kilometres (or 453 miles) to Bodø the train was running ten minutes late, but as the hotel was less than five minutes walk from the station this certainly was not a big issue. We had a bit if a walk around Bodø to get our bearings and had dinner at a bar in the centre of town called Paviljongen. With our meals costing just a bit over £10.00 each it seemed great value for Norway. The beer, from the Mack Brewery, was reasonable too - albeit still psychologically expensive. First impressions of the town were not that good, especially architectually, however daylight (or what passes for daylight up here) may prove us wrong. With sunrise at just before 1030 and sunset at around 1330 in Bodø we decided that an explore of the town would be in order after breakfast at the hotel. The architecture had not really improved in the daylight although after a visit to the Nordland Museum we did learn that most of the city was destroyed at the end of May 1940 during WW2 following a German bombing raid. Nowadays there seems to be plenty of modern apartment blocks being built and some more attractive developments but the frankly hideous Radhus (Town Hall) and Cathedral are testimony to post war rebuilding in concrete. We managed to be at the tallest building in town, the Scandic Havet Hotel, and saw our Hurtigruten ship (the MS Polarlys) arrive shortly after midday. After a quick and cheapish lunchtime stop at Subway we were ready to board our transportation that would be our home for the next twenty four hours as we travelled to Tromsø. The Hurtigruten is pretty much a daily regular ferry service that travels the length of Norway from Bergen to Kirkenes close to the Russian border. It carries goods, cars and people to the various ports but also provides a tourist cruise type service if you want to spend the week going from south to north (or vice-versa). You can do the whole journey in one go or just do short hops (like us) getting off at stops en-route. The cabin we had was pretty good (and each ship is slightly different) - this is not a luxury cruise by any means - but with with two beds, an en-suite bathroom and a fair amount of space for storage it was plenty good enough. The ships stop at some locations for a number of hours (most stops are for thirty minutes) and there are shore excursions, at an extra cost of course, if you want to take them or you are free to get off and explore under your own steam. It is quite a relaxed affair and is far better than a cross channel ferry, but not in the big cruise ship league. Our cabin from Bodø to Tromsø, including breakfast, cost us £161.00 each and we added a three course dinner to the trip at another £48.00 each. The three course 'set' meal consisted of leek and potato soup followed by lamb shank (although Heather had salmon as she doesn't eat lamb) and a chocolate parfait followed by tea or coffee - the menu changes daily and aims to showcase the local produce as the ship travels the length of Norway. It is not cheap however if you are doing a seven night trip on the Hurtigruten you either have to dig a bit deep or you can buy snacks (pizza/hamburgers/sandwiches etc) at either of the two cafés on board, one of which we sampled for lunch before arriving into Tromsø. The pizza, one large beer and a glass of wine came to just 369 NOK or £34.50 but the view out of the window was included for free! Weather wise, with the exception of the morning on the MS Polarlys, we had an overcast sky interspersed with rain, sleet and snow showers plus being winter the hours of daylight this far north are rather limited. I guess the summer should give you warmer weather and much longer days but there would be no chance of seeing the Northern Lights and the ship would certainly be a lot lot busier with tourists. We arrived into Tromsø on time at 1430 and made the short five minute walk to our hotel in the centre of town. Another trip on the Hurtigruten is certainly on the cards at some point in the future and probably again in the winter as crowds of tourists would do our heads in!