With our Hurtigruten ship, the MS Polarlys, docking at Tromsø at 1430 it was already dark in this northern part of Norway. With sleet and snow falling and a tad slippery underfoot we made our way to the Comfort Hotel Xpress. The room was very clean and modern and just perfect for our stay in Tromsø (although and extra few inches of walking space at the foot of the bed would have been better).

Tromsø had a nice comfortable feel about it, there are plenty of shopping and eating opportunities in town and it is home to the Mack Brewery, the northernmost brewery in Norway. Our first evening meal was at Egon Restaurant, which is a Norwegian chain type establishment that sits somewhere between a Wetherspoons and a Beefeater serving up a wide ranging menu. Prices, for Norway, were reasonable and being a chain type place it did seem a little bit portion controlled, however it was a decent experience for around £65.00.

The first full day saw us crossing the Tromsø Bridge and passing the Arctic Cathedral in order to catch the Fjellheisen Cable Car. The views over Tromsø were fantastic and our visit co-incided with mid-day so we had the best of the limited daylight too. Sunrise in Tromsø at this time of year was around 1130 and sunset was around 1230, it was dark by around 1430 each day! Our second day had us walking south from the city to the Tromsø Museum and Telegrafbukta (Telegraph Bay) for where the views over the fjords and distant mountains were again superb. We also came across a monument to those people that died in 1928 on board the airship Italia that crashed on Svalbard when attempting to reach the North Pole as well as those that died trying to rescue them including Roald Amundsen of South Pole fame.

The Tromsø Museum was well worth a visit and covered a lot of natural history topics and some interesting information about the native Sami people. The combination ticket, at 80 NOK was great value, also gave us entrance to the Polar Museum back in town that we visited after a late lunch. The Polar Museum concentrated more on the history of Tromsø and its role in whale, seal and polar bear hunting as well as Arctic and Antarctic exploration. Our lunch in Tromsø was great value too and certainly filled us up for the rest of the day. It is amazing how quick you start thinking this even though the baguettes we had were 85 NOK each (or about £8.00), they were fabulous!

Heather had also become a bit of a Hurtigruten ship enthusiast on this trip and having travelled into Tromsø on the MS Polarlys (passing the MS Lofoten en-route), she also underlined the MS Nordkapp, MS Richard With, MS Vesterålen and the MS Finnmarken in her spotter's jotter as they docked in the city. I know she wants to come back to Norway to see the remaining fleet!

That brings us pretty much to the end of our Norwegian Arctic Adventure, which we rounded off with a slap up meal at Da Pinocchio, next door to our hotel, which served up very good Italian food with friendly service. The bill, coming in at 800 NOK (£75.00), included half a litre of wine, two main courses and what was probably the best gelato this side of Italy. If honest the gelato was probably better than the real thing!

An early start saw us walking through fresh snow to catch the the airport bus in order to catch our flight from Tromsø at 0845 (flight DY373) with Norwegian to Oslo. The snow did not seem to affect either the airport bus or airport operations - we could learn a thing or two in the UK. With a few hours to kill between flights there was time for a drink and snack in Oslo before boarding our next flight, DY2805 departing at 1300, that would get us back to London Gatwick.