Oldervik again, this time for Easter holidays

This week long Easter holiday we decided to go back to Oldervik, a small fishing village we spent our holidays at on two occasions before, it's approximately 40km north of Tromso. A quiet spot where the closest shop is also an hour away in Kroken, a suburb an hour away from the city across a fjord.

Our cabin, the River House sits on a small bluff overlooking a small river Oldervikelva and an has an amazing direct from the kitchen window view of the massive Lyngen Alps.

We flew via Oslo with Norwegian Air on a 0900hrs flight out of Stavanger Sola Airport  and touched down at Tromso Langness Airport at 1700hrs, we purposefully allowed ourselves a generous lay over at Oslo Gardemoen. Two hours later we were in Oldervik via a rented car. And the place is just as we left it last, just the way we like it.

The view on route to Langness, snowcapped mountains, plenty of total isolation for the 5.0 million Norwegian population.

The River House (in yellow), and our view from the front door towards Lyngen Alps across the fjord.

Part of the draw of the place is it's sheer location north of the 69 deg parallel, that's special on it's own virtue. A cabin close to the village without close neighbours but easily accessible is also a plus point. Though we don't use the bus service, regular village bus service ply the route right in front of our house to the center of the village. There's plenty on offer in terms of great views, nice walks in the woods, and a general quietness of a place away from the center of human activities. 

And then of course we have the northernlights given the right combination of factors, a CME and clear skies.  Our first visit here was end of May mostly for birds and general exploring. The second trip was for northernlights during the end of February (which turned out a balmy 5 deg C that year). We missed 2015 which was supposed to be a trip during autumn break. Now we are back for snow (the kids) and northernlights if it happens to turn up.

The much anticipated northernlights for visitors to Tromso, likely one of the top reasons visitors travel here. These pictures were captured in the backyard of River House.

Trips like this is great for getting out of the day to day routine of normal life. A special place like this always enhances the experience even more. We just love this village.

Tromso in February

This was our second trip to Tromso, staying at the same cabin we stayed at last trip ... The River House at the edge of the village Oldervik.

It was supposed to be our deep immersion into northern -20 deg C temperatures and snowbound landscapes. Just our luck it turned out to be unseasonably warm Feb, if that was ever possible. It felt almost May climate wise. We hardly used the bulky snow suits we brought all the way from Stavanger. We had snow (which was dumped back in Nov of 2013) and the rest of the week was sleet and rain!

The high light had to be the Northern Lights! Having been dreaming about it all these years, we finally managed a decent run of chasing the light. It was magnificent to say the least!

Nazeri/Mar2014

One week in Tromso was too short

We stayed two nites at one of the Frogner Apartments in Oslo before flying off to Tromso on Staurday afternoon. In Oslo the children visited Heldi and Nisa's family and spent time hanging out with their children Shala (14), Shekka (12), Tariq (4) and Zayyid (almost 1). They were buddies at ISS in Stavanger the previous year prior to Heldi's move to Oslo a month ago.

There really wasn't much to do in Oslo when all the kids wanted to do was hangout at home and play. We managed to persuade them to take a stroll to Vigdalen's Park in Oslo so they fool around some more, outdoors this time.

We flew to Tromso on Saturday and stayed a week at Riverhouse, a holiday house in a small fishing village of Oldervik, about an hour's drive from Tromso city. Population of Oldervik stood at 100 but probably just saw less than 10 of them walking about during the day. A quiet little village by the sea, main occupation seems to be fishery.

Throughout the week our main activities were birdwatching though the kids had two full days roaming about Polaria, the Polar Museum, Tromso Museum, The Science Center, as well as a quick photo op at  the Arctic Cathedral.

Tromso is a very scenic city with majestic snow covered mountains all around. The area nearby has plenty of venues for outdoorsy kind of activities, exactly what we were looking for. As this was our first visit, most of the time we were just gawking at the scenery. 

Next trip we'll do more ... like visit the outlying islands to look for whales, see the seabirds and visit the island which has one family of 5 living on it, Musvaer just of Vengasoya.

Vigdalen's Park with Shala, Shekka and Tariq.

Our house for a week and the view around it.

The quick stop over at the Arctic Cathedral in Tromso.