New Year’s Eve 2024
As planned, we drove to the photo spot on the Ersfjord at 7.30 am. Unfortunately, it was still overcast, but the lighting was still very nice. The fjord is really worth seeing. The area is beautiful, but much more populated than we thought. The mostly red wooden houses look great in contrast to the white snow and the shimmering bluish ice.
Here are some pictures:
Here, at a good distance from the airport, I was able to use my DJI Air 3s drone for the first time:
We drove on to the northwest. The snow-covered landscape was beautiful and the clouds created a dramatic lighting mood. The fjords were partially covered in a layer of ice that had photogenically broken into several fragments. The drone was used again and again along the way:
The large bridge in the picture below leads to the island of Sommarøy, a well-known local excursion destination. It can only be crossed in one lane, and traffic is cleared alternately in one direction at a time via traffic lights.
At a viewpoint directly behind the bridge, several cars stopped, including a tourist bus, from which a good 50 people got out to take photos of each other in front of the fantastic scenery. I also took the opportunity to launch the drone here.
In the middle of the drone’s flight, a dark cloud front suddenly approached from the west at incredible speed and it started to rain, so I had to retrieve the drone at top speed. We then drove on to the island. The name Sommarøy (summer island) comes from the fact that the place was originally only inhabited in summer.
When we arrived on Sommarøy, it was already getting dark. It started to snow and it got colder and colder. But we were far out in the Arctic Ocean. It can get very cold there.
We discovered three very photogenic, colorful wooden houses on a small peninsula in Sommarøy, which made a very nice motif in the blue hour.
We had reserved a table at the Fiskekompaniet restaurant for New Year’s Eve long before the trip. We were supposed to be there at 6.30 pm. So we set off on the hour and a half drive home.
Back in Tromsø, the weather had improved considerably, the sky had brightened up and a few stars appeared. So we hoped to be able to take the Fjellheisenbahn up Storsteinen later that evening to see the New Year’s Eve fireworks and, above all, the Northern Lights.
From our hotel, we then walked to the nearby restaurant Fiskekompaniet at around 6:15 pm. An extensive New Year’s Eve menu awaited us there.
The restaurant itself is very stylish and elegant, and the service is very attentive. It is close to the harbor and through the large windows you have a beautiful view over the fjord to Storsteinen.
The food and the matching wine pairing were absolutely magnificent. Unfortunately, our friend Harald had to miss out the wine pairing. He had previously lost the draw against me and had to stay alcohol-free so that we could drive to the Fjellheisen cable car later with our rental car.
It was a totally wonderful evening. Here are some pictures of the delicious menu with the corresponding menu card:
But it was about to get even better: Before the first main course of the menu, a crowd gathered on the quay in front of the restaurant and some guests also went out. We joined them … and there they were, the long-awaited Northern Lights dancing directly above Tromsø’s local mountain, Storsteinen. Unfortunately, I only had my iPhone with me:
Afterwards, back at the restaurant, the waiter joked that he had been quite anxious because we had left.
After dinner, we quickly went back to the hotel, put on our layers of warm clothing and drove to the Fjellheisen cable car. It was very busy there and we just managed to get the last parking space.
The cable car then took us quickly up the mountain, which is more than 400 meters high. It only took a few minutes. The cabin is somehow cutely small, as we are more used to Swiss cable car conditions. On the other hand, the cable car went up and down practically non-stop that evening. The mountain station is also cute and “hygge”. There was already a lot going on outside, people were scurrying around everywhere, some with headlamps, just like us. Many people had hiked up by foot.
However, it was difficult to find a suitable photo point, there was always something in the way, a barrier or a mast. The usual viewpoint approx. 200 m next to the mountain station was unfortunately closed due to the fireworks installed there.
And then they came, the Northern Lights. They danced across the sky for a good half hour. They were so bright that you could even see the colors with the naked eye.
At midnight, a huge firework started at the top, very close to the mountain station, so we were almost inside. That was pretty impressive .
Afterwards, everyone was brought back down again by the cable car, it was very crowded. Once we arrived at the hotel, we toasted the new year in the cozy seating area in the lobby with a bottle of champagne that our friends had brought along.
After a very eventful day, we fell into our beds at around 2:00 am, deathly tired. Tomorrow we will sleep in.