...and the Lights Danced in the Heavens Above

We took the long trip to Tromso, Norway...well above the Arctic Circle and near the north pole in a desperate attempt to see the beautiful northern lights.  One of the spots in the world most likely to see them...we got lucky and saw them both nights of our trip.  Despite it being "polar night" when the sun does not rise above the horizon, we saw beautiful colors of sunrise and sunset around lunchtime and then saw the beautiful green and purple hues of the lights.  It was a much more colorful trip than we imagined and definitely a few moments of a lifetime.

Enjoy the snaps!

Airport view...sunrise over Tromso

The skies were so incredibly clear, I saw the full milky way for the first time in my life (and in the photo below you can see the stars and the first signs of the Northern Lights over the fjord)

Sunset around 2 pm.... it was cold, but not as cold as you would expect.  Daily highs in the 20s / 30s and lows around -10 at night.  Definitely needed to bundle up.

The town definitely had some Scandi flair!

Sunset from the top of the mountain... 

On our first day, we took a cable car to the top of the mountain behind us:

The first night...the lights danced in the way you see in the documentaries.  It was magic: 

Incredible colors came out to play and illuminated the night sky.  Like something out of the Lion King when they explain that your ancestors are in the sky:

The second night, the display lasted only a few minutes, but it was brilliantly beautiful and we were grateful!