Check One off the Bucket List - The Northern Lights

Aurora Borealis over a coastal town

  One reason I took this cruise was to see - at long last - the Northern Lights. I've spent other times above the Arctic Circle, in Alaska and in Iceland, without lucking out on seeing the lights. I guess the umpteenth time's the charm!

On day 5 of the trip, after returning from the Viking excursion, a shipboard announcement said there were weak northern lights seen, get on deck! There followed a stampede up to the 7th floor deck!

That first night's viewing was in fact weak, but hell, it was a start!

A few nights later the lights were back and were much stronger

The white specks are stars

Unlike what is normally shown in videos of the lights, they did not dance or bounce about. Mind, they moved, and you could see them move, but the moves were slow, rather like watching smoke. Getting shots with my 'good' camera was a crap effort. I soon depended entirely on my Galaxy S22 for shots. For one thing, the cellphone has a 'Night Shot' setting and that was how I got shots worth keeping. My phone - as always - was hand held so sometimes the results were a bit blurry, but I got pretty good at holding still fairly quickly. 

The Aurora Borealis can come in different colors. Mostly what I saw over many nights were green, but I did manage one night to catch a glimpse of pinkish light. 

Band of pinkish lights

After the first couple of nights photographing and staring stupidly at the lights, it became rather routine. The announcement would tell everyone the lights were up, and everyone would calmly gather on their heaviest gear - it was freezing arse cold - and race up to gaze at the wonder that is the Aurora Borealis. 

Loved the lights shining over mountains, looking like a volcano spurting green steam

Teensy bit of Pink in the middle band

Unbelievable how good cell phone cameras have become

The lights were just wonderous. One of the nights after everyone on deck was an icicle, the game ship crew brought out the hot boozy chocolate. What heaven to hold a hot tin mug in your stone, cold, hands.

They also gave out hot potato dumplings. Yum!

Hot Potato Dumplings for all

Getting prepared to dish out the hot drinks

I wish I could have videotaped the Northern Lights but as I said, it wasn't as if they were bouncing around. They just wafted overhead, bringing feelings of wonder to everyone's heart.