Adventures of Team Munz: The Munz girls in the Arctic circle

Our last big trip in Norway was to Tromsø in Northern Norway (69 degrees N). Tromsø has the Northernmost university in Norway and there is a lot of arctic research being conducted there. We spent our first day at Polaria - an arctic aquarium where we watched a video on the Northern Lights (which, sadly, is the only time we saw them during our time there), a video on Svalbard (which prompted a lot of "Did you see that when you were there, Mommy?" questions, and enjoyed the seal training and feeding sessions. Our second day we spent around our rental house enjoying sunrise around 11am (first light was around 9am) and then sunset right around 12:00noon (last light around 2:30). The girls also got out to play in the snow (which they loved!) Right after last light, we got to see the moon follow the same trajectory as the sun. The morning we left, we headed to the bus stop at 5:45am in blizzard like conditions. Don't feel bad for us though, while waiting at the bus stop a whole group of reindeer (with very impressive and distinct antlers) walked right in front of us down the road! We took a video (capturing 8 of them) but it is too big for the blog (thus the blurry photo). Seeing the reindeer was an unexpected highlight and eased the sting of not seeing the northern lights. No complaints about the views from our rental house - absolutely breathtaking.

We arrived at night so didn't see this view until the next morning.

bus ride into downtown

Polaria in the background - the exterior of the building looks like ice blocks

Polaria's claim to fame is having bearded seals in residence. Weighing in at a cool 305 kilos - this photo is of a harbor seal. They had 2 of each kind.