Nothing, nothing, nothing, Tromsø

It sounds peevish to say, but this ship is really quite boring. The astrological lectures so far have been nice, but that's 30-45 minutes out of 24 hours. Unlike a lot of ships, the dining room staff isn't there to charm you. They work for a living wage and don't depend upon tips, so they'd like you in and out of the dining room as quickly as possible so that they can prepare for the next lot. As for scenery, I think the best description would be "shades of grey."

So imagine my delight when we had the ceremony for crossing the Arctic Circle. It was, perhaps, a tad disappointing when it turned out to be a crew member dressed as King Nörδr. the Norse equivalent of King Neptune. (That's King Nörδr in the middle on the upper deck.)

The rest of the ceremony entailed pouring ice water down the backs of passengers. To my amazement, at least 30 people volunteered. Happily, the weather held out and it didn't start to snow for a good 15 minutes.

Anyway, the ship pulled into Tromsø at about 2:15 and by 2:40 we were off the ship. This is what 2:40 looks like north of the Arctic Circle.

No sooner had we started walking than it started hailing. Little balls of hail, but lots of them and they stung when they hit you in the face. It gets dark very quickly and by the time we reached the Polar Museum it looked like it was 8;00pm. The Polar Museum was devoted to all things the Norwegians did (and/or do) to survive the cold, as well as the brave Norwegians who ventured to the North and South Poles. It was the survival part that I found sad. So many taxidermied animals!

And who thought it was a good idea to show how the Norwegians bludgeon the baby seals to death?

Frankly, the explorers couldn't make up for it. I was happy to leave there and head to our next destination, "Magic Ice," an ice bar. When you enter the main door, they drape you in a heavy cape and offer you huge mittens if you haven't brought gloves. When you enter the bar itself, everything is made of ice: the walls, the bar, the tables, the benches, even the glasses you drink from. It's a bit gimmicky but it was fun. I'll bet if you were young and hammered it would be fabulous!

Anyway, it was nice to have a bit of time on shore before heading back to the greyness.

Around 9:00 that night our astronomer summoned us up to deck eight because the northern lights were peeking out. Peeking is right. See that tiny green disc? That was it.

Day 4 and I'm not feeling very positive about this cruise.