A nice lazy start to the day. We've been getting up at 7.30 to be ready for Peter's classes, so the lie in is much appreciated.
We've been blessed with fantastic weather. Clear, clear blue skies and crisp, very cold air. We've been to Alta twice before, but the weather hasn't been this good, and we decided to take full advantage.
It's a good couple of miles from the port to the city centre, so we jumped on the free shuttle bus which took us almost to the front door of the Northern Lights Cathedral. There's a small charge to enter (50Kr or nearly £4), but it's quite nice space. Small in comparison to Cathedrals back in the UK, but really lovely anyway.
From the Cathedral it was on to the Alte Kirche, (Old Church), and cemetery, before deciding to pick our way through streets and houses down to Alta Fjord - a bit further along from where the ship was docked.
And it was all quite, quite lovely. Snow everywhere, with the hills and mountains rising steeply in all directions. We pottered around taking photo's before making our way back to the main shopping centre in the middle of the city.
After a quick sandwich from the supermarket there, we weren't quite ready to get back on the shuttle bus, so we decided to walk back to the ship. The Norwegians have an excellent attitude to walkers and cyclists, with wide gritted paths, plenty of crossings, and drivers who'll always stop if you want to cross the road, no matter where you are.
Back on board we found that everyone had a good day, there are loads of excursions, such as dog-sledding, reindeer sledding and an igloo hotel, what's not to like?
And then, just to add to a brilliant day, at about 11pm, the lights showed themselves again. I still haven't worked out how to get the best pictures (the white lines are stars - my hands are moving as the camera is taking the picture). Maybe it wasn't quite as good as our first display, but it was still awesome. How lucky are we?
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