What does it take to get a non-cruiser aboard a ship in the dead of winter? Offer a guaranteed view of the northern lights and you're half-way there. Hurtigruten, the Norwegian coastal steamer which crosses the Arctic Circle and follows the coastline all the way across the top of Sweden and Finland to the Russian border, offers the promise. Sightings have been frequent enough to suggest passengers travelling between now and early April should get the chance to tick this spectacle off their own bucket lists.
We flew direct to Tromsø to board the steamer and found that within minutes of leaving the port dozens of killer whales and humpbacks leapt in formation while we snacked on Norwegians' favourite snack - waffles with sweet brown goat's cheese and jam.
Standard cabins are small by luxury cruise standards but the double bed is comfy and living area is spacious with a walk-in wardrobe for our thermals. These were much needed up on deck after an excellent dinner of Arctic char, (a salmon-like fish).
The only entertainment is sky-gazing and the celestial cabaret. There were informative talks by British astronomer John Mason. We watched as three arcs of palest silvery green slowly morphed into pillars shifting across the sky, a display which went on for hours.
Hurtigruten has beautifully kitted-out lounges and a dance floor, but there's no live music or even movies. However, there is joy in arriving at a port as remote as the North Cape, the northernmost point in Europe, offering vistas of barren, pale gold lunar landscapes. Get there in spring to see reindeer and wildflowers.
Hammerfest was dubbed the Paris of the north in the late 19th century, but the scorched-earth policy of retreating Nazis nearly killed the place off. Only one building remains from the old times - a tiny chapel inside the cemetery opposite a striking contemporary church. The Reconstruction Museum poignantly tells the story of this tiny town.
Kirkenes, where Hurtigruten turns round near the Russian border, is a metropolis by comparison. Drawn by a new pipeline, speculators from all over the world occupy colourful wooden lodges dotted with rowan trees. Once the snow is deep enough, packs of huskies pull sledges with visitors deep into beautiful fjord-studded valleys. A highlight is the monthly Russian market, and a good bowl of borscht.
For generations, only rich Russians from across the border sustained this once-impoverished region with their demand for fresh fish on Fridays. Now, thanks to northern lights tourism and the oil and gas finds, smart new lodgings, fishing safaris, dog-sledding and snowmobiling adventures are turning Arctic Norway into Europe's new northern playground.
