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Published: June 18th 2023
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This morning we woke up in Tromso Norway. This is the 3rd largest city above the Arctic circle, with a population of about 77,000. Tromso is actually several hundred kilometers above the circle, but it has a comparatively comfortable climate because the Florida Gulf Stream pumps warm water up the east coast and across the top of the Atlantic, where is reaches Norway. Today we had delightful weather. It was sunny all day with only a slight wind. The ship's weather screen said just 51, but while we were on our excursion it seemed more like 60. But we could not have asked for anything better as far as the weather.
Our ship docked at a pier in the deep-water channel, so the immediate surroundings were pretty industrial. There is another pier closer to the center of town where smaller cruise ships can dock, but not ours. However from the upper deck, we could see some of the surrounding area.
We slept in for a little while and then had breakfast in the Horizon Court. Our excursion was scheduled to meet at 1:00 so we had a relaxing morning. That gave us a little stitching time with the TV
playing something and some reading time. Then we eventually went down to the dining room to await our day's adventure.
When it was time for our group to leave, the excursion leader gave us a head start to get to the bus. Unfortunately, today the gangway was a set of steps down to the pier. Janet was able to manage all 28 of the steps, but it took 'a little time and the group had caught up to us before we left the pier itself. Then there was a walk through "the tent" with all the sweaters that were for sale, and then down the block to the bus. Bad news is that we were the last to get to the bus. Good news is that everyone had seen us as they passed us, and had left the front seat open for us behind the driver. It shows there are more good people than the selfish ones from the other day.
Our first stop was at a museum, but the route there was really interesting. Not far from the dock is a tunnel which took 3 years to complete, but now goes under the city, and even below
sea level. But the really interesting part is that there were three round-abouts in the tunnel with intersecting roads going various directions. In fact, one lead to an underground parking area. We don't recall ever seeing that in a tunnel before.
Driving through town we have been impressed with how nice and clean everything looks. The port advisor from the ship had said that Tromso has more wooden houses than most other cities in Norway. The original houses were almost all painted red because that is the easiest color to extract from seaweed. If a house was a different color, then it belonged to someone of great influence. Now the houses are more likely some other color just to distinguish them from the old houses. But the town looked very presentable everywhere we went.
We got to the Tromso Museum and our guide showed us around for awhile before giving us free time. The first set of displays that she explained was all about the Northern Lights (aurora borealis). To start with, they are there all year round, but you have to have darkness to see them, so that is not possible for this cruise. There are also
Southern Lights just like up north, as each are generated by solar flares expelling massive electron storms into the Earth's atmosphere and those colliding with atoms around the north and south magnetic poles. Because Tromso is so directly under the lights, they only see green and purple. These are from the interaction with Oxygen and Nitrogen in the area. Further from the poles, other colors are visible as more pollutants muddle up the atmosphere. Our guide gave a much better explanation, but we think that was the basic message. She did say that from Oct-Mar there is an active tourist trade from people flying into Tromso just to see the light displays.
Next we visited a room with animals and birds that are common to the arctic. Of course, they were stuffed animals, but very realistic and she gave information about each one. There are actually 2 types of seagulls here. One is larger and has pinkish colored legs, and the smaller has orange-brown legs. She talked about the Cormorants, which at fish eating birds. However, they are excellent divers, and they use their feet and wings to dive up to 150 feet deep. We saw Arctic Foxes, Bears,
and little Puffins, along with many others. They also have the skeleton of a Toothed Whale. Our guide had information about everything. She is from Rome and came here to go to the University. She had completed her master's and is planning to work on her PHD. The university here attracts students from all over the world because it has many fields of study and all classes are taught in English.
After reloading the bus, which each time was difficult for Janet to climb the steps, we headed to the cable car. This was a ride up the side of the mountain which overlooks Tromso. However, first you had to get from the bus to the cable car station. That was a steep, uneven paved path that was very difficult to climb using a walker. David was afraid it might be too steep for Janet, but she marched slowly up this grade and got to the station. Frankly, we believe our fellow bus riders were becoming impressed with her determination to go everywhere and they offered to help or to let her sit if there was a bench available. Anyway, at the top we had a terrific view overlooking
Tromso Island where the main part of the town is located, and also of the Norwegian mainland where the rest of the town has expanded. There are two bridges connecting the island to the mainland. But after a while we had to leave, so we rode the tram back down to the station and then had to make our way back down the path to the bus. Going up you didn't have to worry about slipping, but coming down we had to be extra careful not to let the walker get away.
The third stop was at the Arctic Cathedral. That is what they named it, but it is actually a regular Lutheran church. In town there really is a Lutheran cathedral which we drove past, with a Bishop, and it is the northern most cathedral in the world. There is also a Catholic cathedral, but we did not see it. The Arctic Cathedral is a very modern architecture designed to look like a series of glacial peaks. On either end are large glass windows. When it was first opened, all the congregants had to wear sunglasses to keep from being blinded because they were looking directly into the
sun through the window. So they changed and made one end to be a huge stained glass window and it glows with the sunlight. There is also a pipe-organ which is played once a day, but not for us. The pipes are arranged to look like the outline of a ship at sea, although that might take some imagination.
There was another very steep ramp to have to climb to get to the cathedral, so Janet decided to stay on the bus and look at David's pictures. When the group got back on board, our guide gave Janet a thumbnail description of what she had said to the rest of us inside. That was nice.
Then we drove back to the ship, arriving just about 5:00. There was still the walk through the parking area, through the tent, and up the 28 steps again, but we made it. Rather than going to the cabin to rest a little, we went directly to the dining room for supper. Since we had actually skipped lunch, we were kind of hungry. We both had a delicious crab meat cocktail with melon and apple, followed by the main course of pulled pork and potatoes. We had such a good appetite by then it tasted delicious.
We returned to our cabin and collapsed for the evening. W watched the 3rd Kingsman movie, so we are all caught up on that series. We had also seen "Eddie the Eagle" the night before. Looking back at the day, it had been kind of tiring but we saw a lot of interesting things. The tour had been rated as "moderate" and "handicapped accessible", but we hope that our next moderate excursion is a little less vigorous. Anyway, it was a good day.
Tried to upload some pictures, but they just took forever and we gave up. We will try again in a day or two.
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Mary Fischer
non-member comment
Glad everything worked out for you and the tour....