Tromsø, Norway

June 30 - 

We arrived this morning to Tromsø, Norway, the most populous city north of the Arctic Circle in Norway. It has a population of around 70,000 but when students are here at its university there are around 85,000.  There is a large university in Tromsø which offers programs in many disciplines; additionally there is a very large teaching hospital affiliated with the university.  The hospital employs 6000 people and has 4000 beds, which makes it very big indeed.

Tromsø is on an island at more than 69° N latitude.  Once again because of the influences of the Gulf Stream and its offshoots it supposedly doesn’t get as cold here.  That’s according to our guide, but we find it hard to believe that we Virginians wouldn’t be frozen popsicles.  Interesting to us was the fact that the streets in the city are constructed with heating pipes beneath them to help keep them clear of snow and ice.

Today we had a tour with our guide Silke.  We’ve only had one actual Norwegian guide. Today’s was originally German. Yesterday we had a Brazilian and the day before a Canadian.  They’ve all come here for vacation and stayed.  What adventurous people!

We set forth and first passed through the university and hospital.  As I mentioned earlier the university is large; apparently for people living in northern Norway this is the place to go.  The hospital looked huge and there is more construction going on building a cancer treatment center with the latest technologies.  Particularly interesting to us was that next to the hospital was a high rise building that is a hotel for family members of patients being treated. It’s evidently subsidized so the cost is low and people who come from the northern areas can be close when loved ones are hospitalized.

We passed a lovely botanical garden on our way to our first stop, the Tromsø Museum. The museum is dedicated to the Sámi people.  These are the indigenous people who live in the northern parts of Norway, Sweden and Finland.  People know them primarily as reindeer herders, but they evidently produce many arts and crafts.  Evidence has been found of Sámi people living in these parts since 8000 BC.  The museum was very interesting with displays of artifacts showing how these people live and use every part of what’s available to them.  Every part of the reindeer is used for something.  We also saw a video explaining the northern lights.  Apparently they are constantly occurring, but because we are here in summer when there is no real darkness, we can’t see them. We won’t ever get here in the winter, but they must be incredible to see, especially when the surrounding mountains are covered in snow.

This is essentially a Sámi suitcase which is pulled along behind a sled.

A Sámi house which is essentially a sort of teepee made of birch logs and reindeer hides.  The Sámi are nomadic people so their houses are not permanent structures.

Sámi utensils and decorations carved from reindeer bones and antlers

From the museum we went next across a bridge connecting the island of Tromsø with the mainland.  There we went to the cable car at Fjellheisen.  The cable car ascends about 1400 feet and from the summit we had a magnificent view of Tromsø across the water and the surrounding mountains.  Believe it oar not, we had three cruise ships here today.  The other highlight of the trip up the cable car is to have a Norwegian waffle in the café.  You can dress the waffle with blueberry jam, whipped cream and a brown sweet local goat cheese.  It was all good!

Tromsø from the Fjellheisen summit

It was so beautiful I had to add one more shot.

After we descended we stopped next at the  Arctic Cathedral on the mainland side.  The cathedral is actually a parish church, but its distinctive design has earned it its name.  It’s made primarily of concrete in a triangular shape with a very large stained glass mosaic at one end.  It’s a Lutheran church (that’s the principal religion in Norway) and the venue for many concerts because of the great acoustics.

Stained glass window behind the altar in the Arctic Cathedral

The Arctic Cathedral from the Tromsø side. It's the white triangular structure in the middle.

After our visit there we crossed back over the bridge to Tromsø city and after passing through the old town we headed back to the ship.  Once again we were impressed with the cleanliness of the place, the friendliness of the populace, and the hardiness of the people.  To live in a place which in winter has at the solstice not even a minute of sunshine takes a particular kind of individual. Silke told us at the winter solstice the sun doesn’t make any appearance at all.  There is only at best twilight.  I’m not sure I would like that.

We sailed at 5:30 PM and headed north to our next stop Storstappen Island and Honningsvåg. As we sailed along, seagulls were having a good time drafting alongside us.  Al got some pretty good shots of them.

Catching a draft from the ship

A high flyer

We were supposed to take a zodiac tour to see birds in Storstappen, but after thinking about it, we changed our minds.  It’s cold out on the water!  And our captain told us we may have inclement weather, so perhaps we made a wise decision.  We’ll see.  More later.

-->