NB Day 5: Tromsø … Paris of the North

… so deemed by 19th century travelers who found themselves surprised that a city that grew out of trade and fishing was unexpectedly sophisticated, with the residents clad in fine fashion and the social life quite vibrant. Today, any such fashion was hidden under rain gear and the streets and cafés were mostly deserted.

The weather as we approached Tromsø gave us a bit of hope that there would be no rain for our visit to the city. Those were dashed. We got rain … and plenty of it. At first it was a drizzle, then it stopped, then it restarted and fell steadily, and finally it poured. The cycle repeated itself for the duration of our four-hour stop in the city.

Having spent several days in Tromsø prior to our 2011 expedition voyage to Svalbard we were looking for something different to do this time.

We had hoped to get together with a friend who lives here, but she was on her way to the airport for a flight to England even as the ship was docking. She had suggested a very nice place for us to check out on our own … outside the city. “It will take a little effort to get there, but it will be worth it,” was her accompanying comment. The weather being what it was, however, we decided to bag that idea.

Nor was the weather really conducive to visiting the Botanic Garden that was my back-up plan.

Instead, we headed to the Tromsø branch of the Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum (Northern Norway Art Museum) not too far from where m/s Havila Castor was berthed. I’ll leave that portion of our afternoon to another footprint, and share here images from our meander through the city streets.

We eventually returned to the ship … dry thanks to our rain gear, but chilled to the bone thanks to the stiff wind we encountered at the “Gateway to the Arctic Ocean” mosaic installation.

Once we divested ourselves of our outer wear, we headed up to the coffee/hot water machine on deck 6, made ourselves some hot tea, and relaxed in front of the ‘fake’ fireplace in the forward lounge. Ahhh! The mind is a great thing … just seeing the digital fire flames and hearing the crackling of the burning logs made us feel warmer 🤣.

🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹

P.S. We did not cross the bridge from Tromsø to the mainland to visit the Ice Sea Cathedral this time. If you would like to see what the interior looks like, here’s a link to the post I wrote in 2011 … https://tinyurl.com/Ice-Sea-Cathedral.

If you would like to virtually check out the Polarmuseet … https://tinyurl.com/PolarMuseet.Read more