Saturday in the Gateway to the Arctic

Gateway to the Arctic is another of Tromsø’s names – it related initially to the whalers, sealers and polar bear hunters who left this port to travel (or over winter as they often called it) to their hunting grounds in Svalbard, Greenland and (sometimes), Newfoundland and Labrador. Building on this title the Tourist Industry here promotes itself using this mosaic - Photo from the Tromsø Tourism Association, we only saw it from high up on the bridge

The name remains true today as, now, the ships are still gathering here for the journey north – now for tourism visits to North Cape and to Svalbard for the Northern Lights and for Polar Bear watching.

 

Indeed, sitting in our room in the Radisson Blu we see all kinds of vessels preparing for that journey, including another Hurtigruten ship, called the Trollfjord which is leaving later today for Svalbard.

More of that later, but now, back to the beginning of the day.

Early Morning

I wake this beautiful Saturday morning at 3.15am, of course this close to the poles it is already light and has been for an hour. Indeed it doesn’t really go dark at all, just has a period of twilight which makes it a bit darker than full light.

Parish Newsletter

I forgot to mention last night, that when I arrived at Tromsø I had to do a review of this week’s Parish newsletter, which I drafted on Monday, but got back from my friend Madeleine after her proofreading while we were on the ferry, so hadn’t been able to download it and complete it until arriving here. Thanks to a reminder from another friend Dave, I managed to do this yesterday evening and sent it off to the person who adds it to the website (Erica), the person who prints it (Tom) and this morning back to Dave who is printing the bidding prayers and notice sheets, it being so late when I started to do it I had made a few errors, which I was able to correct in time (where had Friday's morning prayer gone!!). So, I spend some time this morning checking that everything I had done last night was right.

 

All seems well. So, I move on to uploading photos to Flickr.

Breakfast

 

We go down to breakfast at 7.30am and enjoy the wide range of items on offer. A large number of French people are staying at the hotel, so almost every conversation we overheard at breakfast is in French.

 

I had my lovely yogurt, nuts and seeds with the wide selection I mentioned in yesterday's post. 

Drew adopted his new pattern of warm toast with a pat of cold butter allowing the butter to melt into the toast - one picture, two visits to the toaster.

He then followed that up by sausage, bacon, scrambled egg and roasted potatoes. 

I also took a photo of my breads selection, that often miss the camara. It is starting at the top and moving right - Rugbrød (rye bread), Knekkebrød (Rye Crispbread) and rugbrødkjeks (ryebread cracker) all, though rye based have a very different texture - the Knekkebrød is impossible to chew quietly and the Rugbrød is great for mopping up the pickle juice after eating the vegetables and fish.

With the breads I had a Norwegian Brie, tomato herring, sour cream herring, pickled herring, smoked salmon, peppered mackerel, pickled beetroot and picked gherkins - delicious, the delights of breakfast have been one of the features of this holiday. 

Drew decided to explore the sweet side of the menu

and enjoyed the first three so much he had alternative ones second. 

At 8.15am we go back up to the room and watch the ships some more.

Around Tromsø 

 

We left the hotel at 9am for our walk. Tromsø is essentially only three streets wide and three streets long at the centre. So walking it doesn’t take us long.

 

We first went to the Lutheran Cathedral, which isn’t open on a Saturday, so we took some external pictures and others of the statues which decorate the Cathedral Park.

From the Cathedral we went to one of the souvenir shops in Tromsø, there are many, many of these and most seem to stock the same stuff. This one attracted our attention because it had a Polar Bear and a brown bear (both stuffed) in them.

 

Leaving the store we walked up to Kongeparken on Skolegata where there is a statue of King Olav V and a young girl bringing him a flower. In the same area is an outreach centre for the church which looks after refugees and is decorated with murals of all sorts. Walking down the hill a little we come to the Tromsø Bibliotecka, a modern building with fascinating architecture. 

As we walked around the libarary we spotted a whole set of murals leading to an underground car park – you can see these in the video.

 

From the library we walked to the Catholic Cathedral – Drew went in to take photos I couldn’t really take when I was in Mass to pray.

Across the road from the Cathedral is the Modern Rådhus - Tromsø Town Hall, this glass and metal building is striking compared to the great age of most of Tromsø. Above this square, the Stortorget, with its statue of King Haakon VII is the historic Rådhus.

We stop for a coffee at a place called KaffeBønna at 11.15am. I must admit the name knowing that the Norwegian ø makes a 'er' sound, does put me in mind of some of the Polari, Kenneth Williams would have used in his day! Oh dear, I am so old many people reading this won't know what I am talking about - here is an example.

Drew has been tempted by one of the summaries of 'things to do in Tromsø to try a Cardamom Stour here, whereas I opt for a wholemeal scone

which we washed down with an Americano and a Caffe Latte, he is still getting double the liquid each time!! [Co-pilot's note: You will note, dear readers, that he is still whinging about this. EACH AND EVERY TIME!!!]

We next visit SkansenFestningsverk, the ancient centre of habitation on the island. 

Across to Tomasjorda 

Being just under the city bridge we decide to fit in the two sights across the Fjord in Tomasjorda. We walk over the bridge, with some amazing sights, including one Hurtigurten ship coming in behind another  and head for the Fjellheisen Cable Car with its excellent views over the city and beyond. We have more photos than would fit in a video, but they are accessible on Flickr - Starting here

We go up at 12.40pm and come down at 1.30pm down. Well worth the price of the cable car. 

 

From here we go to the Arctic Cathedral, which isn't a cathedral but the parish church of Tomasjorda. This was more of a rip off. We have to pay to enter and it only has one significant stained glass window, though that is pretty amazing. So, we didn't complain!

 

The church's external aspect is also very significant, it can be seen from everywhere in the city, still you can see that from outside with no need to enter.

Bus back to Tromsø

 

On leaving the Cathedral we decided to take a bus back to Tromsø: 

(a) because the bridge brought out the worst of Drew’s vertigo and 

(b) because I wanted to try the Svipper app in readiness for our journey on Monday which involves a three hour long local bus journey on a Svipper bus.

 

We caught the bus at the Arctic Church and the bus sped across to the City Centre dropping us three blocks from our hotel. Where we arrived back at 2.30pm.

For an afternoon of blogging and Flickr uploading.

We leave the hotel at 6.50pm for the short walk to our meal at Emma’s Dream Kitchen, but that is a topic for another post.