We departed Stavanger Friday morning, and this was the last sunrise we will see for the next 10 days (well, sort of.) We are in the "Land of the Midnight Sun", that region above the Arctic Circle that has 24 hours of daylight this time of year. The only real problem is that the weather is somewhat unpredictable this time of year and we have seen and will continue to see quite a bit of cloudy weather and rain. At least the rain and clouds make it feel a bit more like the Arctic.
Our trip started with a two day visit to Tromso. It is one of the larger cities above the circle, and has some very nice scenery and activities. We did a little walking after our arrival and took in the views, but not much more the first night, as we were a bit tired from the early morning and the flight. One picture I caught quickly while walking was a bit entertaining, though, so I posted it for your enjoyment.
One other note on our arrival in Tromso - we have concluded that Norway is hollow. While the country is covered in mountains, the Norwegians have done a wonderful job of tunneling all over the place to shorten the distance from point A to point B. This was most evident as we drove through the tunnel from the Tromso airport that had two traffic circles inside the tunnel!
We were scheduled to go on a whale watching safari the next morning, but had to reschedule it for later in our trip, as the distance was too great for what our itinerary allowed. So we headed to Polaria, which is a museum and set of exhibits dedicated to Arctic wildlife. Sidney is kind of into polar bears and posed with this statue outside the museum.
The museum was very enjoyable, featuring a panoramic film on Svalbard (a Norwegian island near the 80th parallel) as well as live fish and bearded seals native to the Arctic Ocean. The seals were very entertaining, and quite rare in captivity. This museum is the only one in the world that has raised bearded seals from pups, and they are six years old now. The bearded seal is the largest of the seals, and its name in Norwegian translates to "large seal."
After this museum we headed to the Polar Museum, which has a slightly different take on things. It is focused more on the human history of the polar region, including North Pole expeditions and hunting and fishing in the Arctic. While it may not be socially acceptable to many, it must be viewed that seal and polar bear hunting and whaling are part of the human history and culture of this region. The museum also has many artifacts from the original expeditions to the North Pole, as the first undisputed sighting of the North Pole was by Roald Amundsen, a Norwegian. He also led the first expedition to the South Pole and is credited with being the first person to reach both poles.
We headed from the Polar museum across the bridge to Tromsdalen, where we viewed the Arctic Cathedral, a beautiful church built in 1965. It is very prominent along the skyline and recognized as a major landmark in the area. The mountains in the background still had significant snow in places and made quite a nice backdrop for the church. The stained glass windows inside were also very nice and reminded me of the church we were members of in Houston.
We continued on our walk to the cable car that goes up the mountain just on the edge of Tromsdalen. The view from the top of the cable car of Tromso was wonderful, but it was very chilly and the light rain and wind didn't help. Sidney was getting tired by this time as well, so we opted not to continue hiking to the top of the mountain.
After returning across to Tromso, we had an early dinner to celebrate our 11th anniversary at a restaurant called Emma's Under. The food was very good, particularly the reindeer with raisin sauce and the strawberry and rhubarb pancetta.
Our hotel in Tromso was very nice and located right on the water (actually, part of it was built onto a pier) and the view from the room was also very nice. I would certainly recommend the Rica Tromso to anyone else visiting the city. The breakfast buffet was also very good and the bed was comfortable to the point that Kimber actually looked at the labels to see who manufactured it.
We got up this morning and, after again enjoying the breakfast buffet, walked up a hill overlooking Tromso. We spotted some blue poppies, which are quite rare because this Himalayan native requires very cool summers to grow. After the walk, we returned to the hotel and caught a taxi to the airport for a 35 minute flight to Hammerfest, the next stop on our journey.
Our next post will tell of this town, including Sidney's induction to the Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society and a Norwegian Snow White (it probably isn't what you think!)
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