Sunday June 11, 2023
Overnight there was no darkness as we did not turn off the light until nearly midnight last night and the sun was still high in the sky. We woke at 2AM and 4AM and it was still bright sunshine. The sun seems to get close to the horizon and then appears to bounce back into the sky, never going below the ocean. This will be even more pronounced tomorrow as we hear further North to Honningsvåg. We docked Starboard to dock in a semi commercial port at the Breivik berth, although there was a small “pop-up” pair of shops after exiting the secure perimeter, one with attire, mainly sweaters and the other with trinkets many of which seemed to be made by the local indigenous people – the Sami’s. They have their own language and indeed government and originated from Russia, but have been on the land much before the Vikings. Their flag Large red swath followed by narrow green then yellow stripes and the largest swath blue. A black circle is in the center and goes around all four colors. The size of the blue is roughly equivalent to the other three combined, with the red equivalent to 3 times the yellow plus green stripes combined. There is another indigenous group that traces it’s origins to Finland and are even a smaller minority than the Sami’s. Tromsø (called “Romssa suohkan” in Sami) is located at about 70 degrees North so well within the Arctic Circle (defined as 66 degrees 30’ N) and thus the endless light during the summer and the total darkness other than an hour or so of twilight a day in the winter, where the Northern Lights provide the excitement and light. It was established formally on January 1st, 1838 and has a population just under 80,000. However, the area has been inhabited since the last Ice age with archaeological evidence dating to 9,000 years ago. The Norse chieftain Ohthere in the 890’s lived here as did the Vikings and became the Northernmost dividing line between the Norse / Norwegian and Sami people. However, there have been finds of the Sami South of this “line”. The first church on Tromsøya Island was erected in 1252 (Ecclesia Mariae de Trums juxta pagans – The Church of Saint Mary in Troms near the Heathens) withe the “heathens” being the Sami. At the time, it was the Northernmost church in the world. Also ramparts were built to protect against the Russians as there is a border between the two countries nearby. On June 20th, 1794. Tromsø was issued a City charter by King Christian VII despite only having a population of 80 people. This was to reduce the dominance of Bergen’s monopoly of the Cod trade. Tromsø rapidly gained importance due to Codfish and by 1804 a Bishop Mathias Bonsak Krog came to Tromsø and established. Northern diocese. By 1850 it became a major city for Arctic Hunting, In 1848 a teacher training college was formed with the Tromsø museum being established in 1872 and the Mack brewery n 1877. We, of course, had to sample the Mack beer, that still dominates the local market, witch came in light and dark and was found to be of excellent quality. In the early 1900’s it became a place for arctic explorers to hire people and start their expeditions, with the most famous being Ronald Amundsen. The Northern Lights Observatory was founded in 1926. Germany invaded Norway in 1940 at which point Tromsø became the Capital briefly and the city itself did not suffer great damage. The “highlight” was the destruction of the battleship Tirpitz which was sunk by the RAF on November 12th 1944 in the harbour. In 1964 the Tromsø airport was inaugurated and the Norwegian Polar Institute was moved to Tromsø in 1988 and greater expansion of the University ensued.
Tromsø is an island that is mainly dominated by the northernmost University that holds classes in Norwegian, Sami and English and has about 15,000 students. One outstanding “photo-stop” with a great view from the island was next to the Faculty that trains ship Captains from fishing vessels to Cruise liners and everything in between. The day was slightly overcast but sunny most of the time. We boarded coach 4 for our tour of “Tromso Sights & Cable Car” with the Italian guide who is a System Engineering student at the university. He was excellent particularly given the adversity we were to encounter! We crossed the Tromsø bridge over to the Tromsdalen (second) area of the city, (the third part we did not go to – Kvaløya Island), where we headed to the Cable Car base station to board the Cable Car to the top of the Storsteinen to get a great view of the Island of Tromsø (Tromsøya). The third part of the city on the other side of Tromsøya is the island of Kvaløya connected via the Saandessund Bridge. Unfortunately, the winds at the top were too strong and for the safety of the passengers, it was closed for what was probably most of the day. At the bottom we did not feel the wind and at the time the wind at the top was still acceptable, but the forecast was for the wind to pick up and could leave us stranded at the top. Although disappointed, we all understood and the guide did his best to keep us informed and gave us lots of information.
As we left he cheered us up by saying we could spend more time at our next stop – The Arctic Cathedral *actually a Lutheran Church, but often referred to as a Cathedral for tourists. As we got to the door, there was a service on (being Corpus Cristi Sunday) and tourist entry was prohibited. So once again the guide did his best to give us as much information as he could about the church. There is a high bridge (60 meters) between the island and the church which if very windy also is closed, so they also have a tunnel. This part of Norway is all islands so they are very good at building tunnels and bridges. He consulted with the driver and told us that we would be going back through the Tromsøysund tunnel which was 110 meters below sea level. However, just as he was telling us that we started over the bridge! By this point all were amused and all with good humor. He then clarified, that we would be going in the tunnels under the city which had roundabouts and various different branches. We drove through the University with him pointing out the various faculties and stopping at the seafaring faculty for the terrific viewpoint. The mountains were all covered with snow and the views of the fjord and area was spectacular. Very different from yesterday which was rural, today was definitely more Urban. On the way he pointed out the Botanical Garden, the Ski Jumps, vestiges of the Winter Olympics that were held here, the hospital, the faculty that studies the Northern Lights, The King’s house (now the [female] Bishop’s house) and other key places, before going to the center of Town.
Here we got off the coach and entered the OPEN – Polar Museum. It is in the 1830’s building that was used as the Bonded warehouse by the Customs authorities until the 1970’s. The museum was opened on June 18th 1978 on the 50th anniversary of the fateful flight of the Flying Boat – Latham 47 – that went off on a rescue mission, killing Ronald Amundsen and the other five. A good portion of the second floor is devoted to his expeditions to the North and South Poles. He was the first to sail through the Northern Passage on th Gjøa ship which left Tromsø in 1901, spent much time at the Magnetic North Pole undertaking studies and arrived in Nome Alaska on August 31, 1906. On the vessel Fram, he sailed to Antarctica (although he initially was going to the North Pole, but found that someone had already reached that goal) and he, with 4 of his men, reached the South Pole on December 13th, 1811. Robert Scott (Britain) reached the South Pole on January 18th, 1912, but their whole team died on the way back to base camp. Trapping, Seal, Walrus and Polar Bear hunting and in general life in the Arctic forms the very interesting exhibit. The guide was extremely knowledgeable and explained all in great detail. [The only thing he never explained was his own name!!!].
He left us at the shuttle bus location and told us to go to a local fish restaurant which he highly recommended in the center of town, with a great view of then fishermen’s boats and the land beyond. We found Skirri – Kystens-Mathus Restaurant (www.kystensmathus.no) next to the aquarium, but the doors were locked and so our mouths anxious to tase the local King Crab and Cod were once again foiled!! We ended up getting. Sandwich and coffe at the Bakery opposite which we greatly enjoyed. We wandered a bit over the road repairs on the main road that has heated ducts under the road permitting it to remain frost and snow free all winter, until we reached the Catholic Cathedral. A relatively small core painted wooden structure, which we found open and were able to see the nicely, but conservatively / austere decor, with the pipe organ and all made from wood. It being time, we headed back to the Shuttle location where we fortunately boarded the coach just before it returned us to the ship. We had a nice dinner in the min dining room and saw the amazing show – Luminescence with Duo Lyodji (Maud and Hajima) and their almost unbelievable acrobatic performance. The sea conditions by now had picked up a bit and we were moving more than we had done previously.
Roger & Anne Travels 