6/2 -- Tromso

We slept in to make up for staying up late. There is not much going on today until we dock in Tromso at 2:15. We had a late (for us) breakfast, I finished yesterday's blog entry, Jim went on deck and took pictures, and we generally relaxed until lunch.

The next several photos are from a port
stop in Finnsnes

As we sailed into Tromso, we noticed a building that looked like tipped over dominos. It it their aquarium.

Tromso Aquarium

In Tramso, we walked around the waterfront and downtown and visited the Polar Museum. Our local guide, Sarah, is a redhead from Italy who has been here for 10 years and clearly enjoys it. Her story-telling skills were among the best I have heard. I wish I could remember more precisely some of the things she said because it was both interesting and funny. The waterfront is a mixture of old and new buildings, and new buildings that have been recreated in the old style. Many of them looked like or were the former warehouses we have seen here along the waterfronts of other cities.

Statue to Roald Amundsen, who reached
both the North and South Poles first. He was
not from Tromso but came here to get his crews.

Juxtaposition of the old and the new.

A prominent building across the sound was a distinctive triangular church which was despised when first built and is now an icon of Tromso. The main part of Tramso is an island and is now connected to the mainland and another island by bridges built in the 1970s. Many of the island inhabitants moved to the mainland once it was easier to get downtown, but  now they may have a hour commute to get to work with limited parking.  Housing prices are like where we live: $200,000 for a 225 Sq ft studio, $500,000 for a 430 sq ft 2 room apartment. Airbnb has had an impact too, like in San Francisco, changing apartments that used to be long-term rentals into short term and impacting the business model of both hotels and restaurants.

Modern church designed to be reminiscent of fish
drying racks

Bridge to the mainland and the church

This was the tax collection office.

These were some of the 8 guns along the waterfront to
protect the tax office from robbery.

The town square

 

This man, Fridtjof Nansen, was key to the
success of arctic explorers. He mined the
knowledge of the indigenous peoples to
prepare the Europeans for living safely above
the Arctic circle.

Jim with a polar bear rug. Killing polar bears
was a vanity project. There was no great use
for the meat, only the skin became a rug and
how many polar bear rugs does one guy need?

Upstairs in the Polar Museum

Model of the Fram which was designed and built here, and
now in a museum in Oslo, which we visited.

Early kayak

Above and below: the Fram in ice. The lower photo
clearly shows how the ship was pushed up by the ice
instead of being crushed.

Display of baby harp seal harvesting. First
the seal was stunned, then killed. They were
valuable because their fur was pure white
for the first 3  months, allowing it to be dyed.
Seal fur is the only fully waterproof fur.

After the museum, we walked around the downtown, which is primarily a pedestrian zone. Since it was Sunday, the only open shops were for tourists.

City Hall

The only Catholic church in Tromso, with 230 parishoners.
Visited by Pope John Paul in 1989.

Many of the settlers here came from Bergen and Trondheim
which each had their versions of the standard house. The
main difference seems to be door placment: Bergen style is
one in the middle, Trondheim is one at each end. In addition,
after Trondheim was rebuilt with masonry, the Art Nouveau
style in masonry was used here too.

Trolls are everywhere in Norway

This is the public library. The photo is too glary to show
that the wings in front and back are repeated on the sides.
In the long, dark winter, light from the library is supposed
to be very cheery.

The Lutheran Cathedral, built of wood.
Because it was Sunday, we were not able
to look inside.

Back on the ship, we learned that our departure on the 5th will start very early. Normally, we are asked to leave our big bags outside the room for collection about an hour before departure time. However, on the ship, we are supposed to leave our big bags at the closest elevator by midnight for a 9am departure the next day. Good planning will be critical!

Late in the evening, the sun  peaked out and Jim got a couple of good photos.