Trip to Tromsø

Friday (2024-03-08)

  • Wagamama’s at Gatwick
  • Toblerone
  • Plane to Tromsø!
  • Landed 2340 local time
  • About an hour between landing and getting a taxi
  • First sight of tunnel system under Tromsø mountains
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    The Wagamama restaurant at Gatwick.
    Chicken katsu ramen.
    The statutory airport Toblerone.
    View from plane window before takeoff.

Northern Lights visible from plane; they turned off the cabin lights so we could see.

Northern Lights viewed from the plane
The Northern Lights, as seen from my aeroplane window.
The Northern Lights, as seen from my aeroplane window.
The Northern Lights, as seen from my aeroplane window.

Saturday (2024-03-09)

  • Breakfast (great smoked salmon and pickled herring, scrambled eggs, mushrooms, beans, bread, butter, apple jam)
  • Ran into some lost tourists, resulting in a rainy walk over bridge to east
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    The rather unappealing view from the hotel window. Mountain is visible in the distance, but the view is primarily of an office.
    The view over the harbour from directly outside the hotel. Lots of snow; the mountain in the distance is immersed in cloud.
    Another view over the harbour from directly outside the hotel, to a different mountain, this time emphasising the boats in the harbour.
    The Polar Museum had a temporary exhibit on “Queering the Arctic”. Part of that exhibition included a blue plaque commemorating “Homo Cruising” on the harbour front. Text: “På uforstyrrede steder langs byens kaiomràde har menn hatt sex med menn i uminnelige tider” English translation: “In undisturbed places along the city’s quayside, men have had sex with men since time immemorial”
    View from the Polar Museum in the direction the centre of the island, featuring the classic brightly coloured buildings.
    View down between two buildings to the harbour, with a distant mountain just about visible across the water through the clouds.
    The water was extremely clear, and you could see a very large number of small fish in it. The sea floor was visible from surprisingly far out along the bridge.
    View from just outside the Arctic Cathedral, with brightly coloured buildings nearby and the city proper visible across the water.
    View from just outside the Arctic Cathedral, mainly featuring a bare tree but with a majestic mountain visible in the distance.
    View from just outside the Arctic Cathedral, across the water to the city proper. Lots and lots of tourists, because we intersected with a large group that arrived at the same time as we did.
  • Arctic cathedral
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    Inside the Arctic Cathedral, facing its massive triangular stained-glass window.
    Inside the Arctic Cathedral, facing the silver organ suspended high above the entrance. Also visible is some of the truly enormous crowd of tourists who had been bussed in.
    Inside the Arctic Cathedral, facing the massive triangular stained glass window and the altar.
  • Cable car up mountain, vue panoramique
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    The view up the hill from the cable car terminus at the base.
    The view up the hill from the cable car terminus at the base, featuring the red carriage that would take us up.
    Looking into the engine room with its enormous wheel.
    Looking into the engine room with its enormous wheel.
    View from the platform at the top of the cable car. Lots of cloud in the distance obscures the hilltops, but there’s a great view of the city below.
    View from the platform at the top of the cable car. Lots of cloud in the distance obscures the hilltops, but there’s a great view of the city below.
    View from the platform at the top of the cable car. Lots of cloud in the distance obscures the hilltops, but there’s a great view of the city below.
    View from the platform at the top of the cable car out along the ridge it’s situated on. Lots of snow on the ground, although it’s a day old at least and is slowly turning to ice.
    Wider-angle view from the platform at the top of the cable car out along the ridge it’s situated on, featuring both city and ridge.
    The glass windows preventing you from falling to a freezing death from the viewing platform were covered in stickers.
    Slightly terrifying view from the viewing platform down the slope through the glass windows which prevent you from falling to a freezing death.
    Clearer view across the city from the viewing platform.
    View across to the city from further over along the ridge, looking along the power poles.
    View across to the city from back away from the edge; I’m standing on some fairly deep snow here.
    This viewpoint was popular with tourists! Apparently the cable car has got multiples more expensive in the last few years (it was about £60 worth for a return trip for two people when we went).
    View from further along the ridge towards the cable car terminus and viewing platform, featuring some of the city below.
    View from further along the ridge towards the city, out over a rather anaemic metal fence which was partially collapsed and partially buried in snow.
    View from further along the ridge towards the cable car terminus and viewing platform, featuring some of the city below but mostly a group of tourists.
    View inland up the hill.
    View inland up the hill.
    Panorama from further along the ledge, encompassing most of Tromsø and the viewpoint itself.
    There were a couple of padlocks on the fence like you’d get on French bridges.
    Ground conditions: thin layer of snow over solid ice.
    We found a small snowman, and built a couple of even tinier snowmen to accompany it.
    The masculine urge to dig holes.
    The snow was in fact very deep.
    The snow was so deep that it was routinely possible to get pretty thoroughly submerged. Snowshoes turn out to be magic for this, but that only comes later.
    Panoramic view from further in, but by this time the clouds were descending.
    Panorama of the view inland up the hill. It’s mostly featureless snow, given the dense cloud in the background preventing you from seeing over to the next hill.
    I made a snow angel.
    View over to the next hill. The whole thing is enwreathed in cloud.
    View over to the next hill, with even denser cloud.
    View over to the cable car terminus and then out over the city, from a fair distance up the hill.
    Another view over the city from high up above.
    A cairn (Sommers Cairn, according to Google Maps?), although this didn’t seem to mark anything in particular, because it was decidedly halfway up a hill.
    Hello, it’s me (and Joe).
    Joe went up the hill to something marked on Google Maps as “På Toppen”, which given that it means “on the top” seems rather an odd name for a landmark halfway up a hill.
    Joe coming back down the hill again.
    View from the cable car going back down towards the city again.
    View from the town at the bottom of the hill, out towards the centre of Tromsø across the water.
  • Back to hotel, sauna
  • Cinnamon bun and golden milk at Pust Kafé (maximum bougie London energy)
  • Polar museum
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    Depiction of a seal hunter killing a baby seal with a large axe. Baby seals were especially prized for their fur, which is soft and white for only a couple of weeks.
    Walrus skeleton.
    Depiction of a polar bear trap. Bait in one end of a tube, and a loaded gun pointing down the tube in such a way that it goes off when the bear eats the bait.
    A truly gigantic telescope for use on Arctic ship expeditions.
  • Carrot cake and Lady Grey tea at hotel
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    Cinnamon bun at Pust Kafé.
    View from just outside the hotel over the harbour and to the mountain opposite (where you can just about see the cable car terminus).
    Hotel did tea and cake every day at 3pm; this was a carrot cake with Lady Grey tea.
    The view into the harbour from the dining room in the hotel.
  • Tea at hotel, sauna again and jacuzzi outside
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    The open-air jacuzzi in the hotel was probably just a tiny bit more hot than was comfortable. Bookable in half-hour chunks for a modest fee.
    Beautiful view from the jacuzzi in the hotel, over the harbour towards the distant mountains.

Sunday (2024-03-10)

Breakfast photos
Breakfast was varied and I generally had three courses. This was the smoked salmon and pickled herring course. There was also the scrambled eggs and beans course, and the croissants/pancakes/jam course.
Another photo of the smoked salmon and pickled herring course at breakfast.

My photos
View from minibus window somewhere around Eidkjosen.
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A beautiful panoramic view which is almost entirely shrouded in cloud.
At the top of the hill there was a viewpoint down two different fjords, and a cairn with a little box containing a visitors’ book.
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Turns out I don’t know how to keep my eyes open.
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There was quite a lot of sliding down hills, not all of which was accidental. Here is Joe going back up the hill to try again.
Photos from our guide Evgeni
Here is the first of the official photos our guide Evgeni took.
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My photos
The iPhone 15 Pro camera is quite good at capturing the Northern Lights! These are my own photos.
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The Northern Lights were strong that night, so it was mainly a game of finding where the clouds were going to clear. Marcin made the excellent call not to take us to Finland; it turned out to be much cloudier over that way.
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Photos from our guide Marcin
The first of Marcin’s official photos from the night.
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Monday (2024-03-11)

  • Husky sledding
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    The temperature was barely freezing, so every time we stopped the dogs would roll in the snow to cool down.
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    Puppies!
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    Puppies!
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  • Jacuzzi again
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    Beautiful view from the jacuzzi in the hotel, over the harbour towards the distant mountains.

Tuesday (2024-03-12)

  • Glass blowing workshop

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    Cute glass workshop. In principle I believe one can blow glass there as a tourist, but we didn’t try. I did spend a while watching them work the glass, though.

  • More buns at Pust

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    Pust Kafé: golden milk and cardamom bun. (The cardamom buns appeared to have some central supplier, because several cafés did exactly the same ones.)
    Menu at Pust Kafé. To remind myself, the golden milk contained turmeric, cinnamon, ginger, cardemom, pepper, and vanilla.

  • Aquarium (featuring seals!)

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    There were five seals in the aquarium (three harbour seals of which one was a six-month-old baby, and two huge bearded seals). I think this was the baby, hanging suspended in the water with its head out.
    A collection of anemones and crabs in a tank. This crab looks a bit guilty to me.
    Gigantic fish, although it’s quite well camouflaged. I forget what kind of fish it is - some kind of flatfish with those eyes that only look upwards.
    Another angle on the gigantic flatfish, where it’s hopefully a bit less camouflaged.
    The seals, from below, during one of the daily training/feeding sessions. There were an awful lot of people viewing this from above the water, but there was an excellent view from below and very few people.
    One of the harbour seals, from the tunnel below the water.
    Absolute unit of a bearded seal, again seen from below with her head sticking out of the water.
    Three of the seals. They were darting around very quickly.
    Absolute unit appears to have sat down on the underwater tunnel.
    Tank containing what I think were salmon.
    Tank containing what I think were salmon.
    I think this is a set of shark teeth.

  • Plane to Luton

  • Arrived home 0120 GMT

Stats

  • Nikoli-style puzzles solved: 48
  • Saunas: 7
  • Jacuzzis: 2
  • Cardamom buns: 2
  • Items of clothing lost: 1