Tromso Day Out

Thursday 9^th June 2011 – Another Red Letter Day – TROMSO DAY OUT

This was a day out that nearly did not happen, due to the cost of the Express Ferry.  On

our way to Harstad I had telephoned the tourist board for information, one of which was

the cost of the Express ferry to Tromso and was told about NOK 450 p.p. single.  Then on Wednesday we went to the bus station where we thought we had to book the tickets for the ferry to get times and prices and were told that there was a 20% discount for a return ticket, this still put the cost each at NOK 675 and as we are only getting a little over NOK 8 to the £1, James still felt it was too much to spend particularly after our trip to Sweden on Sunday.  In the end I offered to give the trip to Tromso to him as an early anniversary present.  When I went back to buy the tickets I found that they are purchased on board.

Our Express Ferry

So it was that we were up early and on the ferry for the 07.00 departure time.  On boarding the ferry we had to give our names and ages and where we were going, at the same time James handed the officer one of our ‘visiting cards’ and asked if we could visit the bridge during the 3 hour trip.  I had a pleasant surprise when I bought our return ticket as it was quite a lot less than I was expecting: NOK 880 for the pair of us.  In fact I even had to check it was a return ticket!  Soon after leaving Harstad we were ushered up to the bridge where we spent a long time talking to the officers who were charming and very welcoming, we even got to sit in the captain’s seat and were able to be on the bridge to watch the docking at both Finnsnes and Tromso.

Carol in the Captain's seat

Once in Tromso we went straight to the tourist office to collect maps and information on what to see during our day.  The first thing we did was to visit Tromsdalen Church, more usually referred to as ‘The Arctic Cathedral’, which is the most popular attraction in Tromso and the place James had wanted to see.  The Church stands on the opposite side of the main Tromso Island with a long bridge which seems to lead right to it.  The unique architecture was inspired by Arctic Nature.  There is an amazing glass mosaic entitled ‘The Return of Christ’ which dominates the alter end and is one of the largest stain glass windows in Europe.  At the back end of the church are large picture windows looking across the water to Tromso city and the whole interior is beautifully light, it certainly lived up to all our expectations. 

Photos of the 'Arctic Cathedral, Tromso

View to the back of the church.

 


We then continued our walk to the cable car which is on the same side as the Arctic Cathedral.  The cable car took us 421m up Mount Storsteinen for a fabulous view over Tromso, we were so lucky with the weather as it had suddenly turned hot and sunny.  There were still patches of snow on the mountain top and we enjoyed our picnic lunch sitting on a rock. 

View of Tromso from the top of the cable car.

James in the snow on top of the mountain.

From the cable car we walked back across the bridge to Tromso city centre and went round the Polar Museum and then to Polaria which is an arctic-themed experience centre which show a wonderful film on five screens (only 4 working when we were there) on “Spits Bergen (Svalbard) – Arctic Wilderness”, we watched this twice.  There are also aquariums of fish and bearded seals.  At the end of the day we asked if we could see a film on Antarctica, which is shown in the winter and on special request in the summer, which they put on for us and about 4 others, once again it                                                                                      was spellbinding the photography just fantastic.

The Crew of the ferry waving when they spotted us!

It was then time to make our way back to the ferry for the 19.30 return trip, we got a super welcome back on board by the crew and James was thrilled on departure to be allowed to push the throttle up to full speed (under instruction of course) and then the engineer took him round the engine room – talk about little boys with toys!  On return to Harstad we were again allowed on the bridge for the docking which gave us a good view of Paddington IV in a berth opposite the ferry terminal.  To cap a wonderful day the three officers (Captain, First Officer and Engineer) came back to our boat for tea (they were not allowed to drink as they had to be up early for the 7 am ferry the following morning).  The two youngest crew members: a lad who was the deck hand and ticket seller and a girl who runs the small cafe and cleans up between crossings were left to put the boat to bed!

It was certainly a splendid day out, made all the more special by the really warm welcome we got on the express ferry; we felt we were treated like royalty!

10pm arrival back in Harstad - Carol on the bridge deck, Paddington IV in the guest harbour behind me