Short on Time in Tromsø, Norway’s Surprising Island City

So far on our cruise we have been very lucky with the weather. While it hasn’t been sunny every day, it hasn’t rained until today when we stopped in Tromsø. However being a resident of the Seattle area, I wouldn’t call today’s weather rainy. It was actually more of a heavy mist. That doesn’t mean the weather was pleasant, but it wasn’t pouring rain so it really didn’t bother us that much.

Tromsø is a fairly good sized town. It actually has a university in it. The other places we visited would better be called a village or a town, but Tromsø definitely deserves the moniker of city.

As is typical, we arrived in Tromsø in early morning. We would have about six hours to explore the town if we so desired. We didn’t make an effort to get an early start, and that turned out to be a mistake. Because of where the ship docked, the cruise line offered a shuttle bus to take people into town as it was too far to walk. The shuttle bus was to run every fifteen minutes. We just missed one when we walked out to get in line. Then things got confusing.

There was an excursion that needed a bus to take the group where they needed to go. Apparently a bus was missing or something was wrong. In the end we waited nearly forty minutes before we finally got a shuttle in to town. It was getting a little frustrating for us as we knew it was limiting our time in the city.

The prime place I wanted to visit in Tromsø was the Arctic Cathedral which is a modern church structure. To get to the church we needed to cross a bridge. While we were able to walk across the bridge, I noted that they were working on it. No cars were crossing the bridge. I could not see any other bridges across the water, nor did I see any ferries crossing. I was puzzled as to how people were getting from one side to the other.

The answer turned out to be quite simple, a tunnel under the water. In fact the city has a whole system of roads underground. We took it when we drove back to the dock. We entered a tunnel and saw some roads going off in various directions. There is even a roundabout in the tunnel. It’s amazing what technology and engineering can accomplish these days. It also makes for safer driving in the winter months of snow and ice.

The Arctic Cathedral is right at the end of the bridge on the mainland side of Tromsø. It has a glass front which gives it a very modern feel. The church charges about $9 to visit inside. The interior is a very simple design. The sanctuary features a large stained glass image of Christ. The sides have narrow windows that let in light creating interesting lines long the sides. Even the pews seem modern with a very square design. They didn’t look that comfortable, but I didn’t sit in them. We walked all the way around the church outside to see it from all angles.

After walking back across the bridge, we headed toward another more traditional church in the main part of Tromsø. We got to the main street and eventually it became a walkable street with no cars which was nice. Since we wanted to buy a few things, we stopped at a few of the stores along the way. We also passed by the statue of a man in a fishing boat called the Arctic Hunter. The statue recognizes the importance of the fishermen and whale hunters in the history of Norway.

As we were wandering around, we discovered Our Lady Catholic Church. It was not the church we were looking for. It is a small church although it has a tall steeple on the outside. Inside it is pretty simple as Catholic churches go. There is some art painted on the walls, and there is a very small pipe organ in the back. What I found most interesting was in the small foyer. A snow shovel was leaning against the wall. They were apparently ready for snow at any moment.

We continued on looking for the other church. It was a little farther away than I had anticipated. However, before we got there, we passed a McDonald’s restaurant. What is special about this one is it is the farthest north of all the McDonald’s restaurants in the world. Silvette insisted I have a photo taken with the sign in the window touting this distinction.

We finally came to the church I was looking for, the Tromsø Cathedral of the Church of Norway. Its unique feature is its wooden construction. I had read it was open to the public, but unfortunately it was not when we visited. I was only able to take photos of the outside.

At this point it was time for us to catch the shuttle bus back to the cruise ship even though we had not seen everything we had wanted to see in Tromsø. We traveled through the underground tunnels and boarded the ship. We had lunch and expected the ship to sail on its way. It did move, but not very far. I had gone outside to take photos as we sailed away. I was able to get some photos of the city as we passed along the shore, but then we stopped.

We docked again on the edge of Tromsø. where other, smaller boats were as well. There seemed to be two reasons for this. One was that five crew members came on board from apparently some time off. Secondly, they needed to do some restocking of supplies. The later took quite a bit of time as they went back and forth with a small forklift to the warehouse bringing out pallets of supplies. Someone was also taking empty pallets back to the warehouse.

While I was waiting to see what was happening at the dock, I happened to point my camera with its telephoto lens down at the water and realized there were jellyfish in the water. I took pictures and was able to see them as they floated around. That was totally unexpected as I think of jellyfish as living in warm water.

It took a while for them to restock the ship, and when they finished, they moved the ship a short distance again and just sat there. I’m not sure why. It wasn’t until after 7:00 that we were finally on our way again. This was a little disappointing since our time visiting the city was short yet we were still in Tromsø for about seven more hours. I wished they had given us more time since they actually spent more time in the city.

In the meantime we had dinner and our server had become quite talkative. She is a native Norwegian, and has been very friendly and chatty with us, especially with Andrea and Jacob. Today she was telling us about her family dynamics with her Finnish father and his family. It was quite entertaining.

Once the ship has settled down for the night, I like to take a walk around outside every once in a while to take photos. In the evening there are less people out and about so it’s fun to take photos of vistas that perhaps only a few other people are seeing. Of course we are in the time of the midnight sun so there is still light for photos.

Tomorrow we will visit the northernmost part of Europe which one can reach by car. The forecast calls for improved weather so hopefully I can get some better photos than the grey skies of today allowed.

Credit: Silvette Lee took the photos of the front of the Arctic Cathedral and of me at McDonald’s.