First full day in Tromsø

After a good night’s sleep I felt much refreshed and ready for our first full day in Tromsø. I had breakfast with Martin and Zohara, and later we were joined by Anne-Marie who had arrived last night.

Polaria

Later I met up as planned with Isa, and our friend Christian, to go on a visit to Polaria, an aquarium and museum about five minutes' walk from our hotels. There we were joined by Shelagh and Yvonne. We saw the seals being fed and heard a short presentation about them, checked out some of the fish, and watched two films in the panorama theatre. One was about the Northern Lights, with some great footage, but my favourite was the one showcasing the wildlife and landscapes of Svarlbad.

Meanwhile Colin and Josephine had arrived and we joined them for a coffee in the museum café. Then we split up, with Christian, Shelagh, Isa and I deciding to walk the couple of kilometres to Telegrafbukta, site of the first telegraph line to arrive in Tromsø and connect the island to mainline Norway. More importantly, it was the site of the picnic organised by our host Jon. It wasn’t really picnic weather and I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to go, but I was really glad I did so. I enjoyed the walk, firstly along the shore with some interesting sculptures near the theatre, and then cutting through a couple of housing complexes, one with modern apartments and the other with traditional wooden houses.

VT picnic

We reached the University Museum which I had visited on my previous trip to Tromsø, and from there it was a short walk through a park to the meeting point. And what a meeting point! The views across the water were stunning, with the light changing all the time.

The weather was changing all the time too. In the hour or so we spent there we had sunshine, drizzle, and even sleet! As I say, not picnic weather but yes, we had fun. There were good things to eat, like waffles with jam and cream, brown cheese, fruit, biscuits and more. And as always it was fun to chat with VT friends.

Tromsø's Lutheran cathedral

After we’d eaten and taken lots of photos Isa, Shelagh and I decided to take the bus back to the city centre to visit the Lutheran cathedral. This is remarkable for being the only Protestant Norwegian cathedral made of wood. It was built in 1861 in the Gothic Revival style, on a site thought to have been used as a church since the 13th century.

Inside it struck me as relatively small for a cathedral, but then Tromsø is a small city. We found some information boards at the back, in Norwegian and English, one of which mentioned that it accommodates 618 worshippers. As a comparison, London’s St Paul’s Cathedral has room for around 3,500!

Above the altar is a copy of the painting of the Resurrection by the Norwegian artist Adolph Tidemand, the original of which is in a church in Bragenes, south west of Oslo. This copy was painted on wood by Christen Brun in 1884. The Norwegian inscription beneath it is taken from St John’s Gospel: ‘I am the resurrection and the life’. Around the apse are some lovely stained-glass windows which were installed as recently as 1960.

We also went in the Sami shop opposite where I bought handmade soap for my sister, reindeer salami for Chris and a necklace with a Sami rune design for me!

We walked along the main street to visit Perspektivet, which had a good photograph exhibition about a changing Europe, and another unusual exhibition about an artist and writer who once lived in that house, Cora Sandel. From there we walked back to our respective hotels to rest up after our busy day.

VT dinner in Bardus

The first official VT meet dinner took place this evening at a nice bistro in the centre of town, Bardus. We had an upstairs room for our group, nicely decorated like a private library.

The service was friendly and the food nicely presented. My halibut was cooked well, and I liked the sauce, but I would have preferred it to be served hotter than lukewarm. Maybe they struggled to serve so large a group? However the chocolate fondant dessert with raspberry sorbet couldn’t be faulted, it was delicious! I had a nice time chatting with lots of VTers but didn’t stay late as I still had a bit of sleep to catch up on after my broken night a couple of days ago.