We had been to Tromso, Norway 6 months before and it looked very different without snow on the ground. In fact, it was such a nice day we were shorts on our independent tour to visit a fjord. Our guide took us to the other side of the island, across the water and then we went down one of the popular fjords in the area. The scenery throughout the tour was impressive. Shortly after we started the tour, we saw some local people skiing in skates (long inline skates used with poles). This evidently is a summer activity to stay in shape when winter approaches and you want to be in good shape for cross country skiing. We also caught our first view of Norwegian Reindeer early in the tour. We found 3 reindeer over in a little field off the highway. Most people got out of the vehicles to take pictures of these reindeer who were just grazing on some of the grass. We stopped at many scenic stops where we took pictures. The guide was a professional photographer and took pictures of us along the way which he has recently sent to us. Along the way we stopped at a beach and was surprised to see people going into the very cold water. The guide said it was the most people he had ever seen at the beach. This was a very warm day for Norway!
About halfway through the tour we hiked up top to a beautiful scenic overlook on the fjord. There the guide served us some coffee or tea and gave us a local cake served in the area. It was a nice little break. In this area our guide pointed out to us some cloudberries that were growing. These turn out to be rather expensive berries because they are difficult to pick and collect. They are sort of orange in color and have a sweet but sour taste to them. Evidently, they are in high demand. During our trip we also saw what looked like almost a team of people doing this cross-country skate training. We also passed a few fish farms in the fjords. This is a big business in Norway where they have 3 to 5 netted areas floating in the fjord where they “grow” salmon. These netted areas can be over 100 feet in diameter and 150 feet deep. The fish start off as small baby salmon and are nurtured to mature salmon ready to be harvested. This tour was nice to give a different perspective of the area than we had seen 6 months before.
After the tour we took a 2 hour walk around the city before our ship sailed away. We walked up to the main street of town and took a few pictures of the Tromso Cathedral which is a fairly new looking building. After walking through a few stores, we headed towards the harbor to look at some of the nice ships docked there. It is a very pretty city and very enjoyable to walk around. Right before we returned to the ship, we looked up and saw what looked like hundreds of seagulls on the tops of the roofs of some of the buildings. They make a lot of noise and have their nests just nestled into the gutters. Some buildings put up wire barriers to keep the seagulls away. It was another enjoyable visit to Tromso and hopefully we might come back again some time. We had a great sunset as we left Tromso (although the sunset was at 10:30PM).
Regards,
Sharon and Greg
About halfway through the tour we hiked up top to a beautiful scenic overlook on the fjord. There the guide served us some coffee or tea and gave us a local cake served in the area. It was a nice little break. In this area our guide pointed out to us some cloudberries that were growing. These turn out to be rather expensive berries because they are difficult to pick and collect. They are sort of orange in color and have a sweet but sour taste to them. Evidently, they are in high demand. During our trip we also saw what looked like almost a team of people doing this cross-country skate training. We also passed a few fish farms in the fjords. This is a big business in Norway where they have 3 to 5 netted areas floating in the fjord where they “grow” salmon. These netted areas can be over 100 feet in diameter and 150 feet deep. The fish start off as small baby salmon and are nurtured to mature salmon ready to be harvested. This tour was nice to give a different perspective of the area than we had seen 6 months before.
After the tour we took a 2 hour walk around the city before our ship sailed away. We walked up to the main street of town and took a few pictures of the Tromso Cathedral which is a fairly new looking building. After walking through a few stores, we headed towards the harbor to look at some of the nice ships docked there. It is a very pretty city and very enjoyable to walk around. Right before we returned to the ship, we looked up and saw what looked like hundreds of seagulls on the tops of the roofs of some of the buildings. They make a lot of noise and have their nests just nestled into the gutters. Some buildings put up wire barriers to keep the seagulls away. It was another enjoyable visit to Tromso and hopefully we might come back again some time. We had a great sunset as we left Tromso (although the sunset was at 10:30PM).
Regards,
Sharon and Greg
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