Hammerfest and Tromsø

OK, putting together a couple of the cities in northern Norway.

A couple of days ago, we got off the ship to walk around in Hammerfest. Notice the ever-present avalanche-protection fences…this is what happens when flat land is at a premium!

Then, sailing on, we came to Tromsø, where we left the MS Finnmarken along with about 200 other passengers.  At midnight. We took a slithery cab-ride to Hotel AMI, let ourselves in with the door code, and found our room. #43. All the way to the top, with suitcases. Up a sort of half-spiral staircase.

The next morning, we went out for a walk. It’s a good thing they gravel the sidewalks here…3” of packed snow in lots of places, and it was about 36F, so there was also standing water. On top of the ice. We didn’t actually have to resort to wearing spikes, but were glad we had them handy. Our new boots have had really good testing now! As you can see, this is nothing at all to the local residents.

We went to the Polar Museum, all about the Arctic explorers from Norway—Amundsen and Nansen, primarily. Very well-done, but sort of overwhelming in the sheer amount of information posted.

In the evening, we went on a tour with photographer Karl-Ivar Ingebrigtsen, in hopes of getting more stable pictures from land, but instead of Northern Lights, we got rain.  And snow. We had a cosy shelter and a bonfire, and some nice conversation, but no lights. We especially enjoyed talking with Karl-Ivar’s step-daughter Sara, who is “reindeer Sámi”. She’s studying to be a nurse, but is taking longer to do the course so that she can help herd the family’s reindeer to their summer pastures every spring.

The next morning, it was still snowing, so we did one blog post, and then headed off to Polaria, a small aquarium with native species, and several very nice films.  We especially enjoyed the one on Svalbard/Spitsbergen, and also the interesting one on how there came to be Red King Crabs (a Pacific species) in the Barents Sea.

Then we trudged back up the hill to the hotel, where we enjoyed a couple of cappucinos before climbing the 3 flights to our room for a rest. We have dinner reservations at Fjellheisen (http://www.fjellheisen.no/en/), and then board the Vesterålen at 1 a.m. to continue our Hurtigruten experience.