Things that are apparently important to look up before you book a flight and a vacation there…. Hours of daylight.
We knew that being in the Arctic Circle, Tromso would not get much daylight. What I was not prepared for was approximately 2 what I’ll call “blue hours” or what the natives may call daylight. Thanks Dad for asking me about that 2 days before I left so I was now slightly emotionally prepared for the darkness.
We only planned for 2.5 days in Tromso and in hindsight, I would have spent at least 3 there. This was easily the most beautiful part of our trip.
In Tromso, we stayed at Radisson Blu which had a huge breakfast spread (even though the sun didn’t come up until about 11am). Shout out to the kind folks in the kitchen for the wide range of Gluten Free options! The thought of these tasty foods really helped motivate me to wake up in the dark every morning.
After filling up on breakfast we left the hotel to walk around, took the Fjellheisen (cable car) from the neighborhood of Tromsdalen up to Storsteinen to look out over the Tromso Fjord. Day 1 we were already thankful for boots and foot warmers as I slid and trucked through the snow to a further lookout location.
View from the top! (during “daylight”)
This coat does not lend itself to easy selfies, but it was much appreciated in the frigid temps!
Next we decided to take the cable car down and walk to the Arctic Cathedral (also known as Ishavskatedralen on our way down to town. Of course with our luck there was a wedding going on so we just ogled the beautiful cathedral from outside as our two hours of “Blue light” turned to dark again.
We also managed to fit in some culture and history lessons (fun fact – I’m terrible at history trivia) at the Polar Museum (polarmuseet). As someone who doesn’t prefer to spend much time in museums, this was right up my alley. Definitely worth checking it out because who doesn’t love polar bears!
Casual conversation on how to defeather geese. It’s harder than you’d think.
After frolicking in the snow, we stopped at a cafe before heading back to the hotel to rest up before seeing Rudolph…
xx
Nicole