Tromso, visiting an arctic city on a summer day....

Hello Fellow Travelers,

We were incredibly lucky to visit the town of Tromso on a wonderfully sunny Sunday. Our ship was docked from 9 to 6. Again, we decided to forego cruise line organized excursions and to DIY points of interest to us. Hopefully the following pictorial will help other cruisers with their planning.

The Caribbean Princess was docking at the Breivika Terminal, which is quite far from the center of Tromso.

Princess charged $8 per person for a shuttle. The public bus connections (#42) to downtown are very good and we decided to walk to the bus stop. The path from the ship to the bus is clearly marked and barriers are protecting you from traffic in port.

It took us about 10 minutes to reach an underpass

You will need to go through the tunnel to the other side of the busy road to catch the bus. An all day ticket for buses in Tromso cost NOK 90($11), a single trip is NOK 50. Since we were visiting on a Sunday, the bus ran only once an hour until noon, then every 30 minutes. The most convenient bus for us left at 9:26 and about 15 other cruisers were waiting at the bus stop with us. The buses were very clean and roomy.

After about 10 minutes we arrived in the center of Tromso, which was not busy at all this early in the morning. We walked around for a few minutes and then caught our next bus (26 or 28) to the Arctic Cathedral.

Here is a view of it from the ship

And up close

more to follow

The service was just about to begin and lots of people were wearing their traditional garb to attend

We were allowed to briefly take a look inside the cathedral free of charge before the service started.

The following photo shows the unusual and beautiful church windows

The Arctic Cathedral, in the bottom right corner, as seen from the top of the cable car station.

We elected to walk to the cable car station to take us up to Mt. Storsteinen. We followed the street uphill until we found this sign

then followed the road to the base station. The cable car was not very busy and we boarded the gondola within 10 minutes

more to follow

The upper station has a beautiful wooden deck inviting people to have a snack or coffee with a stunning view

We noticed that several paragliders were on the cable car with us and we followed them to their take-off cliff

and watched them gliding back to Tromso.

We then walked towards and past the cable car station to take in the following gorgeous views

more to come

After a while I noticed hikers going up to the "summit" of Mt. Storsteinen and convinced my sweet husband to do the same thing with me. Here are some impressions from the hike

I only wore my sneakers this day, because this hike was a spur of the moment thing. The hike is very easy, but I would have preferred hiking boots just because we had to cross a lot of snow, water and mud. There is nothing like wet feet.

more to follow

Here are a few more views from up top

By 2pm we were back at the cable car and descending down to Tromso. I captured a photo of Polaria from the cabin

We took the bus back to town and then back to the ship, where we had another very late lunch. We soon set out again to visit the Botanical Gardens, which happens to be the world's northernmost. The garden features plants from the polar region and alpine plants from all continents along with perennials. Everything was in full bloom and beautifully arranged. The entry is free of charge.

Here are some impressions

Norwegian still life

We returned to the ship around 5pm after another fun filled day

More port reviews from our most recent cruise

Stavanger

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2232099

Olden

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2233136

Flam

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2236140

Andalsnes

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2237893

Trondheim

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2239089

North Cape

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2241112

Great pictures! Thanks!

We will be there in September. Thanks for the great pictures.

As always , lovely

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Can you hear them??...Can you hear the standing ovation for your reviews!!!

Hats of to you!!:):)

Can you hear them??...Can you hear the standing ovation for your reviews!!!

 

Hats of to you!!:):)

Thank you so much Lars! I really appreciate you taking the time and reading my reviews. Lots of the things we did would not have been possible without all of your tireless help