Tromsø, Norway
Today we visited Tromsø, capital of northern Norway. This colorful city of 85, 000 people was our first real exposure to civilization since we left Oslo to begin our voyage. We are also experience real night for the first time in a while. We are now cruising the beautiful fjord coast of Norway with its glaciated terrain cutting the ancient rocks of the Fenno-Scandian shield (dating to more than 2.8 million years) and the rocks deformed during the Caledonian orogeny (with ages between 1 billion and 400 million years). These rocks are mostly beautiful banded gneisses and are testament to the immense forces, which transformed them as they were, buried deep in the earth’s crust.
Tromsø is a quite modern city, home to a major university and a medical center which serves the northern counties of Norway, as well as to the world’s northernmost brewery. We visited the excellent Tromsø Museum and the Polar Museum (pictured). The Polar Museum contains a number of displays on the exploration and exploitation of Polar Regions. The larger ship alongside the dock is a sealer—note the crow’s nest—which plied the Arctic until fairly recently in search of seals. In the evening we sailed down Tromsøysundet toward further exploration of our own along the fjord coast of Norway.
Today we visited Tromsø, capital of northern Norway. This colorful city of 85, 000 people was our first real exposure to civilization since we left Oslo to begin our voyage. We are also experience real night for the first time in a while. We are now cruising the beautiful fjord coast of Norway with its glaciated terrain cutting the ancient rocks of the Fenno-Scandian shield (dating to more than 2.8 million years) and the rocks deformed during the Caledonian orogeny (with ages between 1 billion and 400 million years). These rocks are mostly beautiful banded gneisses and are testament to the immense forces, which transformed them as they were, buried deep in the earth’s crust.
Tromsø is a quite modern city, home to a major university and a medical center which serves the northern counties of Norway, as well as to the world’s northernmost brewery. We visited the excellent Tromsø Museum and the Polar Museum (pictured). The Polar Museum contains a number of displays on the exploration and exploitation of Polar Regions. The larger ship alongside the dock is a sealer—note the crow’s nest—which plied the Arctic until fairly recently in search of seals. In the evening we sailed down Tromsøysundet toward further exploration of our own along the fjord coast of Norway.
