Tromso, Norway
We are nearly 70 degrees north. The air is decidedly clearer and crisper, and while summer rides on spring’s coat tails, the plants and the people are on different schedules. On this sparkling sunny day, hundreds of locals are out in force, many in short sleeves and some even baring their winter-white legs. They’re walking around town, shopping or sunning, many merely checking each other out, and we are part of that seasonal behavior. The surrounding mountains are still snow-capped, most of them blanketed right down to the base of the city’s university and the prominent Nordic ski jumps. The grasses and gardens show promise. Flowers awaken and stretch skyward in the lengthening day’s warmth. It all just might morph into summer after all.
Tromso proper lies in a sheltered harbor wedged between mountains and fjords. The setting is stunning. Some buildings date back centuries, others are modern and trendy. There is the northernmost this and the northernmost that. Cathedrals have views that silence the soul and the museums rev the imagination. This is the “Gateway to the Arctic”, and our excitement and anticipation, while contained, is about to burst.
We re-supply the ship and grab our last souvenirs, strolling along the town’s bustling streets. We are heading due north tonight after a pass by Fugloya (Bird Island, today’s photo). They’ll be no more of these temperate landscapes. Our thoughts meander to centuries past and we can’t help but marvel at the great northern explorers ahead of us, searching for fame or fortune in their sturdy wooden ships. What was that like, we wonder? We’ll soon find out as National Geographic Endeavour bunkers fuel and water, our mooring lines are cast, and we leave the self-dubbed “Paris of the North” in our wake. We head out for the land of the Midnight Sun. We heed the call of the wild and throw caution to the chilling wind.
We are nearly 70 degrees north. The air is decidedly clearer and crisper, and while summer rides on spring’s coat tails, the plants and the people are on different schedules. On this sparkling sunny day, hundreds of locals are out in force, many in short sleeves and some even baring their winter-white legs. They’re walking around town, shopping or sunning, many merely checking each other out, and we are part of that seasonal behavior. The surrounding mountains are still snow-capped, most of them blanketed right down to the base of the city’s university and the prominent Nordic ski jumps. The grasses and gardens show promise. Flowers awaken and stretch skyward in the lengthening day’s warmth. It all just might morph into summer after all.
Tromso proper lies in a sheltered harbor wedged between mountains and fjords. The setting is stunning. Some buildings date back centuries, others are modern and trendy. There is the northernmost this and the northernmost that. Cathedrals have views that silence the soul and the museums rev the imagination. This is the “Gateway to the Arctic”, and our excitement and anticipation, while contained, is about to burst.
We re-supply the ship and grab our last souvenirs, strolling along the town’s bustling streets. We are heading due north tonight after a pass by Fugloya (Bird Island, today’s photo). They’ll be no more of these temperate landscapes. Our thoughts meander to centuries past and we can’t help but marvel at the great northern explorers ahead of us, searching for fame or fortune in their sturdy wooden ships. What was that like, we wonder? We’ll soon find out as National Geographic Endeavour bunkers fuel and water, our mooring lines are cast, and we leave the self-dubbed “Paris of the North” in our wake. We head out for the land of the Midnight Sun. We heed the call of the wild and throw caution to the chilling wind.
