July 14 - Tromso, Norway

 The fog lasted until well into the morning with the fog horn going every 2 minutes most of the night.  Fortunately, down in our cabin on deck 6 we could only hear it if there was no other noise so it wasn't very distracting.  But we took the elevator up to deck 11 this morning to go to the Observation Lounge and as the elevator doors opened, the horn went off and I nearly jumped it was so loud.  Up on that deck are the very large, very expensive suites and I can only imagine how much they enjoyed the horns all night.  Maybe they have REALLY good sound proofing.

This is a screenshot of the weather info for Tromso.  I finally realized that whatever time it is when you check is the time you see for Sunrise and Sunset.  I guess that's the only way they can do it.  But I am a bit confused by the Daylight Hours listing 0 hr 0 min.  Shouldn't that be 24 hr 0 min?

We docked in the more industrial part of the city and a shuttle into town was provided.  However, we had a scheduled tour so that wasn't a concern for us.  We rode a very nice bus through town to a museum with an interesting display about the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) and the Samis (the indiginous peoples of the area) and some of the animal life in the area.

Tromso is the capital of the area and it's income comes from fishing, tourism and the government including a university.  Winter tourism is about as big as in the summer thanks to the excellent vantage point for the Northern Lights.

The gray glass building is a planetarium from which to see and study the Northern Lights.

This is the University Hospital and also other University buildings, I presume.

Our next stop was to the Tromso Cathedral (Lutheran) built in 1969.  It originally had clear glass walls on both the east and windows to maximize light in the winter.  Unfortunately, in the summer, the light blasted right into the congregants' eyes at Sunday morning services and they would wear sunglasses and ball caps to block it.  That wouldn't do, so a local artisan was hired to convert the east windows into a stained glass wall.

The design is supposed to be reminiscent of ice flows.

The west wall still has the clear glass.

The "newer" stained glass wall.

A candelabra in a corner.

The next stop was the Tromso Tram which took us up to a lovely viewpoint,  Again, the weather couldn't have been better.  We expected it to be a bit cooler at the top, but it was still rather warm.  And the views were fabulous.

Tromso is actually on an island as is clear here.

Not much snow left by this time.

Got back just in time for Trivia (10/15) and a bit of a rest before dinner in the Compass Rose.  Jan and Tom did a different tour, so we could share stories.  Another good day in Norway.