Northern Europe: Norway - Tromsø in 2 days

Polar Night in Tromsø
In school, I learnt the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. In Tromsø I learnt - Polar Night Season. Polar Night Season happens every year in Tromsø and begins on November 27th and lasts until January 15th. However, due to the high mountain ranges around the city, it actually gets dark beginning November 21st until about January 21st. During this time, the sun does not rise at all. There is a subtle twilight light from about 9am to 2pm, but otherwise, the city is dark.

Fjord excursion

As we have been lucky enough to catch the northern lights prior to arriving in Tromsø, we didn't sign up for any more tours to aurora hunting. The one other thing we wanted to see in Tromsø are the fjords. As our fjord excursion to Narvik was cancelled, we signed up one in Tromsø. I think this is also a famous excursion among visitors to Tromsø because when we looked up the tours a day before, quite a few companies were already booked out on the days we would be in Tromsø. We booked via the Visit Tromsø website based on offering versus price. 

The guide/driver drove us passed Tromsøya, Kvaløya and then stopped at Kaldfjord. We also stopped by briefly at Straumen gård (near Straumsbukta) to see an old farm preserved as museum. Along the drive, we were told if we spotted any roaming wildlife, we could let her know and she could stop by the road side. We spotted reindeers!

Lunch was served at Sommarøy where the guide brought out sandwiches, cookies and made us a warm drink. We also had stops at Kattfjordeidet and Ersfjordbotn for views. 

Fjellheisen cable car

We missed the cable car in Narvik so we made it up in Tromsø. We took a public bus to get there but according to google maps, we got down at Novasenteret which needed us to walk 12 minutes uphill. From what we observed, there seems to be another stop nearer to the base of the cable car though I am not sure if the bus we took will stop there. It wasn't far but it was quite a steep uphill walk which was made complicated by the icy path. We were holding on to whatever we can to avoid slipping down. It was hard but we were rewarded with beautiful sky colours. 

Tromsø offers great city lights from above. There is a indoor cafe at the top which were full house but we got lucky that a couple were leaving and let us have their seats. I wanted waffle with brown cheese to begin with, we reckoned we should give reindeer meat a try and the couple who offered us their seats recommended the passionfruit cheesecake so that was how we ended up with 3 different dishes. 

From left, clockwise: Reindeer stew, passionfruit chesecake, traditional Norwegian waffle with jam and brown cheese.

Tromsø Arctic Cathedral

After getting off the cable car, we walked back to the city centre, partly also because we didn't have internet connection to pre-paid our bus fares. 

Tromsdalen Church, also known as Ishavskatedralen (The Arctic Cathedral) was quite hard to be missed. The main entrance on the western side is surrounded by a large glass facade. We didn't enter but just took some photos from the outside before we crossed the bridge to the other side. 

Downtown Tromsø

After returning from our fjord excusion, we had some time so we walked around Downtown Tromsø. 

Tromso Public Library

Ølhallen

One of the recommended place to visit by our fjord excursion guide was this Mack's brewpub and the brewery guided tour. It is one of the the largest tap selection in Europe serving Norwegian quality beers. This brewery is also the northernmost brewery in the world. We didn't make it to the guided tour but we did find time to have a drink at the pub. The only word I know is Øl is beer. 

Christmas beer & blackcurrent cider

Suvi

Our fjord excursion guide recommended some eating places, the ones I remembered are Mathallen, 

Indie & Co and Suvi. There was one that we initially wanted to go to try reindeer meat but because we were going to have an early dinner, they were not yet open for dinner service. I can't seem to remember the name of the restaurant now unfortunately. We did, however, had reindeer stew the next day at the Fjellstua Restaurant, at the top of the Fjellheisen. 

We went to Suvi. Usually I am not a big fan of restaurants that sells various cuisines type but this was after all in Tromsø where seafood were abundant. I was skeptical but the sushi and sashimi were superb. 

Cost - NOK 508

I woke up randomly in the middle of the night the 3 nights we were in Tromsø to see if there was any chance to spot the northern lights but no luck. I think the lights were spotted in Tromsø the duration we were there though, just not where we were located. 

Side note: Why is game update on microsoft so slow :(