11 September 2023

Today we abandoned ship. Our time on board MS Polarlys had come to an end and we were being cast ashore in Tromsø at 2:30 pm.

Our morning consisted of checking the scenery, viewing the little ports along the way, supervising the loading and unloading of goods and passengers, and racing back down to the cabin to pack our bags.

Our first port of call for the day was Harstad. A brief stop to unload a couple of local passengers and a few pallets.

It was 9 degrees! At last the temperature seemed to be dropping and being almost indicative of its proximity to the North Pole in early autumn. This is my kind of weather.

In Finnsnes, we had yet another tight squeeze under the local bridge which caused a great deal of excitement amongst the passengers. We are of the demographic that is pretty easily amused by this type of thing. Not sure that Emily derived the same degree of enjoyment!!

I haven’t reported on the coffee situation for a while because, to be honest, the breakfast coffee is not worth reporting on. We’ve admitted defeat and have taken up apple juice as our morning beverage of choice. We threw caution to the wind around midday today however, and ordered a Flat White from the cafe on the top deck. It had coffee art!!! Still tasted ordinary, but points for trying.

We sailed through Straumsfjorden just before arriving in Tromsø. Our Expedition Guide once again called us up on deck to view the The Rystraumen. (A tidal current in the Straumsfjorden strait). It is a tricky piece of navigation as, depending on the tide, the captain might have to speed up to fight against the current. It was smooth sailing today.

It was now full steam ahead to Tromsø. Our northernmost destination.

We lugged our bags ashore and walked to our accommodation for the night. Our apartment was a new build in a reclaimed port area under the bridge. Whilst the whole precinct was still under construction, our building was completed and extremely trendy!!

Once settled and recharged we headed into the “Sentrum“ (town centre) to see what we could see.

I just loved the old wooden buildings, and their beautiful facades. Sadly the Main Street was being renovated and it was a mish mash of heavy machinery, building materials, workers in high vis, huge craters and lots of mud and gravel. It will look fantastic once completed.

We found the tiniest Hot Dog shop in town and agreed to dine there tomorrow.

We wandered past Tromsø Cathedral (Church of Norway) , notable since it is the only Norwegian protestant cathedral made of wood. Stunning!

The Catholic version didn’t look too shabby either.

Grahame was off to find another important landmark. He had done his research prior to leaving Australia , and this was the the one thing on his bucket list.

Mack Brewery claims to be the northernmost brewery in the world and was founded in 1877 by the guy whose statue Grahame had fondly embraced moments earlier. Emily and I chose a Pear Cider while Grahame downed these five samples from a selection of around 30 different beers. So many choices.

Meanwhile I made one of the worst purchases of my life!! I thought I was buying salty chips but , alas, it was dried fish!! A mistake I will never make again.

We lost Emily for a while. She blended in a little too well with the background

We headed back to our accommodation, finding a Pizza place on the way to sate our hunger.

Our view from our balcony, over the fjord, was impressive but sadly it wasn’t the Northern Lights. It was not to be our lucky night. Maybe tomorrow!