25 July 2024 - Tromso, Norway

We've been planning this visit since the last time we visited on 28th March this year on a Northern Lights cruise. Tromso in late March is covered in snow. Today it was gloriously warm and sunny.

The ship has run out of good bananas but we weren't worried as we know where the cafes are. We grabbed some water as we left the ship and got on the shuttle.

The shuttle bus driver turned out to be a mine of information, telling us where the botanical gardens were, where to see reindeers, tunnels, walking paths etc etc. I've filed most of it away in my memory for the next time.

Tromso in summer is full of building contractors who seemed to be repairing just about everything:- rooves, walls, roads and pavements. They were also repairing the bridge that joins the island of Tromso to the mainland and it was closed to traffic. Fortunately there is a tunnel a little further north.

The bridge wasn't closed to pedestrians though, so we were able to cross. There's a little ice-cream cafe on the other side near the cathedral, so we nipped in to get some chocolate and carried on to the cable car.

The cable car takes you up to 421m above sea level, which is about 2/3rds of the height of Floya mountain (671m). There's a cafe, loos, platforms picnic tables and plenty of space to walk around and enjoy the absolutely spectacular views. We pottered around for half an hour, loving the warm sun, soft breeze and amazing scenery.

And then it was time to start upwards.

It's not too difficult, but we were probably a little bit tired from our walk at Leknes. Getting to the top gave a sense of achievement.

What a wonderful place to be. We sat and ate our chocolate and tried to soak up as much as we could to take away with us. Photographs can never capture a view, and these views were magnificent.

Sadly, it was eventually time to go down, and we reversed our route.

Going down. You can just see the top of the cable car and the cafe ahead.

We enjoyed ice-creams and cold drinks from the cafe next to the cathedral before finally working our way back to the shuttle bus. T'was a brilliant day and we would happily do it again.

Tomorrow we will be at Honningsvag, the most northerly port of our cruise. We've been before, but not in the summer so this is gonna be another new experience. Awesome.