Two More Days in Norway, Two More Days Without Fish Soup

 Yesterday, Monday, we were in Honningsvaag and today we are in Tromso.

I'll start with Honningsvaag - it won't take long.  Honningsvaag is kind of the gateway to the North Cape of Norway.  The weather forecast called for rain all day and, since we had been here before and done the trip up to the North Cape, we decided that we would chill and not even get off of the ship if the rain continued.  It certainly looked like it would.

After chilling and taking care of some laundry, we noticed that the rain had stopped.  It was about noon.  We decided to take a walk into town, making a quick gnome photo stop.

It was cold and damp even without the rain.  As we walked through town, we noticed the rain across the bay so we turned around and headed back to the ship.  We weren't fast enough and did get a bit wet.

For today in Tromso we had booked a non-ship excursion to the fjords in the vicinity.  Last evening, we checked the weather forecast and it, of course, called for rain.  And then, reading the description of the excursion which included a picnic lunch by the water, we decided to cancel it and just do our own thing depending on the weather.  It worked out well and the rain actually held off except for a bit of mist.

The first thing we did was go to Polaria, the Arctic Aquarium.  It was an interesting aquarium although if you went expecting to see tropical fish as at most aquariums, you would be disappointed.  We were just a little too late to see the seal feeding but we did get to see one seal spend quite a bit of time licking the salt they placed along the pool.

After lunch, we took off for the cable car up Mount Storsteinen.  On the advice of the local tourist office, we took a city bus to the cable car station, making a quick stop at the Arctic Cathedral on the way.

The cable car provided a quick ride up to 421 meters above sea level.  Once there, we enjoyed the views over Tromso and the surrounding forests, waterfalls, and mountains.

Then it was time to stop for a beer and a hot chocolate.  Can you guess who had the beer and who had the hot chocolate?

We took the bus back to town and checked out the sights and the pedestrian street.  We were very impressed with the city library.  In addition to nice views from the upper floors, it was interesting to see that it had sections of books in at least ten different languages.

At one spot in town, there was a kiosk selling hot dogs which had a set-up outside with a fire pit and benches covered with reindeer pelts.  It almost made me wish that I still ate hot dogs - not!

Tomorrow is our last stop in Norway - Leknes in the Lofoten Islands.  We have a hiking excursion booked, so fingered crossed for no rain.  And fingers crossed for a last chance at Norwegian Fish Soup.

Perhaps the weather hasn't been the best for the last few days, but Norway is just beautiful and we've gotten to do some really good things.  Oh, and did we mention that we saw the Northern Lights?  And we continue to be treated fantastically aboard the Sirena.  I guess they like us!

Peace and blessings,

Linda and Larry