Ferry to Tromso

As we traveled south we really moved into the typical Norwegian scenery I imagined.  Fjords surrounded by mountains.

  We took two ferries across two fjords to get to Tromso, which itself is an island conected to the mainland by a bridge and are now camped on the outskirts of the city.

Tromso is the largest city we've been to yet (we really just saw the outskirts of Helsinki). After setting up our tent we drove across the bridge to downtown Tromso.  There was a rock concert going on that blocked off several blocks of downtown.  Old warehouses down by the docks have been converted into shops and restaurants.  The Lutheran Cathedral (built 1861) is the largest wooden church I've ever seen.

We started off our second day by visiting the Prestvannet reservoir located at the top of the island.  Here we saw our first loons of the trip, red-necked loons, 8 gray herons, Eurasian widgeons, a brambling (bird of the day), tufted ducks, and lots of mallards and gulls, both of which were trained to rush toward visitors in hopes of being fed.

Our next stop was Polaria, which had a really great wide screen film about Svalbard, Norway's most northerly island,  from the viewpoint of a little auk.  It's also an aquarium with 4 trained seals.

Then we visited the highlight of the day, also the superlative of the day, the world's most northerly botanical garden, also it's free, including the parking, which contributed to its being s highlight in pricey Norway.  The garden specializes in in Arctic and alpine plants.  In August the garden was obviously not at its prime blooming, but there were still a few blue Himalayan poppies, their speciality, in bloom.

Also, lots of birds here.

In driving to the garden, we discovered there's a system of tunnels under the city complete with underground rotaries so you don't have to drive up the steep hills.

Lastly we took the Fjellheisen cable car up Mount Storsteinen, with a great view of the city and it's surroundings.  There's a pricey restaurant at the top, of course, this being Europe.

From there we climbed up further to the cairn, which turned out to be false advertising, since the summit was quite a bit higher.

This is the first place we've been since leaving Helsinki, where we've experienced darkness during the night.  We're still north of Ivalo, so I guess it's the fact that it's the end of August.