Unfortunately, many of the pictures will not be as beautiful as usual because Pam had to leave the cruise today. Her Uncle “General” (Sherman) is gravely ill and she chose to head back to Ohio and be with her lovely Aunt Dori for this difficult journey.
Tromso is an island town of 70,000+ residents located 217 kilometers above the Arctic Circle. They have 24 hour sunlight during the summer of the “Midnight Sun” from May 21 – July 21 and during the winter solstice they have no sun from November 21 – January 21. During the winter the snow just continues to pile up. Imagine their scenario in 1997 when they had a record snowfall in one day (5 feet), wow! They have permanent snow on the ground basically from October to June.
The scenery around this town is absolutely amazing, as seen in the following pictures.
The Arctic Cathedral is located here. It was originally built with just wood and glass representing ice and allowing amazing views. When services began during the first “Midnight Sun” in summer (May 21 – July 21) many attendees began wearing sunglasses during service because of the light. The pastors said ”we cannot have that” so it was redesigned to add addition white peaks representing snow to reduce the light and eliminate the need to wear sunglasses inside. The original architect was beside himself and left town in disgust. The building is still gorgeous and really stands out in the town and has become a major tourist attraction.
In order to get amazing aerial views you could ride a gondola to the top of the 1300 foot hill and capture the panoramic pictures you have already seen. You could also take this gondola with your para-sail, then climb the hill a little higher and take flight.
Next stop Lofoten, Norway.
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