Returning from Paeskatun the Viking Vela set off from Alta at midnight thereabouts for Tromso. We collapsed into bed around 1am after a nice warm shower, followed by a couple of sandwiches and pastries left for us in our room by a steward (much appreciated).

It was going to take the night to sail to Tromso through the Inland Passage between the two cities. Tromso has about 70,000 people and regards itself as the big brother of Alta.

It was about this time though that the weather gods decided to influence things and we arrived in Tromso much later than planned at around 12.30pm. The morning excursions were called off, fortunately our 2pm town tour was ok. The weather was sort of terrible, if you like snow and sleet then it was great!

Tromso is on an island and the bus took us around the town and some of the highlights buildings wise. A statue of Amundsen, a favourite of the people here, looks over a snow covered park.

Our first major stop was the local University’s planetarium where the by now obligatory Northern Lights presentation takes place. This one was pretty good with the tremendous videos played across the high domed ceiling. It is unlikely that we will see the real thing given the weather conditions forecast. But that is the luck of the draw in these parts!

Moving on from here the bus entered a tunnel under the fjord and popped up on the mainland. Tromso is spreading out! On this side is the Arctic Cathedral, a modern triangular construction that overlooks the fjord. A bit of blue sky!

It has a spectacular stained glass window. It was added after the initial construction of the Cathedral to help disperse sunlight spilling into the Cathedral that unintentionally silhouetted the priest, who couldn’t tell whether the congregation were asleep or not.

Back on board the bus we returned to the ship. Here we learned that the itinerary was to change and we would be lurking in Tromso for another night and consequentially having to miss the planned stop at Narvik. This was all in the cause of getting a head start on incoming nasty weather from the north sea.

Next morning the weather was no better and we went out for a short stroll around town. Many of the roads and footpaths are heated and are free from snow, plenty of slush around though to get into footwear. Heaped up are small icy in parts ‘snow drifts’ one has to navigate around. Many people wear slip on/off spikes to avoid tumbles. There are numerous arctic memorabilia joints, all with very similar products and prices.

Norway seems to be a proudly expensive place no matter where you go. Largely powered by hydro electricity it has a large take up of electric vehicles, buses, trucks etc. and promotes its green credentials. Ironically, the largess (health, education, public transport) in social services support for the locals is funded by a very large Sovereign wealth fund built from the proceeds from the sale (to the rest of the world) of abundant oil and gas found in the North Sea!

The planned sail away from Tromso was brought forward to early in the morning. The sail out along the fjord was quite smooth before we headed out into open ocean. We were to now have three clear sea days sailing south to Amsterdam. As we sailed south the seas did indeed get up a little. A swell of 3-4 metres had us rocking and rolling a little with some snow and sleet flurries. The ‘sicky bags’ appeared in the lifts, didn’t see any in use!

The Tromso weather had not been to order but nonetheless it had been a great stopover in snow country! Brought back memories for Allthego from many moons ago skiing in Australia’s alps down Perisher way!