A Gate Crashed Wedding and a Cable Car.

Had a lovely breakfast in the Radisson with a great selection of items. Claire went shopping on her own afterwards and was struck by the number of fabric and knitting shops. We suppose that the local women knit and sew the long polar night away! After she came back, we wandered round the streets for a bit and watched some drum majorettes performing while being backed by two bands. The moves of the majorettes were somewhat incoordinated! We then walked along the impressive bridge leading off the main island of Tromso. The Arctic Cathedral – the furthest north such building in Europe, was on the opposite shore. As we arrived we noticed that there was a wedding going on inside – the bride arrived minutes before we did – so we gate crashed and slipped into the back seats which allowed us to capture some quite nice video. The cathedral building is very impressive and modern. Were it not for the wedding, we wouldn't have got inside as it is normally closed on Saturdays at this time of the year.
It was then a short walk to the cable car and a trip up the mountain. We had a short walk at the top but it was very damp and misty so we didn’t go too far. In such conditions our view of Tromso below us wasn’t as good as we might have hoped for. Before going back down in the cable car we had hot apple tart with ice-cream and hot chocolate – marvellous! After our descent we caught a bus into town and visited an art gallery. Interestingly, admission to various galleries and museums is free here. The one we went to was spacious but a lot of wall area was empty – better use could have been made of it! In the evening we ate in the most northern Burger King in Europe and had a walk round the town. We were struck by the number of soldiers doing nothing more than amusing themselves, not just this evening but on other occasions. It is also very surprising that though we saw a few police cars in Oslo we haven’t seen a single police officer in either Bodo or Tromso. It is obviously a very law-abiding society. Even the driving is very sedate and it is extremely rare to see a pedestrian crossing being ignored by motorists. Tromso may be called “The Paris of the North” but driving in the real Paris was never like this!

Weather:

Cloudy and light drizzle all day – cool but certainly not icy cold.