Another “ditch the car” day. Our original plans were to grab a car, drive to the Arctic church and the cable car, then out into the mountains for another day of Norwegian scenery. We all came to an executive decision to forgo the car in lieu of just staying in town, where there seemed to be enough to do to keep us occupied for the day.
In the end, probably a great decision, because a) we had to take a shuttle into town regardless of whether we had a car or not, and b) it is rainy and overcast and, well, foggy. No way we’d go up on the cable car – that would be a waste, and how much more gorgeous could the scenery be compared to yesterday? A Town day sounded like a better plan.
So, off we go on the first shuttle, to the center of town then over to the Polar Museum, which pretty much chronicles expeditions in and around Svalbard, and island halfway between the coast of Norway and the North Pole, and expeditions to the North Pole itself.
The ticket price is a reasonable 60 NOK (or $7 USD), but the museum’s credit card machine isn’t working – there was a big storm that knocked out power and it has not rebooted yet. The girl at the desk tells us to go on in anyway, and just pay on the way out. Wow – talk about trusting, very impressive.
So, we begin to wander through the exhibits – beginning with the exhibits on trapping from the 1800’s. Sunny enjoys the wolf outside the pioneer hut (not really…but he’s a sport)…
…and we all enjoy the card playing pioneer, whose picture we snap to show Jay and Ben (5 o’clock somewhere bartenders) who entertain us nightly with all sorts of card tricks (and that stupid metal linking ring things that I have managed to patiently hand back to Jay and not throw across the bar in frustration).
It’s not really a picture taking place, but it is fascinating to see how the pioneers lived and how the trapping expeditions took place. Fascinating except for the graphic depictions of the traps, baby foxes, seal beating, whale harpooning, etc. We sort of made short work of those display rooms.
Moving on though, upstairs, was all about North Pole explorations. Including, of course, Tromso’s adopted hometown boy, Roald Amundsen. Room after room leads you through his life and history – all his voyages, his successes, up to and including the fateful Latham flight, where Amundsen and his crew perished trying to rescue Umberto Nobile (who was subsequently rescued after Amundsen crashed). Amazingly, we are here visiting the museum on the 100th anniversary of Amundsen’s death.
So, we literally stepped onto the Antarctic continent on the 100th anniversary of Amundsen’s discovery of the South Pole – and we were in a museum dedicated to his explorations on the 100th anniversary of his death. Pretty amazing.
We take our time wandering through the rest of the museum which details lots of other expeditions and pioneers – including Henry Rudi – the King of the Polar Bear – who it is reputed shot and trapped 713 polar bears, more than anyone else, ever. Finished with the main exhibits, we stop in the meeting room for some let’s terrorize Sunny photos…
…we listen to Ed on the pulpit, keeping the wolves at bay…
…then stroll through the temporary exhibit past and present photos of Svalbord and the Spitsbergen National Park. This is eye opening, climate change in your face. The receding glaciers and ice packs are so painfully displayed here. Sad, very sad.
As we are leaving, and the guys are paying, we hear all sorts of music and a band outside – it’s the King! It is the start of the celebration of the King and Queen’s Silver Jubilee – with a garden party (weather notwithstanding) in Tromso, the most northerly port on a 6 day sailing journey to commemorate 25 years on the throne. How fun! The band plays, the majorettes march, and the King and Queen pull up in a regal looking black car, then stand outside, right in front of us, to listen to the band.
All the little scantily clad period costumed greeters, including court jesters and guys on stilts are lined up in the rain to greet them as well.
How fun! Once the pomp and circumstance is all done, we head back through town to the Polaria Aquarium. It’s still rainy and drizzly, so this will be another great way to spend some inside time out of the rain. As we navigate the streets, the band follows us! So we get a 2nd helping of the great marching band – and their helicopter parents crowding the streets as they follow alongside their children.
The entrance fee to the Polaria isn’t quite as reasonable as the Polar Museum, but we’re here, and we are in times to see the seals being fed. All is good. First we sit through a great panoramic film about the arctic wilderness, then we wander through displays of anemones, star fish and other assorted sea life, including these ugly creatures.
We spend quite a bit of time in the big tunnel under the seal pool watching the seals swim up and around us. That was pretty cool.
We make our way up to the seal pool and stand on the front row waiting for the feeding. The place gets packed with all sorts of people trying to push their way to the railing. We manage to hang on to our prime viewing spot, even after the rude French (maybe?) kids try to worm their way in front of all of us by pushing and shoving. They eventually go away, and in their place we get Grace – who I call my precious little child – whose mom asked if she could sit next to us to watch, and I eventually moved her up to the rail right in front of us to see everything up close. Adorable. Her little brother, still in his mom’s arms, well, not so adorable. He questions everything in this shrill high pitched 3 year old voice… “why, why, why, why….water.” This became our newest joke for the rest of the cruise…why, why, why, why…you’d have to hear the inflection to really get it.
Feeding the seals was quite the spectacle, jumping, grabbing balls, the big ones sliding up on the ice with the trainers. Pictures aren’t worth a darn, but the 20 or so minutes we stood there was really a fun time.
Once the show was over, it was getting on toward beverage time – and right outside the Aquarium was the Mack Brewery – or at least the pub that served all the Mack Brewery beers. We stopped in for a pint, hugged a polar bear …
…then headed back toward the shuttle drop off. We thought about food, but not many restaurants were open, so we ended up splitting up: Maggi & Richard to stop at some of the shops along the way, Ed and I to the shuttle stop…stopping for a picture of the Amundsen memorial on the way.
Back at the ship, we dried up with lunch in O’Sheehan’s – the chipotle chicken sandwich is great – then hung out on the balcony and in the cabin for the rest of the afternoon. We had originally decided we would go to the Botanical Gardens, which were right outside the port. But we kept looking over there from our balcony, and while it looked lovely, it was still pretty darn wet and chilly, so we gave up on that idea and just stayed in (Maggi and Richard pretty much did the same once they were back onboard).
As we were sailing out, the clouds sort of lifted, so you could see the mountains a bit more and we were able to get this great shot of the Arctic Cathedral.
No comments:
Post a Comment