We managed to miss breakfast again, obviously over excited by yesterdays adventures. We were on our second day in Tromsø, and had nothing planned before the early afternoon so had decided on finishing off the laundry. I was tasked with ironing my shirts while Jane went in search of a missing sock which may have been left in the deck 8 launderette. Firstly though we went to the concierge lounge where we could get a coffee and croissant. I returned from ironing my shirts to pick up her dress to run an iron over that and found that she’s already done it, so I could now relax while waiting for lunch. We had a 1:20 meet up for our excursions so had quite an early lunch, as it was going to take a while to climb into all the cold weather gear.
There was another favourite, or rather two favourites on offer. Buffalo wings for the starter and Lasagne as the main, both of which were excellent. The buffalo wings were the messy option but they did come with a finger bowl. We had missed dinner the previous night which meant we now had a spare bottle from the 12 bottle Commodore’s collection. Jane has decided that she can select a nice light Sauvignon Blanc to have a glass of wine with her lunch.
When we left the ship we were corralled in a holding area while waiting for our coach. We were a little distracted chatting to another couple while waiting, when we were ushered forward to get on the coach. It was only when we had been sat for a few minutes that Jane thought it was odd that crew were getting on a tour bus, and with a little further though we realised no one had taken our tickets. It turned out we’d wandered onto the shuttle bus by mistake and the tour bus was round the corner and was still there so we got on board apologising for keeping everyone waiting.
The tour started with a commentary about Tromsø while we took a circuitous route through the centre of the city to our first point of call. The guide was very interesting with lots of stories about Amundsen, the Lutheran cathedral, the catholic cathedral, the library and a hot dog stand and much, much more. The first port of call was the Full Steam museum, which turned out not to be about trains, but is the worlds most northernmost coastal museum. It is located in Bangsundbrygga and was built in 1902 as a fish factory. Here we took part in the cod tasting experience where we had the Skrei Fishing Trilogy. with a guide and storyteller, who lead us through “exciting tasting experiences” that took us on a journey through the history of Arctic cod fishing, presented through flavourful elements served from Full Steam’s own kitchen:
- Savour a delicious portion of smoked cod roe and learn about the journey from cod roe to the rich abundance of Skrei in the Barents Sea
- Taste the delicacy that is cod tongue
- Understand how Peter Møller developed the steam method to extract cod liver oil, and the significance of this product for the population during the long, dark winters over centuries and where the Steam in Steam museum came from.
The only downside of this part of the trip was that drinks weren’t included, but paying for a single beer or coffee didn’t detract from the experience, and the beer was very good.
The second venue was the Magic Ice, which is a bar set in a freezer container. It turned out to be quite good fun, sipping on the signature cocktail, the Arctic Crowberry, it is served in an ice glass and includes crowberry juice and white wine. We had been given lined and hooded ponchos to keep us warm in the sub zero conditions. There were lots if ice sculptures and artwork to look at and interact with. All surfaces were made of ice tables and seating. We only stayed about 30 minutes in there before heading back to the shuttle bus for the short journey back to the ship.
Dinner was lamb chops which are Jane’s absolute favourite, so there was no chance of going off menu, My choices were warm chicken livers to start and a red Thai prawn curry, both were excellent. We retired soon after dinner and I prepared my warm weather gear to put on if I woke during the night on the off-chance there would be some Aurora actions occurring. I did wake but there was a storm going on and I didn’t fancy going out on the balcony with the ship pitching around like like it was.