Tromso - a Tour

26 Jan: Decided last night to sign up for the city excursion so could reach places on mainland not walkable. Felt we've done enough route marches - cabin to restaurant seems quite enough at the moment.

Slow morning after good sleep. V interesting lecture on Sami people history & culture by the amazing Laura. Also got some reading done - online Guardian and book - while watching the increasingly snowy hills slide by.

Unfortunately the excursion was disappointing. The cable car, the main attraction, was cancelled due to high wind -although there was little wind at harbour level. The Arctic Cathedral seemed rather soulless. Everyone back on the bus! Waiting. Coughing passengers.

Replacement attraction was Polar Museum which was very good - could have spent much longer there reading about expeditions. Such hard living. They laud The Polar Bear King, Henry Rudi, who killed 713 polar bears and adopted cubs which he sold to Zoos. Strange kind of hero.

Then we shuffled along to the Fullsteam Museum which paled by comparison, plus they inflicted more talks about Sami. We did see a mockup of the fish drying racks that are emblematic of the region.

We bailed at this point and walked back to the ship, only 10 minutes along the waterside. Arrived at the same time as the bus. Tromso felt much bigger than any place since Bergen, and very modern and well-to-do. It was heaving due to enormous cruise ship that made ours look like a bath toy.

Dashed into dinner only to find it was a buffet. We ate more quickly and dashed to cabin for weekly call with Felix. Then a quiet evening for once. Nic watched a 45 minute film of drone footage of fjords and bridges and hills. Very chilled after that.