Tromsø

The largest urban area in northern Norway, Tromsø is a bustling little city north of the Arctic Circle in the land of the Midnight Sun with a population of about 78,000 people. For our visit we opted to book a walking tour of the city located on the 8.4 square mile island of Tromsøya, the city is surrounded by water. It’s one of the largest fishing ports in Norway and home to the Arctic University of Norway. It’s a compact and very walkable city. Our guide walked us quickly through pointing out areas of land that had been created when the harbor had been deepened. That’s where the hotels have been built to help support the burgeoning tourist trade. He paused briefly near Tromsø Seafarers Museum and mentioned that he didn’t have time to speak to us about the indigenous people of Norway, the Sami. At Skansen the site of remnants of medieval fortifications, he invited us to stop and take pictures but then quickly walked on. As we made our way through downtown he pointed out the Tromsø Cathedral on the way to Macks Ølbryggeri, the northernmost brewery in the world, and our destination for the day. Here a representative of the brewery showed us a film detailing their history since Ludwig Marcus Mack, an immigrant from Braunsweig, Germany began brewing Dark Lager in 1877 and giving us insights into the challenges and rewards of brewing beer in the Arctic regions, including how the brewery survived during the years of Norwegian Prohibition even as we sipped on a delightful brew. The main production site is now located a few miles away and the original brewery site is a microbrewery that we got to tour. We finished our tour in the Ølhallen Brewpub, the oldest pub in Tromsø, since 1928. Unfortunately we didn’t have enough tour time scheduled to be able to stay and savor the samples of brew that we’d been served. Our guide was ready to escort us back to the shuttle buses as our only option for prepaid transport back to the ship. At this point the two of us opted to separate from the tour, linger and savor the samples deciding that we liked the original Dark Lager the best. From there we wandered our way back to where we remembered seeing the taxis. Along the way we passed the shuttle bus stop and were able to board and ride back to the ship no problems! It’s been a fun adventure today, a day in the land and season of The Midnight Sun!