Walkwithme: Tromsø Museum, Telegrafbukta, Sydspissen

in #walkwithme6 years ago (edited)

This post is from two walks, 22nd and 23rd of December. Quite some contrast between those two days.

I start this post with a photo of Tromsø Museum (I noticed they were building a new museum building downtown, so in some few years this will be the "former Tromsø Museum").

Photo taken by tobixen
position: geo:69.635177,18.913156 (geohack) - 2018-12-22 11:59:10 localtime - full quality

When I was a child, I recall it being a very big museum. Probably that's just because I was such a small boy back then - today I think it's rather small. Also, of course I have very fond memories of the area meant primarly for entertaining children, "the fairytale forest" - I guess it grew old, today it's totally replaced with ... something dull. Of course the old thing was much better. Or was it? My children don't think it's that dull after all.

Photo taken by tobixen
position: geo:69.634979,18.913396 (geohack) - 2018-12-22 11:59:53 localtime - full quality

Actually the building is a bit big - there may be an alternative reason why the museum appeared much bigger to me before, it could be that less of the areas are used for exibitions, and more of the areas are used for administration, offices, storage, etc ... but probably not.

Photo taken by tobixen
position: geo:69.635604,18.919387 (geohack) - 2018-12-22 12:05:04 localtime - full quality

Walking down from the Museum, there is the old aquarium.

Photo taken by tobixen
position: geo:69.634262,18.90487 (geohack) - 2018-12-22 12:07:31 localtime - full quality

The building belongs to the Museum, which again is a part of the university. Apparently the building is used for botanical research nowadays.

Photo taken by tobixen
position: geo:69.634262,18.904867 (geohack) - 2018-12-22 12:07:57 localtime - full quality

The old visitor entrance to the aquarium seems not to be in use anymore.

Photo taken by tobixen
position: geo:69.634262,18.904867 (geohack) - 2018-12-22 12:08:07 localtime - full quality

This quay has been there for as long as I can remember. I don't believe it's being used much - though, when I got my first sailing boat I would often use this quay if I was to visit my mother. The quay is quite exposed, this is a relatively big fjord, if there is a fresh breeze from the south the waves can become significant. This day there was a bit of wind from the south, enough that it would be uncomfortable to stay there.

Photo taken by tobixen
position: geo:69.634262,18.904867 (geohack) - 2018-12-22 12:08:26 localtime - full quality

Photo taken by tobixen
2018-12-22 12:09:42 localtime - full quality

I do have bad memories from once I was going to deliver to the kinder garden ... the weather was too bad for mooring up at the very end of the quay like I used to, but I thought it would be OK to moore up here. The boat was quite small and light-weight, 24 feet long, but with the wind and waves it was bad enough - I was fighting for more than an hour mooring up the boat! I was totally wet from sweat in the end ... climbing on the wood of the quay, first trying to get control of the situation at all, and trying to make knots with one hand while holding myself with the other hand and with sharp jerks in the rope for every wave ... I was so much a novice with boating back then.

Photo taken by tobixen
2018-12-22 12:10:18 localtime - full quality

Looking back at the old aquarium

Photo taken by tobixen
position: geo:69.633842,18.902204 (geohack) - 2018-12-22 12:10:45 localtime - full quality

View towards the south-east

Photo taken by tobixen
position: geo:69.633842,18.902204 (geohack) - 2018-12-22 12:10:51 localtime - full quality

It's high water. Since it has been a period with quite cold weather (and it was still quite cold), there is some ice to be found at some places. The ice has formed on lower water levels, and is pretty stuck to the rocks. Now it's high water, so for an hour the water is actually covering the ice ...

Photo taken by tobixen
2018-12-22 12:12:39 localtime - full quality

Walking towards the south-east, towards Telegrafbukta.

Photo taken by tobixen
2018-12-22 12:13:29 localtime - full quality

Looking back towards the quays

Photo taken by tobixen
2018-12-22 12:14:20 localtime - full quality

Photo taken by tobixen
position: geo:69.640434,18.910903 (geohack) - 2018-12-22 12:14:52 localtime - full quality

This is Telegrafbukta - the most popular beach on the island - and one of the few sandy beaches in the area (there are lots of really idyllic sandy beaches on the outer islands, but that's quite far away). The sea temperatures rarely exceeds 10C - but it's facing the south, and it's shallow water, so on calm, sunny days in the summer time the water here may be a couple of degrees warmer than other places. Few of my grandparent generation rarely could swim. The first indoor swimming pool was built in 1965, and the sea was too cold to swim in. I haven't been swimming a lot here myself, only in my best youth I was challenging my comfort limits and did some swimming here ... I must confess I'm neither a good swimmer nor a person who enjoys jumping into cold water, though I'm trying to push my comfort limits (and I also bought a wet-suit to be able to do more swimming).

Photo taken by tobixen
position: geo:69.632064,18.910379 (geohack) - 2018-12-22 12:16:05 localtime - full quality

Oh ... memories, memories. I once crashed with this black marker (or, rather, in the rocks it's warning about) while sailing in the darkness.

Photo taken by tobixen
position: geo:69.632553,18.905361 (geohack) - 2018-12-22 12:16:33 localtime - full quality

I think it was a natural sandy beach, but I also believe they have added more sand here. At least it's a bit different now than what it was when I was a child.

Photo taken by tobixen
position: geo:69.632263,18.906253 (geohack) - 2018-12-22 12:17:16 localtime - full quality

The name comes from the telegraph line going into the sea here towards Tisnes at Kvaløya, from 1894. I'm not sure if this is an actual communication line or if it's just a historical monument.

Photo taken by tobixen
position: geo:69.631568,18.910842 (geohack) - 2018-12-22 12:18:03 localtime - full quality

Photo taken by tobixen
position: geo:69.631843,18.907089 (geohack) - 2018-12-22 12:18:20 localtime - full quality

Photo taken by tobixen
position: geo:69.631263,18.909948 (geohack) - 2018-12-22 12:19:45 localtime - full quality

This is the very south tip of the Tromsø island.

Photo taken by tobixen
position: geo:69.628311,18.912237 (geohack) - 2018-12-22 12:25:41 localtime - full quality

The only way to continue from here is north ... view towards east, the Fløya mountain (with the cable car, and more visible, Storsteinen).

Photo taken by tobixen
position: geo:69.627517,18.915966 (geohack) - 2018-12-22 12:28:06 localtime - full quality

Photo taken by tobixen
position: geo:69.627532,18.916522 (geohack) - 2018-12-22 12:28:57 localtime - full quality

Next day - same place, but it looks different, so different!

Photo taken by tobixen
position: geo:69.631721,18.910146 (geohack) - 2018-12-23 13:43:13 localtime - full quality

Someone had been here before us and had a fire. Not much of it left. The light in the sea is a navigation light.

Photo taken by tobixen
position: geo:69.632232,18.907661 (geohack) - 2018-12-23 13:43:48 localtime - full quality

The beach probably looks even less inviting on this photo than the previous day - but it was actually colder the day before.

Photo taken by tobixen
position: geo:69.632049,18.906724 (geohack) - 2018-12-23 13:45:31 localtime - full quality

Photo taken by tobixen
position: geo:69.632041,18.906745 (geohack) - 2018-12-23 13:45:40 localtime - full quality

We walked the same way around the southern tip this day as I did the day before. While going there, Hurtigruten passed by (it used to be one of the most important lines for transportation of passengers and cargo along the coast, and also a reasonably cheap way to get around - they even used to have special rooms where people that couldn't afford (or didn't want to afford) a cabin could sleep - today it's mainly an exclusive tourist line).

Photo taken by tobixen
position: geo:69.628402,18.919208 (geohack) - 2018-12-23 14:02:55 localtime - full quality

Photo taken by tobixen
position: geo:69.628402,18.919208 (geohack) - 2018-12-23 14:03:15 localtime - full quality

I apologize that there is a bit of overlapping photo usage in this post and my previous post, photos were selected from the same pool of photos.

Selected photos available in original quality on IPFS QmaC7TLH9K8En4ch3Xmeddwbpq771pHvTyjYSXwjbBr7nL. All photos taken available in original quality on IPFS QmUH5jyyBNMXxGquAJ6ebpMQD5kXMab8jwai56nyB5nPeM. The CC BY-SA 4.0 license applies on both my photos and the article


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A lot of people say Tromso is great for seeing the northern lights, but other people say that's there too much light pollution there. What does the local say?

By the way, I love that photo with the fork path.

To see the polar light, three things are needed - there polar light itself, no obstacles between you and the polar lights (i.e. clouds, but also mountains if the polar light is low) and not too much light pollution.

Let me first present the case for Tromsø:

  • In the right time of the year, Tromsø is right below or right south of the typical polar light belt.
  • If signing up with a polar light sightseeing tour group, Tromsø is the perfect place. Those tour groups checks all the forecast information there is out there, they know when it's most likely to be a polar light, and there is almost always a place within one or two hours drive from Tromsø where there is no clouds.
  • Tromsø also has an airport, with quite frequent flights to the Oslo airport, and quite some international flights as well - so it's probably one of the most available places in the polar light zone.
  • It's also a relatively warm place compared to other places on the same latitude. Almost anywhere else with the same closeness to Aurura Borealis, and you'll be likely to freeze a lot. The Northern Norwegian coastline is unique by being at such a high latitude but still having relatively comfortable temperatures.

Now to the cons:

  • In Tromsø itself is quite often overcast.
  • There is a lot of light pollution in Tromsø, and it's hard to avoid it since the town is located on an island. Sometimes the polar light is bright and vivid, and clearly visible even from the town center - but it for sure gives a much better experience to observe it from a dark mountain top without direct view towards the Tromsø town. And, even if the polar light is visible if looking at it, it's a chance that one even won't notice it while walking along the lit streets.
  • One has to be outdoor to notice it's a polar light at all - and when staying in Tromsø in the winter time as a tourist, it's quite likely that one will spend most of the time indoors.

I was living on the island, but quite far away from the city center, we had no neighbours and no lights except for our own light, and we also had the toilet outdoors, meaning we frequently would go out and observe if there was a polar light or not. I estimated that by average the probability was around 50% of seeing the polar light when staying for a week in my place.

Now that area is a residential area, I sold the place, it has been torn down and new ugly buildings dominate the area ... and lots of artificial light.

Thanks for that overview. And sound like you made a good move to sell before they built all the ugly buildings

Hi @tobixen, it always a fond and good memory of the old days. When we were young, everything in our eye was big . I have the same impression as well. I visited my childhood place sometime back this year, it brought back all the sweet and bad memories as well. Love that you share it with us. I especially like the seaside or quay photos. It looks beautiful. Could feel that you enjoyed these two days walk. You stayed there or just visited the place during holiday season?

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I'm still on a visit here. Will go south to Oslo again on the last day of the year.

You must be very excited..Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!! Hope able to see more of your post on your Oslo visit.

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