Meant to mention….

One of the reasons I chose to disseminate my travel stories via Substack is that when you double-click any image in my story, the image opens to FULL SIZE in a fresh browser window.

Try it with this shot from my last email… one of my personal favorite photos on the trip so far.

Double click on it…but don’t forget to return to THIS page for a new story below!

Here’s another shot from the Trollfjord passage, which I didn’t have room to run yesterday.

Try enlarging it, too. It’s dramatic.

Tromsø

Overnight, we made it to Tromsø, the world's northernmost city with a population over 50,000.

Actually it’s 80,000, if you include nearby bedroom communities from which residents drive their reindeer sleighs to work.

I'm joking about the sleighs, but not about the reindeer.

In the Arctic Circle, reindeer are so part of every day everything that I’m starting a petition to spell them reigndeer because the animal reigns supreme.

At the entrance to a gift shop:

In a snack store:

Were you looking for some reindeer salami?

Even the manhole covers in this town glorify reindeer…

One of the highlights of our day ashore in Tromsø was a visit to Polaria, a museum / aquarium dedicated to species of the Arctic Circle.

I loved feeding time in the seal pod:

And saw two films in the panoramic cinema, including one about the Northern Lights:

If you ever make it to Tromsø, be sure to visit Polaria (polaria.no/en).

Another highlight of the day was dropping by the Mack Pub, adjacent to the site of the original Mack brewery, which, for a long time, was the most northern brewery in Norway (it is no longer).

I ordered a half-pint of Polar Pale Ale… and while it was delicious… it was NOT worth $14.

Food, wine, and beer are expensive in Scandinavia … you just about have to refinance your house to buy a pint of beer in Tromsø!

That’s it… the ship’s leaving port…..

More when it happens….

Jim