Sommarøy, the Summer Island

Instead of taking a tour of the town Tromsø we signed up for a bus tour to visit a traditional Norwegian fishing village on the island Sommarøy.






We again had a beautiful summer day with blue sky and sunshine and a crisp 16 degree Celsius (60 F) high.





The scenic tour had several stops for taking pictures and the tour guide did tell us a lot about the country and history.

After about an hour we arrived to walk the rest of the way over a bridge to the small island. No padlocks but wristwatches left by people entering 'the land time forgot'.





Sommarøy, meaning Summer Island, is located to the west of Tromsø. 

It is connected to the mainland by a series of bridges.





Fishing and tourism are the main industries of the 350 or so residents. Our tour guide gave us tons of information about the island, the way of life here, about the fishing. I should have just hit the record button on my cell phone since it was just way too much to remember.





Just look at the size of the seagulls, they are huge, like dog-size!





200 miles north of the Arctic Circle, this island sees no night time from May 18 through July 26. The sun does not dip below the horizon for 69 days. 

Seagull couple

Life has to happen fast here, hurry up before it gets dark with not one ray of sunshine for a couple months

roadside wildflowers, urchin and shell on the beach and the bird is called oystercatcher

For many centuries, the Norwegian Sea, part of the Arctic Ocean, was the edge of the known world ...

... filled with sea monsters and maelstroms just waiting to devour anyone daring to enter this realm. 

Carta Marina, see wiki page

Hubs was allowed to dip his hand into the Arctic Ocean but no more lest he'd be a snack for a monstrous kraken ;-)

that's as close as he got to swimming in the Arctic Ocean

Before leaving this beautiful place, we were treated to traditional waffles with sour cream, homemade blueberry jam and brown goat cheese at the Sommarøy Arctic Hotel.

mixing sour cream and jam - so good! I am not so sure about the brown cheese, though.

Later that day, when we returned to Tromso, we had time to walk to the Arctic Botanical Garden before we had to return to the ship.

The Arctic Ocean

See other places in our world, visit 'Our World Tuesday'

And for even more blog posts about our world, visit My Corner of the World