{"id":1767,"date":"2026-06-22T07:47:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T05:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mikegerhardt.net\/?p=1767"},"modified":"2026-06-22T07:47:02","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T05:47:02","slug":"the-trip-north-tromso","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mikegerhardt.net\/index.php\/2026\/06\/22\/the-trip-north-tromso\/","title":{"rendered":"The trip north: Troms\u00f8"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the summer of 2023, Micha and I spent some time exploring Norway and visiting friends. We started with a trip to Fredrikstad<\/a>, where my great-grandmother grew up, and then spent a few days exploring the capital city of Oslo<\/a>. We finished the southern leg of our trip with a weekend in Munich<\/a> to visit some old friends. After a short rest and recharge in Trondheim, we flew north to Troms\u00f8, where we would spend a few days in the city itself, a road trip exploring the Vester\u00e5len islands southwest of the city, and a final day in Troms\u00f8 before returning to Trondheim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Day 1: Sherpatrappa and the Arctic Cathedral<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Unlike our trip south, I put my Norwegian driving license to good use on this trip. We landed early in the morning at the Troms\u00f8 airport, before the rental car counter opened, and joined the line of folks waiting impatiently for their wheels to get them from place to place. I was proud of myself, though, as I completed the entire rental car transaction in Norwegian. In general, I found speaking Norwegian, and understanding the local dialect, easier here than it was in Trondheim, and the people living in Troms\u00f8 seemed to prefer my Norwegian to speaking English anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We got very lucky with warm, sunny weather in Troms\u00f8 during our visit. Despite Troms\u00f8 being well above the Arctic Circle, I was quite comfortable in shorts and a T-shirt. On our first day we hiked Sherpatrappa<\/a>, a set of 1,203 stone steps leading to the top of Storsteinen, a hill to the south of Troms\u00f8 with fantastic views of the city. Most of the city is on a low-lying island, with about a third of it stretching along the opposite bank of a vast river. Gray, bleak, snow-capped mountains surround the island in all directions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our view of Troms\u00f8 from the top of Storsteinen. The airport is visible at the back of the island, and the Arctic Cathedral is visible at the base of the bridge at the bottom right.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We took a cable car back down the hill to avoid the surprisingly large number of mosquitoes on the trail and walked from there to the Arctic Cathedral<\/a>, an unusual and beautiful church built in the 1960s. Although it’s known as the Arctic Cathedral in both English and Norwegian, according to Wikipedia it is not technically a cathedral but a church. Upon further research I have learned that cathedrals are churches that have bishops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The outside of the Arctic Cathedral in Troms\u00f8.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I’m not sure how, but the building somehow managed to hold its own identity, yet remain modest. It felt modern and ancient at the same time – gleaming glass and aluminum housing the practice of a two-thousand year old religion. I guess that’s the magic of architecture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inside, the church felt surprisingly small and intimate, with a huge stained-glass window dominating the back wall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Inside the cathedral, a massive stained-glass window occupies the far wall, with a small altar in front.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Day 2: Troms\u00f8 center<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On our second day we explored Troms\u00f8 center. The city center contains the only wooden cathedral in Norway<\/a> (though there are many wooden churches). We wandered a bit along the cobblestone main road, checking out various shops. One favorite was the Troms\u00f8 bruktbokhandel<\/a>, a book store with a gargantuan collection of Legos occupying a whole floor of the building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Troms\u00f8 Cathedral, the only wooden cathedral<\/em> in Norway. I assumed it was the town hall when I took this photo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One unexpected development was that we ran into a lot of American tourists in Troms\u00f8. We chatted with a family in a candy store who seemed unsure of what to purchase, and recommended Nidar to represent our “home city” as well as Fj\u00e5k, a chocolate brand we had in Bergen that was delicious. We also bumped into a group of retirees from Palm Springs wandering around the docks. Trondheim is not nearly as touristy, so it felt strange to see folks from other countries – including my own – and not<\/em> be at NTNU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The cobblestone main road in Troms\u00f8 features a few apartment buildings and shops.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After a day in the city, we returned to our Airbnb to pack and prepare for the next leg of our journey: taking the ferry to the island of Senja for a beautiful hike and cabin stay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the summer of 2023, Micha and I spent some time exploring Norway and visiting friends. We started with a trip to Fredrikstad, where my great-grandmother grew up, and then spent a few days exploring the capital city of Oslo. We finished the southern leg of our trip with a weekend in Munich to visit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[18,14],"class_list":["post-1767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-norway","tag-northern-norway","tag-travel"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikegerhardt.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikegerhardt.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikegerhardt.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikegerhardt.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikegerhardt.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1767"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/mikegerhardt.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1833,"href":"https:\/\/mikegerhardt.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1767\/revisions\/1833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikegerhardt.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikegerhardt.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikegerhardt.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}