Troms og Finnmark – ToBatheOrNotToBathe

Tromsø

The name Tromsø comes from the Indo-European ‘straumr’ = to flow (the water in the strait). In earlier times, Tromsø was a kind of border to unknown territory. Tromsøya became ice-free 10,000 years ago, and there are traces of humans dating back 11,000 years. The church site of Tromsø is mentioned in written sources for the first time in Håkon Håkonsson’s saga: “He had the Christ Church built in Trum’s and made a christian parish there.” The cathedral in Tromsø is located at Tromsøya (Troms island), while the beautiful ‘Arctic Cathedral’ is located on the mainland, in the district of Tromsdalen (Troms valley), on the other side of the 1016 m long Tromsø Bridge.

If you have a few hours free in Tromsø, we recommend a bus trip to Tromsdalen. Tromsdalen is a valley that leads from Tromsdalstinden (mountain) down to Tromsøysundet and Tromsøya (Tromsø). Arthur Arntzen made his debut with Oluf in Tromsdalen. Get off at Tromsdalen church (the official name for the Arctic Cathedral) and go inside. The Arctic Cathedral was inaugurated in 1965 and it is just beautiful! The shape gives associations to icebergs, and the glass fields between the ‘blocks of ice’ let light through both inwards and outwards. The church was designed by Jan Inge Hovig (he was married to Ingrid Espelid Hovig a whole week before he died of a heart attack). The entire eastern wall is decorated with stained glass.

The Arctic Cathedral is also beautiful seen from the inside.

From the Arctic Cathedral there are only 10 minutes to go to the mountain lift. Here you will find a splendid view towards Tromsø and the dramatic landscape that surrounds the town!

Tromsø seen from Fjellheisen (the Mountain lift).

We defied the hints from Trip Advisor and planned a dinner with a view. It turned out as warned: 3 out of 5 dishes on the menu were sold out, so we had a burger dinner with a view. The burger’s fried mushrooms were very good. Nothing more to say about the food, really. After the view and food, a hot sauna and a cold dip is just right. Take the bus back and go to ‘Pust’ (Breathe).

Pust is a floating sauna located in the middle of the marina in Tromsø. Highly recommended! The house functions as a human mountain. We observed several pairs of people climbing up and eating their lunch on the roof of ‘Pust’.

Women and men have changing rooms on opposite sides, to meet in the sauna in the middle, with a brilliant view of Tromsdalen, the Arctic Cathedral and Fjellheisen.

From Pust there is a fabulous view towards Tromsdalen and the Arctic Cathedral.

The best thing of a sauna is that you hardly notice that the water is cold. Even in mid-August it was only 9 degrees. Is it cold water from the depths that is pushed up in Tromsundet?

A bath or several at ‘Pust’ is just right!

Ersfjorden

Senja is Norway’s second largest island, with an area of 1,586 km2 and around 8,000 inhabitants.

The island has a varied landscape, and has been called ‘a Norway in miniature’. Southern Senja is mountainous with an archipelago, rocky cliffs and pine forests. The inner/eastern parts consist of a friendly lowland with fertile hills and birch forests, while the outer and northern parts are wild with deep fjords and high mountains that run straight down into the sea.

Tungeneset (Cape Tounge) with the Ersfjord and Okshornan (Ox Horn Mountains) in the background.

Sometimes, the row of mountains are broken by the uttermost beautiful, white beaches. The most splendid of them all is perhaps the beach in the Erik’s fjord, or Ersfjorden as it is also called.

Ersfjordstranda (the Ersfjord beach) – a Copacabana of northern Norway?

We have bathed here many times. It is basically a ‘must’ to go here and swim every time we visit Idun’s older brother Frode in Sørreisa.

This time, however, there were far more people watching than bathing. Strange…

An incredible number of people who didn’t want to have a bath!

Their loss, ‘Tobatheornottobathe’ think. We had a great bath!

The spectacular view feels even better when you’re in it.

The 40 inhabitants in Ersfjord have experienced a big change when the Geitskar tunnel opened in 2004. Previously, it was a 115 km drive to Senjahopen (the nearest village, with 300 inhabitants). Now it is 3 km. This has led to much more tourism, as it became possible to drive around Senja. What else is there to do in the Ersfjord? Visit Gulldassen (the Golden Toilet), of course! They are quite good at spectacular toilets at Senja. Square meter price for this one: NOK 300,000! Quite a price. But nice? Oh yes, it is.

The Golden Toilet in Ersfjord. Price: NOK 3.75 million.

A little ironic, though, that the architect had put in a window in the roof, to enable seeing the northern lights while contemplating and doing your business. But currently the toilet is closed both at night and in wintertime…

Bathing and rest room visits are just right in Ersfjorden!

The Crow Castle

Look at this hill.. Check out this beach..

There is a reef.. There is a house..

Bedrooms: 1, 2, 3, 14. What is this??

Kråkeslottet (The Crow Castle) in Bøvær.

West, on the outer side of the island Senja, in Bøvær, is the Crow Castle. This place is a pearl! We were celebrating a number of covid-postponed milestones in the family of Idun’s older brother Frode. As the family is quite big, we needed some space to meet. And both space and atmosphere you can find in the Crow Castle. There are several living rooms:

A Løwø family’s party at Kråkeslottet. Photo: Anette Løwø

… and bedrooms. Many bedrooms. Or, in fact, some of the bedrooms are probably what you could call sleeping places. Check out this favorite:

Yes, you can actually sleep here. With a beautiful ceiling made from an old door:

… and when you put down your foot in the morning, there is a direct view into the sea.

Bøvær is a tiny community. The population has decreased from 17 in the year 2000 to only 8 people in 2015. The fish house is no longer used for unloading fish, it is used for art, concerts, cafè, events and celebrations. And swimming! Here, it is easy peasy to bathe – just jump into the beautiful sea from the quay. For those of you who are afraid of cold water – there is a sauna at Kråkeslottet. With a small hint concerning where the disperse water for the sauna oven should NOT be collected:

NB! The sauna water is to be taken from the shower.

Another poster made it very clear that shouting in or by the water after 9 pm is not very popular among the neighbours. There are plenty of them, as you already know.

We were at Kråkeslottet for a whole weekend, and did bathe both night and day. Without shouting! It should be possible to enter 13 degree celcius water without yelling, right?

Morning bath at Bøvær. No need to shout, just enjoy. Photo: Egil Hestnes

Some did more advanced diving than others: (Ulvhild salto)

A bath or 5 at Kråkeslottet is just perfect!

Telegraph Bay

Tromsø’s city beach is on the south tip of Tromøya (Trom island). We parked at the old aquarium, a starting point of nice hiking paths along the ocean. The old aquarium opened in 1952 and collected salt water from 25 m depth so the animals could have the same environment as in the sound.

For a period Tromsø Museum had not only seals and reindeer, but also polar bears in Telegraph Bay: Binna and Pelle (mother and son). It is said that they loved biscuits, but the main food was fish. In 1954 they escaped and started swimming towards Grindøya on the other side of the fjord. After a wild hunt they were recaptured and the police ordered them killed. And that was the end of the zoo in Telegraph Bay.

So we felt quite safe as we went for a test swim. The bay is named after a sea cable layed across the fjord to Tisnes in 1894. The cable house still stands and gave some shelter from the rather icy winds while we were changing.

Corona had loosened it’s grip, so there were quite a few people on the paths taking pictures of the beautiful mountains on Kvaløya.

For their sake we hope they had better luck with the equipment than we had that day! Our GoPro totally failed us, so we got only 4 pictures from the bath instead of 1 each second. We now have 2 GoPros, and a tripod for mobile, so we can assure getting at least some useful pictures from future baths.

But a nice, fresh bath it was. Right now is a good time for a bath in Telegraph Bay! Next time we go there, we’ll get some better pictures too…

Kayaking in Viking Land

Senja is Norway’s second largest island, with an area of 1586 km2 and almost 8000 inhabitants. The name possibly comes from the Norse ‘sundr’ = ‘separated, apart’, and in that case refers to the strongly divided coast. The nature at Senja is spectacular: High mountains, deep fjords and beautiful, white beaches.

Okay nature at Senja, in okay winter weather. The forested island is Tranøy.

On the south side of Senja island is the small island Tranøy (Crane island). On Tranøy, people settled some 2000 years ago. Remains of 3 boat houses from Viking times have been found, and also burial mounds. There we wanted to go kayaking!

Idun’s big brother Frode has vacuumed the second hand market of kayaks for years, so he is well equipped. Knut was corona sick and stayed home, so the seventh kayak was not in use this day.

Tranøy is an old church site, and was under the Archdiocese of Nidaros from 1270. Today there is a rectory on the island, with a museum in the old house.

Several exciting stories are presented in the museum. Here is a picture of a women’s brooch from around the year 900, which was found in the former Tranøy municipality.

Tranøy’s wild sheep. Back to the left you can see burial mounds.

There is a beautiful white beach on Tranøy, but for practical reasons there was no bathing done here this time (‘Someone’ had become hungry, and the food was forgotten in the car). Well back on ‘Mainland-Senja’, however, a bath was just the right thing to do, even though the sea was not quite as shiny as at the start of the trip.

A bath in front of Tranøy is just perfect!

Water can’t be more crystal clear than this, can it?

Bonfire house bath at Senja

North east on Senja (Norway’s second largest island) there is a cape and close to it a hillside with a chip in it (chip – skår, hillside – li, cape – odde: Skorliodden). It is a good view to the seaway in to Tromsø, which means it is a good place for a fort. Skorliodden fort was put up by the Norwegian Defence Forces with pre-german materials. The fort is now gone, but the pier is still there.

The weather forecast predicted some wind this day, so instead of the planned kayak-tour we went for a walk to watch the waves.

No, this hunt was only for pictures and baths. No rules broken.

We parked at Vangshamn and went by foot out to the fort, a nice half hour walk. And plenty of time to look forward to a bath in the extremely clear water!

From Skorliodden you see over the fjord towards Kvaløya wind mill park. Doesn’t look too bad, considering there are still plenty of untouched mountains left in Troms and Finnmark.

Inga enjoys her freedom. Kvaløya in the background.

On Skorliodden they have made a bonfire house after plans from Furøy Velforening. It is rather windy out on the cape, so some shelter is rather welcome.

Skorliodden bonfire house. Soon also with panorama windows.

Hot dogs in focus. Comfortable in the bonfire house on Skorliodden! Photo: Ulrike Naumann.

After food it was time for a bath, but strangely enough no one else than Idun and Knut wanted to have one. Most were happy just walking along the pier and looking at the waves. No closeup studies wanted.

Windy on the pier. Photo: Ulrike Naumann.

Quote from big brother: ‘’If you give me 50 kr, I’m happy to deny you to bathe today!’’. An offer we easily could refuse, who can withstand such a tempting bathing spot?

What will I see – over the giant waves? Photo: Ulrike Naumann.

Skorliodden wave pool. Photo: Ulrike Naumann.

They waves weren’t as big as expected though. So then we could return to the bonfire house.

Chilly and nice at Skorliodden. Photo: Ulrike Naumann.

It is always a good time for a bath at Senja!

Animal tracks in Sørreisa

Iduns big brother Frode lives on the peninsula Furøy (pine island, although it was called Leirøy, clay island while it was still an island) between Finnsnes and Sørreisa centre in Troms. Every winter he arranges an activity holiday for the Løwø siblings. This time we wanted to join! BUT – Idun broke her shoulder last time she skied, so the main activity of skiing wasn’t so tempting. A bath, on the contrary, is always tempting!

Close to Sørreisa church is Tømmervika (the Timber bay), and from there it is a short walk to Storvika (the Big bay) – Furøya’s primary bathing spot.

Quite easy to find Storvika, even though the road wasn’t cleared of snow.

Crossing the road were tracks of rabbit, moose, deer and fox. Deer are living here only for the second year. They rely on old conifer trees and last year the planted conifers were finally old enough. About the fox: we _think_ it was fox, since there were no human tracks nearby. Maybe if we could have heard what the fox said…

Nice with a sign to tell you to stop. Some never are able to do that.

The deer had had a gathering in Storvika, but it seems as the Humans are planning on reoccupying the area. A big bonfire was already in place. Tempting to bring out the matches…

Everything ready for a pentecost bonfire, or do we have to wait for midsummer?

In the background is a war ship participating in the exercise ‘Cold Response’. It had good speed as we arrived, but suddenly stopped. Was watching two crazy mid winter swimmers that interesting?

There was much seaweed on the way out, but wow (!) how clear the water is here up north. Big brother wondered if we did swim out to the small rock in the bay, some 250 m out. But we were there at high tide and didn’t notice any rock. Might have been just as well. Maybe next time!

Back at big brother’s house we could see who had made some of the tracks we saw! Not too shy, these ones…

It is always a good time for a bath in Storvika!