Tromsø: A Short Birthday Trip

We have been planning a trip to Tromsø for a few months. We had a few big items to check off our bucket lists–be above the arctic circle, go dog sledding, see the northern lights–and we were able to accomplish most of them.

Our trip started on Ben’s birthday, and as we arrived in Oslow for a short layover before our flight to Tromsø, we got a phone call. The military had decided to restrict travel out of Germany for the next 60 days. We had a few days to get home, but we had to cut our trip short. We briefly considered just turning around, but decided to make the most of the time we had.

We arrived in Tromsø to find that Norway had basically shut down. All bars, lounges, activity centers, and restaurants that couldn’t place patrons at least 2 meters from each other were required to close. The streets were basically empty. As we checked into the hotel, the concierge noted our American accents and said, “You might want to turn around and go home. There’s a travel ban from the US!” After explaining that we were currently living in Germany, they checked us in and we started our Norwegian weekend.

I had booked a fancy birthday dinner at Smak and we arrived to find they were seating patrons at every other table to maintain social distancing. I’m sure this was a total pain for the restaurant, but it made for a nice, quiet atmosphere! We had dinner reservations at 7:30 and Ben chose the 6-course meal with wine pairings (wine for him, juice mixtures for me). Our hostess (and wife of the chef), was charming and lovely and gave us wonderful pairings for each course. Before the courses even started, we were given several amuse bouche, and a glass of wine/sparkling juice. Then the actual dinner started and each dish was delicious and artfully presented, with different dishes and flatware to match each course. Unfortunately, having gotten up at 5:30 that morning (and growing a baby who loves to sap my energy) by about course four I was starting to fade. By the end of the meal around 11:30, I was having trouble keeping my eyes open. The hostess was very sweet and offered to call us a taxi, though our hotel was only a 10 minute walk from the restaurant.

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The next day, we got up early to go dog sledding. We arrived at our meet up point and were informed that the lunch that came with the trip wouldn’t be included because of the new coronavirus restrictions, and the price of our lunch would be refunded. We agreed that was fine (lunch was not the main draw, of course). We trundled onto the tour bus and were driven to the Tromsø Villmarkssenter. There we received training from Johanna, a German transplant to Norway, who taught us all about how the dogs are bred, how to pilot a dog sled, and how the dogs live day to day. Finally, we were hooked up with our very own team and sled. I got to ride in the sled while Ben drove, and halfway, we switched.

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The dogs were super friendly and sweet and we loved our time with them. They were really good at pulling us, especially considering that combined we weigh over 400 pounds! Every time we stopped the sled, they would look back at us as if asking, “Why are we slowing down?”

Each sled has a team of six dogs: two females in the lead (because they are less easily distracted and will follow the path) and four males (which are stronger and can carry most of the weight). Our team was made up of Alaskan Huskies, a breed that is specifically developed for strength and trainability to make good sled dogs. The dogs are each exercised each day and run about 60 km per day. They eat pretty much all day long–they are fed three times a day and have snacks of raw meat after pulling the sleds.

After our time with the sled dogs was up, we returned to downtown Tromsø, traversed the bay, and stopped in at Full Steam, a traditional seafood restaurant on the shore. Ben had the Norwegian traditional meal of baccalao, a goulash of sorts made with salted cod. It was delicious!

That afternoon, we visited a local jewelry shop, Wabi Sabi, for a silversmithing class. Wabi Sabi is a Japanese idea focused on the idea of finding beauty in unfinished imperfection. Our lovely host Dagmar taught us to coil sterling silver wire, melt it into rings, size them, file the insides smooth, give the rings several acid baths, and finally brush them with a bronze brush. The final result was perfectly imperfect sterling silver rings and a sweet reminder of our imperfect but beautiful trip above the Arctic Circle.

We finished out our evening at Maskinverkstedet, a delicious restaurant right off the bay. Ben had steamed cod loin and I ordered grilled roast of reindeer with delicious pureed pumpkin, pickled pumpkin, and pumpkin seeds. We topped the night off with a cinnamony sweet apple strudel and then wandered through the town center in the peacefully falling snow.

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We had also planned a Northern Lights chase, but unfortunately we had to cancel since we needed to come back early. We didn’t feel too sad, as there was snow forecast for each night we were there, and seeing the lights probably wouldn’t have worked out anyway. Despite not getting to check that item off our bucket lists, we had a wonderful and beautiful trip. I think Ben had fun and felt celebrated for his birthday.