Since we had a late check out and only a short drive today we looked around the small town at some of the war memorials and parks.
Bardufoss was a strategic airbase during World War II and there is still a military presence there today. In fact, the military hub located here is used by UK Royal Commandos during winter as a training centre as temperatures can get below -30°C.
Once we left, we kept an eye out for interesting things such as this strange sculpture at the rest stop under the bridge crossing the Målselva River. We know nothing about it, but it was interesting enough to encourage us to get out of the car and have a look around.
We expected the weather to be colder the further North we travelled, however today it had turned really nasty. The wind was strong and brutally cold and the rain was intermittently heavy. It made the two hour trip much longer as we had to pull over from time to time as visibility was often poor.
This rest stop – called Lavangsdalen – is a loo with a view. Since the weather here gets so cold, the toilet cubicles are actually air conditioned so it was toasty warm inside!
After following distant snowy capped mountains we eventually started to catch glimpses of the island of Tromsø.
Before crossing the bridge that took us to the main city, we had a look around the Arctic Cathedral.
It’s a very modern church that looks out over the island through huge stained glass windows. Since it costs to look around inside, we attempted to tag along at the back of a tour group, but it didn’t work as they did a headcount.
The bridge that leads to Tromsø is huge in the middle to accommodate the cruise ships that visit here regularly. We made our way across and found our AirBnb for the night.
Cool Stuff We Did 