Our trip to Tromsø — Day 2
After indulging ourselves in the breakfast buffet at the Scandic Ishavshotel, we went back to our room for a while, waiting for the Troll Museum to open.
Troll Museum
I had read about this museum in the Mamma Fairy’s blog about their trip to Tromsø with kids (she has some really good tips, go check it out if you’re considering going to Tromsø). Despite the Troll Museum being located just across the street from the Scandic Ishavshotel, we managed to get ourselves a little confused looking for it. After a bit, we found a sign pointing inside what at first seemed to be a private courtyard, but we followed the sign, and sure enough, found a door with a Troll Museum sign. We went through the door, which led to a staircase, and went up the stairs to the Troll Museum on the 3rd floor. We ended up spending about two hours there.
There were a lot of fairytale displays with accompanying stories and descriptions of Norwegian myths. We also spent a while at a virtual reality (VR) sandbox, in which the sand can be shaped as a landscape with valleys and mountains. As the sand is shaped, the VR setup projects color onto the sand, populating it with plants, trees and fairytale creatures, for example sea trolls in the lower parts and mountainous creatures where the sand is pushed together to form piles. We also enjoyed the game room, where historical types of board games were available. This room also offered colors and papers with pre-printed figures to color.
The Troll Museum does not have a café, so we left when we started to feel lunch-hungry.
Lunch at Backstube
Finding a place to have lunch turned out to be a bit of a daily challenge as many cafés and other lunch places were closed due to Easter. After having gone to a number of places, found on TripAdvisor or Google, and finding them closed, we were all getting hangry and realized we just needed something quick to eat. We had seen the bakery Backstube while walking in the town, and decided to go there. There was a large selection of sweet and savory pastries and different types of bread, on shelves behind plastic doors (the type often seen at bakeries) along the counter. As we were walking back and forth along the display trying to decide what to get, we realized that this was also where the line was, and that others had trays, so we got a tray and started putting items on it. Further into the store, there was also a nice selection of juices and smoothies. They kept restocking sold-out items, and the line was often short, so we went up a second time and got some of the freshly-baked pizza slices.
In summary, it was very easy and quick to get to Backstube as it is centrally located, the waiting time was minimal, and sold-out items were quickly replenished, so this is a good option for a quick and cheap lunch.
Walking in town
We had not managed to find ski goggles for my husband before leaving for Tromsø, which we would need for our Husky tour, and we had figured it should be easy to find ski googles in Tromsø as many would probably find themselves in the same situation. However, it turned out not to be so easy. We went to the outdoor and sports stores we were able to find in the town (Fjellshop, Intersport, City to Summit), but they did not have ski goggles that fit my husband. In the end, we found clip-on sunglasses in Jacob Friis Ur-Optikk AS. The outdoor and sports stores had other really cool gear that we had fun checking out.
After having found the clip-on sunglasses, we continued our stroll around town. We took a look inside the Tromsø Cathedral (the old one in the town center, not the newer Arctic Cathedral). We walked around the church for about 10 or 15 minutes, appreciating the calm atmosphere and decorations in the church.
Magic Ice Bar
Having rested for a bit in our hotel room after our walk around town, we decided to visit the nearby Magic Ice Bar, which was a four-minute walk from our hotel (the Scandic Ishavshotel). When entering the Magic Ice Bar, the first room is a standard room-temperature reception area, where tickets can be bought or online tickets shown, warm coats (buttons on the sides instead of sleeves) are handed out, and souvenirs can be bought. After having shown our tickets, which we had bought online about 20 minutes earlier while in our hotel to get the online booking discount, we were guided into the Magic Ice Bar itself. There were several choices of alcohol-free drinks for the kids, i.e. different mixes of juices and sodas, which the kids were allowed to customize. We then sat down by an ice table and enjoyed our drinks. When we had finished the drinks, we walked around the Magic Ice Bar, enjoying and taking a bunch of photos of the ice sculptures and decorations. We ended up spending about 30, maybe 45 minutes, there in total.
Dinner at Biffhuset Skarven
We ended the day with a nice dinner at Biffhuset Skarven, where we were all very happy with the food we had chosen. It turned out to be lucky that we were there early (at around 17) since we had not booked a table, and parties arriving later than us were not able to get a table if they had not booked in advance.
Summary
We did not have any planned activities on our second day in Tromsø, which provided a nice chance for shopping for ski goggles that we would need for our Husky sled tour, a casual walk around the town, and a spontaneous visit to the Magic Ice Bar.
You might also be interested in going to the post giving an overview of our trip to Tromsø, which also includes links to more details of each day we were there.
