Tromsø – Valerie's Voice

Libraries are a gift to any community. I have come to love and appreciate Northfield’s public library.

The Northfield Carnegie Library was built in 1910, with a major addition built in 1985, and renovated in 2015-16.

I think of Andrew Carnegie, whose mission was to provide libraries to many communities throughout the world. A total of 2,509 Carnegie libraries were built between 1883 and 1929.* Northfield’s library is a Carnegie library.

“His [Andrew Carnegie] philanthropic interests centered around the goals of education and world peace. One of his lifelong interests was the establishment of free public libraries to make available to everyone a means of self-education.” **

Over the years I have used a variety of our library’s helpful services. I realize my list is a fraction of what libraries have to offer.

My list includes:
When our grandkids lived with us a for a few months, we went to weekly children’s story time. And after story time, I took them to the children’s area and they picked out books to check out and bring home.
I’ve attended author’s talks at the library.
I’ve had help with my computer from a librarian.
I’ve had help finding books and audio books for myself from a librarian.
I’ve had help finding children’s books from a librarian. I have gotten ideas for children’s game.
I’ve found nooks to sit in and write for a spell. It's a peaceful place.
I can order a book from home and the librarian will find it and put it on the hold shelf for me...I just stop in and pick it up! Quick and easy.
The library offers daily newspapers to read.

Tromsø City Library and Archive was opened in *2005*. It was designed by the Norwegian architect Kjell Beite

When we were in Tromsø Norway, we visited the public library. Tourist information for Tromsø includes a visit to the library. It has a beautiful, architectural design. We did purposely walk to see it, and then one day, when we needed a place to rest while walking around town, we found shelter in this beautiful public library. It felt so right, so peaceful. It was comforting to know we had a place to sit for a spell, and to get a drink of water, use the restroom.

Buckham Memorial Library, est.1930. Faribault, Minnesota

There was a seed exchange program at the library in Tromsø. I’ve seen the same seed exchange program in Faribault’s Buckham Memorial Library. What a wonderful idea.

On a side note: In Svalbard Norway, far above the arctic circle, there is a Global Seed Vault, that stores seeds to provide “security of the world’s food supply against the loss of seeds in genebanks due to mismanagement, accident, equipment failures, funding cuts, war, sabotage, disease and natural disasters.” ***

Libraries: the concept is appealing… and I believe, it’s called pooling and sharing our resources!

*Wikipedia: Carnegie Libraries 
**Wikipedia: Andrew Carnegie
***Wikipedia: Global Seed Vault

Here are four things I will remember from Tromsø, the 3rd largest city in the world above the Arctic Circle. Tromsø is a city of 71,000 people in northern Norway, 200 miles above the Arctic Circle.

The midnight sun! Photo taken at 2:16 am.

One: We spent two nights in a hotel room that overlooked a harbor. I love the sea and it was so nice to have a great view from our room. Each morning we ate our breakfast overlooking the harbor. And during the night, I would get up and look out to see the midnight sun.

Our our hotel window…always no screens, no air conditioning. This photo was taken at 10:39 pm.

Two: The sun was shining in Tromsø. This is not an everyday occurrence. There are many cool and cloudy and rainy days. However, we were in Tromsø during a record-breaking heat wave. It was 30* Celsius which is 86* F and people kept telling us this was not normal for Tromsø. And the sun shone brightly. We spent one morning at the Telegrafbukta Park and Beach, at the southern tip of Tromsø, and submerged our feet into the sea.

Three: We took the cable car up to the mountain ledge Storsteinen (1400 feet).

After taking in the stunning views overlooking Tromsø, we walked back down the mountain.

We started out on a trail before connecting with the “sherpa steps” the remaining way down (there are 1,300 stone steps in all). We ended up at the Arctic Cathedral, another pretty icon of Tromsø.

We made a cairn to leave our own mark on top.

Beautiful stained glass in the Arctic Cathedral.

And four: we enjoyed the Arctic-Alpine Botanic Garden, the world’s northernmost botanic garden. There were plants from the Arctic and from alpine and cool parts of all continents.

We went after dinner, so it was about 8 o’clock, and we walked around for over an hour with no concerns that it would get dark.

Maintenance sheds in the garden…with sod roofs. We saw sod roofs throughout our travels. Photo taken 8:30 pm.

The flowers were so pretty. I used my Picture This app a lot to help me identify flowers. My favorite flower in bloom was the beautiful, blue Iceland Poppy.

Tromsø’s most popular tourist season is in wintertime when you can see stunning Northern Lights. They also offer a lot of winter activities. Of course, in winter it’s dark most of the day.

It’s such an interesting world we live in.