We took a shuttle into town and were dropped off at a square. I don't think it was the main square, but it was a square. We obtained a map from the very crowded (three ships in port today) Tourist Information and sat down to try to get oriented. It quickly became apparent that the main tourist sights in Tromsø were quite spread out. The Botanical Garden was 3.5 km away (over 2 mi). The Tromsø Museum was 2.5 km away, but in the opposite direction. The famous Arctic Cathedral was at least 2km away in a different direction and involved walking over a long bridge with a steep central arch.
To be fair, the map did show which public buses went to these attractions and the opening hours for the attractions. With much effort you could figure out that everything was either closed on Sunday or didn't open until 11 or 12 or 1. You could not determine how frequently the buses ran, or how much they cost, or whether the drivers had change. I really didn't want to put that much effort into planning a day involving public buses, especially a Sunday. So we decided to go to the Polar Museum because it was a short walk from our square.
First we wandered around for a bit to see what the main shopping drag, the Storgata, had to offer. First up was the Tromsø Cathedral. It was a very attractive wooden structure. 
Because it was a Sunday morning, people were arriving for church services. Many women wore traditional outfits. We didn't want to intrude, so we didn't go in to see the inside.
While looking at the church we heard a loud noise. It began to sound like a band. Before too long we saw a drum corps marching down the street towards us. It was an all-women drum corps, and they were very good. It looked like a lot of fun. If they had one of these in Anchorage, I think I would join it.
We continued along the Storgata. The city's coat of arms bears a caribou.
Alll the shops and cafes were closed. After a while we reached another square and crossed down to the waterfront to reach our objective - the Polar Museum. It was a small museum that told the stories of hunting, fishing and exploration in the Arctic. It was nice but very crowded with cruisers.
Of course, one of the local heroes is Roald Amundsen so they had several exhibits devoted to his explorations.
We thought it was quite interesting that there had been explorations of the North Pole by airship (dirigible). It started in Norway and landed in Teller, Alaska.
After the museum we wandered back along the Storgata looking for a place to eat. I had researched restaurants on TripAdvisor and had written down addresses for four prospects that appeared to be open on Sunday. We found one that was closed. Onee was really just a coffee shop and all the seats were taken by people who had parked there for the duration to use their free internet. One was a deli - an actual deli - and only had 4 seats and 4 sandwiches, and we couldn't find the last one because the street was not on our map, the street signs were not helpful, and there were no house numbers. Our fallback plan was to go to a grocery store and buy sandwiches or something. That failed, too. The big store was closed. The small one was not appetizing, etc. We tried a number of other restaurants that were not on my list. By this time, several restaurants were open, but many were still closed.) They were all mobbed with people from the two cruise ships and the Hurtigruten. We were frustrated and tired, having walked back and forth across the town at leaast 4 times by now. There were no restrooms. There were only a few benches to sit on.
We went back to the ship and ordered room service for a late lunch.
Some of my favorite signs in Tromsø:
My overall impression of Tromsø is not that positive. It is colored by the fact that everything was closed on Sunday, but that's a legitimate issue. Tromsø didn't feel welcoming. They didn't seem to care whether or not tourists liked it there. It's hard to navigate since all the attractions are spread out so much. It's dirty. Parrt of that may have been because yesterday was the Midnight Sun Marathon (really), but part of it was because people throw trash on the ground, they don't maintain their buildings, there are a number of empty storefronts with dirty windows and junk inside, and it just looked like it had seen better times.
Flowers at the Polar Museum
We did have choices. We could have seen more by taking an expensive Princess tour, or we could have tried to visit some of the venues by public bus or taxi, or we could have investigated a rental car or an independent tour prior to the cruise. In fact, I did research Tromsø before we left home and I found that there were several interesting things to do there. What I did not find out was how far away from each other they were, and how few were open before noon on a Sunday. Tromsø could REALLY use a Hop On Hop Off. It would be perfect for reaching all the spread-out venues.
The show tonight was an Elton John tribute act. We weren't that interested in it so we didn't go.
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