Now as the summer season is over I hope the tourists had a nice experience with us. This is despite the fact that Tromsø city center is not in its best condition right now. Many empty shop premises, (closed) souvenir shops that sell products Norwegian tourists are not very interested in and a pedestrian street that screams for renovation. As well as elements of maintenance needs on buildings.
This year’s summer season is pass, but do not despair! The city is full of planers. Six or seven years into the future, our city will have undergone and transformed, mostly for the better.
An imaginary city walk in 2027 starts at the far end of the North Sea. Today the sjeteen falls apart, but in the future it is upgraded and safe. Here we can see the northern part of the city in its increasingly sprawling, architectural splendor.
Then past Vervet, where popular outdoor cafes and apartments upstairs live in pact with others. Here is perhaps the city’s most bustling life on a fine day.
Further, to the Old Town, of which five centuries of settlement are representative, 1200, 1700, 1800, 1900 and 2000s. A break at Skansen, which in the future will be equipped with information boards that tell what this is. The area behind Skansen is a nice square, and a small cafe owner in the gray brick house.
Then Skippergata. Finally, the traffic is solved in an ingenious way. Impossible to say which one, but it will please everyone. I do not have to say more, because I do not get paid well enough to be controversial. The amount of traffic is less important, it is important that the sidewalks are wider, so that there is room for living and walking.
The street has become a bit of a gem, with shops and cafes where residents and visitors enjoy themselves, surrounded by some of the nicest older houses in town. Mydlandgården has become a culture house for districts, with all types of activities. Since there are no people in this house, you can drive around a bit with noise and activity.
Past Jaklin’s place, and to the new Perspective Museum. Cora Sandel’s exhibition is a similar masterpiece to visiting literary enthusiasts as Pessoa’s home in Lisbon. The new, distinctive building in the car park behind Verdensteatret has become a unique small building.
So Storgata, which is equipped for the unrecognizable. The small houses on the other side of the World Theater have a number of small tenants. Maybe Krane’s patisserie has re-emerged in its very first room, there in the corner yard towards Helvetesveita?
Then comes the stretch between Stortorget and Fr. Langes gate. Today, this is the most tired stretch of pedestrian street. Apart from the new gate, I could not to any plans here, so maybe this will be the «low point» of the city walk.
It takes care of itself up by Fr. Langes gate. Tempohjørnet is the entrance to the city’s new shopping center. Not the largest, but with carefully selected tenants of the type you have been shown to bid for many years. The center is loose so that the latter is seamlessly part of the city, with floors of paved stone to enhance the effect.
Then past nice The church park and further south. The sidewalks in Storgata towards Grandhjørnet have been widened, so that you do not feel that you are balancing on a cornice, with the danger of falling down.
Southern part of Storgata has retained its shabby charm, and unspoiled place with a lot of life and activity. The “four corners”, the intersection between Fiskegata and Storgata, is a strategic hub for photographers – the four shop doors that open out of the intersection give it its own charm.
Further south, and the new apartment hotel at Eurospar is in place and with it the opportunity to use the sidewalk on this site as well. Finally, you can walk all the way to Ølhallen without being bombarded by seagulls, icicles, slipping on the ice or getting splashes of water, or whatever the season’s challenges are in this part of the city center, which today is almost accessible on foot.
The Mack quarter has got a small mall. The main attraction is a food hall, dedicated to local and smaller local produce. There are counters where tourists and locals can sit down and “try” our specialties, whether it is fish, whale meat, reindeer or brewed specialties. The rule of thumb that it should not be served in a mall has been circumvented by defining this as a huge restaurant, or perhaps a kind of foyer?
After having walked through the small center, you come to a warm and sunny place on the lower side of Storgata, where Storgata Camping is today. A break before the city’s biggest attraction: the new large museum. After looking at a giant, the whale shell and everything else on display, you probably have to return to the hotel to rest and afterwards have dinner. That means turning around, walking through the square by the North Sea, which still can not build a large hotel.
And so, finally, concert in the city’s new, spectacular concert hall in the Mack quarter. It is almost as nice as Stormen in Bodø. Or maybe just like fine.
So, welcome to Tromsø in around 2027!