21st August 2023 (cloudy, cool)

Woke this morning in a little cabin in Tromso campground.  It seems strange that we have reached our destination and the cycling is no more.  Didn't have to pack our gear up, load the bikes and ride off to areas unknown.

Breakfast was around a little table inside the cabin, not outside, or sitting inside the vestibule, if the weather was bad.

We plan to do some walking whilst we're here and our rides will all be local until we pick up the bike boxes, hopefully on Saturday.  Prior to that we will enjoy what riding we do, then clean them thoroughly, strip them back and pack em up.

After a ride to the supermarket (some things don't change), we were back at the campground, eating in the cabin.  Spent most of the morning talking to Irena and Tony, followed by Keren and Greg.  It was as always great to see and talk and the time went really quickly.

The Arctic Cathedral 

Think Whitely Church needs better marketing.

Out on the bikes over the bridge, one of two, which joins Tromso to the adjoining landmasses. These Norwegians certainly know how to build a decent bridge.  Got our bearings in relation to the town itself and took some shots.

Popped into a shopping mall, but it really didn't have our kind of stuff, although we did go into a shop that sold Norrona tents.

They had a two person tent set up and it was available in a three person.  It was very well put together and the extremely helpful girl working there said we could get 20% tax back on it.  She checked the price and it was nearly $2000. Sorry, as good as it was, too much.

Also went to our hotel, which we were supposed to be in on Saturday and brought it forward to Wednesday at a great price.  It helped that we had a very accomodating receptionist, who was personable as well.  Back across the bridge for lunch, before doing some catch up work on the blog.

Decided to get some washing done, including my green sweat that I've been wearing on tour almost constantly when it is cooler. It has been washed, but I gave it a good scrub.

Julia was getting stuck into cleaning her dry bags, which collected some oil and other tour marks and also her raincoat, which came up well.

Back at the cabin I began cleaning my panniers, which have done a good job. They are Thule, Swedish 25 litre.

On our next tour, I may even buy two smaller 15 litre bags for the front.

I was glad I went for the yellow, especially in the tunnels, where you need as much visibility as possible.

If it's fine tomorrow, we'll begin cleaning the bikes, but as we have to ride them around the island to see places, that might wait until we're at the hotel.

A face time call to Briana and Brody later on in the day was nice and Briana's preparing for her trip to Norway and then around parts of Europe, including England where she'll also catch up with Brody.

For dinner, we finished off our last can of mackerel with rice.

It's been a staple dinner. Easy to do, quick and filling. Sometimes with bread or if not mackerel, usually chicken or some form of chorizo sausage.....delicious.

We have, in the very limited tent area at this camp, a group of Sami, from Lapland.

They are up and out walking most mornings and their kids, who were in the kitchen yesterday as we were doing the dishes, are cute.

Definitely not little whiners, who we have come across in various places.