25th and 26th August 2023 (sunny and warm on Sat)

Today is Friday or Fredag as the Norwegians like to call it. We felt we should be wearing black singlets and gumboots each Fred Dagg day to show our appreciation that they named the last day of the work week after one of our founding fathers.  Unfortunately our wardrobe didn't run to that, but we did notice a nice line of gumboots up for sale. Not sure Fred would approve with that impractical length, but at least they're trying to pay homage.

It's nice that the local student population have made me feel so welcome!

Today really didn't start until the afternoon as we relaxed around the hotel. Did some writing about our last couple of days and transferred some photos over to Julia's phone, to go on the blog.
The weather forecast was for overcast 10C, but brightening to sunny skies in the afternoon...that never eventuated.

Spoke to Toffa and later on Brody before getting out in the afternoon for another look around Tromso.
I was the only person wearing shorts on the entire walk and both Julia and I thought it was a mild afternoon.
Got some good images and then headed back to the hotel for drinks followed by dinner.

Cool art on the side of a building. 

The stylish Bibliotek which looks like a whale tale from this angle.

Think that's a sign you should buy another guitar Toffa. 

Mack's brewery 

Watched some World Championship Athletics from Budapest for a couple of hours and then a movie with Brenda Blethyn, not bad.  Just a nice treat to be able to eat a home-cooked meal snd watch some telly.

26.8.23

Woke this morning after a bad sleep.
The double glazing in this hotel is rubbish, not helped by the fact that we are on the main road, or that there is a music festival in town this weekend and the youngsters are hanging around on the streets til 4am.

Received a call from Briana at 6 am.
Her trip hadn't started well.
She, along with hundreds of others, were held in massive queues at security in Chicago.
Resulting in a mad dash for the plane, to  no avail.
Had to get a hotel in the city and the hotel she wanted, was one of four of the same name and you can imagine what happened.

Consequently, she is one very tired, pissed off individual.

This morning we were starting to strip the bikes and box them up.
But first, they needed to be cleaned.
Down in the basement we took both bikes into the underground carpark and began the cleaning process.
That all went smoothly.
We'd borrowed a bucket from the housecleaning staff and we were away.

Transferred both bikes up to our room and  firstly started dismantling Julia's.
All went without a hitch and Ju's bike slid smoothly into the box.
It was approaching 11.45am when we received a text from Gary and Steve, who, the previous night had been in the crowd at Twickenham, in the Springboks end.

They didn't enjoy the game and Steve was in for a double whammy, when the following day, Fiji beat England.
Told them we'd have a facetime call at 5pm, our time this afternoon.

Julia and I had decided to leave my bike until later on and get outside in the beautiful weather.
It's been so dull since we arrived last weekend, so we were going to enjoy a sunny day for perhaps our last time in Norway.

Our target was the botanical gardens, but we were going the long way around and taking in a few more sights.

I'm not sure how far we walked, but we were out for four hours.

Walked up the hill to a park area with a lake.

Then a few more kms further on we arrived at the downhill ski jumps.

A 12 metre kids, a 45metre and a 70metre.

Tromso applied for the 2014 Winter Olympics, but was pushed back as it would have been the first time a games would have been held, north of the arctic circle.

Those athletes are mad.

I wandered up the 45 metre steps, only two thirds of the way up and that was scary.

Our walk continued through the university grounds and down to the planetarium, which was a little bit different.

Our aim when we started out was the botanical gardens, but we were having trouble finding them.

Planetarium 

Took a couple of turns and suddenly we were there.

I'm very sorry Norway and Tromso, but if you want to see spectacular gardens, you need to come to New Plymouth, New Zealand.

Pukekura Park, Pukeiti and Tupare are world class and to be honest we looked at each other as much as to say, why did we walk so far for that.....

It must be extremely hard to grow any form of beautiful plant, just to have a big dollop of snow come and wipe out any aspirations you may have had for it.

Had a huge range of rocks on display and labeled.

Walked back to the hotel, picking up an ice cream on the way.

Grabbed a marker pen off Eva ( Ever) at reception and wrote our names and address on the boxes.

Began to disassemble my bike, but was interrupted when Gary and Steve called from London.

They were at the Wheatsheaf pub, before Gary flew back to Belfast

Had a great chat, we always do.

You can't beat chatting to mates you've known forever.

Finally, both bikes were in their boxes and any remaining gear stowed inside as well.

After a lovely dinner of kjottbollers, rice, mushrooms and lettuce, we sat and watched more athletics over a coffee.

Sky, still clear.

What are our chances of an aurora..??