Tromsø - Part 3
Mar. 16th, 2015 09:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rich_jackoThursday 5th March:
We woke early the next day (Well, the boys did; the girls had a lie-in!) and saw what our camp site looked like in the daylight for the first time. Like the sociable chaps we are, we quickly scattered to distant points on the landscape to take photos. It was a clear, blue sky and the scenery was just beautiful. To get an idea of the setting, you can just see our huts in the middle of the sunrise photo below.
As the rest of the site (including 105 dogs!) stirred, our breakfast was served in the main lavvu. It's certainly true that the Scandinavians do great breakfasts - We had tea, coffee, fruit juice, bread, cheese, a selection of cold meats, scrambled eggs, bacon, salmon and (bizarrely) a toothpaste tube of "kaviar".
We got to play with the dogs for a while as the staff prepared the sleds for the morning run. After a while we were joined by today's day group and headed back out for our second sled run. We were paired in the same teams as the night before. Once again all the dogs went bonkers as we walked on over. I captured the moment on video this time.
Sledding in the daytime was a very different experience from going at night. We were divided on which we preferred. For me, the night run just edges it, but they both had their bonuses. It wasn't as atmospheric in the day, but we did get to fully appreciate the scenery as we dashed through it.
We only had five dogs per sled this time, to slow us down a little, and the (different) course we ran this time was through quite deep snow in places which slowed the dogs further - at a couple of uphill points I hopped off the back of the sled completely to help push it better. It was still fast going on the smoother and downhill sections. Of course, we were seasoned pros by this point (Nobody mention Nigel and Hilary's tipping-the-sled incident...) and I never felt like the sled was out of my control.
While this lacked the heir-raising adrenaline rush of the previous night, it was nice to feel like I was working with our team of dogs rather than constantly wrestling against them for control. It helped that we had a slightly less mad team this time, who took the sled ahead slowing as a sign to slow down as well, rather than as a golden opportunity to overtake. All this meant I could push the limits of what I was doing a bit more, encouraging the dogs to go faster and breaking as late and as little as possible.
We were out another hour and a half and it was over way too soon. We got back for teas and coffees and said our goodbyes to the dogs. They were friendly, excitable and utterly adorable and we wanted to keep them all. Lesley in particular would have smuggled several away with her if she could have got away with it. It had been an amazing two-day trip - definitely one of the most insane activities I've ever signed up to, but such great fun. I'm very grateful to Clare for suggesting it, persuading me it was a good idea, and signing us all up to it.
We got back to Tromsø late lunchtime, somewhat tired and not feeling like doing anything particularly taxing. It was still nice weather, so we elected to take a walk across the main bridge and see the views from there. On the other side is the Ishavskatedralen (Arctic Cathedral), a pretty spectacular bit of 1960s architecture. We didn't go in though, as we had plans for that on Saturday.
We spent the rest of the afternoon just having a bit of a wander. As it got dark, we headed back to the apartment for an early night, and much-needed showers!
Wednesday and Thursday were by far the best weather we had all week. We were so lucky we chose to do what we did on those two days.
Friday 6th March:
On Friday morning our batteries felt recharged and we were up for a full day's sightseeing again. Neil and I made an early excursion to "the best souvenir shop in town (although their carrier bags more cautiously only claim to be "probably the best souvenir shop in town). Not wanting to tempt fate, we'd been holding off buying Northern Lights t-shirts etc. until we'd actually seen them.
Dropping off our spoils, we all met up in Polaria - the Arctic aquarium just a couple of minutes away from our apartment. This has a panoramic cinema which showed a great explanation of how the aurorae form, and stunning helicopter footage of Svalbard (I want to go now!). The highlight, though, is the seal pool, where we gathered to watch the feeding. The seals were very cute but moved too fast to get good photos. Clare tutted at the "Arctic" penguin toys in the gift shop.
Slightly back up the hill from Polaria is the Tromsø Kunstforening (Modern Art Society). It's free entry so we thought we may as well take a look. Our overwhelming impression was "nice building, shame about the crap inside". Funnily enough, this was exactly the same reaction I had when I visited the Tate Modern in London. I did like this mural though, and the palm-like sculpture outside. Plus the houses out back were pretty.
After lunch, Clare went off and did culture while the rest of us hit the world's northernmost brewery. Mack beer isn't the greatest (a lot of it is Pilsner, though they also do IPAs and a few darker beers), but brewery trips are always interesting, and we saw another polar bear. They do a lot of soft drinks for Coca-Cola as well as the beer. There was an interesting film about the history of the brewery (which continued selling at the door throughout Prohibition, turning the nearby pier into "the world's longest bar") and a nerd-tastic insight into the bottling processes.
Best of all was the music - The brewers have a stash of vinyl next to the main brewing equipment, including our old friends, Motorhead (See, I said I'd be mentioning them again). As they make each batch, they record what they were listening to at the time, along with a suitable quote. This was a nice personal touch.
Fun fact - the British consulate is based in the brewery. Handy! :o)
We met back up with Clare in the Ølhallen pub next door and then moved on to another pub in town for something to eat. A word here about prices: It's true when they say Norway is an expensive place to eat and drink out. Our flights, accommodation, buses, taxis, supermarket shopping, tourist entry fees and souveniers were all quite reasonable, but booze in particular is very pricey due to the eye-wateringly high alcohol taxes. We were paying 60-100 NOK for 33cl of beer, depending on the strength. At roughly 11 NOK to the pound, that's expensive beer. We didn't let that bother us, however; we'd factored it into the cost of the holiday beforehand and worked out when we were going to eat and drink out without breaking the bank.
The pub we had chosen was cosy (We kept banging our heads on sewing machine cases hanging from the ceiling) and had been recommended for its burgers. This recommendation was entirely justified. Naturally we all opted for the "with everything" burger and were served a magnificent feast of reindeer burger with cheese, bacon and fried potatoes. Mmmm...
Hilary moved out to another hotel as her husband John had flown in to join us for the remainder of the holiday. The rest of us headed down to the docks with our cameras (and, for those more professional about such things, tripods). The evening sky was clear-ish, and we were hopeful of catching another glimpse of the aurorae. We didn't see any but we were glad we'd made the effort rather than just sitting indoors. It was a nice night and still a good opportunity for photos. The night wind was bitterly cold though. We were glad to get back indoors afterwards!
One more instalment to go!
We woke early the next day (Well, the boys did; the girls had a lie-in!) and saw what our camp site looked like in the daylight for the first time. Like the sociable chaps we are, we quickly scattered to distant points on the landscape to take photos. It was a clear, blue sky and the scenery was just beautiful. To get an idea of the setting, you can just see our huts in the middle of the sunrise photo below.
 |
 |
 |
As the rest of the site (including 105 dogs!) stirred, our breakfast was served in the main lavvu. It's certainly true that the Scandinavians do great breakfasts - We had tea, coffee, fruit juice, bread, cheese, a selection of cold meats, scrambled eggs, bacon, salmon and (bizarrely) a toothpaste tube of "kaviar".
 |
 |
 |
We got to play with the dogs for a while as the staff prepared the sleds for the morning run. After a while we were joined by today's day group and headed back out for our second sled run. We were paired in the same teams as the night before. Once again all the dogs went bonkers as we walked on over. I captured the moment on video this time.
Sledding in the daytime was a very different experience from going at night. We were divided on which we preferred. For me, the night run just edges it, but they both had their bonuses. It wasn't as atmospheric in the day, but we did get to fully appreciate the scenery as we dashed through it.
We only had five dogs per sled this time, to slow us down a little, and the (different) course we ran this time was through quite deep snow in places which slowed the dogs further - at a couple of uphill points I hopped off the back of the sled completely to help push it better. It was still fast going on the smoother and downhill sections. Of course, we were seasoned pros by this point (Nobody mention Nigel and Hilary's tipping-the-sled incident...) and I never felt like the sled was out of my control.
While this lacked the heir-raising adrenaline rush of the previous night, it was nice to feel like I was working with our team of dogs rather than constantly wrestling against them for control. It helped that we had a slightly less mad team this time, who took the sled ahead slowing as a sign to slow down as well, rather than as a golden opportunity to overtake. All this meant I could push the limits of what I was doing a bit more, encouraging the dogs to go faster and breaking as late and as little as possible.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
We were out another hour and a half and it was over way too soon. We got back for teas and coffees and said our goodbyes to the dogs. They were friendly, excitable and utterly adorable and we wanted to keep them all. Lesley in particular would have smuggled several away with her if she could have got away with it. It had been an amazing two-day trip - definitely one of the most insane activities I've ever signed up to, but such great fun. I'm very grateful to Clare for suggesting it, persuading me it was a good idea, and signing us all up to it.
 |
 |
 |
We got back to Tromsø late lunchtime, somewhat tired and not feeling like doing anything particularly taxing. It was still nice weather, so we elected to take a walk across the main bridge and see the views from there. On the other side is the Ishavskatedralen (Arctic Cathedral), a pretty spectacular bit of 1960s architecture. We didn't go in though, as we had plans for that on Saturday.
 |
 |
 |
We spent the rest of the afternoon just having a bit of a wander. As it got dark, we headed back to the apartment for an early night, and much-needed showers!
Wednesday and Thursday were by far the best weather we had all week. We were so lucky we chose to do what we did on those two days.
Friday 6th March:
On Friday morning our batteries felt recharged and we were up for a full day's sightseeing again. Neil and I made an early excursion to "the best souvenir shop in town (although their carrier bags more cautiously only claim to be "probably the best souvenir shop in town). Not wanting to tempt fate, we'd been holding off buying Northern Lights t-shirts etc. until we'd actually seen them.
Dropping off our spoils, we all met up in Polaria - the Arctic aquarium just a couple of minutes away from our apartment. This has a panoramic cinema which showed a great explanation of how the aurorae form, and stunning helicopter footage of Svalbard (I want to go now!). The highlight, though, is the seal pool, where we gathered to watch the feeding. The seals were very cute but moved too fast to get good photos. Clare tutted at the "Arctic" penguin toys in the gift shop.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Slightly back up the hill from Polaria is the Tromsø Kunstforening (Modern Art Society). It's free entry so we thought we may as well take a look. Our overwhelming impression was "nice building, shame about the crap inside". Funnily enough, this was exactly the same reaction I had when I visited the Tate Modern in London. I did like this mural though, and the palm-like sculpture outside. Plus the houses out back were pretty.
 |
 |
 |
After lunch, Clare went off and did culture while the rest of us hit the world's northernmost brewery. Mack beer isn't the greatest (a lot of it is Pilsner, though they also do IPAs and a few darker beers), but brewery trips are always interesting, and we saw another polar bear. They do a lot of soft drinks for Coca-Cola as well as the beer. There was an interesting film about the history of the brewery (which continued selling at the door throughout Prohibition, turning the nearby pier into "the world's longest bar") and a nerd-tastic insight into the bottling processes.
Best of all was the music - The brewers have a stash of vinyl next to the main brewing equipment, including our old friends, Motorhead (See, I said I'd be mentioning them again). As they make each batch, they record what they were listening to at the time, along with a suitable quote. This was a nice personal touch.
Fun fact - the British consulate is based in the brewery. Handy! :o)
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
We met back up with Clare in the Ølhallen pub next door and then moved on to another pub in town for something to eat. A word here about prices: It's true when they say Norway is an expensive place to eat and drink out. Our flights, accommodation, buses, taxis, supermarket shopping, tourist entry fees and souveniers were all quite reasonable, but booze in particular is very pricey due to the eye-wateringly high alcohol taxes. We were paying 60-100 NOK for 33cl of beer, depending on the strength. At roughly 11 NOK to the pound, that's expensive beer. We didn't let that bother us, however; we'd factored it into the cost of the holiday beforehand and worked out when we were going to eat and drink out without breaking the bank.
The pub we had chosen was cosy (We kept banging our heads on sewing machine cases hanging from the ceiling) and had been recommended for its burgers. This recommendation was entirely justified. Naturally we all opted for the "with everything" burger and were served a magnificent feast of reindeer burger with cheese, bacon and fried potatoes. Mmmm...
 |
 |
Hilary moved out to another hotel as her husband John had flown in to join us for the remainder of the holiday. The rest of us headed down to the docks with our cameras (and, for those more professional about such things, tripods). The evening sky was clear-ish, and we were hopeful of catching another glimpse of the aurorae. We didn't see any but we were glad we'd made the effort rather than just sitting indoors. It was a nice night and still a good opportunity for photos. The night wind was bitterly cold though. We were glad to get back indoors afterwards!
 |
 |
 |
One more instalment to go!
