Alta

Half boy, half dog!

So we all had a good night's sleep last night - yahoo and woke up to another beautiful morning.  We weren't 100% sure what we were going to do today - but whatever we did, we would have to take the motor home with us, so no decisions really needed to be made first thing.

7000 year old rock carvings

We had breakfast, washed up, tidied up the motor home, then refilled it with water, got rid of the grey water and emptied the chemical toilet.  Then we checked out and set to the Alta Museum - Alta has a UNESCO world heritage site - stone carvings of which some are 7,000 years old, which is impossible to comprehend.  The site was right on the fjord, and the clouds were down on the water, giving it a real ethereal quality - simply beautiful.  Most of the museum was outside which we didn't realise (we were expecting to look at rocks in glass cases - but the rocks have been left inset.  In fact they have found 5 sites in the area - this is the only one with public access.  The museum gave us a very good guide book with a route map which explained everything we would see.  The oldest were at the top of the site, as they tended to carve rocks at the shore line and Norway has been rising up from the last ice age for thousands of years.  There was no language on the rocks, and truth be told, the experts aren't 100% sure what all the images are of and their significance, all they can do is surmise about them.  They were discovered in the 1970s -  they weren't buried or hidden, just that no-one noticed them until then - they were quite shallow carvings, and unless the light hits them in a certain way, they are quite hard to pick out.

Animals we probably won't see, in one handy field!

Initially the curators of the site, filled in the paintings with ochre so visitors could see them well, but it has now been decided that that is the wrong thing to do and they should be left as they were found. Most of the rocks depict hunting of some sort: corralling reindeer, fishing, using tools (although no-one is exactly sure what all the tools are), also included are lots of bears, moose, men and women, boats, and lots of symbols they aren't sure about.

Rosebay willowherb dominating the scenery

Northern Lights Cathedral

Just as we were getting to the end of the 3.2km walk, the heavens opened and it started raining really hard, it was an abrupt ending which was a shame so we hurried back to the museum and took in its exhibits.  It was still raining, so we had 2 cakes from the cafe whilst we waited it to abate - we could see breaks in the cloud and finally it stopped so we went back to the motor home and made ourselves lunch - cheese and ham sandwiches again.

Modern crucifix

Yesterday, when we checked into the campsite, the receptionist gave me a magazine full of info on the area - I noticed there was a swimming pool in Alta.  Perfect to give Tom a fun afternoon.  As the weather wasn't that great, we decided to head into town to search it out.  We found a car park in the centre of town and went first to the cathedral - the most northerly cathedral in the world - called the Northern Lights Cathedral as was quite different to any other cathedral I have been in.  It was finished in 2013 and is very modern - it is round, made from metal and the crucifix doesn't look like any crucifix I have ever seen before.  Certainly worth a view.


We then went to the pool.  WOW, what a pool - I think the best pool I've ever been too!  It had:
+ A 25 metre pool with lanes and those podiums to dive from if you are doing a race.
+ A 25 metre pool for those who just wanted to splash around
+ A paddling / toddler pool
+ Another pool with a giant mushroom in it which splashes water all around when you press a button
+ A river current area - once again operated with a switch
+ Water cannons which were very invigorating for tired shoulders - pure heaven
+ A large jacuzzi
+ A sauna, aromatherapy steam room and steam room with cold plunge pool
+ A hot outdoor tub
+ A 3.8 metre deep plunge pool from which there were:
   - diving boards at 1m, 3m and 5m
   -  a climbing wall (such a great idea - neither me nor Matt had the upper body strength to pull ourselves out of the pool using the hand holds, but guess who did!
 + A curly whirly slide with an automatic timer

All this for a town with a population of 10,000.  We talk about Dales villages punching above their weight with services for population, but this was ridiculous, but amazing!!!!  We were there for over 2 hours, and could have stayed longer.  We are now all deaf and having to repeat ourselves to everyone as we all have water in our ears after multiple jumps, dives etc.  This facility was obviously for locals, as there was no English or German anywhere, not a complaint - but it is difficult to know the washing culture before you get in.  There were posters everywhere telling you where to wash beforehand (your hair, under your arms and the privates), and posters saying no perfume, but I wasn't sure if you had to naked wash, wash in swimsuit etc.  There were no other ladies in the changing rooms - so I just did it English style.  There were men in the male changing rooms and Matt said the men did wash in the nude before putting their swimming costumes on.  Oh well, although Norwegian uses lots of familiar looking nouns, the verbs are completely different, so sentences can be quite hard to work out.

We all did the 1m jump.  Then Tom did the 3m jump, which meant that Matt and I had to follow suit.   Hats off to Matt, as he was quite nervous about it.  He did it, but his goggles flew off and sunk to the bottom of the pool, so then I had to dive 3.8 metres down to retrieve them - quite a big dive - my ears ached with the pressure, but I got them for him (he's pretty much blind without them).  We all had  multiple goes on the flume - and as each run got timed, we were competing to get as fast as possible.  Our scores: Tom 7.62 secs, I did 6.78 and Matt won at 6.40.  However, another bloke there managed 6.30 so Matt didn't win for the day.  Great fun though - such a great idea to have an automatic timer there.

Tom really wanted to do the 5m jump.  Neither me nor Matt were up for it (we both hurt ourselves on the 3m jump) and I was pretty nervous - what if he hurt himself, but I can't be a mum who stops her child doing things in case they get injured, I have spent so long trying to get Tom to try new things, that I had to let him do this if he wanted to.  He went up to the 5m board a number of times, each time peering over it (it was a long way down, trust me!) and then leaving it and going back down to the 3m jump.  He was aching to do it though and kept returning.  At one point he was stood there for the best part of 10 minutes almost getting the courage up but then shuffling back, then trying again, shuffling back again etc etc.  I didn't think he would do it, and then as I was looking the other way I heard Matt mumble, looked back and there he was flying through the air...he did it!  OMG!!!!!!!!!  He bobbed up and he was fine.  He said he hurt his foot and bum, but he was fine.  Matt and I were gobsmacked and very proud.  He is brave.  Neither me nor Matt had a go.

Where Tom leapt from

We carried on playing in the pool - did I say the complex was pretty much empty.  A couple of kids arrived at around 3.30 (I'm assuming straight from school) and there were 2 other families there and the odd adult but the place felt essentially empty.  We could do what we wanted and didn't have to wait to use anything.  It cost £25 for us to go there and it was money well spent if you ask me.

We didn't come out until after 5pm, so decided to head back to the campsite for another night.  We did so, and even got the same pitch as last time.  We were able to set up quickly as this time we knew what we were doing.  Matt and Tom played whilst I made tea and then we had it inside as it is colder today and it started to rain just as tea was ready.  After tea, as it was still raining, we had a game of flags (Tom won it convincingly - his long term memory is way better than either mine or Matt's!), then the boys went to do the washing up.  A satisfying day and one Tom really enjoyed.