towards Narvik…

Hurtigruten boat approaching Hammerfest

We all had a good sleep last night so we are figuring that the church didn’t bong through the night (we were slightly concerned as it seemed to bong through the day and when the cruise ship left and we were wondering if it would keep us awake)  We did our chores (empty toilet, grey water and fill up with clean water) and then headed to the Polar Bear museum which opened at 10am.  Get this - it was free?!!!!!!  The best value for money activity we have had here!  It was small, but sweet.  Lots of taxidermy animals - including a number of polar bears and lots of display boards explaining about life in Hammerfest.  The British got a mention for being pesky and always fighting - they even looted the town once!

Isbjørn

The museum shop had a wonderful array of soft toys including some fantastically looking little walruses - just as well we already have one as we would have come away with one if not and we already have 3 extra soft toys this holiday!  We bought a patch and a sticker and then headed on our way.  (Oh, and if you were wondering - there were no showers, laundry etc at the museum, so we have no idea where on earth they were?)

The plan was to drive as far as we can, so we can get to Narvik.  First job though was to stock up with food as we were running low.  Mistake, big mistake - we discovered today that supermarkets aren’t open on Sundays.  Oh dear - we had two pieces of salmon and some pasta and cheese in the fridge.  We were going to have to have weird dinner and lunches.

Bull walrus

We carried on our way, we discovered something else…there were no lorries on the road.  This was good, made driving so much easier and as a result we ate the miles effortlessly.    Matt got us to Alta where we thought we might find a supermarket and if not, we might find a restaurant open.  We parked up and Tom ran round to see if Peppe’s Pizza was open - it was, we booked in immediately and enjoyed a very lovely pizza: called a Moby Dick - it was curried garlic prawns, leeks and peppers with tomato sauce and cheese.  Think it was about 14 inches across - way big enough for the 3 of us and we gobbled it up enthusiastically.  As we were in the restaurant, we saw someone come in eating a big bag of cheesy balls - hummmm, did this mean there was a shop open selling food - we needed to investigate.  We walked round the block and found an open supermarket - yay.  We went in it - hummmm, it was tiny.  Basically the main supermarket was closed, but there was a small room crammed with food and drink.  We think the law here is that to be open on a Sunday your shop has to be under a certain size.  Anyway, we got out of jail and were able to buy enough food to sustain us until tomorrow when everything opens again.

From Alta, I took over the driving and did about 65 miles along the E8.  I was looking forward to driving back along Kåfjord as it was so so so scenic.   However, the mist was down and it was raining so we could barely see anything - such a shame as when we drove along it last week - it was so beautiful.  Oh hum.  Matt drove a bit more and then I did the last shift.  We decided to camp exactly where we camped last Monday night - nice and flat, tarmac, quiet and a lovely clean WC on hand.  What’s not to like?  Also there is a Co-op here meaning we can do a shop in the morning for all the provisions we couldn’t get today.

Travel weary

We got here about 6.15, parked up and just stayed in the motor home, the weather was so miserable - shame because there is a nice green area here on which we could have played beach tennis or something similar.  I made tea, we played articulate, the boys did the washing up and then we started to watch the next Harry Potter film.  Good job we downloaded them onto Matt’s iPad before coming away…