Tuesday, Sept 17

Yesterday, we flew from Stockholm to Tromso in Norway.  We will be in Norway for the rest of the trip. Our Airbnb here in Tromso has amazing views. We’re hopeful to also be able to see some Northern Lights from here.  The windows look to the north, so if we get a cloudless night, we should see them.  

The forecast for the coming days looks colder and rainier than today, we wanted to get out today and do some hiking.  Our first adventure was to hike up the mountain that is right here in the neighborhood we are staying in. We met our neighbor last night, and she mentioned that there was a trail right behind the last row of houses.  Indeed, there was. From our house, the mountain looks rocky and rugged. I was surprised to find that it was actually rather boggy. We often sloshed through soggy wet patches much of the way up. I really liked the short, red leafy foliage that was all around (see pic).  It had berries in it, but I don’t know if they are edible or not, so didn’t try them. Although we did pass someone who was out foraging for something, we didn’t stop to ask what they were foraging for. We made it about ⅔ of the way up this particular mountain, then figured we’d gotten far enough for nice views.  We savored the view for a bit, then headed back down and to the house for a bit of lunch and to decide what to do next.

Our next destination was a hike up Trehorningen, a mountain on the other side of the island we’re staying on.  Despite being listed on a particular website as an “easy” hike, this one was more strenuous than our first hike of the day.  It was pretty steep going up. I was very glad to have my hiking pole to help hoist me up. We only made it about ⅔ of the way up this one, too.  Then we found a couple of nice big rocks to stop and have a little snack and savor the view. The hiking pole was very handy on the way down, too, to help steady me as I descended, kind of like having a third leg.

We had dinner in the house.  Rob has found some pizzas, pepperoni, and chocolate milk that he likes (well, he only just tolerates the chocolate milk, but does like the other two), so that’s good.  Much better than in Sweden. We’ll relax at home tonight. There is no tv in the house, so we’ll have to do separate things. I’ll probably do some knitting when I finish up this post.  Rob is reading his geek news.

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