Euro Day 54 - Not a rest day

Today we drove to Fredrikstad for the orienteering. It a little urban forest map (like Knocklofty or Waverly Park), but of course with plenty of Norwegian tricky details and much flatter.  The map probably needed a few track updates, and the courses had to complete a boring 1.5km stretch in the suburbs near the finish but otherwise it was fun. Despite bumbling around a bit I finished 4th again which I'm happy with.  Everyone else made similar mistakes but enjoyed it (at least until the last part!)

After the orienteering (no WOC spectating today), we dropped our bags off in the car then wandered through the old town. I was pretty keen to go there as I've watched a Norwegian reality style TV series which had competitors living in the old town as per 1776. They had to complete challenges using old style tools and techniques, such as glass blowing, black smithing, masonry, baking (With just a fire). It was good for my Norwegian practise but also fun to watch for the craft factor!  The most impressive thing about the old town are the canals around it - making this cool star shape.  The streets were nice - I was surprised to see cars driving around which took away from the atmosphere a little, but people are clearly still living in the town.

After the Old Town we headed out to an island via a series of bridges connecting rocky island to rocky island.

In fact I think we would have island hopped about 15 islands along the way. Most of them were a lot more bare of trees than the ones outside of Stockholm, but still covered in holiday houses and regular houses. It was a cool sight.  I had wanted to go out there anyway but I also had an invite to a VIP orienteering event which was being held on the outermost island. I wrangled invites for the rest of the family so we were all able to run in this fantastic bare rock island area.  The course setters clearly decided to have some fun as aside from running over flower covered coastal rock terrain we had to swim from one island to the other!

This was actually Zali's dream event - she's always wanted to do a swim-orienteering course - although I suspect in there dream there would have been a longer alternative to the swim leg - in this case there definitely wasn't! The water was surprisingly not-freezing though, and it was just good fun!   

some controls were between and under boulders, and half way down rockfaces! 

Once clear of Sarpsborg we drove the 20 minutes home (where we finally caught up with the Verde-Thons who had been chasing us all day but we kept having to leave places as they arrived!) - we set about creating a BBQ feast for us all plus some Australians living down the road who gave me a lift out to the event a few times when our car was full.  It was really lovely and delicious as Linda also went to the trouble of making me my favourite Norwegian dish - Rommegrot (with two norwegian o's there but I can't find them on my keyboard).