The town of Alta is not what-so-ever worth a detour. Spread out over 5 km with not less than three centres it could certainly pose as the Norwegian equivalent of one of those remote villages in an American road movie where the hero ends up in after having taken the wrong turn on the highway and gets tangled up in a weird story.

Not that I had any bad experiences in Alta but it just was not my kind of town. I also understood that the people living through the long and cold winters up there actually get a tax deduction for their heroism. Bless them all...

The rock carvings on the other hand, are worth a detour! If you happen to be in the neighbourhood, start with the excellent museum, café and souvenir shop all-in-onet before you embark on a long walk pass the many carvings. Some of them are over 9000 years old and once made by the Komsa culture back in the stone- and bronze age. And there are thousands of them...boats, reindeers, bears, fish, birds, elks, women and men, children, hunting scenes in an endless row. And its all up to your own imagination what they really means and tells. No one has really managed to explain them fully.