Deptford Lads

Still at Sea

2011-08-22T09:32:00.000Z

Very smooth crossing on the North Sea. Still some 2 1/2 hours out of Esbjerg. Weather is fine and warm - absolutely as we want it.

Breakfast in the Commodore Lounge is very civilised. Typical hotel buffet fare, but decent quality.

Taking the North Sea route rather than flying to Denmark is clearly the slower option, but if you're not in a hurry then why not? No-service airlines are all well and good in certain circumstances but are never going to offer the same opportunity to decouple from the modern world for a few hours.

From the North Sea

2011-08-21T20:42:00.006Z

At a relatively late stage we decided to take a trip across the North Sea to Dave's adopted homeland - Denmark.
Stage 1 London to Esbjerg.

Public transport in England on a Sunday can be a bit hit and miss with lots of engineering works. But we got to Liverpool Street without problems - although the roadworks around Surrey Quays made an odd diversion for the bus.

Had got little worried about the effect of the V festival in Chelmsford on the comfort factor on the train but the number of people made us wonder about the necessity for the additional trains that National Express had added to the schedule. Also had the joys of UK rail pricing. Self service machine gave no option for an off-peak single ticket - despite it being a Sunday.

But we reach Harwich without stress levels being increased. Had bit of time to kill there as the train times didn't work too well with the boat. But there are much worse places to spend a Sunday.

We've been on DFDS' Dana Sirena before. Talking to the woman at check in we learn ship is only half full. Enough to allow for people watching! We've booked the top class Commodore cabins. Can be worth it as they include access to the exclusive lounge with free snacks and drinks. Excellent cherries among the fresh fruit. Sun is shining as we leave Harwich at 1715 BST. Can't say we remember having march music played over the tannoy on departure before!

Not much to do before dinner except relax and watch the cranes of Felixstowe disappear over the horizon.

The buffets on Nordic ferries are something we enjoy and tonight was no exception. The waitress was patient enough (and not too busy) to allow David a first opportunity to practise his danish. Great when that happens rather than being persuaded to do everything in English.

Shame that DFDS seem to have stopped offering the beer from Fanø. We'll just have to go to the island instead.

Scheduled arrival in Esbjerg tomorrow is 1300 CET.

Bergen

2010-09-05T11:54:00.016Z

Final stop on the trip was the city of Bergen.

Here Hurtigruten has a terminal rather than just getting on the ship at the quayside, which is what we´ve experienced. Getting a taxi was a bit of a palaver, although the group of Germans who thought that they could get six with luggage into the car we ended up taking were a bit optimistic.

Seemed to be roadworks everywhere, but was amused that our driver understood the word "tosser" that I threw out when we nearly had an accident due to another car being driven on the wrong side of the road when we were leaving the port.

We´d treated ourselves to a posh hotel right next to the UNESCO world heritage listed hanseatic quarter, Bryggen - not cheap, but for a one off suited us. Little disappointed with the breakfast (but then may have been spoilt with comparing it to Lossiranta!)

Finding somewhere to eat took a little while. The places in Bryggen seemed to charge an extra 100kr on the main course just for location. Weren´t sure that we felt that was worth it, but was very pleased to find just round from our hotel a recently opened place called Aroma. Very friendly service and excellent food. We were very happy with the fish stew.

Next day, weather was warm enough that we could enjoy a picnic on the ramparts of Sverresborg as part of a day simply enjoying wandering in the sunshine.

We tend to splash out on our last meal before coming home. Potetkjelleren is one of Bergen´s best gourmet restaurants. Unfortunately, to get into the cellar proper you need to book well in advance and the ground floor room has nowhere near the same atmosphere. I may have been influenced by my knowledge that it was the last night of the holiday and return to reality (and the credit card bill) but one of the reviews of the restaurant (på norsk) says the same. But will agree with both DN and BT that although not cheap you do get what you pay for.

DFDS´ Newcastle<>Bergen service(the last ferry between the UK & Norway) was withdrawn in September 2008 otherwise we´d have considered sailing back to the UK. Instead, at the end of a holiday that had otherwise avoided flying SAS took us back to Gatwick.

Norwegian Coastal Express

2010-09-03T16:12:00.051Z

The ad campaigns for the Hurtigrute sell it as "The most beautiful voyage in the world" and in late summer sunshine it is simply that.We´d been on the route before, three years ago - but that was a short stretch up in N Norway to get us to Lofoten.

Originally, the Hurtigrute was the most important communication link between the north and south of the country. Today, it earns much of its keep from lots of SKI-ing pensioners. But the ships are primarily working vessels operating a regular service to a set timetable - so although passenger comfort is a key issue, there is no organised entertainment programme. We´re with the passengers from Hamburg who told an American journalist that they appreciated the no-nonsense atmosphere. Maybe it´s because we´re sturdy Northern Europeans and we knew that we were simply making use of public transport.

If it´s the grey kronor the ferry company is after that may have to change as the government seeks to minimise the subsidy it pays. But hopefully they won´t spoil the experience

Yet again, we couldn´t believe how lucky we were with the weather. We were heading to Bergen - famous for being very rainy! Yet the sunshine across the country was newsworthy enough to merit a page in one of the tabloids.

The scenery is stunning and no words can do it justice. We amused ourselves spotting trolls in the rocks. Travelling at less than 20 mph is very relaxing and you can sit and read and look up and see something new.

The catering´s not bad either. When we saw the menu for dinner we had to grin. OK it´s the last night of the "classic" voyage, but reindeer and salmon are about as Scandinavian as you can get. Suited us to T.

We were seated at the officers´ table - (unfortunately not with any of the crew)

Reckon about 72 hours is the most I could manage in one stretch, but be more than happy to break up the journey - and we seem to be doing it in bits any way.

Östersund-Trondheim

2010-09-01T13:18:00.022Z

Moving on from Östersund we were taking the train to Trondheim.

Very friendly lady in the ticket office when we bought our tickets. Understood entirely that we weren´t up for getting the 7.18 departure - 16.27 much better for us, thanks. Given sunset wasn´t until around 21.00 still meant we got to see the scenery en route; and the journey is very scenic in parts.

The train is very definitely NOT a tourist route, though.On a previous trip to Norway we saw the Flåm railway - one of the most scenic journeys in the world but how much you can see when it´s as crowded as the average London commuter train is debatable.

The day we travelled to Trondheim our few fellow passengers seemed to be either women of a certain age (either in a group or individually) or college age students (again women, including one Spaniard who seemed to be able to talk non-stop). Many of them were simply using the train for local journeys, so it certainly doesn´t feel like a international service in the way that the Eurostar or ICE at the beginning of our trip.

We stayed at the Scandic at Solsiden. This is an area of the city redeveloped from industrial use with many restaurants and a shopping centre and often called Trondheim´s Aker brygge (referring to a similar area in Oslo).

With a relatively late arrival we weren´t too bothered where we ate and Graffi did the trick.Chatting with our waitress when we were settling up turns out she´d worked in KBH in one of our favourite restaurants on Nyhavn - Cap Horn.

Didn´t have much planned in Trondheim. Got to see the Talerøret before the official unveiling by the PM. As you can see some people had taken a peek inside already. Created by NTNU architecture students it´s a gift to the city from the university to mark its centennial year.

Weather stayed fine so aimless wandering fitted the bill.

Second night was our third micro-brewery of the trip simply called Trondhjem Mikrobryggeri (på norsk) Couple of beers and bacalao set us back nearly NOK500 (£50+) but the beer was good and not that much more you´d pay for ordinary beer in Norway.

Reasonably early night before catching the Hurtigruten next day.

Monster hunting in mid-Sweden (and very old tapestries)

2010-08-31T17:15:00.000Z

Andrew eaten by a lake beast

For Brits, Nessie will be more familiar, but Sweden has its own lake monster legend - the Storsjöodjur (lit: Great Lake Beast). Written records date back more than 400 years but presumably the legend is much older as writers in the 17th century linked the monster to the Frösö Runestone (raised between 1030 and 1050) which shows an image of a serpent, but no reference is made to it in the text itself.

We took a short walk along the lakeside in the late summer sunshine - probably not the best for shy creatures autumnal mists are needed to create the atmospheric pics.

We were amazed at the size of the town's Stora Torget (Great Square). As there was an election campaign on each of the political parties had set up its own, well chalet is probably the best word.

Political campaigning Swedish style

The election posters had earlier caused us some amusement due to David misreading one. The problem came with reading the word poliser (policemen) as pølser (the Danish word for sausages). Nya Moderaterna were telling Swedes that feeling safer didn't require ever more of whichever. Thinking they were saying "Greater safety doesn't just need more sausages" gave us pause for thought. Amused one of our friends working on the opposition campaign!

Jamtli
Go and see the tapestries if you're in town.

Museum entrance

Dating from between 800 and 1100 they were "discovered" in 1910 in Överhogdal. The description on what happened is to modern ears all quite innocently pre-modern.

An artist was travelling round the region by bike to make an inventory of items of rural culture. In a shed in Överhogdal, he found a bundle stored with all kinds of rubbish from the church that had recently been restored. Clearly the church had seen nothing in them as prior to that they´d been in the box used for storing wood for the stove. Taken to Östersund the bundle was handed over to the County Governor's wife. She (the museum´s website tells us "promptly gave it a wash in the bath tub in the basement".

What I liked was the fact that no-one´s quite sure what interpretation to put on the tapestries. So when you go the museum see what story you can see in them.

Does it show

Ragnarök the end of the world in Norse mythology?
Doomsday visions of both Paganism and Christianity?
Scenes from the Völsungasaga?
The Christianization of Härjedalen?

Sweden

2010-08-30T10:39:00.000Z

Not long in Sweden for us on this trip and two places we'd not stopped overnight before.

Uppsala
Staying in a room in what is primarily a youth hostel was a new experience for Dave. But the location was close to the station - v necessary when catching a train at 8.30am.

With only a few hours in the town on a Sunday evening didn't get to see a great deal, but the Krog Kampen (Battle of Bars) did detain us. Watching the bar staff celebrate the end of the season it´s a knockout style was worth a few minutes of our time. Although we did wonder about the quality of service that would be on offer that night!(Ans - v good)

Otherwise we simply enjoyed the late summer evening sunshine.

Uppsala-Östersund

SJ were transporting us some 500km north and East to the lakeside city. Before that Andrew had to run the gauntlet of a "fearsome" Norwegian lady who seemed to live up to her view that the people from Trondheim told it like it is and are hard as nails. She was confused as to why a non-Norwegian would have a ribbon in the colours of her nation's flag on his luggage. Then she laid into him about smoking. Basically done with a smile, but at that time of the morning can prompt the wrong response. Think we managed to placate her national sensibilities.

The journey to Östersund took longer than expected first due to probs on the train in front, then probs with ours. But the weather once we got there was splendid.

See next entry...

Åland islands

2010-08-29T16:43:00.000Z

The Åland islands are a bit of an oddity. Culturally Swedish, the islands are an autonomous part of the Finnish Republic and rather handily outside of the EU for customs purposes. Yep, you can get duty free on the ferry from Turku-Mariehamn. Also the huge Stockholm-Helsinki ferries call in here. Seeing all four vessels manouevring in the harbour is, shall we say, interesting. (Except that it doesn't seem to happen any more.)

Amorella on the approach to Mariehamn

For this trip we're travelling with Viking for the 5 1/2 hour journey. Compared with the Finnlady, the Amorella is both huge and much more geared to passengers. Not surprising given that there will be a lot of booze cruisers. Can't remember the exact figures but only a tiny percentage of the passengers that travel to Åland actually stay on the islands. But the islands clearly earn a good living from being a tax haven helpfully located between two high tax countries.

We stayed at the Hotel Arkipelag. Comfy, friendly and they put your national flag out for you - honestly.We noticed the Union Jack had appeared and asked the receptionist about it on check out.

Highlights of our stay

Dinner at FP von Knorring - fab meal on a boat in the harbour
Great weather for wandering
Saturday night in the nightclub - we're easily pleased but it is an experience.

Leaving the islands took us on a new route Eckerö - Grisslehamn. Best way I can describe the difference between Viking/Silja and Eckerö Line to compare Tivoli with Bakken. Definitely at the more working class end of things. The short crossing to the Swedish mainland was followed by a 2 hour coach trip to Uppsala. Least said bout that the better.

Jyväskylä & Turku

2010-08-26T20:24:00.009Z

Jyväskylä
By now the weather had turned really dull. Never the best way to see a new city. Having dropped off the hire car we took a wander round the centre of town. As the rain came down we dived into a bar for a beer. Weather didn't really improve so we ate in the hotel restaurant. This is something that we try not to do too often - understand why business travellers do it but there are generally better options. Scandic's fare was perfectly acceptable.

Can't say that Jyväskylä jumped out as a place to rush back to - definitely somewhere we wouldn't have been surprised to be ask "You're from London, why come here?" but we needed a convenient stopping off point before moving on to Turku.

And it meant we could get the pics to prove we´ve been here:

Turku/Åbo
Finland is a bilingual country with about 10% of the population having Swedish (Finlandssvensk) as mother tongue. So often there are two names for the same place. Some are seen more often than others. We've been to Turku before and for the same reason as our stop on this trip - to catch a ferry to Åland (Ahvenenmaa in Finnish). Friends and family will recognise at least one of us is not a morning person; so to make the 8am ferry check-in, a hotel at the terminal is a good move. The Best Western Seaport wouldn't be our 1st choice in other circumstances. Our hotel room looked very tired

Unfortunately, the bus to the harbour doesn't serve the main railway station - seems a bit odd that, but at least the tickets are valid for two hours so you can get the return journey back into town included. This was our third journey through Turku and we'd not really had a look at the town centre before. David thinks it's got a more Swedish feel, but can explain that any further.

Dinner was at another panimo - well if you've learnt the word good to make use of it. Actually its full description is panimoravintola Koulu (Brewery restaurant "School" - it's housed in an old school building).

Avoiding the queue at the bar (freshers' week students?) we went straight to the restaurant on the 1st floor. Enquiring about the beers prompted the waiter to offer ales at 6-7%+ ABV. Not really what we wanted. But the summer red (a more reasonable 4.8%) did the trick. Food wasn't bad either (pike perch with sesame crust for D, pasta with parma ham and mushrooms for A).

Given we had to be up at unearthly (for us) hour the next morning decided to head straight back to the hotel.

More in Finland

2010-08-25T10:30:00.003Z

Our next stop on our Finnish meanderings was Tertti manor some 100+ km from Savonlinna. We're generally B road type people so it did involve meandering and, in a couple of places, unpaved roads. Dave's not going to worry any rally drivers, but it was interesting driving, and the scenery in this area was more appealing than what we had the previous day north of Savonlinna.

View from our room

The town of Mikkeli itself is nothing to write home about (although that may have been the combination of lots of roadworks and drizzly rain.) The manor is some 7km outside of the town and is clearly a functioning farm that has diversified with shop, cafe, restaurant and accommodation.

The evening we stayed, all five of the rooms were occupied, and there were enough people in the restaurant to give it a bit of life, but you still got personal service. We had the chef present the food - something that in other circumstances can be irritating but was perfectly acceptable here. She seemed to fit her surroundings. If you've seen the Danish series Matador you'll understand when I say she reminded me a bit of Laura.

They claim to try to recreate the atmosphere of the time of the Tsar (when Finland was a Grand Duchy in the Russian Empire). Difficult to assess if they succeed, but we were very happy with the food and the room (not in the house itself). There three other groups eating there the night we were, and an Anglo Finnish family from Oxford with a young boy who was quite entertaining for the other guests.

Don't think we've ever eaten in a restaurant before where we had no idea what was on offer (there was only one option for each course), or at least what the price was.

The waiter's English was excellent, but we had probs working out what sort of soup we were getting to start (A: chicken D: chickpea). In the event turned out to be courgette (waiter had said zucchini - which neither of us had recognised!).

The duck main course (with beans, onions and red gooseberries from the farm) went down a treat.

Pudding came with raspberries, again from the farm.

Weather had turned even wetter so it was a short walk around the grounds before an early night.

Breakfast was served in the shop - slightly strange, but understandable as it's also the café. Nice touch when we checked out was they provided a small lunch bag with what turned out to be VERY tasty sandwiches.

If you're touring this area you could do a lot worse than stop here.

Our accommodation

The main house

More pics from Tertti Manor

Olavinlinna / Olofsborg / Olav's Castle

2010-08-24T12:30:00.000Z

First view - taken en route to checking in

Having seen the castle from the outside from our hotel, we took the tour round before moving on. Amazingly cheap only €5 each and an excellent hour. (Usually we don't bother with tours preferring to explore on our own). Most of the group were Czech (Dave asked the interpreter). We were surprised how many visitors there were as the town itself seemed so quiet.

The castle was built at a time when this was the border between Sweden and the power to east: Novgorod, Muscovy and eventually, Russia and it changed hands on more than one occasion. It is dedicated to St Olav (patron saint of Norway) rather than having been built by him.

Now claimed to be the most northerly surviving mediæval castle. As well as the Oprah festival it is used for weddings and parties. Great venue, but they don't recommend long trains for the bridal gown if you want the ceremony in the chapel tower.

We've noted the freak weather they had in Finland earlier this year. Apparently, the audience for the Oprah had to endure temperatures of more than 50° C (as well as the opera - sorry).

The full moon was pure luck

Few words here - we recommend you go and see the castle for yourselves!

Eastward from Helsinki

2010-08-23T23:07:00.000Z

Having relaxed in Hki it was time to move on to the lakeside town of Savonlinna. As noted previously, the town is famous for its opera festival (which we will always now know as its Oprah festival which seems to be the Finnish pronunciation.)

The train journey out of Hki is scenic, but not dramatically so. The journey to Parikkala takes about 3 1/2 hours where we changed for a regional train for the short ride to Savonlinna.

We were staying at Lossiranta Lodge. Not the cheapest of hotels but can't complain as we had stunning views of Olavinlinna - the castle responsible for the town's location.

Fortunately, we had some late summer sunshine and Andrew got to go swimming in the lake from the hotel's own pier (one can arrive by boat if one desires). As it was a Sunday and now basically off-season not a lot of choice for eating in the evening, but Majakka (Lighthouse) provided decent grub. Stroll round the town afterwards - small, clean and at this time of year, very quiet.

On the Monday we picked up the hire car and set out to explore some of the area around Savonlinna. Not for nothing is this area known for its forests and lakes. Our favourite stop was Enonkoski - even though we got caught in a short shower. Can recommend the cakes from the cafe opposite the library.

Few "sights" as such on this trip around the area, but should mention the church at Kerimäki - the largest wooden christian church in the world.

At breakfast (in good weather served in the garden) we chatted to a Finn who was on a business trip in E Finland for a week. If his expense account could stand it, we didn't blame him choosing Lossiranta over an anonymous business hotel. Second morning the weather wasn't so good so we had to "make do" with room service. Breakfast delivered in a wicker basket.

On checking out we were asked if we REALLY wanted to leave. Relaxing as it was - we were ready to go as we knew what was coming next.

wifi connection on the viking ferry not good enough to allow me to upload pics - they'll be added ASAP

Eating out in Helsinki

2010-08-20T23:00:00.002Z

As the casual reader may have guessed eating out is a major part of our holidays. Would hate to have to write reviews for Michelin or anything like that, but we like to eat well. Brussels offers numerous options (perhaps too much choice) as does Helsinki. We were a little surprised to have to fall back to Plan D last night (Thursday). Plan A was a small place called Juuri (note to self - use online booking before departure). Nothing at all while we're here. We're staying a little out of the centre and thought for Plan B we'd see if we could get into Wellamo - a restaurant we've failed to eat in (closed or full) on a number of previous occasions. No luck last night (full), but at least we now have a reservation for Saturday (if only we could remember at what time!).

We'd left for dinner early enough to resort to Plan C if necessary, but Elite was also fully booked. Should have guessed being it was the opening night of the Helsinki festival and it is a artsy type of place. So getting lots of use out of our public transport tickets we quickly formulated Plan D and finally fell into Salve. About the same sort of place as Zur Kogge in Rostock. In all the guidebooks but used by locals as well. Tasty grub.

Given last night's experience we wanted to make sure we had tonight's location reserved. The fortified island of Suomenlinna has a number of eateries, but we have always been taken by the Suomenlinna Brewery Restaurant - Panimo (panimo is simply Finnish for brewery) next to the ferry terminal from the city proper. We'd spent much longer on the island than we'd expected during the day - simply soaking up the sunshine that developed and simply popped in on way back to hotel. In the event, a reservation wasn't necessary, but after last night better to be safe than sorry.

Let's see about dinner. Mostly this is a reminder to ourselves, but also gives idea of what sort of food's on offer.

Brewery’s fish zakuska: peppered gravadlax, smoked salmon, baltic herring with juniper berry, herring caviar, russian pickles and marinated chanterelles served with hot dill potatoes

Scallops sautéed in Pernod-butter with cauliflower purée and crispy bacon

Both were excellent starters. We usually try to have different main courses so we can try more of the food, but neither of us was going to be the one NOT having the reindeer:

Brewery’s pepper noisettes of reindeer - traditional Jaloviina cognac and pepper sauce, parmesan-potato cake and sautéed vegetables with mushrooms.

Fantastic meat cooked to perfection (by our standards). And we tried the beers, too. Well, wine would have seemed a shame. The pils and the ale made a pleasant change from ordinary lager and we enjoyed sitting on the terrace in the sunshine. While David went for the porter to go with the main course Andrew plumped for the ale. Both were extremely drinkable. OK wouldn't want to pay the equivalent of £7.50 a pint every night, but don't drink in microbreweries every night.

Not the cheapest of meals but we were well satisfied by the time it came to catch the ferry back to the market square. We can heartily recommend Panimo.

38 hours at sea: Rostock - Helsinki via Gdynia

2010-08-18T13:54:00.000Z

As far as possible we tend to go for public transport rather than taxis but we convinced ourselves that the taxi fare was worth it for avoiding a journey that otherwise involved bus - S-bahn - 1km walk. Rostock is well connected to the rest of the Baltic (as befits a former Hanseatic town). We were booked on Finnlines one of two ferry companies that run the route to Helsinki. Very friendly chap in the office issues us with our cabin keys then we just have to wait for the minibus to take us onboard. None of this walking up gangways. The 7 year old German who gets to sit in the front seat is very impressed."WOW!" Interestingly, at no time did anyone check any form of ID, nor was there any luggage security check..

Finnlady is for both passengers and freight, but on this trip there is little evidence of much of either. Andrew, when chatting to the barmaid, was told that it can be busier than this in mid-January! Having been on a number of other Baltic ferries the lack of people is somewhat eerie. We've got 36 hours on this boat including a four hour stop in the Polish port of Gdynia.

As far as we can tell we're the only anglophones on this crossing. At least haven't heard any other English being spoken. At time of writing, 4 hours out of Gdynia, sea has been amazingly smooth. We've seen the white cliffs of Mon (DK), a few other ships but mainly it's been simply the calm sea. So not much to do but read, eat (the buffet is fine, but the empty spaces just reinforce how few people are on board) and drink. Not that we're complaining!

The early morning arrival in Gdynia provided a change of scenery in the form of a working port. Not exactly picturesque, but not without interest. Seems like a fair number of people got on and Polish can be heard along with German and Finnish. (Hearing German spoken with a strong Finnish accent in the onboard announcements has been making me smile. Can't explain why.)

We're scheduled to arrive in Vuosaari 9am local time tomorrow. Not the picture postcard city centre harbour, but c'est la vie. Weekend in Helsinki - something to look forward to :))

Weather forecast is set fair at least for the next couple of days so should be great for aimless wanderings. And we've got a few restaurants we want to try.

London - Rostock August 2010

2010-08-17T14:00:00.000Z

St Pancras - Brussels
Mid afternoon departure to Brx. Still not convinced by St P as a station. But arriving into warm sunshine in the capital of Europe makes up for any disillusion on that score. Our friends from Amsterdam have arrived a little before us, and are enjoying beer in the new square by Tour du Midi. Quick cab ride to hotel, freshen up and then stroll in the evening sunshine. We'd not noticed that it was the annual? flower carpet in the Grand Place, so the square was even more full than normal. Our chosen restaurant Up North definitely hit the spot. Three of us had the monkfish as a main course. All of us were very satisfied with the food.

Köln

Brussels - Köln
Booking tickets using DB's online system required us to take the ICE rather than the Thalys. Not a hardship. A bare 110 minutes later we're in hot sunshine in the city on the Rhine. We've been here before, and with the weather as it is best thing to do is simply wander. Couple of things distract us. Street fair down to the Chocolate museum. Nothing particularly out of the ordinary but reminder you're not at home. Continuing to stroll fairly aimlessly we're pleased simply to enjoy the weather. Given the fact that it bucketed down all the next day it was very much the right choice. One of the reasons for our friends meeting us in Brx was the fact "the food's better there". Not that's there's anything wrong with German food, but it does have rather a stolid quality. Can't believe that there's a German translation of "nouvelle cuisine"!

Sunday was basically a total washout during the day, with constant - sometimes heavy - rain for12 hours. One of the advantages of aspiring to be travellers rather than tourists is that we don't get stressed if our plans in a particular place go awry due to the weather. Köln was a suitable staging post on this trip and we amused ourselves reading from a book of extracts of Victorian travel writing. More of that later.

When we ventured out for a late lunch we simply dashed into the restaurant next door to our hotel - the weather was that bad. The restaurant had previously served the G7 leaders so should suffice. When, having had a wholly satisfactory repast, the waitress asked us, "Can I get you anything else" we requested better weather. With a smile she said sorry but she was feeling lazy and happy that the rain was keeping everyone in. Who says the Germans don't have a sense of humour?

Dom seen from the station platform

Köln - Rostock
Six hours in a train North and then East through Germany. Train left 20 mins late. And got later, so we were an hour behind schedule getting into the Hanseatic city of Rostock.

It's a shame that proper dining cars are becoming uneconomic - as they can be a great way of spending the time. An egg sandwich is not the same thing. Still, the scenery was interesting enough.

Rostock was the first stop on this trip that was a new city for us. I'd had no real idea what to expect. But clearly it has been undergoing some major regeneration since reunification. Most of it seemed sympathetic. A stroll before dinner (in part to choose what restaurant to eat at) gave us a sense of a clean well-kept city. Dinner at Zur Kogge added to our sense of well-being. Andrew normally needs persuading to eat fish but was very happy with his cod. German is a language that I'm stretched in (get little beyond menu) but ordering the 2nd beers put a smile on the faces of our fellow diners at the large communal table.

Continuing our wanderings in fading sunshine led us to an area of redevelopment similar in our eyes to Aker Brygge in Oslo, but smaller in scale. The sunset was amazing, but you'll have to take our word for it. No pics. Sitting in Universitats Platz before going back to our comfortable hotel simply people watching in the warm evening rounded things off nicely.

Tycho in Rostock

Next day we had a few hours in Rostock before having to catch the ferry to Helsinki. Again, basically it was wandering and soaking in the atmosphere. But we did have one thing we wanted to do. Tycho Brahe has become a bit of a running theme with us. And it was in Rostock when he was a student that he had the duel which resulted in him losing a bit of nose (allegedly). So we wanted to see his memorial in the town. Asking at the satellite tourist office drew a blank from the lady there; despite her phoning a friend, presumably at the main office. But we managed to find it listed in a mini guide on the shelves. Not something to go out of your way to see but we'd have been a little disappointed if we hadn't found it.

Where to eat in Brussels?

2010-08-13T09:28:00.000Z

One of the problems of having a favourite city for a weekend break with a surfeit of great places to eat is that you can end up with a few places that you keep on going back to.

Now in the scheme of things, not the worst problem to have to overcome, but we do try to make sure that every trip to Brussels includes one new eating place.

Hopefully, Up North will live up to its billing and get us in the right frame of mind for our Northern adventure.

As we´re in the company of a Norwegian who´s already been tempted by the menu should be interesting.

More on freak Finnish weather

2010-08-12T06:28:00.000Z

Pictures, more pictures, and Video from local media.

Plus there´s the smoke from the Russian forest fires. (Story from YLE)

Hopefully the weather by the time we get there will be more like this series of pics.

At time of writing seems to be clearing up: weather map

To scroll through the picture galleries:
click on "Katso lisää kuvia" on the opening page

Seuraava is next.

Countdown to holiday

2010-08-08T09:54:00.002Z

Only five nights to go before off on another Northern Grand tour.

View Holidays 2010 in a larger map

After the Eyjafjallajökull eruption earlier this year, we were more than ever looking into surface transport options. But what started out as a relatively straightforward attempt to get to Helsinki using surface transport turned into a 3,300 mile trip to Finland then meandering back to the UK via Sweden and Norway.

Atomium

Brussels:
Our favourite place for a weekend break but only a Friday night here this time. Really pleased that a couple of good friends from Amsterdam are coming down to join us.

Köln: Thanks to Deutsche Bahn´s online service we were able to get a single ticket London - Rostock which allowed us to break our journey. It took a little bit of playing with the parameters on their booking website but the time spent was worth it. Less than £150 in first class all the way and ticketing for both of us on a single sheet of A4 paper.

Rostock: First new place on this trip. Another Hanseatic League town for us (and a connection with our old friend Tycho Brahe) but it´s because it´s Germany's largest Baltic port that we´re coming here. A second sheet of A4 paper is our ticket to Helsinki. 36 hours on the Finnlines ferry via Gdynia in Poland. Unfortunately, it doesn´t arrive in the harbour that you see on all of the Helsinki postcards, but can´t have everything.

Helsinki Station

Helsinki: Weekend in one of our favourite cities. It has been too long since we´ve been here in the summer. But hopefully the weather will be a bit more comfortable than it has been recently. Excessive heat, smoke from forest fires and storms are not what we´re looking for. Know there´s nothing can do to placate the weather gods, but in the past they have often been kind to us.

Then a few days in provincial Finland seeing places we´ve never been to.

Savonlinna (literally Newcastle) - famous for its Opera festival, less well known for the mobile phone throwing world championship. Regrettably we arrive a day late to catch that.

A manor house near Mikkeli.

The University city of Jyväskylä.

No idea what to expect other than being asked "You´re from London - why are you here?"

Turku/Åbo is our next stop. Like Rostock it´s basically to get on a ferry. We´re not known as early morning people so the Best Western right at the terminal is a good choice. We´ve stayed there before and were more than happy.

Likewise we´ve stayed in the Åland Islands before. First time was more than a decade ago - on our way from St Petersburg to Stockholm by train and ferry. Five years later we had no hesitation in repeating the mid-Baltic experience.

Planning the trip we expected the next stop to be Stockholm. But when we started looking for a hotel there was NOTHING. What´s going on, we wondered? Bit of research turned up the European cardiology society annual congress with an expected 24,000 delegates. According to Stockholmtown.com The Greater Stockholm Area offers almost 23,000 hotel rooms. No surprise there´s no room at any inn.

So, instead we´re taking the route less travelled. Between Åland and the Swedish mainland there´s a ferry route Eckerö<->Grisslehamn. Don´t get the feeling that it´s going to be as much of a booze cruise as Stockholm-Mariehamn.

So, where then to go? We decided on the city of Uppsala. We´ve had a daytrip there before, but never stayed and it´s on the railway line north from Stockholm which was important for the routing that was forming in our minds.

Last stop in Sweden: Östersund
On the shores of Storsjön (The Great Lake) it looks like a great stopping off point for a night. The lake´s got its own monster as well (allegedly). Will report back on that one.

Then it´s back to places we´ve been before, across the border in Norway.

Trondheim the last time we were there

Trondheim. Last time we were here was on our 10th anniversary trip that took us from Tromsø through Lofoten to this pretty city. Not sure can add much to out posting from the time. How the hell did I miss out on the cake buffet that time?

After Trondheim we have our second trip on the Hurtigruten. We seem to be doing this in little bits rather than a complete journey. According to the timetable we should be on the MS Polarlys.

Final stop Bergen. Last time we were here was in the summer of 2001 having taken the train from Oslo. Memorable trip that!

Regrettably, we couldn´t spare the time to continue with surface transport back home. So we´ll be in the welcoming arms of SAS to get us back to Gatwick and real life.

Depending on WiFi and inclination we may or may not be updating this en route.

Ooooh! Another Island

2008-05-30T14:45:00.006Z

Another island to add to our list (a proper one this time):

Ven (or Hven in Danish and old Swedish) is a small island in the middle of the Öresund strait between Sweden and Denmark. We decided to go there for a day trip on our visit to Copenhagen, and had a lovely time.

It is a charming place, and well worth a visit on a sunny, early summer's day. But more importantly it was home to our favourite 16th century astronomer Tycho Brahe, and we had been wanting to visit there for a number of years.

There is more about Ven on our Virtual Tourist travel page, and you can see all our pictures here.

Dome there, done that - still stinks

2008-05-10T12:00:00.008Z

In a vain attempt to find some redemption for the Millennium Dome I managed to persuade Dave to take a walk around the Greenwich Peninsular. It was a fantastically sunny day, so we felt that we had to do something "out", and I thought that it might be nice to see what they had done with the area around the Dome. Not such a good idea as it turned out. The Dome itself seems to have done absolutely nothing to contribute towards the regeneration of the area - if anything it is worse now, and it still stinks - literally. So bad you almost want to retch.

Walking along the Thames footpath around the outer circumference of the Dome is a pretty bleak, depressing and uninspiring experience. The Dome was intended to be an outwardly expressive, iconic "building", but the outside is mostly fenced-off. All you see when you walk around the perimeter are rubbish bins, vans, loading bays, crates, sheds, portaloos, stacks of various gear, general rubbish, and all sorts of other service paraphernalia. It is really sad and depressing that what what was originally a nice riverside general circulation area now resembles a trashed back alley. Even the former meridian plaza area, which I recall was quite nicely done for the original 2000 exhibition, is now just a trailer park for the cast and crew of the semi-permanent Afrika! show in it's tacky plastic tent alongside. Shame on you O2for allowing the Dome and its public spaces (both of which were paid for from public funds) to be so appalingly treated. I thought that the inside was pretty awful when we visited it last year (Blog: New tack and old chic), but this was worse.

Continuing our walk down the west side of the Greenwich Peninsular we were at least expecting to see some evidence of physical or economic regeneration - the "knock-on effect" that was the main point of building the Dome in the first place. But nothing. Just the same old decrepit and derelict industrial riverside that it was when I first walked along here 20 years ago.And some of those factories really stink. It is difficult, I know, as these places are presumably productive and provide employment, but there seems little prospect of renewal and regeneration while they continue to operate. And the millions of pounds of public money pumped into the Dome have clearly had no effect whatsoever.

It was with some relief that on contnuing on towards Greenwich proper we arrived at one of our favourite pubs (and one of Greenwich's better kept secrets) - The Cutty Sark - for a very welcome pint.

Messing about on the river

2008-02-10T18:17:00.000Z

Our plan today was simply to take a boat trip on the Thames. No particular reason, just that it was nice weather. We live just a few minutes from a pier and going into town seemed like a good idea. We do this on and off and have never had any problems.

Didn´t quite work like that. Thames Clippers seem to have been overwhelmed today. We gave up trying to get on a boat at Greenland Pier and instead went for a walk and we weren´t the only ones.

We managed to get a boat back from central London, but a young woman at Greenland on out return complained to the crew about how long she had been waiting.

The Thames Clippers river bus service started in 1999, with just two boats and around 200 passengers daily. It now has a fleet of ten in part thanks to subsidies from TfL, carrying over 20,000 passengers per week.

It´s good that the service is popular, although if they were having problems on a Sunday in February what´s it going to be like when the tourist season really gets going? Based on today, I can´t imagine the London Assembly entitling its next report into river services London´s forgotten highway!

The picture comes from an earlier boat trip from the Dome

Change boats in mid-fjord

2008-01-05T11:45:00.000Z

Wonderful article in the FT today about the joys of armchair travel and in particular using the Thomas Cook European Timetable for daydreaming - a book published as a serious resource.

If we want to find out how to get from A to B by train for a particular journey in Europe it's easiest to turn to the Germans and DB's great online timetable service. Cook's ignores all the complexities of actually booking tickets (the companion piece in the FT covers those) for your fantasy journey, but replaces them with complexities of its own.

"No list of symbols on a word processor can do justice to its virtuoso command of footnote symbols". The FT article doesn't even try to replicate any but here's one example:

= Mondays to Saturdays except holidays*

Yes, even the explanation has its own footnote - the asterisk leading the reader to public holiday dates for each country in the book.

There are lots of claims that Europe is going through a rail renaissance. Of course, there are the various high speed services, sleepers, restaurant cars etc., and Cook's deals with those, but also narrow gauge railways, boat and bus connections. Air travel is all about getting from airport A to airport B as quickly as possible. In the case of no-service airlines those airports may not bear any relation to the cities claimed. Rail travel offers something different - or can do.

The title of this posting refers to a footnote that we came across some years ago and made us smile. In the space of one short column and three footnotes the timetable tells you that:

Daily except Saturdays at 1630 you could get a boat from Bergen to Kaupanger (reservations recommended Fridays and Sundays [phone number provided]) with onward bus connection to Lærdal and Øvre Årdal, but to get to Flåm required a change of boats in mid-fjord (10 minutes after leaving Leikanger).

The thought of changing boats in mid-fjord has stayed for years. I've got no idea how they did it, but images of breeches buoy came to mind. The connection no longer exists so we can't go and find out now. But, as Jan Morris put it, the joy "lies not in the reality, but in the imagination".

Not an island

2007-12-28T20:00:00.000Z

Continuing the island theme, we have just spent the Christmas week in Swanage, on the Isle of Purbeck. This is, of course, not an island at all. Physically, it is very much a part of the mainland, although its particular geography means that there are only really two ways of getting to Purbeck, and one of them involves a ferry across the entrance to Poole Harbour.

Even better, this island has a steam railway! And a pretty impressive one at that. And the bus service was not that bad either. There are hourly buses from Poole/Wareham and Bournemouth. The latter using the Sandbanks-Shell Bay chain ferry.

Swanage is English seaside on a nice small, genteel scale. OK, it is not as up-market as St Ives, and it obviously has its fair share of chav youth, but it does pretty well for a small seaside town. In high season, I would imagine that it is pretty awful, but in Decenmber it was actually OK, and the weather was still good enough for us to have some fun on the beach. Good choice all round I'd say. Though it helped that we had pretty good weather most of the time.

Freecycle

2007-11-21T10:00:00.000Z

I had been hanging on to a variety of computer gear for a while now (well, a few years actually) - an old PC with a defunct power supply, an unwanted surround-sound system, flatbed scanner that was not compatible with my current PC, and so on. I don't like to just throw-away things like that. It seems almost criminal to trash something that cost you £1,200 six years ago, and is still perfectly useable (with a bit of attention). And in any case, it is not that easy to get rid of bulky stuff when you live in a tower block - it just won't fit down the rubbish chute.

So, I had been hanging on to this stuff for quite a while, wondering what to do with it. I looked to see if there were any charity shops nearby that would come and collect. When I was a lad, people from voluntary organisations used to come around regularly collecting for "jumble sales". I myself used to do this for the cubs and scouts. But I have never encountered anything like that in the 23 years I have been living in London.

I assumed that there would be loads of local groups willing to take this stuff off my hands, but I could find nothing on the net. What I did find, however, was Freecycle. This is, effectively, a non-profit network of people who offload their unwanted stuff on each other. They use the Yahoo! Groups system to allow people to advertise stuff they don't want to people that might want or make use of it. For free. Members can also ask for stuff they are looking for.

I have to say that I was a bit dubious at first. But then I saw how much traffic there was in our own local area - the Lewisham Freecycle group has 5,688 members, and averages around 1,700 posts per month in it's group. So I decided to give it a try.

I was convinced that my pathetic collection of ancient and clapped-out computer hardware and software would not interest anybody. I was wrong. Within a few hours of posting my "OFFERED" items I received over 20 expressions of interest. I have to admit that I was a bit slow in following these up - partly because it was difficult to know where (or with whom) to start, and then I hadn't counted on the first few people I responded to ignoring my e-mails. But a week or so later my old PC and sound system have found a new home, the scanner is nearly gone, and there is actually someone who is interested in my carrier bag of old games CD-ROMs.

I am quite pleased with the outcome. Although it was slightly more of an effort to make the final arrangements than I had expected, it actually all worked well. I really don't like just throwing away perfectly good stuff just because I don't want or need it anymore, and Freecycle seems to be the answer. I'll certainly use it again.

Extremities

2007-11-08T21:00:00.000Z

We have now travelled to the northern- and southernmost extremities of the UK rail network.

Two years ago we started our North Atlantic island-hopping trip by travelling by train from London to Thurso in the far North of the mainland Scotland - Britain's most northerly railway station. Today we returned from a pleasant break in St Ives, Cornwall, via Penzance - the most southerly station in the country. The two are some 600 miles (966km) apart as the crow flies, or 870 miles (1,400km) by train via London. 600 miles is about the same as the distance between London and Copenhagen, or Berlin, Prague, Milan, or Marseille.

We don't think of our country being that big. In fact, within Europe (excluding Russia), only Norway, Sweden and France have larger "tip-to-toe" dimensions (Norway being about 1,100 miles from far north to south, Sweden about 970 miles, and mainland France about 670 miles from Brittany to the Cote d'Azure). These days we sometimes think of ourselves as a small island off the coast of Europe, but we share latitude with 14 other EU countries, including the capitals of 12 of them (more than any other EU country).

On our 2005 North Atlantic trip we also visited the UK's most northerly inhabited place - Skaw, on the island of Unst in Shetland. A profoundly remote but attractive place, by surface transport you need to take three ferries to get there from mainland Britain. But it is worth the effort for the stunning coastal scenery, empty beaches, and the eerily deserted settlements on the surrounding hillsides.

Of course, having tested the limits of the rail network, and pushed on by road to the northernmost extent of the UK, we feel bound to do the same southwestwards - to the Scilly Isles. In fact, Andrew has been there once before, in the '70s, and still has clear memories of approaching the islands on the Penzance ferry, exploring Tresco Abbey gardens, and bumping into then Prime Minister Harold Wilson on the beach near St Mary's. Of course, the Scilly Isles will also be another addition to our islands collection, and we can get there by surface transport too. Although I think that we will have to arrange it so that we go at least one way by helicopter, as that is one of the few modes of transport that neither of us has experienced so far.

Murderous wildlife

2007-09-30T05:00:00.000Z

This is not my usual kind of post, but I just had to record this.

I was disturbed late last night (OK, I hadn't actually gone to sleep) by an unbelievably blood-curdling screech from outside. I was a little surprised as we live high-up on the 14th floor, and now that the nights are getting cold we have the windows closed, so for a noise from outside to be that audible it has to be pretty loud. It happened again, and continued, so I got up and looked out of the window. For the next ten minutes or so there was a hideous throaty-skwaky-screechy sound so loud that it echoed around the buildings. I presumed that it was a fox (although there have not been so many around here this year) mauling a goose or some other fowl, although the noise was so loud that it may have been another fox, as I can't really imagine any kind of bird making that sound. Certainly a fox was involved, as I saw it running across the road shortly after the death-throe sounds finally subsided. Whatever it was, the victim certainly died in excruciating agony. Nature - red in tooth and claw, in the middle of Deptford!

Obviously not satisfied with its slaughter for the night, the fox then went on to terrorise the local human population. It stalked around making aggressive screech-barking sounds for the next 20 minutes. I observed one man getting out of his car, who upon hearing the noise ran very quickly to the entrance to the block of flats and waited nervously to be let in - looking over his shoulder all the time. Not long after, a group of three lads (obviously coming back from a club) were walking down the the road when they heard the screech-barking. I heard one of them shouting "fuck! what was that?!". They looked around at each other for a second, and then they legged it down the road for a hundred yards or so before looking back. It was quite funny to watch. I imagine that these guys had no idea what it was that they were running away from, but they were certainly scared.

I am sure that those lads will get over the experience, but it is fascinating to realise that predatory animal behaviour can still have this kind of effect on humans, even in the middle of London.

(picture from the Tooth & Claw website)

Mapping bliss

2007-09-26T00:12:00.000Z

I have said before how much I like maps, and for many years I have been recording our travels in electronic maps of one form or another. I have always been fascinated by maps, and I like plotting-out where we have been, or plotting (in the other sense)where we would like to go. And it suits me to organise information spatially - that's how my brain works.

Ten years ago, this meant nothing more sophisticated than manually drawing routes on a map image using PaintShop, and later using simple (crude even) GIS (geographic information systems) applications. But more recently the advent of the amazing Google Earth has meant that I can create accurate vector maps over a high quality map/image base, and include all sorts of extra information. I have found this irresistible - compulsive even, to the extent that for our last canal boat holiday I used Google Earth to produce a map showing all 110 locks we were due to pass through - to within a couple of metres accuracy. The last few times we have been away with friends they have been "treated" to detailed Google Earth files detailing the location of recommended bars and even the best route to walk from the station to the hotel. It is over-the-top I know, but I love doing it. However, I have always struggled to effectively present map information on our web pages, and until very recently I have usually had to resort to simply posting static images and screenshots.

Two fairly recent developments have changed all this. First, the excellent Google Maps service provided a method of incorporating your own information into their map viewer. This means that I can now display maps and interactive information I have created in Google Maps on a web page in any browser. And now they have introduced a simple way of embedding these interactive maps into any web page (including Blogger). You can see the results in the two examples above and below. These are both segments of our recent trip to north Norway - the first shows our route from Tromsø to the Lofoten islands, and the second is a detailed view of the centre of Tromsø. You can pan and zoom the maps, switch between map and aerial views, and if you click on the icons you will see further information and pictures etc.

It's great - I love it. Expect more!

A load of old rubbish

2007-09-16T17:00:00.000Z

This weekend was London's annual "Open House" event, where hundreds of public, private and commercial buildings around the city are open to the public. We usually try to use this opportunity to see buildings we wouldn't normally have access to, and this year we decided to vist somewhere close to home - a major industrial building which dominates the view from one side of our flat in Deptford.

SELCHP (South East London Combined Heat and Power) is a refuse incineration plant which generates electricity from the domestic refuse of four London boroughs (Lewisham, Greenwich, Westminster and Bromley). The plant opened in 1994, and was a major (and not uncontroversial) addition to the local skyline. Open House gave us an opportunity to look around inside and find out exactly what happems to our rubbish.

We were pretty impressed by how they handled the visitors - of which there were, perhaps surprisingly, quite a few. We were greeted at the entrance, handed a brochure and given a short safety briefing. Then it was up to us to make our way around the marked tour route at our own pace. There was no guided tour, but there were employees stationed all along who were quite happy to answer any questions.

The tour route took you past all the main processes, although not in the logical order, which might be a little confusing for some. Possibly the least impressive thing came first - the steam turbine. For something which generates enough electricity for 35,00 homes, it didn't look that big, although it's 3,000 rpm rotor certainly created a powerful hum. More impressive was the control room, with its detailed wall-mounted plant schematic, complete with dials, flow meters and digital displays now made rather redundant by a couple of LCD computer screens that the operators actually use to control the plant these days.

But the real star of this show is on one side of the control room, where two control chairs with joysticks look out through a window into the main refuse bunker. This is where the rubbish trucks dump the refuse, and from where two giant grabbers pick-up the refuse and deposit it in the hoopers that feed the furnaces. The grabbers are operated from the control chairs just like those fairground machines where you operate a pulley-controlled grabber and try to pick-up a prize from the hopper and drop it into the chute. But these grabbers are enormous! They are about 4m in diameter and can pick-up 5 tonnes at a time. Because the process is partly automated, anyone can operate the grabbers with a little supervision from the staff. You just have to use the controls on the chair to lower the grabber, point it at a part of the pile to descend to, and then tell it to close. The raising and depositing of the load in the furnace chute is automatic. The kids loved this, and there was quite a competition to get into the chairs and have a go (so we didn't bother waiting). Seeing one of these grabbers open and descending close to the control window was pretty impressive.

The other thing that impressed me was the furnace itself. Obviously, at 1,000 degrees C you can't see directly into these, but at the bottom end of the furnace (the furnace grate is angled about 25 degrees) there are small inspection hatches with a metal plate that you can lift up and look through a thick glass plate up onto the furnace grate. What you see is a fiercely hot yellow-orange inferno with a cascade of burning rubbish slowly descending towards you. Flames shooting up, and ash and embers floating down. It really was like something from a sci-fi movie.

This may not have been the most architecurally inspiring building to visit, but it was fascinating to see how it all worked, and the ingenious engineering which make is all happen. It is also good to find out exacty what happens to all the rubbish the we generate. This kind of facility is not exactly flavour of the month at the moment, and there have always been questions about the emissions that they create, but it does mean that very little of our rubbish in Lewisham is simple sent to landfill sites.

PS: Sorry, I forgot to take any picures inside the plant!

Across the Heart of England

2007-08-28T21:19:00.000Z

Thanks to six days of uncharacteristically glorious weather, our 100 mile canal trip across the Heart of England from Birmingham to Tring was highly enjoyable. Although the midday sun can become somewhat opressive when working a long flight of locks for several hours, and we did get a little sunburnt, despite lashings of sun cream and obsessive wearing of hats.

Everything (mostly) went according to plan, and we met-up with the "Chelonian" by the drawbridge at Shirley, where, conveniently, there is a pub - the first of several canalside hostelries we sampled. 5 days, 92 miles and 110 locks later we arrived at Tring in good time to get the train home. This was the longest trip we have done so far on the waterways. Thanks to Dave McI for giving us such a good time.

I have not really been to this part of the country much before, and travelling by canal is a great way of both experiencing the countryside and getting a different perspective on the towns and villages that you pass through. I particularly liked the Stratford Canal, with its small, attractive single-width locks, and the Oxford Canal section of the Grand Union Canal, which has a more peaceful rural feel that the main section. The Grand Union itself s bigger and more functional and industrial in feel (in a 19th century sort of way), but still has a great deal of charm (and some great pubs).

We are looking forward to the next trip on the "Chelonian".

An Amazing Sight

2007-08-26T15:25:00.000Z

As we were criusing along the Grand Union Canal through the outskirts of Milton Keynes we looked up and saw the most amazing sight in the sky - at least ten gliders all swooping around in the same thermal - high up, but still (apparently) incredibly close together. I don't think that I have ever seen more than two gliders at any one time before, so it was truly incredible to see so many together in the same small area of sky, circling like brilliant white vultures.

(There are six gliders in this photo, which is the best I could manage with my compact digital camera. There are a couple more pictures in the linked gallery - click on the picture to see a larger version and access the galleries.)

Lock, lock, lock ...

2007-08-23T15:00:00.000Z

As mentioned before (see Canals and Locks (2 August 2007)), I quite like working the locks, and am aways ready to leap off clutching my windlass ready operate the next lock. Which is just as well, as we had 110 of them on this trip, although we managed to arrange it so that there were not more than 29 in any one day. However, locks have a habit of coming in packs (or "flights"), and there were several long ones on this trip, which was going to mean a lot of hard work.

Today was the biggest challenge - the Hatton flight, just outside Warwick. It is a very attractive setting, with a great view of Warwick from the top of the flight, but 21 locks in the space of 2 miles is a bit daunting, particularly as we started the day with the last six locks of the Lapworth flight (we did the first 13 the previous evening). However, we teamed-up with a very friendly crew from a hire boat (they were just coming to the end of their 2-week holiday), and we had picked up an extra crew member at Hatton, so there were six of us and six of them in total. We got a good rhythm going (one pair walking on to prepare the next lock each time etc.) so it took us less than three hours to complete the flight (about 8 minutes per lock). It was tough in the sun and heat (we started the top lock at 12:30), and the hydraulic paddle mechanisms on that part of the Grand Union are heavy going, but we had a good time.

After completing the final lock, we said farewell to our co-crew and continued into Warwick for a well-earned drink (or three) at the excellent canalside pub The Cape of Good Hope. We then continued on (through two more locks) to moor not far outside Leamington, and an excellent fish 'n' chip supper (onion rings not withstanding).

Strange Pavillions

2007-08-20T23:15:00.000Z

Since I arrived a little early for my Prom concert at the Royal Albert Hall tonight I decided to go for a little wander around Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens (I am never quite sure where one ends and the other begins). The weather had started to turn a little brighter - a little more like a proper summer evening than of late - and I wanted to see what this year's summer pavillion at the Serpentine Gallery was like.

I was not much taken by last year's bloated baloon offering by Rem Koolhaas, although it certainly had scale and impact - it's huge white helium-filled dome visible from some distance towering over the classical gallery like some billious eruption. I thought it rather vulgar.

This year, the pavillion has been designed by the Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson, and is a rather more intruiging affair. Actually, it is not quite finished yet, and they still appear to be putting finishing touches to the interior, but the exterior appears to be complete. It is a helical structure of dark wood with an almost continuous open gap (instead of a wall) curving around the edge and up to the inclined conical roof. Between the upper and lower edges of the open gap there are skeins of thin white thread strung with a slight twist, which gives an interesting visual effect as you walk around the outside. The feel is almost like a place of worship - the building is substantially open, but it is difficult to make out what is happening inside. I'll be curious to take another look when it is finally open to the public.

As for tonight's Prom, that was another strange piece of architecture, although Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle is bigger, darker and altogther more disturbing the the Serpentine pavillions. But Bartok's psychological architecture uses light, colour and sound in a way which I am sure Olafur Eliasson would appreciate (Eliasson is best known in the UK for his hugely popular "Weather Project" installation at the Tate Modern in 2003, which involved a giant monochrome sodium lamp "sun" and an apparent doubling of the height of the turbine hall by mirroring the entire ceiling).

Canals and Locks

2007-08-02T01:14:00.000Z

At last we have another holiday planned before the summer is over. Our rather expensive trip to Norway in May had heightened Dave's current sense of inpecunity, and so we have done without a "proper" holiday this summer. However, our friend Dave McI has come to the rescue by inviting us on his 300 mile canal trip from Macclesfield to Reading.

Dave McI owns a 60-foot traditional style British narrowboat (the Chelonian), and we have spent a number of long weekends on the boat with him, but this is the first time that we will have joined him on such a long trip. Actually, the current plan is for us to do the middle section across the Midlands between Birmingham and the edge of London: six days, 103 miles and 114 locks. It is going to be hard work - particularly as the second day will involve 41 manually operated locks - but it should be good fun as long as the weather behaves.

Actually, I quite like the manually operated locks. They can be very hard work, particularly on the smaller, older canals, but it is good exercise and quite satisfying. Last year we joined Dave McI on a couple of trips on the Thames between Oxford and Weybridge. There all the locks are hydraulically operated by resident lock-keepers, so there is really not much to do other than holding the lines to keep the boat steady as the lock fills/empties. I ended-up getting quite chilly, sitting around not doing very much, and was really relieved when we finally turned into the River Wey navigation, which is improbably old (completed in 1653) and had lots of quaint, attractive, and labour-intensive locks to operate.

The most locks I have operated in one day is 15 (plus 5 swing bridges), and that was quite knackering. So I don't know quite how I'll feel after 40 or so in one day. I am beginning to wonder if it is a good idea to go straight back to work the day after we finish.

The full itinerary is here, and there are links to maps on Google Maps and Google Earth too.

Non-encore (noncore?)

2007-07-27T22:00:00.000Z

Can you have an encore that has never been performed before? And do we really need encores anyway?

Prom No. 19: Hallé/Mark Elder
R. Strauss: Macbeth
Britten: Les Illuminations
Nielsen: Symphony No.4, 'The Inextinguishable'

Obviously that is a largely pointless semantic/linguistic question, but one that arose following tonight's Prom concert at the Royal Albert Hall, where the Hallé Orchestra played as an encore a new orchestration (by Colin Matthews) of a previously lost, late piano piece by Debussy. According to conductor Mark Elder, the orchestration had never been performed before, so how could it be an "encore" (French: "again"). It is a frivolous debate, of course, but it did get me thinking about how I feel about this sort of Proms programming and encores in general.

I booked this particular Prom for the Nielsen symphony, and that alone. I was not bothered about the Strauss or Britten in the first half. And that is part of the problem with Proms programming these days - so often the really interesting stuff is mixed-in with seemingly more "safe" material that I can really do without. I know that this is partly an issue with my own tastes, which are probably much less conservative than the mainstream audience that the programmers are trying to attract. But when the notes in the printed programme describes a work (Strauss' 'Macbeth') in contrast to his "two real masterpieces" ('Don Juan' and 'Tod und Verkarung'), and refers to the "sometimes opressively heavy" execution, and a fanfare that is "hardly fresh to the ears", then one can hardly be blamed for not giving it much attention.

Britten's 'Les Illuminations' didn't do much more for me either. I really do not appreciate this kind of work, or the style of singing involved, and Joan Rodgers' operatic posturing was frankly embarassing at times. So, first half of the concert - not good. But I was not expecting much anyway.

Second half: Nielsen's Symphony No.4, 'The Inextinguishable' - Fantastic. I'm so fond of this piece, and all the wonderfully spine-tingly moments were there. The performance couldn't be faulted really, and I felt quite exhilarated at the end. So I was a bit aprehentious when they decided to do an encore.

It is difficult when a concert ends with a rousing or emotionally moving piece which has been performed well. The audience show their appreciation, but do you really want to spoil the impact of the performance by playing an encore? Of course one obvious response is to adhere to the original sense and meaning of the term and play the piece again (or at least the final section). I have heard that done before, usually to good effect, but all to often the encore is just one of the orchestra's standard set pieces - a short and usually frivolous piece that may have no relation to the main work preceeding it. When listening on the radio, these are usually prefaced by the announcer declaring that we are about to hear "a real treat". This usually spells disaster. I recall a Prom a couple of years ago when the Vienna Philharmonic followed the "Rite of Spring" with a couple of tacky J Strauss II waltzes. Just awful. It really spoilt my evening, like following a perfect steak with a malteezer McFlurry for dessert.

That said, a carefully chosen encore can enhance the overall experience. The Scandinavian/Nordic orchestras seem to be quite good at this, for example following a Nielsen symphony with his "Helios" or the Maskarade overture, or following a Sibelius symphony with one of the Lemminkainen legends or one of a number of other Sibelius 'shorts' like "Death of Melisande", "Valse Triste", "Alla marcia" or "Finlandia". But maybe I am naturally biased towards this music anyway.

At tonight's concert the Hallé's unusual approach to chosing an encore seemed to work reasonably well. By playing a piece that nobody had heard before (at least not in that form), it was guaranteed to engage some interest and not have that stomach churning "Ah! Now here comes a real treat" effect. And the work itself was 'light' enough not to compete with the main work, whilst being at the same time not too frivolous. I have to say that I could still have done without it, but at least on this occasion it did not ruin the "main meal".

Proms 2007

2007-07-17T10:00:00.000Z

First Prom of the season:

Prom No. 5
Sam Hayden: Substratum (BBC commission: world premiere)
Bernstein: Symphony No. 2, 'The Age of Anxiety'
Ives: Symphony No. 4

Rather surprised at quite how small the audience is - can't be more than 25% capacity. I was expecting more, particularly for Ives' richly packed and rarely performed 4th Symphony.

At least the poor attendance meant that it was not too hot in there, but it was a strangely cold audience, and not a particularly memorable concert.

Dome 2

2007-07-02T09:02:00.000Z

Just to add to Andrew's comments. Yesterday was the first time that I had been in the Dome. We can see it from our flat, but I wasn´t attracted by the millennium contents, so while he went with his family, I didn't.

I must admit that I didn´t know what to expect when we went over there, so I can't say my reaction was as a result of overly inflated expectations.

Going there for an event is probably a wholly different experience, but the public space is deeply unspiring. This appears to have been a opportunity wasted.

New tack and old chic

2007-07-01T22:19:00.000Z

Today we went over to North Greenwich to have a look at the recently reopened millennium dome - now renamed The O2. We were not really sure what to expect, but I have to say that they have done a pretty uninspiring job of fitting it out. There seems to have been a complete lack of imagination in designing the new buildings and structures inside. Instead of taking advantage of the huge covered space, they have crammed it with traditional buildings along a traditional street pattern. The result is quite claustrophobic in parts, and all rather pointless. To make matters worse, most of the buildings have been designed in a chinzy fake art deco style, giving it all a kind of tawdry mock Miami Beach feel (complete with fake palm trees). As a result, there is nothing special here, it is just like being in any mediocre shopping mall, except there are no shops - just a lot of franchised overpriced restaurants.

What a wasted oportunity. When you are building under a giant weatherproof tent you don't need walls, windows, roofs (or even doors) in the traditional sense. They could have done some really great stuff in here, but what you have is actually worse than the original Millennium contents (and some of that was quite poor). Shame on the developers/designers for turning out this insipid tat.

Depressed by the dull and unimaginative experience of the O2, we decided to get a riverbus on Thames Clippers new scheduled service between the O2 and Waterloo, to go and take a look at the also recently reopened Festival Hall. Here the opportunity for innovation was much more limited as it is a listed building (even the carpet is listed). However, the refurbishment of the interior seems to have gone quite well (even if it is clearly not quite finished yet). The original layout is virtually identical, but they have managed to create more space and keep (improve even) the light and airy feel of the lobby and foyer spaces. We had a good look around (at my insistance - I don't think that Dave was that interested really), and it is all still there - all the old places, the tucked-away lobby areas, they just seem to be a bit bigger now. It will be interesting to see how it all works when there is a concert on.

Of course the carpet is still there (at least it is the same design, but new carpet), and the overwhelming feel is light-natural-beige, and the stylish 50s chic that we love the Festival Hall so much for. So I am quite encouraged overall, but we didn't get to see inside the auditorium itself. That will probably be the subject of another blog.

Stockholm

2007-06-20T01:42:00.000Z

Well, we had a pretty good weekend in Stockholm. The getting there was not exactly great - our flight was delayed by an hour, and then we spent another 45 minutes waiting to take-off. After we finally arrived at Arlanda airport, we decided to get a taxi into town - big mistake. There were four of us, so a taxi was cheaper overall than using the hideously expensive Arlanda Express rail service. However, we hadn't reckoned on Friday afternoon traffic conspiring with roadworks and a nasty road traffic accident to make our journey into the city centre excruciatingly slow. I hate travelling by car at the best of times. On this occasion I was sorely tempted to just jump out and walk. Please bring back congestion charging in Stockholm!

So, I was not in the best of moods when we finally arrived at our hotel - over an hour and a half after leaving Arlanda. However, the weather was lovely and sunny, so we wandered-off to find somewhere pleasant to have a good drink. Fortunately, we found the perfect place at Tehuset under the elm trees in Kungsträdgården. Sitting in the half-shade of the early summer sunshine, it didn't take long to get rid of the "anti-holiday" feeling.

The next day we had glorious weather again, so we took a little train trip to the spa resort of Saltsjöbaden about 15km south east of the city on the edge of the archipelago. After a very pleasant wander along the boardwalks around the attractive harbour, we took a slightly tortuous bus-train-train-bus journey to Nacka Strand at the entrance to Stockholm harbour. This recent marina development has a great restaurant and terrace by the harbour, so we took advantage and had a delicious al fresco lunch of some of our favourite Swedish food - gravad lax and löjrom. We finished off our excellent outing with a boat trip back to the city.

Although we have now been to Stockholm 15 times in the past 9 years we never seem to tire of it. There are still loads of places I want to see and things I want to do.

Bloody students (grin)

2007-06-10T09:01:00.001Z

If you´re in Norway in May you can´t miss the graduating students that roam in flocks clad in overalls or littering the place as these pics from Aftenposten show.

More pics from Aftenposten here and here.

Known as russ, they spend the time from April 25 until May 17, Norway's Constitution Day in a "non-stop debauch that sparks debate virtually every year."

When we were in Bodø on the 16th, we got chatting to our waitress, when we were eating out that night, about the celebrations. She was at pains to warn us that tonight was THE party night - and it was likely to get "messy" as she put it. When we asked for a recommendation for where go for a drink that night she couldn´t have been clearer. "Go home" Maybe it says something about the UK, but we don´t think that the behaviour we saw was anything compared to British youth most Friday and Saturday nights.

Russer collect little trophies (known as knots) for fullfilling a certain accomplishment during the festivities. Most are harmless, but often involve excessive alcohol or sex.

These are some of them from this year´s official list, the warnings in brackets are in the original:

9 Drink a crate 0,33-litre beer in 24 hours (can have health risk)
22 Put an L-plate on a police car
35 Sit for a whole lesson only in your underwear
43 Drink a bottle of wine in 20 minutes (can have health risk)
54 Share a crate 0,33-litre beer with three friends in a phone box without pissing
58 Buy a Happy Meal at a Drive- In McDonalds while "driving" a shopping trolley (to be returned)
76 Operate a speed trap with a hairdryer and Hi-viz vest in a 30km zone

A Norwegian porn company has been making been making films - Rocco & Russen, the attraction being that the students get paid that helps them with the financial burden of the festivities, especially the cars and busses (russebiler and russebusser) with expensive sound systems.

At the other extreme is the recent development of the Jesus russ, who try to convert people. But looking at the numbers they´re in a tiny minority - and it rather misses the point of a rite of passage.

Hopefully, neither of these extremes will spoil what should be a limited period of sanctioned madness, before fun has to take a backseat to adult responsibilities.

Tromsdalen church

2007-06-04T15:42:00.000Z

Tromsdalen church is better known as the Arctic Cathedral (Ishavskatedralen). It lies in the municipality of Tromsø in northern Norway

It was designed by architect Jan Inge Hovig and consecrated in 1965. Originally, its eastern end was plain glass in line with the strict simplicity of the church in general. However, Norwegian artist Viktor Sparre saw the church as a "building without a soul" unless the proclamation of Christ was clearly brought through in the construction itself. So, instead of the congregation looking out at their god´s creation they get the largest stained glass window in Europe.

We were told about the original window when we were talking with a very helpful woman in the tourist office at Tromsø. She said Hovig was less than pleased. The tourist office still sells postcards with the original window.

It reminded us of a story from the BBC comedy series, The Vicar of Dibley. When her church´s stained glass window is destroyed in a storm the vicar, Geraldine gets a rich friend of one of her parishioners invest in a replacement. However, after seeing an appeal for financial aid following an earthquake in Colombia she donates most of the money to this instead and gets a much cheaper plain window. When the window is unveiled, the residents are all behind her decision.

The Honorary Consul

2007-06-03T08:50:00.000Z

If you´re British and you need consular assistance in Tromsø you have to go to the brewery and see Haakon Bredrup. We spotted some other consulate signs in Tromsø mainly for Nordic countries, but they were using lawyers and accountants. The idea of having to go to the brewery rather amused us.

Mack is the world´s most northerly brewery and their output, we can attest, is pretty good.

I´ll let the pictures do the talking

2007-05-28T15:29:00.001Z

Normally I´m happier with words rather than images, but on some occasions only pictures will do. All of them look even better fullsize - just click on the image. Loads more pics to follow.

We saw lots of birdlife on our trip including sea eagles. This chap was quite content with Andrew taking his picture.

We couldn´t believe the colours either, but this was the sunset we got from the window of our rorbu on our first night in Reine. No it hasn´t been touched up.

In a tight spot in Trollfjorden.
On the journey between Harstad and Svolvær the Hurtigrute, weather permitting, sails into the incredibly narrow Trollfjord, just for the scenery. Our ship, the MS Vesterålen has just enough space to turn round. Unfortunately a few days earlier sister ship the MS Trollfjord hit ground in the waters outside the fjord.

It doesn't get much better than this

2007-05-23T00:48:00.000Z

Now we are back from our trip to north Norway there are going to be a few postings like this as we go through our photos and other memorabilia. Please indulge us!

This is Reine in the Lofoten islands. In fact, this is the view from the living room of the "rorbu" (fisherman's cabin) where we stayed for a couple of days. Fantastic, isn't it?

Actually, I nearly cried when we arrived. It was perfect - the weather was bright and sunny; the scenery was stunning; the village was as picturesque as you could wish; the 'cabin' (think 'chalet' really) was spacious, comfortable, very nicely furnished, and wonderfully sited; the rorbu manager was exceptionally friendly and welcoming; it was quiet and peaceful. We had had a lovely day driving through the Lofoten islands, and I just felt very, very happy.

Cross ref: Blog Holiday!!!!!! (Wednesday, 9 May 2007) on what we were expecting.

Winter turns to Spring

2007-05-22T19:04:00.000Z

The transition from winter to spring is one of nature's most spectacular, and eagerly awaited, phenomena, but I wasn't quite prepared for the significance this would have on our journey through north Norway. I am used to the annual coming of spring in England, which usually starts around my birthday (late March) and, appropriately, Easter, and continues into April and May, when the flowering of the hawthorn (the May tree) comes as a satisfying sign that summer is nearly here.

So it was a bit of a shock arriving in Tromsø - 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle - the second week in May, to a still bleak and monochrome arctic landscape of snow-covered mountains, dull-dark pines and leafless trees. Made even more strange by the constant daylight. But as we made our way south we saw more signs of spring. In the Lofoten islands the buds on the trees were fat and clearly ready to burst, and in Mosjøen on Norway's national day you could almost see the new leaves emerging.

And finally in Trondheim - 500 miles and 6 degrees of latitude south of Tromsø - spring was in full-swing bright green on the trees, with the chestnuts in full leaf, the ubiquitous birches pushing forth their pollen-laden catkins, and even a spectacularly ancient hawthorn in the cathedral grounds had obliged with a vivid display of new green leaves. And everywhere on the ground the pretty white, star-shaped flowers of the wood anenome.

Spring is a wonderful event to behold, and I love watching the glorious London Plane trees coming into leaf each year, but to witness such a dramatic change over such a short period of time, simply by travelling a few hundred kilometres south, was a treat that I had not expected on this trip. I am really pleased that our journey encapsulated this fascinating longitudinal slice of natural change.

Holiday!!!!!!

2007-05-09T02:28:00.000Z

To counter Dave's rather negative post below (which largely belongs on his own blog really), I'd just like to mention that we are actually going on holiday. To somewhere we've talked about visiting for ages. Two hundred miles north of the Arctic Circle actually (which I think qualifies it as being "the arctic"). So it's a nice little adventure, like we normally do, but with a little bit of extra "edge" (which I think maybe Dave is just a little bit nervous about).

It will be cold, and it will probably rain alot, but I'm really looking forward to it. OK, so we will have to endure the world's worst airport (believe me, we did try to find an alternative), but at least we get that out of the way right at the start. A necessary evil perhaps - but lets not dwell upon it. I'm looking forward.

Looking forward to visiting interesting places out on the periphery - there are going to be lots of "most northerly" whatevers on this trip. Looking forward to sailing on the Hurtigrute; to taking the train through the mountains; to visiting places only Norwegians have ever heard of. And hopefully we will get some fantastic scenery too. And good food!

We are bound to meet people who will ask us "why would you want to come here?" - we always do - to which our usual answer is "its not London", which only seems to generate more bemusement. Well, we know why we are going, even if we can't quite explain it adequately (see Islands in the stream of conciousness, below). And maybe, if we get up one morning and look out of the window to see the view pictured here, we won't feel the need to justify it to ourselves or anyone else.

Post script (23 May 2007):
Well, we got exactly what we wanted on the Lofoten islands! This is what we actually got to see from our fishermans cabin in Reine. See blog It doesn't get much better than this. However, nobody asked us "why would you want to come here?". But maybe that is not that strange. After all, it was perfect.

One day to go!

2007-05-08T08:30:00.000Z

This time tomorrow we´ll be on our way to Heathrow. Going off to our least favourite airport is the price we have to pay at the start of venturing north of the Arctic Circle.

In the long term, rather than expanding Heathrow, the British government should be looking to replace it, as recommended by the Town and County Planning Association. The London Assembly has also called for a halt to any plans to expand.

We need decent transport infrastructure in this country, but we also need to be far more aware of the environmental aspects of flying. This may sound hypocritical as we´re just about to take a total of five flights as part of our holiday. Our carbon footprints are probably too large, but we do try to ensure that we keep it to a minimum as we will take the train rather than flying if it is at all possible.

BAA, Heathrow´s owner earns more money from retail than it does from "airport" operations. Fortunately, airlines seem to be objecting to BAA´s approach. Sir Michael Bishop, chairman of BMI, said recently, "what people want is seamless travel. People don't want to go shopping." Talk about a statement of the bleeding obvious!

Part of the problem is that BAA owns Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted. Forcing them to divest one would inject some competition that would mean they have to raise their game.

Our journey to Tromsø should take about 6 hours with 2 hours to change planes at Oslo Gardermoen. Heathrow handled 67.3m passengers in 2006. That´s just about as many in a week as Tromsø airport handles in a year! It´s unfair comparing the Heathrow "experience" with such a tiny airport, but BAA does seem to operate some of the worst large airports in Europe.

We love maps

2007-05-05T17:51:00.000Z

Andrew loves maps, and thanks to the wonderful Google Earth and Google Maps we can now share details of the route of our trip through north Norway. If you have Google earth then all you need to do is load the following file (just click on the link, or download the file and then open in Google Earth): www.highrise.dircon.co.uk/deptlads/norway07/Norway2007Summary.KML
If you don't have Google Earth then you can still see the route on Google Maps in any web browser using this link.

We are starting at Tromsø in the north and working our way south along the routes indicated on the maps, finishing in Trondheim. The route statistics are:

Return air travel - 4,132km
Scheduled boats - 219km
Internal air travel - 103km
Trains - 729km

Total distance 5,350km (1,218km not including return air travel).

The Weather Forecast in Norwegian

2007-05-04T09:15:00.000Z

There was, not so long ago, a British cable TV channel that used to try and attract male audiences by broadcasting the weather forecast in Norwegian. It was simply an excuse to get an attractive, scantily clad Nordic lass on the screen. Don´t believe me? See here.

Well, as our Norwegian trip is now less than seven days away, we´re taking more interest in the weather forecast for Tromsø, the first stop on our tour. As both of us are learning Scandinavian languages understanding the Norwegian met office´s forecast holds little fears. And it´s looking quiet hopeful at the moment. Lange perioder med oppholdsvær. Litt stigende temperatur. (L!ve TV never gave translations, so why should we?)

Given the exceptionally warm weather we have been having in London, it´s going to feel much colder, but as long as there isn´t too much precipitation, we´ll be happy.

The picture is from the offices of Lofotposten in Leknes on the Lofoten Islands, and was snapped from their webcam on the afternoon of April 20th.

Post script (23 May 2007):
It seems that the Norwegian weather forecasters are not terribly reliable. Or at least they seem to be rather pessimistic. For much of the time we were in Norway we were warned of rainy weather, but it only materialised on on day. The day before Norway's National Day (17 May) they were forecasting rain throughout the country, but as it turned out, it was fine and sunny everywhere for most of that day, judging from the TV footage of the celebrations.

Travels in The North

2007-05-01T01:57:00.000Z

Sounds a bit like a radio quiz teaser, but - what could possibly link our forthcoming trip to north Norway with science fiction writing, Janacek's operas, the fight against fascism, pen & ink drawings, and a recent play about newts on Radio 4?

Well, even Google doesn't seem to be able to get you anywhere near a meaningful answer, even though I have been quite generous with the key words in the pragraph above (try it). And that is quite reassuring really, since it would seem to indicate that so-called "intelligent" search engines cannot get anywhere near emulating the processes of the human brain or capturing even the basics of "western" culture (which is something the aforementioned newts could do). Of course, now that I have written this piece (and it has been indexed by the search engines), the mystery of these unexpected connections will no longer exist, but thanks only to human intervention.

The answer is actually alluded to in an earlier post on this blog - Karel Čapek. He is one of those people who suddenly pop into your consciousness from several directions at the same time, even though you were previously never aware of them as an individual. Čapek (pronounced "chopek") was a Czech writer who is probably best known for coining (inventing, even) the word "robot" in his 1920 play "R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)". I was aware of the Czech origins of "robot" since childhood exposure to numerous UK and US sci-fi novels (my Mum always had stacks of these paperbacks for us to read during the school holidays), but had never heard of Čapek, and certainly never realised his connections with other aspects of my life. But that all changed when we decided to go to Norway in August 2001.

One Sunday, a few weeks before going away, we were browsing around in a cluttered second hand bookshop in Greenwich. Looking along the travel shelves we were debating whether or not to buy an old Baedeker's guide to Norway (period travel books can be a good way to get a different angle on travel destinations) when I came across an intruiging yellow bound volume entitled "Travels in The North" by Karel Čapek. 'This looks promising' I thought. And I was right. Because this book had taken nearly 60 years to find me, and it was exactly what I was looking for. It was a travelogue written in the 1930s about a trip (taken some years earlier) through Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Written in an endearingly frank and reflective but humourous central European style it also incorporates many brilliant and idiosyncratic pen & ink drawings by the author. It is the sort of book that you could never imagine throwing away.

Čapek's book is not exactly a literary masterpiece, but it is charming in every positive sense of the word. The pages are stuffed full of illustrations, at least one every other page, which make it rewarding to flick though as well as read. They are mostly simple pen & ink, highly stylised and reminiscient of traditional Czech woodcuts and the newspaper cartoons that Janacek loved so much. It was the perfect companion to our trip, and will be so again when we pick-up Čapek's trail north of the Actic Circle in a few days time.

Having bought the book (for all of four pounds), I decided to find out more about Karel Čapek. The robot connection immediately struck a chord, as I have already described. Numerous SciFi authors have acknowleged this, and it has also seeped into popular culture (according to Wikipedia, Dr Who, Batman and Futurama have all paid hommage to Čapek in relation to robot characters). Then I discovered that it was Čapek who had written the 1922 play "Věc Makropulos" ("The Makropulos Affair", which might also be classed as a scifi story), which Czech composer Leos Janacek used for his celebrated opera of the same name. I am a big fan of all of Janacek's music, and although I am not usually keen on opera, Janacek's are among the few operas that I do like. I was fascinited to discover this unexpected connection. I was also pleased to learn that Čapek was a passional anti-fascist and had a close friendship with the first Czech president Tomáš Masaryk. This position is exemplified in his celebrated 1936 play "The War with the Newts", which has a poingnant relevance to issues of economic migration today - clearly evident in a 2005 BBC Radio 3 production that was recently re-broadcast on Radio 4 (and it was listening to that play that got me thinking about writing this piece).

Originally published in Czech under the title "Cesta na sever" in 1936, my copy of "Travels in The North" is a 1942 reprint of the fourth "cheap" edition of the English translation by M. & R. Weatherall published by George Allen & Unwin. The fact that it proudly proclaims that it is printed on "War Economy Standard" paper only seems to add to the appeal (the quality of the paper is acually pretty good - not too different from todays recycled paper it has yellowed a bit but is not at all brittle, even after more than 60 years). There is also a single colour plate fronticepiece (a drawing of a boulder-strewn settlement entitled "Ljusdal") bound opposite the title page.

You won't find this book in Waterstones or Borders - as far as I am aware it has been out of print for over 50 years. Occasionally there are copies available on Amazon's marketplace (and maybe ebay too). Or, just maybe, like me, it will find you in a secondhand bookshop just as you are about to embark upon your own travels in The North.

Island moods

2007-04-28T04:28:00.000Z

I am in an island mood tonight. I've just been reviewing the photos from our 2005 trip to the Faroe Islands. What a great trip that was. I'd only ever met one other person who had visited the Faroes, and he had described them (and the capital, Tórshavn) as a fish-stinking dump. Our exprience was rather different. OK, so we might have been blessed with exceptionally good weather - which was great when we were driving around the islands, but we were also very pleasantly surprised by the friendly and almost cosmopolitan nature of the tiny capital. With only 19,000 inhabitants, Tórshavn must be one of the smallest capitals in the world - rather less than 0.3% of the size of London. Nevertheless, we spent three very enjoyable nights there, eating good food and enjoying good (if rather expensive) beer. We even went to a late night bar and a nightclub (but that is another story!).

There are fewer than 50,000 Faroese - which is pretty small, even by small country standards, but they seem to be doing reasonably well stuck out there at the far extremity of the shipping forecast. I think we will be going back there sometime.

Islands in the stream of consciousness

2007-04-25T01:05:00.000Z

It's odd. We are both fundamentally city-dwellers/city-lovers, but in recent years we seem to have made a habit of travelling to (mostly) remote island communities. Our trip next month to north Norway and the Lofoten islands will be just the latest in a string (an archipelago?) of visits to places many people have hardly heard of and still less have any inclination to visit.

I think that it started in 1999 when we decided to stop off for a few days in the Åland islands on our way from St Petersburg to Stockholm by train and ferry. Five years later we had no hesitation in repeating the mid-Baltic experience - in the opposite direction that time. And the following year we concocted a North Atlantic island-hopping itinerary through Orkney, Shetland, and on to the Faroe islands. Then last year we included the Danish island of Bornholm on our zig-zagging tour through Holland, Germany, Denmark and southern Sweden. And on that occasion we also managed to visit the tiny off-offshore island of Christiansø. In between there have been numerous trips to "inshore" islands in Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway, and Dave has even managed to get to one of the Frisian islands.

I don't know quite what it is about these places that appeals. They are mostly small, remote, isolated, and on the fringe. But they have also all been friendly, welcoming and utterly engaging, at least to us as travellers. There is certainly something about island communities that appeals, but it is difficult to put your finger on it. Just getting there usually takes some effort (mostly involving catching a ferry or two), and for us at least that is something of the appeal. All these places have strong maritime associations, and maybe that has something to do with it too. Of course, many of these islands have fantastic natural landscapes and scenery, but also, as islands, rather than mainland "wilderness" areas, they also have well defined cultural and community centres, which means that you are not usually far from a decent place to stay and eat (always important for us).

So, I still can't really say why it is that I like the idea of spending a few days on a remote island 100 miles north of the Arctic Circle with a population only slightly larger that the building we live in, but in two weeks time that is precisely what we will be doing, and I am rather looking forward to it.

Trondheim

2007-04-16T09:47:00.000Z

Again just another post for our own benefit.

Trondheim, the third largest city of Norway, has the highest share of cycling compared to all the other Norwegian cities. Since 1993, a bicycle lift "Trampe" has pushed more than 220 000 cyclists up the very steep hill Brubakken.

What´s the place called?
Trondheim was originally Kaupangen ("Marketplace"), then Nidaros (spelt Niðaróss in Old Norse) meaning "Mouth of the river Nid".

In the late Middle Ages it became Trondheim (Þróndheimr), then with the Danish spelling Trondhjem during the period of the united kingdoms of Denmark-Norway (1536-1814). All these versions mean home of the Trønders.

Nidaros was reintroduced as the official name for a brief period 1 January 1930–6 March 1931 despite a 1928 referendum giving a 90%+ majority for Trondhjem and 1,508 votes in favour of Nidaros. However, riots forced the Storting (parliament) to settle for Trondheim.

But most inhabitants still refer to their city in their local dialect (Trøndersk) which to this ear sounds like Trondhjem! If you can read Norwegian, the local city page has more details on this.

A coronation by another name?
The Norwegian Parliament rescinded the Constitutional article requiring a coronation in 1908, and Haakon VII was thus the last Norwegian King to be crowned in Nidaros Cathedral. But, when King Harald V assumed the throne. He and Queen Sonja were blessed in Nidaros Cathedral like his father had been before him.

But the city´s official website still claims Trondheim "continues to be the coronation city".

Party and Cakes
Norway’s ultimate party city mostly because it’s home of NTNU - the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Sophie) - but of equal interest to us

cake buffet at Mormor (Grandma’s) where you can have all the coffee/tea and cakes you can manage for NOK 54

Weather May 06
Several days of temperatures above 20 degrees is not normal the first week of May... but the forecast promises colder weather and maybe some snow in a week or so.

Hopefully when we´re there in mid-May 07 the weather will be closer to the former.

Yep, Trondheim has trams. Well, one line left and of course, it´s the northernmost tram system in the world.

Apparently, the future of the tram has been one of the city´s hottest political issues resulting in several mayors having to leave office.

Ken Livingstone may want to take note!

Lofoten

2007-04-15T11:04:00.000Z

Just some bits about the Lofoten islands that we´ve picked up in researching for the holiday.

20 paradise islands The Observer
Sunday September 28 2003

No. 2. Lofoten Islands, Norway

Nowhere does the midnight sun shine to greater effect than on Norway's Lofoten Islands, anchored above the Arctic Circle. Their purple mountains and green meadows, bright fishing boats and rust-red cottages on stilts are mirrored in Caribbean-blue sea. Edgar Allen Poe described the seas around as 'lashed into ungovernable fury... the bed of waters seamed and scarred into a thousand conflicting channels bursts into frenzied convulsion - heaving, boiling, hissing'.

The main tourist islands, Austvagoy, Vestvagoy, Flakstad and Moskenes, appeal to writers and artists as well as outdoor enthusiasts, with climbing, hiking, riding, canoeing, biking, rafting and fishing highly popular. Puffins, cormorants, guillemots, eagles and seals bring in the wildlife watchers. For anyone with Viking ancestry a visit to the new Viking museum at Borg is a must.

UNESCO World Heritage tentative list
Since pre-viking time the Lofoten islands have been and still are the centre for the Norwegian cod-fisheries. The export to Europe over Bergen was established early in the Middle Age. The region has unique qualities associated with its marine resources, geology, plant and animal life, cultural monuments and exiting scenery. The birdcliffs on Røst and Værøy are among the largest in the Nordic countries and have earned an international reputation. The area was settled very early, contains many unique cultural monuments.

The Great Liquor Day
The 25 March is known as "the Great Liquor Day in Lofoten". How this came to be is somewhat obscure, but the tradition apparently goes back to the end of the 19th century, when measures were taken to counteract excessive consumption of liquor during the fishing season. By and by, the day came to represent the opposite of what it was meant to: On this day, it was acceptable, as it were, to be seen meandering unsteadily through the village.

Frommers vote Reine as one of the most charming and typical of the Lofoten villages. We´re staying with Reine Rorbuer, "an authentic and high quality "rorbu" resort in the midst of a vibrant fishing village, surrounded by dramatic scenery" Frommers suggest, if you have unlimited time, is to rent one of the fishermen's huts in one of these villages, settle in for the summer, and write a novel. Doesn´t that sound a nice idea!

The Norwegian Fishing Village Museum
In 1120, King Eystein established North Norway´s first town in the Lofoten Islands and built a church and so-called rorbuer (accommodation for visiting fishermen). The name rorbu derives from the Norwegian ror (to row) and bu (to live). Here´s one journalist´s vivid description of staying in one: "These waterfront structures, usually painted rust-red or ochre, are a characteristic feature of the Lofoten Islands. Backed by snowy mountain peaks, our little home was like the illustration to a fairy tale. Below our window, ice flats rocked against the jetty while, out on the water, cormorants ducked and dived. As evening fell, small fishing boats chugged softly into the harbour, their cabin windows glowing yellow in the fragile light."

The Independent seems to have been taken by the Lofotens.

The Top 10: Stunning Scenes 17 December 2006
The best island views - Stay in a fisherman's hut Most travellers arrive at the Lofoten Islands archipelago, off the north-west coast of Norway, by boat. As they near the islands, a seemingly impenetrable barrier of rock, known as the Lofoten Wall, appears to stretch almost across the horizon. This illusion is caused by the mountains which rise almost vertically from the water in a fashion rarely seen.

Svolvær has some of the area's best hotels and restaurants, but it is somewhat of a glorified refueling stop. We don´t necessarily think of ourselves as adventurous, but we are doing what Frommers thinks its most adventurous readers will do there - stock up on supplies before heading out to some more remote destination.

If you´ve got anything you think we should see with our brief stop in the Lofotens leave us a comment.

Europe

2007-04-12T18:37:00.000Z

Red shows the countries we´ve yet to get to.

Here´s what the same travel site came up with as our type of traveller:

Culture buff needs to see a museum, an art gallery, a 16-th century church every day during his holiday. When he travels he is always well prepared. He has read history books, speaks a few words of the lingo, knows about the strange habits the locals have.

Looking North

2007-04-11T17:40:00.000Z

Only four weeks to go before we´re off to Tromsø! Travel plans are sorted, and it´s now a case of working out what to pack and is there anything we need to buy first!

Here in London it´s about 20 degrees C and very pleasant. Up in Tromsø according to the Norwegian met office it´s not far above freezing point. Can cope with that as long as there´s no wind factor or precipitation to speak of. Hopefully, Andrew will come back with pictures as good as these here.

I´ve picked up to read again Karel Čapek´s book "Travels in the North". Although he was travelling around 70 years ago, some of his thoughts still apply today and it´s the sort of book that´s great to take with you when you´re in the same places.

Travel 2007

2007-04-04T11:48:00.000Z

One of the things that we enjoy doing together is travelling.

We try very much to be travellers rather than tourists. In our 10 years together we´ve been to many places that might seem out of the way for the average Brit. The Faroes, Bornholm, Stavanger, Zagreb, Ljubljana, Ottawa to name but a few.

To celebrate our 10th anniversary we´re planning on heading north of the Arctic Circle to sample the delights of Northern Norway. Most people our age would probably simply book the Hurtigruten - but why follow the herd?

Our plan is to fly to Tromsø and then meander down to Trondheim. We´ll only need the Hurtigruten for one day in the Lofotens. As we share our anniversary with Norway´s Constitution Day that means this trip will take more planning that normal, but we reckon we can get the transport to work for us.

We´ve been to Norway three times before, but never to the north of the country. OK it´s not the cheapest of countries, but living in London you get used to expensive locations!

Inner penguins

2007-04-02T12:08:00.000Z

Why inner penguin? To be honest we can´t remember how it started other than it was a notion Andrew came across. It became a major topic of debate during our Brussels trip earlier this year. Basically, it was five against one (me) about the existence of an inner penguin. (I prefer the notion of having an inner kangaroo, but in my case it sometimes loses its bounce.) Hardly a major philosophical discussion, but it kept us amused. Yet, a quick google search and the phrase inner penguin comes out in odd places.

A recent short story in the left wing magazine New Statesman -

Meaning what exactly? That I've killed my Inner Penguin? I don't even believe I've got an Inner Child, let alone some kind of interior bloody zoo. Or is this supposed to be my Spirit Guide - an especially graceless bird on life support?

An article on a management website from three years ago:

It is for you to dig down and reveal your "Inner Penguin", that incomparable expression of your 'you-ness'

It´s a phrase that runners use apparently about

allowing ourselves simply to enjoy the most fundamental component of being a runner: running

Even an online quiz to determine the colour of your inner penguin!

Why do humans do this? In their book "The Science of Discworld II The Globe" Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen develop their ideas of stories as a shaping power in the evolution of human intelligence. I happen to like their concept of Pan Narrans - the storytelling ape. The stories don´t have to be true, but they can be useful in creating functioning human societies - and some dysfunctional elements as well.

As a result of several conversations in Brussels, our friends decided to inaugurate Inner Penguin Day to be 1st April each year. I am sure that we will use nuturing our inner penguins as a great excuse for pleasurable activities - before marking the day next year.

Confusing tourists

2007-03-08T15:08:00.000Z

Now is not the time to be in KBH if you have any doubts about your mapreading abilities. I noticed this morning on my way to the library that lots of streets have been unofficially renamed Jagtvej. Sticky labels have been posted over the real street name signs. Clearly this is part of ongoing protests about the eviction of the youths from Ungdomshuset and the building´s demolition. Better such methods than violence!

Unfortunately I didn´t get to see the little mermaid (or fishwoman as Andrew and I call her) painted pink. Despite being in KBH many times we have never seen the famous statue. On our first visit here we got caught in an unexpected downpour while on our way to have a look at it. Since then she has been to us like the Mannekin Pis in Brussels. Something that you go out of your way to avoid. It´s easier with her than the pissing boy, given her out of the way location. I´ve said I´ll only go and see her if she gets decapitated again, but covered in pink would have done. However, if you want to see pics of her in pink click here.

København

2007-02-26T15:06:00.000Z

Friday I´m off to Copenhagen for a couple of weeks to practise my Danish, see friends and do some jobhunting.

I´m looking forward to being in the Danish capital again. Compared to London, it´s so much more human scale. I could have flown direct to Copenhagen but as I´m spending a weekend in Hamburg on the way back I´m flying to the Hanseatic city and taking the train from there.

I was very pleased to find that Lufthansa have reinstated their route to Hamburg from London City Airport using their partner, Cirrus (even if the route doesn´t appear on Cirrus´s own website!)

Andrew and I did this journey last summer. The train journey includes a ferry between Germany and Denmark. There´s something ever so slightly surreal about sitting on a train as it drives onto a ferry. Seems much more 19th century than 21st. There are plans to replace the ferry with a fixed link .

Here´s hoping that all goes well with the journey!

Brussels

2007-02-16T15:02:00.000Z

One of my birthday presents last year was a gift voucher for the Eurostar. As a result, six of us are off to the Belgian capital this weekend.

The Eurostar is a great way to travel. As we live in SE London, we´re rather disappointed that it´s moving away from Waterloo, so we won´t get the full benefit of the high speed line when it opens later this year. But I´m still impressed that you can get on a train in London and get to the continent. As global warming becomes an increasing threat, I can see us getting to the stage where flying from London to Brussels or Paris given the alternative, will be be viewed as being as anti-social as drink driving.

Andrew and I have a soft spot for Brussels. We´re looking forward to a great weekend, especially as the weather forecast has improved significantly.

The picture above was taken at Easter 2006. The Atomium, the symbol of Brussels, has been totally renovated. We haven´t been up inside it since the refurb was completed, and we´re looking forward to seeing what it´s now like.

It is difficult not to eat (and drink) well in Brussels. The Belgians have a very low tolerance for poor cuisine, so you are virtually guaranteed good quality wherever you go. The city has more Michelin stars than any other in Europe, but because all of the restaurants have to compete you get far better value for money than London.

Our favourite part of the city covers the area between Halles St Géry and Ste Catherine, a lively and "up-and-coming" part of the city centre, blessed with many good bars (from the very trendy to the traditional) and a number of excellent restaurants. While typical tourist menus (moules or steak/frites) are totally acceptable, there´s a lot more to Brussels´ food!

For some of our earlier dining experiences in Brussels, see here.

Oh yes, we may enjoy the odd glass of Belgian beer while we´re there as well.

Dave

Turning 40 III

2006-11-12T15:00:00.000Z

So, now I´m 40. Doesn´t feel any different to being 39, but felt odd saying 41 when I got asked my bank´s security department this weekend how old I will be next birthday .

My birthday holiday in København was unforgettable. We arrived on the Friday - J-dag, the day the Christmas beer gets released. At least most of us did, Ian got stuck in London due to work problems and security queues at Heathrow.

Excellent meal at Cap Horn - an organic restaurant on Nyhavn.

Saturday we spent wandering round the city. Ian had arrived that morning, but sans luggage. (It never did arrive!) Although my birthday wasn´t until the Tuesday we were celebrating at Nørrebro Bryghus that evening.

The restaurant and staff looked after us brilliantly. Everyone had a great time.

Not surprisingly, Sunday was a rather quieter day! The weather was pretty grotty, and most people went off to museums. In the evening we tried a restaurant in Christiania. This is the former army barracks in the city that has been occupied since the late 60s.

We went to Spiseloppen. Very enjoyable. Our only ´complaint´ was the portion sizes. Even our couple of rugby player types found them too large! But the food itself was excellent quality.

On the Monday, most people were on their way home. Fog at Heathrow that morning caused problems for a couple, but nothing too troublesome. Andrew and I were staying on til the Wednesday. (I can´t remember the last time my birthday was in London!)

My birthday turned out to be most memorable. The weather was fine for November, fresh with blue skies.

For dinner that evening, we´d booked an early table at Grisobasovitz it was a wonderful place to start the evening. Our waiter couldn´t have been friendlier, and the food was fabulous.

We were eating early as we´d managed to get tickets for the new centenerary production of Maskerade at the Opera. The only word for the performance is spectacular. It was worth every øre. I have not enjoyed myself so much for a very long time.

OK, this trip to KBH was not cheap - but you don´t turn tiogtredive (10+30) every day and both Andrew and I reckon we got good value for money.

Thanks to our friends from the UK, DK and NL for joining us and helping me have such a fabulous time.

Turning 40 II

2006-10-28T14:57:00.000Z

One week to go before I celebrate my 40th birthday in Copenhagen.
Flights, hotel and restaurant are booked. Have enough friends coming to make it a good party. Just doesn´t look like the weather is going to play ball. November is not the best time to have a birthday in the northern hemisphere. Cold I can cope with, but does it have to rain and sleet the whole weekend. Hopefully, the forecast will improve over the coming week.

Turning 40

2006-10-15T14:55:00.000Z

I´m really looking forward to celebrating my 40th birthday next month in Copenhagen. My other half, Andrew has put together a really cool Google Earth file for my friends showing all the relevant places in the city - including where to find dragons.

This lamp is at Nordre Tolbod

I quite like the fact that I can be impressed by the techonology that allows me to send all this information in a user-friendly manner.

It´s not quite at the level of magic ("Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" Arthur C. Clarke) as I know how much work Andrew has put into it, but the finished item is still amazing.

David