England 2022

So it’s been nearly 3 years since last visiting England, thanks to good old covid, to see our son, daughter-in-law and 3 grandkids living in London, so time to take the plunge, don our masks and take that long flight.

We learned quickly we were no longer ‘match fit’ for international travel with many little planning items we almost forgot to check but not including double checking any covid related actions required when transiting or entering other countries.

For unknown reasons, we were also a little anxious!

Thanks to a tip from a friend, this time we carried extra carry on items in case our main bags went missing during the flights as airlines and airports ramp up, find then train new staff to meet growing demand.  Thankfully our checked bags did arrive into Heathrow but we did have Apple AirTags in them just in case.

You know your'e in London when sitting back on the Tube

Our time in England consists of two parts, family time in London and personal tourist time.

The family came first and after the 3 year hiatus when unable to attend in person, our son and daughter-in-laws respective 40^th birthdays, our granddaughter had doubled in age.  Last time we saw the twin boys they were just trying to stand and now they were running, climbing and talking… a lot!

It was simply great to be able to visit our family in the UK again

Jarad & Rach love watching live NFL (gridiron) and there was a match happening within days of our arrival between the Vikings & Saints at Tottenham Hotspurs Stadium.   Jarad and self joined 2 others to watch the game with almost 61,000 other very noisy, lively spectators.

For half the game had no real idea what was going on but with the help of the others, started to understand it more.  A few beers may have helped and at the end and with only 2 secs on the clock, the Saints had a chance to level the scores to force extra time but fell just short.

Thoroughly enjoyed the whole ‘event’ because that’s what it was, an entertainment spectacle with things happening all the time to keep everyone having non stop enjoyment.

NFL at Tottenham Hotspurs stadium

We had decided to have 2 tourist destinations within England, the first one involving 5 full days in the Cotswolds about 2 hrs west of London staying at a delightful village called Burton-on-the-Water, yes… interesting name but there are so many more quaint names.

Generally where the Cotswolds are located

Each of the many small villages and towns we visited seemed to have a specific ‘speciality’, whether is was a physical site to admire, its history or both and they were all fascinating using Rob’s well designed full daily itinerary for each day.

General driving route within the Cotswolds but not all villages shown

In 2007 we dipped our toes into the Cotswolds located about 100 kms NW of London, and its beauty motivated us to return and do a more detailed tour through this part of England.

The beautiful village of Castle Combe
once the location of a Roman Fort

Our base was a lovely Airbnb not too far from the River Windrush running through its centre earning this village the nickname of ‘Venice of the Cotswolds’.    The river can be crossed using 5 stone arched bridges built between 1654 to 1953

One of the old stone bridges in Burton-on-the-Water

Over the next 5 days we visited a variety of towns and villages using a multiplicity of road styles ranging from freeways, normal single lane roads and then laneways which were the most interesting and exciting.

Laneways keep you on your toes because they are typically single lane for all traffic to use and either high hedging or dense tree line close to the side of the lanes.  All this simply means that every time we came to a blind corner screened by ‘stuff’, we had to be very careful due to potential oncoming traffic.

We were greeted by not just cars but delivery vans, trucks and large farm tractors typically towing trailers, all of which had to be negotiated with. At times there were areas off the side to the ‘roads’ we could use for passing, but often it was simply get as for to the side as possible and slowly squeeze by.  Fun!

One of the larger roads engulfed by foliage

Each town or village we visited in the Cotswolds, apart from typically interesting names, had something sort of unique about or in them they were known for, for example:

• Lower Slaughter - working waterwheel
• Upper Slaughter - town square which is actually a triangle and a ford
• Chipping Campden - thatched roofs and Broadway Tower Folly
• Stow-on-the-Wold - oldest operating inn in England circa 947 AD and an ancient stock
• Bibury - 17^th century Arlington Row of whole weavers cottages
• All Alone - its all alone
• Fairford - church from 1490’s with oldest set of medieval stained-glass windows, it took 15-20 yrs to install them
• Burford - church circa 1170 with great oak roof
• Winchcombe - castle nearby and row of Almnhouses
• Tetbury - 15^th & 16^th century small buildings
• Castle Combe - started as a Roman hill fort and now with beautiful houses

Hopefully from some of the photos you get a sense of how beautiful and interesting these locations were throughout the Cotswolds.

The onset of autumn was bringing a lovely change of colour

Lower Slaughters working waterwheel

The Broadway Tower folly by design and nature

Porch House... the oldest working Inn in England, circa 947 AD

Very low ceilings in the inn

Arlington Row of weavers cottages in Bibury

Burford church's beautiful oak timber ceiling

Ancient stocks used for public punishment in town square

Amusing village safety sign

Back in London it was time to ‘child mind’ 3 active grandkids whilst the parents had their turn to go to a NFL game, again at Tottenham.  It was recommended to visit Syon Park with 56.6 hectares, the current home of the Duke of Northumberland and a location where Princess Victoria spent considerable time in preparation to becoming Queen.

Duke of Northumberland's home in Syon Park, London

We manhandled 3 lively grandkids and the boys little balance bikes onto the double decker bus and off we went!

The park had lovely paths to follow and explore, especially the ones between a canopy of trees which the twins loved to run through constantly.  Also scattered throughout the park were large  timber steps grouped together they also liked to clamber over.

The Great Conservatory in Syon Park

There were large ponds to search for turtles and admire either the Egyptian geese or swans and in the very ornate Great Conservatory was a fountain housing curious goldfish trying to work out what the little faces were peering down at them.

Be afraid be very afraid goldfish

By the end of the day and all the kids sleeping soundly in bed, Rob and I collapsed… a little exhausted.

We interspersed our time in England with a side trip to Norway which is covered in another post, but on returning, we visited more normal tourist locations.

The Tower Of London and surrounds - home to an the Ancient Palace, the Crown Jewels, Kings armoury and Bloody Tower, our granddaughters favourite and where they carried out torture.

Inside the grounds of the Tower of London

Yeoman Warders or Beefeater @ Tower of London

Our granddaughter was quite taken
by Henry VIII's armour

Thanks to Google, example of the jewels stored in the
Tower of London - photos are forbidden - they were spectacular!

Walking over the nearby Tower Bridge was a treat with the Thames River wriggling like a snake below it.

Tower Bridge as viewed from the Tower of London precinct

Walking across Tower Bridge

The Natural History Museum - famous for all its displays of the natural world but unfortunately packed with school kids on holidays.

One of a few dinosaur exhibits in the museum

Mammoth skeleton

We did venture further afield including seeing a good friend for a delightful lunch in Ealing and visiting the famous Kew Gardens before taking a train and staying for 3 nights in York.

Where York is located in the UK

Where we walked within York over 3 days

What an interesting, enjoyable and fascinating city York is and such a great walking city.  Little bit of history time with York starting in 71 AD when the Romans established a fort there.  

Roman occupation ended in 400 AD and during that time, Emperor Constantius I died during his stay in York, and his son Constantine the Great was proclaimed Emperor by the troops based in the fortress. Constantinople which later became Istanbul was named after Constantine.

Part of the Roman baths used by soldiers used over 1,600 years ago

There is a massive amount of history throughout York, just have to find it

Just to add to York’s character, it is touted as potentially the most haunted city in the world with 140 ghosts and over 500 recorded hauntings and even has a single ghost shop with long queues outside it whenever its open.

Queue of people waiting to visit the
ghost shop in the Shambles, York

Some shops have interesting names even if they can;t have a name

So during the 3 days we wandered all over the city day and night and kicked off at The Minister, York’s massive church in which we did a free tour run by a 80+ year old very humorous lady.  We’re not all that into churches but this one was fascinating.

Very small section of the Minster
seen from outside

Just on section of the inside of the Minister... it is huge

The Minster started life around 627 AD and grew from there and there were so many historical highlights we learnt about apart from the huge stained glass windows and massive structures.

One of the old huge stained glass
windows cost over $12M to repair

The Minster organ has 5,400 pipes!

There are just so many old buildings and wonky ones to enjoy as we found little lanes and roadways to admire and enjoy.  Back to the ghost reputation of York, there was a ghost sculpture display scattered throughout multiple parks and gardens through the city.

One of the numerous 'ghost' sculptures
on display throughout York

York is also a walled city which we walked providing yet another different perspective of the city’s internals and was yet again another enjoyable experience.

There were many great views whilst walking the wall around York,
with the Minster dominating the skyline frequently

To finish off our time in York, we visited their famous National Train Museum and spent a few hours viewing some very famous trains like the 1829 Stephenson’s Rocket, the world’s first early steam train, the Mallard which still holds the world steam train record from 1938 at 203 kph.

You are looking at a piece of history which helped
industrialise the world - Stephenson's Rocket

The Mallard - worlds fastest steam train

There were also some of the Royal carriages built for various Kings and Queens and it was interesting to observe how the early carriages were very ornate and luxurious until Queen Elizabeth’s which was far less so.

Just one of the Royal carriages on display

We had a wonderful and very nice time with our family and friends in England, along with our side tours and after around 6 weeks, boarded good old Qantas for that very long flight home with many lovely memories to keep us company before the jet-lag welcomed us again.

The lively and fun grandkids

What this trip did do was get us back into the international travel saddle again so our planning is well and truly underway for 2023 and beyond.

CLICK HERE for more pics of UK 2022

So keep an eye open for the Norway post and until then…. adieu and go well!

Norway 2022

We do not often venture back to places already visited, but in 2022 we returned to Norway and why you might be asking… perhaps a little more on that later.

We had planned to split our time in London with an off shoot trip to Norway and this was a ‘planes, trains and automobiles’ trip with our first flight taking us from London to Oslo where we sat waiting, wondering whether our bags would arrive on the carousel.

Using the ‘Find My’ app we could see the AirTags in each of our bags had arrived at Oslo Airport and were sitting out on the tarmac.  Just had to be patient and after 40+ mins, they turned up.

Route from Oslo to Bodø with
           lines for rail journey and            road travels

Oslo is a city of ~1M people, a nice size and the locals don’t seem to get overly lost in too much fashion, especially with temperatures hovering around 5C.  With only 1 night in Oslo, we were out wandering throughout the city straight after breakfast.

Downtown Oslo

Its a nice city to meander through and wasn’t very busy, so could casually walk past the cathedral, National Theatre, the Royal Palace, climb to the fort and admire the Nobel Peace building, sitting sedately near the ocean, all under clear skies, wispy cloud and some direct sunshine.

Walking down towards the Palace

Coloured flowers are used for decoration
throughout the city in large pots

The Palace

Oslo harbour

Nobel Peace Prize building in Oslo

Our goal for Norway however was much further north, so we boarded our first train to Trondheim, a trip of ~6hrs with numerous stops at small towns and villages on the way.

There are some very large lakes in Norway as we seemed to glide past one in particular for a long time, the farms adding to the scenery.

One of many very large lakes near the railway

Yet another lake and farmhouses

Our arrival into Trondheim at 9pm was miserable in terms of thick cloud, rain and around 4C to really make us feel welcome, and next morning it seemed like the rain had only got heavier.

Trondheim was a 2 night stop as it seemed there was a bit to see, but would need to start in the rain with not a hint of sun to be seen.  We ventured out anyway and thankfully the forecast was accurate, the rain slowly easing throughout the morning.

Wandering through Trondheim in the rain

The decorative flowers again

Trondheim is a good walking city of ~200k people located next to a harbour, with some islands visible in the distance and a lot of very quaint buildings to admire.  We were taken by the steep roofs and hanging gutters, designed we believe to enable the snow in winter to slide off the roofs without taking the gutters with it.

Local house with 'hanging' gutters

Modern apartments next to the river

Yet another very ornate cathedral we did not venture into, whilst walking around the town, finding an old bridge over the river with historical colourful warehouses on either side of its banks, making their way back towards the port and ocean.

150 year old Trondheim Nidaros Cathedral

Old colourful warehouse either side of the Nidelva River, Trondheim

There was a road leading up a hill towards Kristiansten Fortress, a fort built between 1681-1685 by the Norwegians to defend themselves against Sweden and it worked when the Swedes attacked again in 1718 and laid siege to the city.

At the base of the hill is a unique mechanism called a ‘trampe lift’ constructed to help people riding pushbikes reach the top of the hill more easily and is a free service.  Whilst sitting astride a pushbike, riders push a start button and wait for a pushing plate to come up behind one foot to push the rider up the hill.  Couldn’t see it work because it was turned off for winter.

Trampe Lift instructions

CLICK HERE for Trampe Lift Trondheim

[Credit for this video is produced by Copperhouse Films]

The port area near the rail station has some interesting architecture, then found a drone boat being tested for sea rescues either manned or unmanned and for military purposes.

Some fabulous architecture near the port are

A drone boat

It was an early and chilly start to catch our next train from Trondheim further north to a small town called Bodø, located next to the ocean and what a very good journey it was, even if around 10 hrs long.

Again there were lots of stops at more interesting and small villages, including the old ornate rail stations we stopped at.  As we progressed, we followed next to fast flowing rivers, could spy numerous waterfalls between the forests of pine trees and slowly climbed higher, snow capped mountains more frequently capturing our attention.

Small old railway station

Waterfall poking its presence through the forest as we passed

The railway followed multiple rivers as we progressed

The further north we progressed the more barren the landscape

As we neared Bodø we climbed higher in altitude and the trees began reducing in both size and quantity, until eventually a sign inside the carriage flashed we were passing into the Arctic Circle, herds of wild reindeer next to the track seemingly there to welcome us.

Crossing into the Arctic Circle

Reindeer next to the railway

A man had joined our near empty carriage about 2 hours from Bodø and he was as interested in taking photos from the train including through the glass rear door as we were.  

Nearing Bodø even more waterfalls

Eventually we got talking and discovered he now lived in Bodø, had originated from Kenya and would be soon visiting his parents who lived in Adelaide, Australia.

Had a great 2-way discussion about all sorts of topics, as well as being provided with some tips about the Lofoten Islands and Bodø.

It had been a great train trip but our arrival into Bodø was as expected… cold!

With only one full day in Bodø, we had heard about a particular spectacle 30 kms out of the city we were keen to see, and during our train trip had been researching how to see it.  The best way was to rent a car because taxis were stupidly expensive.

Municipal building in Bodø

Modern apartments in suburbs of Bodø

As most things are comparatively expensive in Norway, including rental cars, we luckily found ‘Rent-A-Wreck’ with a very small, bright green and manual car to zip… no, glide… no, chug around in.  Changing gears manually with my right hand on the ‘wrong’ side of the road was also an additional experience.

Our little green 'Rent-A-Wreck' was a tad squishy

Before reaching the spectacle we visited the beach and coast on the opposite side of the town because what we mainly wanted to see was tide time dependant, but we did reach Saltstraumen Maelstrom in time.

Coastal views north of Bodø

Beautiful but remote location to live or stay

Numerous homes have grass planted on
the roof for natural insulation

To see the maelstrom we walked to the middle of a long curved bridge to observe this spectacular but natural occurrence which occurs four times every 24 hours.   The bridge straddles the 3km-long, 150m-wide Saltstraumen Strait and the worlds most powerful tides cause one fjord to drain into another, creating the equivalent of a maelstrom or whirlpools below and near the bridge.

To watch the maelstrom we needed to walk to the
middle of the bridge and it was windy & cold

Standing on top of a wind swept bridge in 5C temperature was certainly cold but looking down at the churning, constantly changing, whirlpool riddled 20-knot current created chaos shifting over 400 million cubic metres of water one way, made us ignore being cold.

A small section of the current & whirlpools

They run jet boat tours to and through the maelstrom and we were lucky enough to watch one of these tour boats doing exactly that.  You can even snorkel amongst it apparently!

Luckily for us a jetboat came by to 'play' in the current

CLICK HERE to watch video of the Salstraumen Maelstrom

Our flight from Bodø to Svolvær, the capital of the Lofoten Islands was a mere 25 minutes and the start of the ~200 km long and remote island chain of very rugged beauty, 150+ kms north of the Arctic Circle.

Photo of massive poster in Svolvær Airport showing runway

Trying to put into perspective where the Lofotens are located

Route map showing flight to Svolvær and where we ventured over 5 days

We collected the hire car and found our accomodation to commence 5 days exploring this very, very beautiful part of the world.  We were here in October for a few reasons, the 2 main ones being it was where I wanted to celebrate one of my larger birthdays and also to try and see the Aurora Borealis, the latter being very improbable due to seasonal weather conditions.

Out the front of our accomodation in Svolvær

We had briefly visited the Lofotens in 2009 so it was not new to us, but had left a lasting impression on us, especially when you can drive the entire length of the chain of 7 main islands, the road crossing over bridges or through tunnels.

There are many bridges like this the length of the island chain

To really experience the Lofotens you need to explore away from the single main road down the island chains’ backbone, and this is an experience with most of the roads being quite narrow, with few road indicators, no centre line markings and no verges to escape to.  

There are also many single lane sections with passing ‘bulges’ to allow negotiations with other cars, trucks or buses wanting to pass in the opposite direction.

To reach many small villages means driving single car width
roads including through the tunnels through the mountains

Lofotens are rugged with very large jagged mountains to be seen and negotiated everywhere.  These mountains are also located very close to the ocean which provides a constant visual presence of spectacular landscapes and scenery, including small villages nestled between the base of mountains and the ocean.

Wild ocean seas, rugged mountains and a small village

There is a constant supply of very stunning views on the Lofotens

Quite remote church we found

Drive round yet another bend and you might find this

The mountains also provide some great but long walks with people climbing to the top of some to get spectacular views of the coastline.  With the weather being experienced we weren’t tempted to do any of these

The red huts are called rorbuers and are fishing huts but
many are now rented to tourists

The Lofotens are renowned for cod fishing with the season kicking off in January and the racks they air dry the cod on can be seen everywhere along with dried cod being used for decorations sometimes.

Cod are dried in the open by hanging them on these racks

Dried cod being sold to eat... somehow

Dried cod light fittings

One particular mountain next to Svolvær also provides and exciting venue for thrill seekers.  It is called Svolvaergeita or ‘The Goat’ because of its shape and is 150 metres high which doesn’t sound very high… but wait!

Pay attention to the multi pronged peak
to the left of this photo

There are adventurous people who somehow climb ‘The Goat’ and then jump from one horn to the other… don’t believe us, then watch this!

Yes they jump from one horn to another which we
observed in 2009 [credit to photo via Google]

CLICK HERE to watch video of Svolvaergeita

[Credit for video to Mountianreporters.com on YouTube]

With seven main islands, there are also hundreds if not thousands of smaller islands everywhere adding to the amazing nature of this place and in the village of Henningsvær, there is even an island which is home to a soccer field, potentially the only one of its type in the world.

The soccer field on its own island in Henningsvær village

There is just so much to see and explore so will simply use possibly too many photos following to share some of this with you

October is meant to be one of the better Aurora viewing months but also happens to be on average, the Lofotens wettest month.  During our time in the Lofotens, a weather system stuck off the coast produ

cing regular and constant rain and almost continual cover of cloud day and night.

We were lucky to get small breaks in the rain during the day to explore and take photos but at night with all the cloud, let alone rain and despite knowing the Aurora was active above us, we never got the opportunity to see it, despite venturing out later at night and giving it a go.

Is there a hint of green... there was certainly cloud & rain

On our way to the last small town of Å on this island chain, we had to cross some beautiful and at times curved bridges and tunnels.  We would frequently leave the main road, heading down very narrow roads winding amongst the mountains and through some remarkable tunnels serving the small villages, one even to their surf beach complete with surf shops and yes, there were 2 people out surfing.

The main Lofoten surf beach and there were 2 people trying to catch waves

We liked the Norwegian people we interacted with because they are very down to earth, pragmatic and seem to enjoy life.  They are not stuck with any airs and graces, preferring to dress and behave like many Australians… especially in country towns.

Despite the very inclement weather, almost constant cloudy skies, temperatures 24 hrs a day of around 4C, strong winds, the Lofoten Islands was still stunningly beautiful and it was sad to leave taking our 3 flights to return to London knowing we would not visit Norway again!

CLICK HERE for more Norway photos

CLICK HERE for video of above the Lofotens

CLICK HERE for some Norway 'Bits & Pieces' video

As they say in Norwegian, ‘Takk for besøket, vennligst fortell vennene dine’, it could well be worth a visit, so if so inclined… go well!