Eva and Les

We reluctantly checked out of our hotel - it was such a fun and friendly place, and we went out to pickup our car and it all happenned smoothly. We got a Ford Taurus, which I do NOT like at all. It had a column auto shift and it beeped at us annoyingly for whatever we did not do (like putting on seat belts, having the key in the ignition but motor not running, not eating chocolate for 5 mins - OK I made that last one up). We did get used to it after a while. Nifty navigator Eva (I call her Genius in Positioning Selves or GPS for short) got us through San Francisco easily and we crossed the Grey Ghost in partial fog again, but we would have another chance on the way back as Napa is North of SF and after Napa we will come back down south and go along the west coast from SF to LA (OK?). We headed along busy highways for about an hour and found the Napa Visitors Centre OK, and Sylvia there booked us into a nice hotel in the middle of the "Napa strip" of wineries at Rutherford...

Does time speed up towards the end of a holiday? Sure seems like it and there is so much we want to do! Good way to be I guess. The trip from Montreal was quite long with a delay at Chicago and the 3 hour time difference (backwards) made the day very long. When we arrived at San Francisco we decided to get a cab in to the hotel as it was easiest, even though the alternative of BART (train) was far cheaper. Turns out it was a good move as the taxi driver was so friendly telling us of his move to SF in the "love years", being the 60's, and of his family as well as very many tips about SF, where to go etc. What a great introduction to this very friendly city! Our hotel (Compton Place) is a block from Union Square which is a great central part of SF and easy to get other transport and walk from - as long as you know which way to go to avoid the hills! We decided to make the most of our time and ventured out for a walk. It was a little chilly, probably 16 degrees with a ...

Well, Chicago the musical was excellent, with a very unusual set design of a large tiered platform for the orchestra taking up most of the stage, which meant the dancers were really at the front of the stage so we could see extremely well. We had coffee and New York Cheesecake opposite the theatre and the man who played the lawyer in Chicago had his dinner at the next table. It was fun. We got a car to the airport the next morning and arrived in plenty of time, and our flight was delayed by an hour or so (did I say already that I don't like airports ...grrrr..). Miri and Robi were waiting for us at Montreal airport, and it was so good to finally meet. The relationship is that Miri's father was the older brother of my grandmother, making my mother and Miri first cousins - but whatever the relationship is called, the four of us have had such a wonderful time together, it has been fantastic. Robi drove us to their home on the 5th floor of a very lovely apartment block and to...

Wow! Up to now I thought we had been really pushing ourselves each day, but New York has SO much to do that we had a fantastic week, and collapsed late at the end of each day, to start the next one early! We arrived very late, with the time difference it was something like 4am and there was a very long line at immigration (and we were at the end). It was all straight forward though and our taxi driver made good time, but was pissed off when I gave him $50 for a $49 ride (it was all I had). No tips? he asked. The Sofitel on 45 West 44th is a fantastic hotel. So nice, quiet, comfortable with wonderful furnishings but not overdone in any way. Our room was large and we greedily sought out the solace of the bed. Surprisingly, we woke at 7am (we had gotten to bed at 2am local time) and we were raring to go! I thought I'd sent Laci and Marilyn an email from Munich (later found it had bounced) and so I thought they would contact me, and we set out. We managed to change some money (no...

Well, we did get to the Arabia museum/shop in Helsinki and it was fun using their trams. We couldn't work out how to pay on the trip out, so had a free ride! The Arabia factory was huge and incorporated a Design University of some sort on its 5th floor. The bottom floor was a shop that sold much more than Arabia things and there were other shops as well selling fabrics, pots etc. It was OK to look around in, but basically just shopping! The museum on the 9th floor was very well laid out with examples of Arabia design of their plates etc as well as artworks of their designers. It really highlighted the relationship of art and functional design. I saw an example of the sunflower Arabia plate we have but we didn't stay too long as it was SO hot. We concluded that Helsinki is not hot for very long and so they don't have air con anywhere! We went back into town and did some more last minute shopping and looking at design places and got the bus to the airport. The airport. Wh...

A rare photo of Les - about to get some exercise lifting up a cup of coffee.

Eva outside the Cathedral in Helsinki

I'm slowly getting the hang of blogs and have now added some photos, so check out the posts below for some piccies. I seem to be only able to add one picture per post (is there another way Ben??). Anyhow, back to the saga! We did a last minute 2 hour shop for Eva and a 2 hour walk to discover parks for Les in Stockholm and then we headed out on the train to the airport. We arrived in time, but had to queue for nearly an hour to get checked in! And then the flight was delayed half an hour which was just as well as we (or our luggage) may not have made it. The flight was about 2 hours and the time difference was 1 hour, so we are back to daylight till midnight now, which is great. We found the hotel, (Seurahuone) after getting a bus from Helsinki airport that took about three quarters of an hour to get in. The frightening part is that the traffic going the other way was heavy and we will have to get through that going back! We decided to go for a few hour walk which we did ...

We said our sad goodbyes to Norway as we'd had such a terrific time! The last 5 days of driving nearly 1000km was really great, being in the countryside and exploring freely without having to decide on museums and "must do" tours of cities. We headed out to the airport at Tromsö, and found it and the rental car return easily, and so had more time to kill than we really needed, but airports are like that, they soak up so much time. Our flight left a little late, but we made the connection in Oslo to Stockholm all OK. It made me realise just how far north we were in Norway when the flight south was about 2 hours or so. I guess a bit like Mebourne to Brisbane. We read about the Arland Express, a train right from the airport to the centre of town, so we decided to take that option. It was a little expensive, but we knew the reailway station was near the Rica hotel where we were going to stay. After a little bit of walking about we found the hotel, which was OK, but the room w...

5 days driving in Northern Norway. Our second car adventure in Norway, this time in the north. After much deliberation, we decided to head east through the Lyngen Alps which were meant to be quite jaggerd mountains. We left the small island of Tromsøya, going over a bridge that looked like the Hobart Bridge, towards the town ofBrievikeidet (hard to pronounce names!) where we got a ferry over to Svensby. The beautiful green trees and foliage contrasted well with the snow capped mountains and black rocks. We arrived for the ferry early and although it was cold and windy we did a small walk along some rocks for a better view of the fjord. There is so much water in Norway, in waterfalls, lakes and fjords. It is never far away (and often it even falls from the sky!!). Svensby was a very small place and we were hoping for some advice from the tourist centre that was supposed to be there. Turns out it was just a kiosk, and although the woman who did not speak much english tried to be helpf...

The last day or so of the voyage was not quite as good, as the weather closed in a bit, and we could not see the steep walls of the Lofoten Islands from the boat. Also, due to the strong winds and big swell, my philanthropic tummy must have been in a generous mood and wanted to share its contents with the world, but managed to not quite do so! The sea was too rough for the ship to call into one port, but when we entered the fjords again, it became calm, and the view was better too, as we were very close to the walls and could see them as well as farms and high mountains and islands. We crossed the Artic Circle and King Neptune performed his ceremony (in 4 languages) and we all had iced water poured down the backs of our necks! The sherry that followed, down our throats, warmed us up again. All in all, the boat trip was great. At times it felt like the land was moving and we were still, a never ending panorama being played out for our benefit. Still, a much better feeling for the land i...

We went back to Bergen on the Hydrofoil, and although we'd seen the islands and towns, the 4 hour trip was still stimulating. We had time to stock up on some salmon at the fish markets, and our return to Bergen was like seeing an old friend again! Our passender ship is quite big and has seven levels, our cabin being on level 3. It has two fold out beds, one of which doubles as a couch. It has a shower and toilet as well as a small table, arm chair and desk and heaps of cupboard space. Our large porthole looks out to sea rather than on the land side, but we've been surprised that there are very few "open sea" sections of the voyage and most of it is through fjords or amongst islands, so the views from the cabin are quite nice. Often we have woken up at 3am and looked at the scenery for a while as is is light around then. We call in at various ports along the way and I'll describe some of them. Alesund is a small town that we had two stops in, one for three quarters...

We've just completed 3 days and 500km of experience in the most amazing Norwegian countryside near Stavanger, in the south-west of Norway. The first day was lightly raining, cold and windy, so we thought we'd head for as far east as we were going to go, to both see the countryside on the way from the warmth of the car, and in the hope that the weather might improve in that area. We found a large "walking park", more like a huge botanical garden, and spent some time walking in the past some small lakes and the most brilliant display of various coloured rhotodendrons I've ever seen. My feet got quite wet (joggers are not serious walking shoes), but the rain was not constant, and although cold, we had a great time there. There were a number of very cheeky birds, about the size of sparrows, that would come right up to us I guess in the hope of food. This allowed us to study their lovely colours which included brown, blue, green, black and white. We had lunch of sandwi...

We got to Stavanger from Bergen by hydrofoil which took 4 hours. It was a pleasant trip, and we called in to a number of ports along the way. What amazed me was the number of islands that we saw! It was like have the coast on two sides. Stavanger is a very pleasant place, with many old narrow street with white and colored houses with their beautiful pots of bright flowers outside. It seems to have quite a number of bars and restaurants too, all concentrated in a small area. We've had a beer and a wonderful meal here. Tomorrow we hire a car for a few days and venture into the countryside.

Bergen is a lovely place. It is centered at the Bryggen (waterfront) and the fish markets. Our hotel was in the centre of town and we could get anywhere easily. The hotel was actually an apartment, so we took advantage of the wonderful produce at the fish market and I cooked two nights. Once was salmon and the other time was Munk. Both were great. We walked a lot both in town but also one day we set off at about 5pm to go up the furnicular railway to a view at the top. From there we started a walk, but didn't have a very good map at all. We guessed our way to the two nearby peaks and then had to get down again. On the way (there were MANY tracks) we met a couple of girls and asked them where we were. They said 'You are now-where' meaning we were not on our map. Anyhow they said the prettiest way back, although long, was the way they were going and we could follow them. We did that at a discrete distance behind, BUT they walked so fast - even faster than I walk when I walk f...

On Saturday 27th we set off to Flam by rail from Oslo. The trip was long and the first part was nice but nothing special. When we got into the mountains, or really high up rather than mountainous, it was snow covered and passing by frozen lakes was interesting and kept my interest. We arrived at Myrdal and changed to a smaller train for the 800m descent over 20km, a third of which was through tunnels. It was billed at the most amazing train journey ever, and although it was good, I wouldn't quite agree with that accolade. We stopped at a waterfall along the way which was truely spectacular. Out hotel Fetheim in Flam was very special. We were on the top flor, and some rooms there had a little alcove with glass ceiling, but you could curtain it off for sleeping time. I sat there at11:30 at night reading in the sunlight while Eva slept! We did a lot of walking there - to a waterfall, and also we caught the train back halfway to Myrdal and then walked up higher to an old farm that had ...

We both had a good sleep on the flight to Helsinki and so we were refreshed when we arrived in the moring at Oslo. We couldn't work out the train tickets into town very well, and ended up getting an express train for twice the price rather than the local train which would have done fine. The ticket machines were automatic and only the express one had an english option. Good train though! It was early when we arrived and quite cool, about 6 degrees celcius, but the sun was shining and we were happy. Again, our hotel was excellent, with a lovely internal lift of glass, and a very nicely appointed room. The door to the room opened outwards, which we've found is typical in hotels in Norway. Makes for a much better use of space in the room, you just have to be careful when you open the door that you don't knock someone over! We grabbed some apples and maps from the desk and headed out to explore our first taste of Norway. We walked to the Royal Palace and its grounds which were ...

Its been over a week since we were in Bangkok, but I thought I'd post the highlights anyhow. We arrived around midnight, and found our way to outside arrival hall 2, which is where the green and yellow cabs are. They are the ones with meters that are supposed to work. We lined up, told a person in a booth where we wanted to go, and they handed the paper to the driver, who nonetheless asked us where we wanted to go. No traffic that time of night along the tollway and we were soon at Siam Square at our hotel. It was a Novotel, and really was quite wonderful, although anything with airconditioning would have seemed that way! We were pretty tired so just went to sleep. In the morning, we went to the fantastic breakfast - so colourful and so much variation in foods from fruit and cereals to meat, sushi, juices, breads and more. We decided to look at the nearby shops, which were a little upmarket for us, so we took the sky-train down to the river and avoided being taken for a ride on the...

With my 60th birthday party behind us (which was fantastic!!) and having said goodbye to Ben and Leah (which was hard) we are now so close to leaving. Tomorrow is the day for packing, as we just can't seem to get into it today. At least we plan to pack lightly. Starting to get a little excited, but more worried that there is still so much to do, and not much motivation to get started on it. Maybe in the morning.....

We started to look at where to go in Norway, and there are SO many awesome places that it was hard.