The Sagrada Familia is Gaudi’s Gothic masterpiece. He dedicated 43 years to the design. It is still under construction & is expected to be finished in 2026, the anniversary of Gaudi’s death.
This is what it will look like in 2026
Park Guell more architecture by Gaudi.
Gaudi’s Home
We did a fat bike tour taking in all the sites.
Brian & Hava spent a couple of days with us. The food was delicious especially the night we ate at the market.
Paella
Tapas
We took the train south to Malaga where we picked up a car & drove to our timeshare south of Marbella at Macdonald Villacana.
We did a walking tour of the local town Cancelada. It is organized by the resort & then we went to lesson in how to make sangria.
Ronda is said to be one of Spains most beautiful towns. Ernest Hemingway wrote some of his most notable classics while living here. It is also known for the bridge Puente Nuevo & the large bullring.
After flying from Heathrow to Tel Aviv we took a train to Jerusalem. Our Airbnb was on Jaffa Street, a short walk from the old city. First impressions were mixed. There were a lot police on the streets due to world leaders being in town for the 75th anniversary of the Holocaust. They were all heavily armed with machine guns etc. Most of them seemed very young. We later found out that even when the military are off duty they must carry their weapons at all times, so its common to see young men & women in mufti with a machine gun over their shoulder. Not what we are use to that’s for sure.
The other thing was the number of Orthodox Jews especially males in their distinctive clothes. Everyone seemed to be wearing black & most women wore long black skirts with scarves covering their hair. There is no public transport & all shops are shut from sundown on Friday until sundown on Saturday.
We did a walking tour which took us through all four areas of the old town, Christian, Jewish, Muslim & Armenian quarters. The streets are very narrow with lots of small shops & cafes.
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is one of the holiest sites in Christianity. It is the site where Jesus was crucified & where he is said to have been buried & resurrected.
The Temple Mount is one of the sacred places in Jerusalem & the world for Jews & Christians due to its association with the Temple of Jerusalem. It is said Jesus will descend upon earth here again. The Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad ascended from here to Heaven. According to the Bible Adam was created from the dust of the ground.
The gold dome of The Temple of the Mount
The Tower of David dates back to the 2nd century BC. It is a museum of the history of Jerusalem & from 1948 the State of Israel.
Tower of David
The Western Wall is also known as The Wailing Wall is part of the last remaining wall of the Temple Mount & was built in 19 BC. It is the site of Jewish pilgrimage & prayer & is considered to be one of the holiest places for Jews. It is called Wailing as the Jews mourn the loss of the Holy Temple on the Temple Mount.Both men & women pray at the wall but they use separate entrances.
Wailing Wall
We walked to the Mount of Olives past the largest burial site for Jews in the world.
The Mount of Olives is associated with many events in the life of Jesus. The Garden of Gethsemane is a walled garden with eight olive trees said to be 900 years old. Church of Mary Magdalene is a Russian Orthodox church. Princess Alice of Battenberg is buried here, she is the mother of the Duke of Edinburgh. Prince Charles was visiting the site when we were there. The Tomb of the Virgin Mary where the disciples are believed to have laid her to rest. We walked back down past the birthplace of Mary then along the streets with the Stations of the Cross.
Garden of Gethsemane
Church of Mary Magdalene
Via Dolorosa is Latin for “Way of Suffering”. Christian pilgrims believe it traces the steps of Jesus carrying the cross en route to his crucifixion.
Stations of the cross
BETHLEHEM
Bethlehem is in the West Bank, Palestine. Our tour was for the morning & is really the best way to go there. The wall was built in 2002 by Israel to separate the Palestinian territories from Israel. We visited Manger Square, Church of Nativity & the Milk Grotto.
Manger Square
Manger Square has the 4th century Church of Nativity, the Church of St Catherine & the Mosque of Omar. Church of Nativity has been identified as the birthplace of Jesus since the 2nd century. In 325 AD a chapel was built over the grotto of Nativity.
Grotto
Church of Nativity
MASADA & THE DEAD SEA
Masada was the last bastion of the Jewish Freedom Fighters against the Roman’s. It was built by Herod, King of Judea. It was built on a massive plateau overlooking the Dead Sea & was destroyed by an earthquake. You can walk up but we took the cable car up.
The Dead Sea is the lowest point on earth, 431 meters below sea level. It was a strange sensation floating in the water. It was really hard to stand up. The mud contains lots of goodness so you are supposed to cover yourself in it & leave it to dry before washing it off.
Floating in the Dead Sea
Airbnb Jerusalem
Some food photos
Falafel & hummus
Shakshuka
Jerusalem market
EILAT
We headed south from Jerusalem & after a four hour bus ride we got to Eilat which is on the Red Sea. We used some timeshare points & stayed at the Club Hotel for a week. The unit was great & in a very large hotel complex. A bit hi de hi, well set up for families but being winter was very quiet.
We hired a car for a couple of days & went to Red Canyon driving along beside the wall dividing Egypt from Israel.
Red Canyon
Spent a day at Timna Park
We crossed into Jordan at Aqaba & spent a week there & then a week in Egypt before entering Israel again this time at the border crossing near Jerusalem. We took a bus north to Haifa.
HAIFA, ARRKO, NAZARETH, GOLAN HEIGHTS
Baha’I Gardens
Haifa is the holy city for the Bahai Faith, a religion born in Iran that teaches the unity & equality of all people. The Terraces of the Baha’i Faith are also known as the Hanging Gardens of Haifa. There are eighteen terraces plus one terrace of the Shrine of Bab. The remains of the Bab were interred here in 1850. The gardens were opened in 2001 extending almost a kilometer up Mt Carmel & covering 200,000 square meters.
Airbnb Haifa
View from our Airbnb
The market Haifa
Fish Shawarma
Akko is mainly inhabited by Arabs.
Akko
Church of Annunciation Nazareth where the angel Gabriel announced to the Virgin Mary that she would be the mother of Jesus, the son of God.
Grotto of the Annunciation
Church of Beatitudes where Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount.
Loaves and the Fishes
Church of Multiplication. Jesus gave food to 5000 people.
Golan Heights is close to the border of Syria. This area used to belong to Syria but during the war in 1967 Israel conquered the biggest part of the area. You can see the area where ISIS was fighting Syria up to last year.
Syria
Sea of Galilee
Jerusalem/Lebanon border
Tel Aviv is the second largest city in Israel. The old city is called Jaffa & the new city was founded in 1909. As it’s on the Mediterranean the beaches here are great.
Israeli breakfast
We spent five weeks in Israel, Jordan and Egypt. Each country was different to the other & all had amazing sites to visit.
Another very early start with a pick up from our hotel in Amman at 5am & drive to the airport for our flight to Cairo. We flew Egypt Air who are members of the Star Alliance so we were able to go into the lounge. Queen Alia Airport is one of the nicest airports we have flown from. It opened in 2014 so relatively new.
We had organized to be on a tour to make it easy & were picked up & taken to our hotel in Cairo with no problems. We stayed at The Kempinski hotel which is probably the best hotel we have stayed in for a while. We went for a walk but after getting hassled by males wanting to sell us stuff we headed back to the hotel. We found a great Turkish restaurant around the corner & ended up going there all three nights we spent in Cairo.
Flowers in the lobby
Flowers on Valentine’s Day
We were picked up once again at 5am the next day & taken back to the airport for our flight to Luxor this time with Air Cairo. The flight only took an hour & we were met by a driver & our new guide for the next four days Mahmoud. We thought there would be other people on the tour with us but due to a quiet time it was just us, the driver & Mahmoud. It was full on straight away with trips to the Temple of Luxor & Karnak Temple. The temples were built during the lifetime of the kings so they were ready when he dies.
Karnak Temple
Luxor Temple
The Blue Shadow cruise boat was our home for the next four days on the Nile.
Mahmoud also stayed on the boat along with other guides. There were mainly Asian & American tour groups on the boat. The only other couple like us were from the UK. They also had their own guide which they hadn’t been expecting either. We sat with them for all our meals. The boat was okay although could do with a bit of an update. It was a bit like something from an Agatha Christie novel. We got three meals a day, all buffet but overall were pretty good. We could buy beer & wine & most nights we seemed to be the only ones having a drink. Mahmoud being Muslim doesn’t drink alcohol but he does smoke a hubble bubble pipe.
Next day another 5am start for a hot air balloon ride over Luxor. I was really worried about doing it but was determined not to miss out. I knew Jim would come back raving about how good it was then I would have regretted not doing it. As it turned out I really enjoyed it. It was so quiet & gentle. The views were incredible. There were sixteen in our basket plus the pilot. It was a perfect morning with the right amount of wind.
After breakfast back at the boat we headed to The Valley of the Kings where for nearly 500 years from 16th to 11th century BC rock cut tombs were excavated for the pharaohs & nobles of the New Kingdom. The valley stands on the west bank of the Nile & contains 63 known tombs & chambers. It has become famous since the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922 by Howard Carter.
Next was the Temple of Hatshubsut, one of the few women to rule. On the way back to the boat we stopped at the Memon Statues for a quick photo. The boat set sail at 2pm for Edfu passing through the Edfu lock system & arriving sometime in the night.
Temple of Hatshubsut
Not sure why they bother taking photos when eyes are visible only.
At Edfu we had a horse & carriage ride to the Temple of Horus then returned to the boat & sailed to Kom Ombo & the temple of the Gods of Sobek (crocodile) & Haroeris. Next stop Aswan.
Streets of Edfu
Temple of Horus
Temple of Kom Ombo
Child birth
Feeding
Temple of Kom Ombo
Mummified Crocodiles
Our last day we went by small motor boat along the Nile a bit further to the Botanical Gardens then on to a Nubian Village. We returned to the cruise on a Felucca. After lunch it was a visit to the High Dam & Isis Temple. The Aswan High Dam was completed in 1970 & was built to end flooding & bring electricity to all over Egypt. The Nubian people were shifted from their homes & re located. 23 temples were dismantled & moved, the most famous being Abu Simbel. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to travel to see it. We did see Isis Temple which was also moved.
Nubian Village
Local school
Spices
Temple of Philae
Mahmoud left to return to his family in Luxor. He is a wonderful guide with an amazing amount of knowledge. Just wish I could remember everything he told us. He told us all about his wife & three children & gave us a good insight into living in Egypt.
We left the boat the next day & flew from Aswan back to Cairo for a couple of days.
The Nile Cairo
We were met at Cairo airport by yet another diver & guide who would show us the sights of Cairo for the next two days. First stop of course the pyramids of Saqqara & then The Great Pyramids of Gizza. They were everything I thought they would be. Amazing. Then on to The Sphinx.
It was a very long day & we finally got to the hotel at 5.30pm after leaving the boat in Aswan at 7.30am.
We stayed at the Kempinski again & after a delicious breakfast the next day we were picked up by our guide Achmed for our tour to the Salah El deen Citadel, Mohammed Ali Mosque & the Egyptian museum. No photos are allowed to be taken in the museum.
Egypt Museum
We also visited the church where Jesus, Mary & Joseph are said to have stayed for 3 months in hiding after Herod had decreed all male children would be killed.
We went back to the Turkish restaurant for the third time, mainly because we couldn’t find anything else in the area but also because the food was some of the best we had. Next day we flew back to Amman Jordan for two nights before crossing the border back into Israel. We did this because there are no direct flights from Cairo to Israel, they go via places like Athens & take hours.
We had an 8am pick up from our hotel in Eilat & we were taken to the border to cross into Jordan. It was very easy & quick & we were through into Jordan in no time. We had organized a tour guide as this makes travel in the Middle East so much easier. Our guide for this part was Hytham from Amman. He was a real character & after spending three days with him we knew his life story in including why he doesn’t have a wife. He also gave us an insight into the Muslim faith.
Wadi Rum
Our first stop was Wadi Rum where we had a three hour ride through the desert on the back of a ute. Luckily it was a beautiful sunny day although a bit chilly. The landscape is moon like & the movies Queen of the Desert, Lawrence of Arabia & The Martian were filmed here. We stopped at a Bedouin camp for Bedouin tea.
Lunch
Lunch was at a roadside cafe ordered by Hytham. Rice, chicken, hummus, pitas & various other small dishes to try. Way to much food for us. It was a long drive to Petra & I did wonder if we would arrive in one piece as Hythams driving was pretty erratic he was talking so much. We had a quick stop at Little Petra on the way past to give us a taste of things to come. We finally got to the Sunset Hotel in Petra at 6pm. A very long day. We had dinner at one of the many restaurants along the main street & sampled the national dish mansaf, a very fatty dish of rice & lamb cooked with yogurt.
Petra has definitely been a highlight for us. Its hard to describe how amazing it is. It was carved into the Sharah Mountains by the Nebateans (Arabs) about 5th century BC & lost to civilization until re-discovered in 1812 by a Swiss explorer. It was an important junction for the silk, spice & other trade routes linking China, India & Southern Arabia with Egypt, Syria, Greece & Rome. An earthquake in 363 AD destroyed many structures. There are many ways to see Petra, donkey, camel, horse, horse & cart or just walking. We spent seven hours exploring & by the end of the day had walked more than 14km. You enter through the Siq, a narrow & winding fissure between the cliffs. Most famous is the Treasury. It was used in the final sequence of the film Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade. The facade leads to the tomb of the Nebatean King Aretas ll. There are many facades to see. Many Bedouin people lived in caves in the area but were re located to a village on the outskirts in the 70s & 80s to allow the area to be opened up to tourists. It is the main attraction in Jordan being one of the new seven wonders of the world. Its attracts over one million visitors a year. On our second day in Petra we did the ‘Back Door’ hike into the Monastery. It was a two hour hike through the mountains with our 18 year old Bedouin guide. It was quite a climb up but well worth it for the amazing views. After Arabic coffee in the sun we walked out & down the 900 steps that take you back through the Siq & out to our hotel. 13.5km walking.
The Treasury
Siq
The Monastery
Very strong Arabic coffee
Back door hike
Hytham picked us up from our hotel & after a nearly four hour drive we arrived in Amman. Another very long day. The Sham apartments are in a great location with cafes & restaurants close by. We ended up going to a really nice Italian restaurant & had a great dinner with lots of yummy vegetables.
Amman is the capital of Jordan with a population of over 4,000,000. It has a high number of refugees. It was named Amman & became the capital in 1970s. All the buildings are painted white by law although don’t seem it due to the dust. They are like Lego bricks stacked on top of each other.
We had two two days exploring the city & a day to relax & catch up on washing etc. There isn’t a lot to see really. It’s a very busy place with traffic everywhere as other than a few buses there is no public transportation so everyone drives. Crossing the street is a challenge. There are no traffic lights & you run between cars. We saw the Citadel, Temple of Hercules & the Roman Amphitheater.
Temple of Hercules
Roman Amphitheater
King Abdullah ll mosque was built in 1989 & holds up to 10,000 worshipers, 7,000 inside & 3,000 outside. Women have to wear a robe that covers head to foot & hair must be well covered. No shoes are allowed. Afterwards they give you complementary tea.
Jim really enjoyed our trip to the Royal Automobile Museum which has classic cars, motorbikes & a private plane from King Hussein’s collection. Getting there involved a taxi ride with the driver not speaking any English. It was an experience.
We travelled to Bristol after saying goodbye to Kate in London. It was so good to spend the week there with her. In Bristol we parked in the driveway of our friends Ann & Dave for 2 nights. We explored a bit of Bristol but it was so wet we ended up seeing the Downtown Abbey movie just to get out of the weather one of the afternoons.
On 1st of November we arrived at Barry & Rosemary’s place after a detour to Wasall to have the electrics fixed on the motorhome. Barry & Rosemary live in Forest Town, near Mansfield which is about 30miles from Nottingham. They have two dogs, Oscar & Alfie ( Cocka Poo ) . Our job was to look after the dogs while Barry & Rosemary went to Australia & New Zealand for 5 weeks.
There are a lot of stately homes & parks in the area, most being dog friendly. We had the use of a vehicle so were able to take the dogs out every day for long walks in a variety of places. Our favorite was Clumber Park which even had a dog friendly cafe.
We took Oscar & Alfie to Rufford Abbey, Newbury, Hardwick Hall ( decorated for Christmas) , Newick Castle, Chesterfield, Southwell Minster, Wellbeck Estate, Newstead Abbey & gardens.
Newstead
Hardwick Hall
Southwell Minster
We had a day trip to Castleton & went down the Blue John mine & up Old Man Tor.
Nottingham is known for being the home of Robin Hood & Sherwood Forest. The Major Oak is said to be 800 years old & would have only been an acorn when Robin Hood was gallivanting around Sherwood Forest.
Major Oak
Forest Town had a parade on Armistice Day marking the day WW1 ended.
It rain nearly every day of the 5 weeks we were in Forest Town but we managed to get out every day to walk Oscar & Alfie. There was a good walk at the end of the street which we did often & took a couple of hours. Rosemary & Barry’s house was lovely to stay in with a beautiful garden. We had Kevin, Isabella & little Matilda from Nottingham come for lunch one of the weekends we were there.
A very frosty morning, foggy all day
Just chilling
Barry & Rosemary arrived home on the 4th December after a wonderful trip. Back in the motorhome once again we headed to Wales for a few days before our next house sit. The weather was terrible, with heavy rain. We stopped at the Devil’s Bridge which is three bridges built on top of each other.
Love the Welsh countryside
St David’s Pembrokeshire is the smallest city in the UK. It is a city as it has a Cathedral. It is named after St David the patron saint of Wales. The Cathedral is 800 years old.
Oggies are the Welsh version of Cornish pasties. I had a lamb, leek & potato one which won the British pie award.
December 8th we arrived in Oakhill to begin our next house sit. This time we were looking after two cats for Rachel & Ian who went to the Caribbean for two weeks. Bramley Cottage is a very old, cute cottage in the small village of Oakhill Somerset. It is a few miles from Bath. Again we were lucky to have the use of a car. We parked the motorhome up at a campsite on the outskirts of the village. The campsite was closed for the winter but the owner was happy for us to leave it there as there was nowhere else to park it.
Andrea came from London for a weekend & we spent the day in Bath checking out the Christmas markets & also Wells, another nice place to visit. Of course we had to have the pub lunch on the Sunday in Wells.
Andrea & Jim
Wells Cathdral
Wells
Felicity & Isaac came for lunch one day & we visited their home in Congresbury on our last weekend. James, Felicity, Amelia & Isaac took us for a drive to Bristol to see the Clifton suspension bridge.
Dave, Ann & Caitlin also came one evening & we went to the local pub for dinner. It was so good to see people from home.
We had a trip to Glastonbury, a very quirky town with some very unusual residents.
Glastonbury Tor
View over Somerset
The motorhome has been put into storage near Bath for the next couple of months. We left Oakhill on 23rd December, bussing to Bath where we caught the train to London & then took the tube to East Putney. We had a lovely Christmas with Brian, Hava & Andrea.
Hawaii & California
28th December-22nd January
On December 27th we spent the night at a Heathrow hotel before boarding our flight to Honolulu the next day. With a stopover in LA & after travelling for 24hours we finally arrived in Hawaii to be greeted by Sandy, Mike, Graeme, Maryann, Sue & Terence. We had a great week exploring the Island & spending time at the beach. We walked up Diamond head & celebrated New Year & Sue’s birthday.
Our cruise for Paula’s birthday began on January 4th – 12th . There were 23 of us altogether everyone had a great time. We celebrated Paula’s birthday with cocktails on the deck then dinner. After another two nights in Honolulu & very sad goodbyes Jim & I flew to Long Beach California.
Pride of America
Dana Point
We stayed a week with Anna at Dana Point. She took us to Palm Springs, a two hour drive away. Makes sense it’s called Palm Springs !!!
January 20th we flew from Los Angeles to Heathrow & after a quick trip into Brian’s flat to sort out clothes etc we had another night at the airport hotel before our next adventure began.
It was great to meet Kate & Louie in London. They were spending a week there after travelling to Turkey, Greece & Italy. They were staying with Louie’s brother Jamie at Brett Park & we stayed in our motorhome at Abbey Wood campsite near Greenwich.
We had a surprisingly delicious dinner at the vegan restaurant Mildreds the first night, even Jim enjoyed it. The following day, Sunday, we all met at a pub in Greenwich to watch the rugby. Andrea also came along & after seeing South Africa beat Wales in the world cup quarterfinals we had a traditional Sunday roast at the Cutty Sark. We also watched the All Blacks loose against England the following weekend in the semi final. An English pub was not the best place to be when your team is getting beaten.
Kate & I went to the Mary Quant exhibition at the V & A museum.
As a leaving gift from Harcourts Jim was given a lunch for two at Gordon Ramsay’s London restaurant. The restaurant is in Chelsea & has three Michelin stars.
We were shown the kitchen.
Some photos of the Chelsea area.
Very expensive real estate £4,555,000One of the shows we went to.The General Napier pub where Jim worked in 1979/80Bovill Road, Forrest Hill. Our old flat.
We caught up with Kirsty at Fortnum and Mason where she works. An amazing shop. We checked out Oxford Street, Portabello Road market, Camden Market & of course had to walk past Buckingham Palace.
Piccadilly Circus
Sadly it was time to say goodbye to Kate & Louie as they left to fly home & we headed north to Mansfield to start our house sitting for 4 1/2 weeks.
We had a few days to fill in before we caught the ferry back to England & head to London to meet up with Kate & Louie so took a detour through Luxembourg. It is another beautiful country especially in autumn with the leaves changing colour. We crossed into it from the German side at the small town of Vianden. For a change it was a sunny, warm day 21deg. It’s in a valley with a stunning castle on the cliffs above.
Enjoying a beer after a long drive from Holland through Belgium & Germany into Luxembourg
We stopped in Echternach & Larochette on the way to Luxembourg City.
Beautiful autumn colours
Larochette Castle
We did a hop on hop off bus tour of Luxembourg city but we were really disappointed with it, mind you the very wet day didn’t help. There is road works everywhere so it was a very slow tour & not many highlights. We enjoyed the small towns & the drive through the countryside a lot more than the city but was definitely worth the detour.
We took the Eurostar from Calais to Folkstone arriving back in the U.K on the 18th October.
Holland is a very flat country with water everywhere. We drove from Denmark through a small corner of Germany & into Holland at the town of Groningen. We did a walking tour of the city trying to keep out of the way of all the bikes. There were hundreds of them in the inner city near the university.
Beautiful gardens
We found these sculptures in Leeuwarden by Spaniard Jaume Plensa. They are boy/girl, eyes closed dreaming of the future. The mist rising from below was a tribute to fog over the Frisian Fields. We had seen “Anna” at the sculpture park in Sweden.
Sculpture of Anna (Sweden)
We crossed the 32km Afsluitdijk Dyke to Den Helder. We stayed at a marina & were lucky to be given bikes for the day. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t good but we did bike along the dyke which goes around three sides of Den Helder. Jim went to the Marine Museum & also had a well needed haircut.
Afsluitdijk Dyke
More lovely towns with canals, Medemblik & Enkhuizen.
Wind farms are everywhere.
Giethoorn is known as the Vience of the North. It is a village of thatched roof cottages built on canals connected by 150 bridges. The lakes surrounding it were formed by peat unearthing.
Gouda of course is well known for cheese. We also sampled a stroopwaffle which is a very sweet waffle filled with syrup. The church Sint Janskerk is well worth the tour. It has 72 stained glass windows & is 123m long making it the longest church in Holland.
Cheese Market Hall
Rotterdam is one of Europe’s major ports & amazing architecture. Home of the cube houses. There are 38 of them built in the 70s. They were designed by Piet Blom & represent a village within a city. He tilted the cube 45degs & rested it on a hexagon shaped pylon. Lots of useless space due to the shape of the walls. All 38 are lived & one is open to wander through.
Swan Bridge
Kinderdijk is known for its 18th century windmills. There are 19 windmills & 3 pumping stations. They control flooding of the low lying land. The area & windmills have UNESCO World Heritage status. Most of the windmills are lived in .
Holland was very easy to travel round. The roads are good & the countryside is pretty although very flat & waterways everywhere. It was difficult getting into some towns in a motorhome as the streets are very narrow & parking isn’t always easy to find. The people are friendly & it would have to be one of my favorite countries.
It was a very long drive north to Nordkapp, the furthest point of Europe you can drive to. There are many tunnels which go underwater to get you from island to island. The longest on this part of the drive was 6870m to the island of Mageroya. There is a large carpark at the end of the road & must be the most expensive to park in at $100. They let motorhomes stay overnight & as it was windy & raining we decided to hoping the next day would be clear so we could see something. There were about forty Van’s parked up. After a rough night as it’s so exposed we woke to a beautiful day. Although it was such a long way we thought it was worth it. The scenery was a amazing.
We stopped in Alta on the way south as Jim decided he wanted to get a fishing rod. Don’t need a license to fish in the sea here. He has caught few but they have been small so put them back. We did cook up a mackerel but it wasn’t very nice. Would be better smoked I think.
The Northern Lights Cathedral at Alta. A beautiful modern church.
The Lofoten Islands are stunning. There are red fisherman’s huts dotted everywhere along with fish drying racks that are used to dry cod caught during the fishing season, February to April. The smell must be terrible. Lots of small towns on each of the islands. Luckily we were there near the end of the season as apparently it is crowded over the summer months.
The last village at the end of the islands is called A°. It is known for cinnamon scrolls.
We took a ferry from Sorvagen to Bodo on the mainland which took three hours. Saved us a lot of time travelling back the way we had come.
We came across the town of Hell. Think it has become a tourist attraction lately.
Trondheim is another must see.
We drove from there down the Atlantic Ocean Road over the seven bridges connecting small islands.
After crossing the bridges & a couple of ferry rides we arrived at the small town of Andalsnes at the end of the fjord & between rocky mountains. We walked up the Rampestreken trail, 520 meters up, 2.6kms return, 2 1/2 hours. It was a very challenging walk with rocky steps, tree roots & very steep. The viewing platform at the top hangs over the edge, but what a view.
Trolls ladder is a road with 11 hairpin bends, lots of waterfalls & amazing views. We overnighted at the top of the pass. By 6pm the most had rolled in & we couldn’t see anything. It was still there in the morning so had to wait for it to clear before we attempted the trip down.
Geiranger Fjord is a major tourist stop with cruise ships arriving daily. There were two moored when we arrived so people everywhere. The drive there is stunning.
We stayed at the Melkevall Bretun campsite at the foot of the Briksal Glacier, which is in the valley in Europes largest glacier area. It was an easy walk up to the glacier & we were lucky, a sunny day. By the time we got back to the campsite the weather had closed in .
After another big day of driving & another ferry crossing we arrived in Bergen. We stayed in Arna a few kilometers out & took the train in. We did a walking tour round the sites & took the funicular to the top of the hill. Lunch at the fish market. Jim had pieala with beer made for the fish market. I had a yummy seafood open sandwich.
Lunch at the fish market
Beer made for the fish market
Roadside buys. Apples, plums & apple chutney.
We came across two Stave Churches. The Roldals Stave church was built in the 13th century. Healing miracles were associated with the crucifix & pilgrims came from far & wide. A Stave Church is built entirely of wood. Heddal Stave Church is the oldest in Norway.
We did a great guided bike tour in Oslo, visiting the royal palace, Cathedral & Vigeland Sculpture Park.
The most popular statue in the park. Supposed to be lucky to touch a particular area.
We loved Norway. It has to be one of the most beautiful countries in the world.
The ferry from Tallinn to Helsinki took two hours & was crowded. The boat has duty free shops & a supermarket on board plus a bar & cafe. People apparently travel to Estonia from Scandinavia to buy cheap alcohol because it’s so expensive there. We enjoyed Helsinki as it was nice to get to a more modern, clean place.
Finland home of Marimekko & the bodum.
Helsinki
Helsinki Cathedral
Uspenski Cathedral, largest Orthodox Church in Europe
Beautiful icons & paintings
Temppelioukio ‘ Rock Church ‘ was built into solid rock.
There are so many islands around Helsinki. We took a ferry to Lonna & Suomenlinna which is a UNESCO World Heritage site & visited by 1 million people a year. It has a fortress built around the 18th century & during WWll it was an artillery, anti aircraft & submarine base.
Salmon, cucumber & dill waffle
Haircut for Jim in Helsinki
After navigating our way out of Helsinki we headed north stopping at Turku, a river town with a castle then overnighted at Rauma a small town with old, colorful wooden houses.
Turku castle
Some very cool art in Turku
Rauma
Next stop the home of Santa Claus, Rovaniemi & the Artic Circle.
Santa’s Post Office
After a recent survey Finland was named no 1 for having the happiest people in the world. New Zealand was no 6.
Rudolph & his mates were everywhere.
Very nice bus shelters every few kilometers in Finland
So many islands, most small but they have little holiday homes on them that the Finnish people spend the summers at. Apparently they all have saunas & have a sauna then jump into the very cold lakes.
