The Final Trek: Home

We've had an amazing honeymoon and thank you to everyone who contributed to our trip of a lifetime. Hopefully this blog shows just a snippet of what an amazing time we had over the Christmas holidays.

We began our journey home at 8.50 (GMT) and began with a hot coach ride through the snowy mountains to Kirkenes airport, where for the first time Lou didn't get her bag searched (hooray!). We made it through the tiny airport and boarded our first 2 hour flight to Oslo. A bit of a kerfuffle with people shoving their way onto the plane but eventually we got on our way.

An hour's stop at Oslo allowed us to grab some lunch (I got a free bug in my sandwich - yum!) and then back on another plane to London Heathrow. A smooth 2 and a bit hours of more flying allowed Toby to read most of the Lonely Planet guide's history of Norway and Lou to finish her book and a bit more of Sherlock Holmes.

We touched down at Terminal 3 and whizzed through to get our bags and get through passport control (took a long time). Mum was busy texting Lou that she had got a good spot and was waiting for us by Costa Coffee when we came out.

We eventually got through border control and went through those doors, looking all around for Costa Coffee. Now if you know LHR terminal 3, you'll have quickly gathered that there isn't a Costa in arrivals.

Mum was at Terminal 5!

Cue giggles and Mum dashing round to T3 to get us and drive us into London to see Fascinating Aida with Dad, Hannah and Matt as our Christmas present from Hannah and Matt. We watched a great show and had a great meal and got back to The Wormery at around midnight, where we rudely disturbed a sleeping Harmer and proceeded to keep him awake with our photos and tales until 2am! Sorry Jon!

Thanks to everyone for your kind comments about our blog. We had fun writing it and will have fun reading it back to ourselves one day. Norway rocks!

Much love and happiness for 2014. Toby & Lou xxx

Mush! Husky sledging in Kirkenes

Our final stop on our Norwegian tour was a snowy one. We arrived at 9.30am on Friday after a few stormy nights on the Hurtigruten and decided not to grab (and pay) for a bus to take us the 1km into Kirkenes. In hindsight, the path was a little treacherous with ice and snow and dragging two heavy suitcases along an icy road was quite the adventure!

Checking into our hotel (Thon - tuna in French!), we dumped our bags and then set out to discover what Kirkenes had on offer.

Not very much! Being so close to the Russian border, lots of things were in Russian as well as Norwegian and there was lots of snow - hooray! We rested our snowy feet in a little café and had some delicious cinnamon buns, smooth coffee and played some cards.

At 5pm we were picked up from our hotel and driven to the outskirts of town for our husky sledging experience. The night was cloudy and a little snow had fallen giving a strange orange light to everything.

We arrived and met our Mushers - Sanna and Marius (both from Sweden!). We got decked out in snow suit garb and balaclavas and then went to meet the doggins! There were around 100 huskies and when one began howling, they all joined in. It was an eerie chorus to set the scene! After some quick instruction, we helped get the dogs all tethered up to the sledges. We had to wait a while as two of the dogs got a bit frisky whilst waiting...

Once they were done, we were ready to roll and we loaded ourselves into our sledge and off we went into the night!

As there hadn't been too much snow, it was a bumpy but exhilarating ride through the forest and over to a frozen fjord where Toby took over. Toby did a great job of mushing, despite a few early wiggles of saying the wrong command. Lou was just enjoying the ride and after a few hours of being out in the snow, we headed back to the warmth of the wooden huts. As we neared the end, there was a bit of slushy puddle at the edge of the fjord which the dogs took us straight through and filled the bottom of the sledge with ice-cold water, which then seeped into Lou's pants!

We hurtled back into the husky yard and Lou dashed off to try and dry her bum whilst Toby and Sanna fed the huskies and put them back into their kennels. Toby's favourite dog was Irja (he was smitten!) and Lou liked Sonja. Before we headed inside, we took a tour round the place and met their three reindeer (Gabba, Rudolph and Bullio). Gabba means 'the white one' in Sami, so apparently all white reindeer get called the same! 

Then we got a peek inside their Snow Hotel. It was a cool -6 degrees inside and was very still - quite an eerie place. Each room had some amazing ice carvings on the walls but we were glad that we had decided just to stay in a warm hotel!

Our dinner of fish broth and reindeer toasties was cooked on an open fire in the round wooden building that Lou fell in love with. Amazing wooden tables, delicious food, warm fire - all the ingredients to make a happy us. Sadly though, we couldn't stay there and at 10pm we were whisked back to our hotel for our last Norwegian sleep.

Nordkapp

Our overnight trip on the MS Vesterålen had started well, with a lovely display of the Aurora draped over the sky. Sweet dreams! The ship headed off further North, with fewer and fewer lights to be seen. Pretty much pitch black for most of the sailing time, as we headed around the North Cape (Nordkapp).

Click for map of area: http://goo.gl/maps/EzeDr

There were some opportunities to briefly hop off the ship during the night, but most at times when nothing was happening on shore, or far too early. 

Late-night stop

This morning, we docked at the port at Honningsvåg. Many of the passengers decided to make an excursion to the true end of the Nordkapp and look down the big cliff there, but a round trip on a bus and a hefty pricetag (høfty pricetåg) put us off. We took the opportunity to slip-slide around the town and check out the January sales in the local fishing tackle shop and Rimi supermarket. 

Our ship has been great, and a nice compromise between the huge MS Finnmarken and the little-ship-that-could MS Lofoten. It has handled the journey with ease, and made the parts of the journey that ventured out into the sea manageable (Force 8-9 gale winds). The cabin has been quiet and our porthole (open this time) looked out onto the bow wave, showing the vessel smashing through the frothing sea. We are now used to the to-ing and fro-ing, which is quite therapeutic if you don't fight it.

MS Vesterålen at Honningsvåg

Plenty of time to relax and watch the fjord scenery in the half-light today, catch up on some reading, cards and so on. 

The Book Wørm

Now about 73% through the entire 'Adventures of Sherlock Holmes'

Several more stops this evening and overnight to Kirkenes, including the boat reaching it's most Northern point in the trip tonight around 9:30pm. At some point, we are informed that a fisherman will come on board and show everyone how to do something or other. Sounds interesting.....

Ta Ra Tromsø! Off to Kirkenes

Tromsø has been an awesome experience. 

As we left today, it was snowing and we passed the time playing cards (Toby still beat Lou many times). We boarded the MS Vesterålen to Kirkenes and set sail at 18.30. 

After a brief nap, Toby was straight out on deck and before long, a little tap on the window called Lou outside. Was it...?

Yes! It was a faint aurora!

With cameras at the ready, the dancing streams of solar energy became brighter and brighter as we got further away from the surrounding lights of settlements along the fjords. 

For the next couple of hours, we snapped away despite the bitter cold wind whipping at our excited faces. We had been slightly disappointed at the ones we'd seen over Tromsø, but with the recent display, we could see what the fuss is all about.

A truly magical experience. Thank you Norway!

Signing off for the evening. We're on the ship now until Friday morning and it's getting choppy!

Here's a selection of our northern lights pictures so far:

Mountain Horns

Floyd and Maud get in on the action.

Swirly Sky

Trails

Wormy Lights

Happy New Year from Tromsø

Godt Nyttår!

Happy new year everyone! Hope your 2014 went off with a blast - ours certainly did.

Much like the rest of the trip, everything has been pretty shut up across Norway, but just a few things were open.

We began our New Year's Eve by visiting the Polaria - an exhibition centre about the Polar regions and how Norway is involved in research in both North and South. Some very interesting videos about the Arctic region (taken from a helicopter!) and also a video about the Northern Lights. Someone was trying to take photos of the actual film... odd!

We were then treated to a display by two bearded seals and two harbour (common) seals. They were very cute and well trained doing jumps, playing with toys and spinning about!

Outside the air was crisp and the skies clear, so we spent a while taking photos of the harbour and the surrounding mountains. It was freeeeeezing!

We then skidded round the local streets - a foot's worth of ice along most pavements and roads - until we reached the world's most northerly Burger King! Not the most local of delicacies!

Getting set up with some coffee and beer in a favourite local haunt of ours (Kino), we played a few rounds of cards and then played THE MOST EPIC GAME OF SCRABBLE, using a range of Norwegian letters! Lou whipped Toby with a score of 276. He had however, beaten her many times at cards.

After whiling away the afternoon, we ventured back along the icy streets of Tromsø to our hotel where we 'dressed' for dinner. We were treated to a beautiful four-course dinner with smoked duck, Arctic Char (like salmon), reindeer steaks and then chocolate soufflé for dessert - yum yum yum. 

We then skidded across the kilometre long bridge to the Arctic Cathedral for a concert. The Arctic Cathedral has the most amazing acoustic and the singer filled the hall alongside the cello, organ and piano. Our concert finished around 10.15pm and we quickly trudged through the snow (Lou very excited now), to the cable car which we hoped would take us up the mountain for some spectacular views of Tromsø.

Most of the city also wanted to get up the mountain and there was a long queue. Suddenly though, Toby looked up and mentioned a funny cloud in the sky, which actually turned out to be THE NORTHERN LIGHTS! Cue excited photographs of a black sky... 

Once we reached the top of the mountain, we had spectacular views across the city and beyond, which was truly breath-taking. The deep, deep snow kept Lou happy in the biting cold, whilst firecrackers exploded all around. As it approached midnight, the city below was like a war zone - so many fireworks exploding as far as the eye could see!

On the stroke of midnight, they began setting off the proper fireworks from the side of the mountain. A lady next to us had obviously never seen fireworks and at every pop she said "Oy!" which as you can imagine gets quite tiresome after a 10 minute display.

We got back to our hotel at 1.20am and crawled into bed; our heads swimming with aurora, snow, music and fireworks!

We're back on the Hurtigruten MS Vesterålen this evening for the final leg of our Norwegian adventure. We will arrive in Kirkenes on Friday morning for ice hotels, huskies, snow and hopefully more aurora! 

Tromsø

Goodbye to Svolvær and hello to the MS Lofoten. A kind of Agatha Christie feel in this older boat of the fleet, and a nice contrast to the floating hotel of the MS Finnmarken. 

I'm on A BOAT!

Our cabin is modest to say the least. A couple of bunks and a locked porthole are ours for the next day, and we dump our baggage in the gloom. Life onboard is sedate, with everyone playing cards or reading. A few folks are keen to chat, and discuss the darkness that is in every direction. Actually, after a while, the darkness gives in to a ghostly silhouette of the fiords around us. Pretty amazing, and Toby is excited by the whole thing.  In the morning, we awake to the sight of snow on the surrounding hills. Lou is now satisfied by the snowflake quotient of the holiday, and things are all good. Spotted some whales off the side of the boat, a first for us both!

Nice morning visions.

We disembark at Tromsø after a beautiful entrance to the port and things are slippy underfoot on our way to the Clarion Hotel Bryggen which is nice enough. Room nice, and they kindly offered us both free dinner for NYE at their restaurant in return for our lengthy check in. Not saying no...

Many places closed, so dinner at the local dive after a quick pint a the local (playing lo-fi vinyl from the bar - nice). Time to hit the hay in readiness for an early start for sightseeing in the morning.

Last Tango in Svolvær: Off on the Hurtigruten

We've enjoyed our last day in Svolvær doing very, very little. The weather hasn't helped today. A continuous grey sky constantly pouring with rain made us stay in our PJs as long as possible and loaf about our cabin for the last time, as tonight we begin the next leg of our journey - to Tromsø!

Toby has played on the computer between cooking interesting lunches and trying on various new trousers (the wintry kind!) and Lou has been involved in many murderous and mysterious cases with Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson (on her Kindle!). A perfectly lazy Sunday.

Our ship, the MS Lofoten, arrives at Svolvær at 9pm and departs at 10pm, sharp. We shall be on the ship, in an Unspecified Outside Cabin (I don't think they mean outside, outside?!) enroute to Tromsø, where it is currently dumping lots of fresh snow for Lou to stomp about in tomorrow afternoon when we arrive.

It's snowing in Tromso!
Two Hurtigruten ships in the background.

The wi-fi on the Hurtigruten ships is a bit dodgy, so we're signing out until tomorrow evening when we arrive in Tromsø with hopefully some photos of outstanding scenery to share.

PS. Haven't seen any bears, wolves or reindeer yet but we have seen at least 5 sea eagles! :-)

Lofoten: In search of snowy mountains...

It's very difficult to wake up early here without an alarm clock. It doesn't start to show any signs of light until around 9.30/10am. But we're on holiday, so a bit of sleeping in is fine. 

Anyway, Saturday we got up as early as we could and Toby made us a hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs and salmon on warmed bread (we don't have a toaster!), made a packed lunch and set off on a drive into the mountains - trying to make the most of the few daylight hours!

This time, we were going to head north on the E10 (the big road) and have a look at some snowy mountains and dramatic coastlines.

Toby was getting much more used to driving The Yeti now and only needed the occasional reminder of which side to drive on. The icy roads, dim light and lack of middle white lines, tested his driving skills to the max!

We turned off the E10 at Fiskebøl and nearly ended up on a ferry to Melbu! Cue many jokes about Malibu beach, Melba Peach etc etc. Oh how we laughed.

Wiggling through the mountainous roads, we were delighted to see many inland fjords or lochs (I'd call 'em), which were mirror-still. They were amazing but sadly there was nowhere to stop and we just had to enjoy them for ourselves. We continued winding through the mountain roads and ended up on the north coast of the island, which looked out into the Norwegian Sea and if you had really, really good eyesight, you would see Greenland!

Toby climbed up some rocks to take pictures of the mountains falling straight into the sea, whilst Lou picked at the rocks and shells - our usual arrangement! 

Having wound our way in the dusk back to the rorbuer, there was time to relax before heading out to dinner at the Börsen Spiseri restaurant in Svolvær. A lovely old wood beamed place and a nice selection of local Norwegian dishes. Good service and a friendly atmosphere. 

Our final adventure of the day was to continue along to the end of the harbour wall (via the fish yard...) and along to the illuminated fish drying racks at the end that we had spied from across the water. Impressive structures. 

A quick trudge back in the rain and bed at midnight. Zzzz......

Loafin' in Lofoten

After our exciting yet long journey north, we took today relatively easy by comparison. We awoke late (9am) to find that it was still pitch black outside, pouring with rain and blowing a hoolie. Whilst Lou worked out the coffee-making (a hugely important task), Toby ventured out into the storm to secure breakfast. 

Toby came back soaked but bearing great baked prizes - enormous ham and cheese poppy-seeded bagel-esque things and a cinnamon/custard swirl thing. Both were huge. Toby polished both of his off and Lou saved her roll for later.

Energy levels were up and spirits were high as the rain eventually cleared and we headed out in search of our car hire place. On our quest, we bumped into an Italian couple who had been on the Hurtigruten with us the night before. They were also hiring a car to get about, but their hire place was shut and no-one was answering. We wished them luck and Toby's map reading skills were put to the test in a particularly non-descript part of town. After a quick march through the centre of Svolvær, we found our hire place and, like the Italians, were on our own there. We waited a bit, had a shout around, even phoned the UK hotline (my poor phone bill!) and just as we were describing where Svolvær was to the call centre person, our rep turned up.

We were handed a diesel Astra estate and promptly named it "The Yeti". Toby was the driver and we headed back to change shoes - walking boots aren't the best! After a quick change, we were off down the coast to make the most out of the very few daylight hours we had left. We decided to head south along the islands and see where the road took us. 

We were surrounded by beautiful scenery and stopped a few times to take some snaps. Dashing off the main road, we first went down to a place called Kalle and to a beach. Lou was happy digging through the flotsam and jetsam for 'treasure', whilst Toby played with his camera ending up with some excellent pictures.

Hopping back into the Yeti and fighting Toby's ideas of hiking up Glomtinden, we zoomed towards Henningsvær. The scenery was even more dramatic as it faced out onto the ocean and the wind whipped the waves into a frothy frenzy! (nice alliteration - ed.)

The daylight was starting to fade quickly by now and we whisked ourselves back to Svolvær to go to the supermarket and get in supplies.

After a lovely dinner of Lofoten fish and a bit of a sleep, we went down to see the Magic Ice exhibition. On the way, the clouds cleared and we were able to see a wonderfully clear night and a starry sky - one of the main things we came up here for!

Magic Ice was dead and we were the only ones in there, which meant we were able to enjoy the sculptures and our Arctic Fire drinks in solitude. It was minus 6 inside - positively tropical! The lights, sculptures and music made for quite an eerie atmosphere, but we had fun!

As we left, another Hurtigruten ship arrived; it spoilt one of Toby's pictures of some herring drying racks. We had timed our visit to the Magic Ice perfectly as hoards of ferry passengers clamoured to get in!

The temperature is dropping and there might be snow on the way! We'll see...

Bodø to Svolvær: Round the houses

Our ship, The Finnmarken set sail as planned at  3pm. Sadly, by this time the sun had completely set and we could only see lights and the faint outline of the snow-dusted mountains that surrounded the harbour. Toby managed to take some photos in the dusk. The light is very blue up here; it's wonderful.

Smoothly, we chugged through the harbour and along the rugged coastline, but once we got out into the open sea, the wind picked up and the swell of the waves rocked our boat to and fro and to and fro and to and fro. Not being the most seaworthy sailor, Lou had to concentrate quite a lot on not being queasy. Toby on the other hand, was out on deck loving the waves! 

At about 7pm, we docked at Stamsund and over the tannoy, disembarking passengers for Svolvær also needed to disembark at Stamsund as the wind was too high for the ship to dock at Svolvær. We would have to continue our journey by coach! 10 of us packed ourselves onto a coach bound for Svolvær, which took us on a wiggly route round the coast of the Lofoten islands. The wind and rain battered the coach and it was Toby's turn to feel queasy as we wound our way through the dark. The coach driver kindly dropped us off right at Anker Brygge instead of making us walk in the driving rain to our little cabin. Despite the whole complex being closed, we were met by a really friendly guy, who didn't actually work there anymore (he used to, but was just home for Christmas). We picked our cabin and walked into the most awesome little house right by the water's edge with a view to die for overlooking the mountains.

We quickly ventured out into the rain and found a 7/11 which sold sweets and not much else. Luckily we found a small, but very expensive, tin of spaghetti and sausages and took that back for some sustenance. The cabin was already stocked with (proper) coffee so Lou was happy. 
Whilst we were out, we heard the boom of a ship's horn and after turning the corner, what did we see?
Yes, that's right, THE HURTIGRUTEN MS FINNMARKEN - our ship!

Obviously, they'd decided to chance it after all and had turned up half an hour after we had. Toby was furious! 

We took our (very expensive) tin of spaghetti back to the cabin and cooked up the traditional delicacy on our little hob and then tucked ourselves in for the night. Yet although we thought we were alone on our little harbour, we were wrong and a loud group of 'yoofs' had a bangin' party right next to our heads. Toby was out for the count and snored along to the chants of "We love you Liverpool"... 

Oslo to Bodø

Very early start for the tromping four-some (Toby, Lou, Maude and Floyd). We arrived at Oslo train station to get the FlytoGet train for the airport at 7am - eugh, too early! Our taxi ride was 10 minutes, but cost about £35. Ouch.

Anyway, we made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare and Toby managed to drop his driving license, which was quickly found by a security guard. Phew! Lou, despite her best efforts, managed to have her bag searched AGAIN. This time, leaving her Kindle still in the bag. Not sure how dangerous a Kindle might be, but by now, Lou is getting quite used to be searched - obviously looks dodgy, especially at 7.45am.

Had a great flight from Oslo to Bodø but sadly had a bit of an obscured view (wing seats - boo). Fantastic views of the sky and clouds with crazy colours and we're not quite sure why, but it sure felt like we were nearing the arctic circle and the impending darkness. As we taxied into the airport, we were surrounded by snow-capped mountains that jutted out the surrounding flats like jagged teeth. Toby was very excited, although we're NOT going mountaineering on this holiday.

Good bye sunshine!

Arriving in Bodø was an interesting one. We made it out the airport in double quick time, and decided against getting a coffee and something to eat at the OPEN 7/11 there. Instead, we waited outside in the cold and gloom for the airport bus to take us into central Bodø. After waiting about 40 minutes, no bus came. The increasing group of travellers waiting with us at the bus stop, discovered that there wasn't going to be a bus for over an hour. Toby by this point said that we should have walked...

We decided to all club in for some taxis and just as the couple with the small baby were packing themselves into a taxi, the bloody bus turned up!

We ran with all our luggage to the bus stop where the bus driver told us that he'd finished for the day and wasn't driving into the centre. This is all after the family with the small child quickly dragged their belongings out of the taxi and ran towards the bus. The bus driver then pulled away and we furiously tried to re-hail the cab for the family. No luck.

After not too long, two more cabs turned up and we jumped in with a couple from Kyrgyzstan who live in Moscow and are just visiting Bodø for a few days. Eventually, we ended up in the centre of Bodø, where nothing was open. 

NOTHING.

Except the shopping centre. None of the shops, just the arcade; a very strange deal. Toby went on a scout whilst Lou looked after the bags. Toby came back bearing bad news. 

Bodø had been part of a major zombie apocalypse and everyone and everything had disappeared.

It started to rain and we absentmindedly began to walk in a direction we hadn't totally explored, feeling hungry, grumpy and a bit dejected. After not too long, we saw a light and people flocking to it, like moths round a flame. What was this we thought? A cafe? A toilet? A museum? We ventured in, unsure of what fresh hell we were about to bring upon ourselves... surprisingly it was the train station!

It was warm, it had seats and we settled into waiting there for a few hours, when we found out that it was closing in 20 minutes. Were we ever going to catch a break?

Loaded with chocolate brownies, Toby went on another scout about and found the Hurtigruten port just as our ship - the MS Finnmarken - was coming into port. 

We clambered aboard and checked in and loaded ourselves up on coffee and food before our 6 hour sail across to Svolvær, relieved to find somewhere warm, inviting and with free wi-fi.

We set sail at 3pm and the impending storm with gale-force winds is our Christmas present from the UK - thanks folks! Toby is happy with his camera to be taking photos of everything, even though it is nigh on pitch-black outside. (It has been twilight since we arrived at 10.30am!)

Off to Svolvær now on the Lofoten islands where we'll arrive at 9pm and stay at another Anker Brygge. Wish us calm seas and clear skies!

Oslo - Bodø - Svolvær: The long trek

Might not be able to post for a while...

We're about to fly from Oslo to Bodø and then catch the Hurtigruten (a ship) over to Svolvær.

The weather isn't looking too good:

Wish us luck. 

We get to Svolvaer about 9pm tonight after getting up at 6.15am! Bleurgh!

Enjoy boxing day - lots of bubble and squeak and homemade chips. Yum!

T&L xx

Awesome Oslo: 23rd - 26th December

Christmas Eve (or Julaften) in Oslo was a bit of a soggy affair. Not much of Oslo was open and there was only so far we could go without being blown to pieces or drowned! So we ended up taking full advantage of our amazing hotel room, huge TV and free movies - we watched 4 in one day!

We did venture out sporadically when the showers allowed us and we found a supermarket to buy in supplies. Snuggling down with the spoils of our shopping trip, we watched Rise of the Guardians, Despicable Me 2, Kung Fu Panda 2 and Elf. 

Christmas Day (God Jul!)

Well quite a different Christmas for us this year. No pressies, no christmas tree, no christmas pudding! We were hoping for a white christmas but sadly, not this year.

We began the morning by Skyping, texting and calling our folks back home to wish them a Merry Chrimbo. 

Donning our hats, scarves and gloves, we set out in search of anything that was open! We walked along the harbour front all the way to Akerhus and then turned off into what seemed to be a building site - Toby takes Lou to all the best places! We were heading for Engekeberger (sp) park where Lou had envisaged a romantic horse and carriage ride through the park.

In truth, it was bloody miles away from Oslo and the park was off the map. We ended up scrapping that notion of a romantic Christmas and went for a wander towards Uranienberg (I kid you not!). We found the ruins of a 12th Century Cathedral and a pigeon lady who kept following us. We think we wandered through the 'less salubrious' part of Oslo and eventually found a 7Eleven to buy 2 hot dogs (pølse). An interesting Christmas dinner!

We did however, find the Oslo Opera house, which is meant to look like an iceberg. We walked all the way to the top and had fantastic views of seagulls and the city. We meandered through the town up to what we think is a palace or the parliament. Judging by the armed guards, it was an important place. We mucked about taking silly photos with Maude and Floyd - luckily we didn't get shot.

Eventually after about 5 hours, we returned back to The Thief and rested by watched The King's Speech before we went to the restaurant Fru-K for dinner. We had quite rare, but very nice burgers and some delicious wine and after packing our belongings for the following day's early start, we settled into to watching the last half of Forrest Gump.

Thanks Oslo - we'll come back again when you're open!