A MEAN TIME IN GREENWICH

After having slept in Saturday morning, there did not seem much of the day left for venturing too far. But we have been constantly thinking that we should be able to drive into London itself, and find a parking spot. It is a bit of a daunting task, because the traffic is pretty horrendous and you have to keep a very keen eye open for all sorts of signs and directions.

Anyway we took off down the A13 with Limehouse Station in our sights, as this is the last stop that our usual train makes before terminating at Fenchurch Street. It all turned out a bit of an anti climax with traffic flowing along quite nicely, the Station duly being spotted,and, after only a couple of circumnavigations we actually parked in a "Permits only Mon to Frid" spot which was exactly opposite the steps leading into the station. How good was that!!!

So we caught the Docklands Light Rail train and headed for Greenwich just a few stations away. The "Cutty Sark" is being refurbished so we were unable to visit , but we wandered on into the Greenwich Maritime Area, where a nice lady guided us to the central point anad told us some of the history of the area. Christopher Wren was the architect of the magnificent buildings which face the Thames, and behind which is the actual Greenwich Observatory. The buildings are all occupied, although the Old Royal Naval College is no longer used by the Navy but houses University activities.In the painted Hall Carol was accosted by who is a teacher at Harristown and was in UK visiting her son!!!

We had a light lunch in the Old Naval Hospital building and then went into the National Maritime Museum which is a building that was once part of the Royal Palace of Placentia once the monarch's primary residence in the 15th Century until the end of the 17th century.

The museum is free and contains more than one can possibly take in the couple of hours we had to spare. We were not keen to remain in London and drive back to home in the dark - b ut we did see quite a lot of the museum and certainly intend to return to the area for a further exploration. The other fascinating place we must go to is a pedestrian tunnel under the Thames which was constructed at the end of the 19th Century.

18 MONTHS - THE HIGHS AND LOWS

It's cold and wet -an afternoon at home and a reflective mood have led me to have a look at the past 18 months of living here in England. So - the Highs:-

Having my brother Peter there ready and waiting at Heathrow and quickly taken to the hospitality of his home.

Catching up with Clive Bowring and visiting the IOW.

Staying a night with John and Brenda Shapiro in their lovely old cottage.

Arriving in the lovely little town of Ramsey and finding the flat on the school grounds more than adequate for our needs.

Joining Ramsey Golf Club and meeting some super blokes in the Seniors division.

Finding out that we had dozens of National Trust places to visit within easy driving distance.

Going over to France with the car and surviving the driving, at the same time visiting some fabulous places and staying at some super Gites.

Christmas in Vienna and the Christmas Day Mass with the Vienna Boys Choir. A piece of Sacha Tort.

The Lippizaner Horses and the wonderful sound of Ave Maria sung in the courtyard.

The Christmas Fair at the Summer Palace Schonnbrun.

The Isle of Wight in a waterside hotel.Joining the English Heritage at Osborne House.

Visiting Dick and Eileen Lancaster at Blandford Forum - a 55 year old reunion.

Developing an interest in the Fens and it's history.

A visit from David and Nancy

Iceland - the waterfalls and geysers. The wonderful dog sledging and the warmth of hospitality shown at Senna.

Pub roast lunches.

Prague - getting rid of the "traditional Czech lunch!

A visit from Graeme and Dianna

Norway -seeing Sarah and Baard.

The Flam Railway and the great train trip across to Oslo.

Finding out that the Oslo Hotel also provided a light dinner in the price.

Getting lost up in the hills and the lift in a car when we were lost and tired.

Making friends with Ruth and Tim and visiting their lovely home.

Making friends with Pam and Maurice at Ramsey.

Cornwall and the tiny cottage. The beautiful villages by the sea. Tintagel Castle.

Yorkshire - another lovely cottage and Mrs Coates the lovely owner. The moors and stone wall fences. Great pork pies
found at a little village. Unbelievable scenery.Bolton Abbey.

Yorkshire again via Wales Chester and The Isle of Mull.Trip in a canal barge draawn by a horse.The fabulous aquaduct. The Isle of Mull a treasure in itself - can't forget the hand dived scallops bought from the divers themselves.Tobermorey a little gem.
Stirling Castle and the odd couple running the B and B at Pickering. The steam train to Whitby and the original Sir Nigel Grenfel -what memories.

Carol's birthday in Paris with Sarah joining us.Travelling on the Eurostar under the Channel. The coach sightseeing trip with a difference. Notre Dame.

France again this time to see Jeanette Alain and Morgan - the trip to the Grand Canyon,four wheel driving with Jeanette - wonderful days.

Norway for Christmas - Baards parents and grandparents joining in on Christmas Eve at a memorable party. The Cabin out of Gol -Cognac with Rolph - dogs pulling skiiers - the seeing eye poodle.

THE LOWS

Arriving in UK suffering from the "trots" courtesy of Malaysian water.

Buying the Vauxhall and finding the clutch slipping the second day on.

Cashing our travellers cheques and finding that the Bank treated them as cheques and had to wait for clearance.

No shower in the Ramsey Flat.

The school was a disaster- Carol very unhappy with a shithouse administration.

Blowing up the engine in the Vectra because I forgot to check the oil.

Finding out we had to pay the rates of 800 quid on the flat.

Long delays at airports going through security.

Hairy landing at Toulon courtesy of Ryanair.

Finding out that the transfer of the car registration had not taken place!

The problems with British Gas and their bill for 7,900 quid - never resolved.

The delayed flight from Oslo home to Heathrow - then the taxi taking us to the wrong St Giles - the lonely wait on an isolated railway station to get the last train.

Basildon Golf Club and the muddy course Yuck
















V

ST PAULS

Another wet weekend so we decided on a trip to London. The local rail service is called c2c -why? It runs from Southend on Sea to City- see!! Anyway they have just increased the fare from 9 to 10 quid for a day return which includes all travel by bus or underground in London so it's not too bad.

St Pauls Cathedral was our main target today and, despite my reluctance to pay to go to church, I have to admit that this was one of those times when my parsimony was unfounded. As it happened we had a "two for one" offer in conjunction with our c2c ticket, so I actually got in for free! On the basis of this largesse we decided that we would pay for a guided tour and made a very wise choice.

St Pauls is so much more than just a Cathedral. It is an architectural masterpiece,a repository of English history and tradition and an overwhelming experience irrespective of religious feeling.

We sat in the Chapel of St Michael and St George where holders of the KCMG have name plates on the pews and in which they are entitled to have their family weddings/baptisms and funeral services. There is also an OBE Chapel which gives similar privileges to holders of that award.That's the Order of the British Empire (not the Over Bloody Eighty club!!)

The tour took two hours and I think we could easily have spent another two hours looking at the various plaques/monuments and tombstones. Our guide,Michael, showed us a plaque dedicated to those men and women, who, in WW11 went up onto the roof of the cathedral during the blitzes and, in the cold and darkness of the blackout then prevailing, guarded the building from the incendiary bombs which fell quite constantly. The Cathedral did suffer some damage during the blitz from high explosive bombs, but to no great extent. It was said that the Germans deliberately avoided damaging St Pauls because it was such a significant landmark to tell them just where they were over London!!

We climbed several million stairs up to the Whispering Gallery which is at the base of the rotunda and offers superb views of the transept below. Carol ventured further upwards leaving the poor old man to recover, and the picture above is one that she took from the roof of St Pauls. It was a pity that it was such a shit of a day.

Lunch in the crypt was crap! But with some sort of revived stamina we staggered off to visit the Handel House Museum in Brook Street. I had not realised that Handel had not only lived in England for some 36 years, but became a citizen of the country and wrote his Messiah here.

One of the volunteer ladies took us in hand and we were given a fascinating talk about those times and the associations which Handel made during his years in the house. Well worth the money (two for one again!!)

On Sunday we drove to Lakeside and saw a beautiful movie "Miss Potter". Absolutely perfect entertainment although we were two of only three people in the cinema!A quick visit to the Farmers Market there (it is held on the 1st Sunday of each month) where we bought two large punnets of strawberrys for a quid. It was nearly closing time and the vendor gave us the last two for the price of one. A great two for omne weekend.

CHRISTMAS IN NORWAY PART TWO

Boxing Day was very foggy and so the train trip up to Oslo from Fredrikstad offered very little scenery. We had some time to wait for the train up to Gol, so we walked up through the main street of Oslo and saw the skating rink in the park and generally orientated ourselves from our previous visit there in May.

The train from Oslo was terrific - very quiet and superbly comfortable. The scenery is so wonderful that any thoughts of reading a book during the 3 1/2 hour trip were quickly abandoned. On arrival at Gol, Baard was there and told us that the Station waiting room had coffee and biscuits which in fact turned out to be Gluhwein and chocolates - very acceptable. A twenty minute drive brought us to the Cabin amidst the snow and Freydis and Rolf were there to welcome us once again.

It is hard to describe the beauty of the landscape up here in the mountains and the serenity of snow covered land. The Cabin was wonderful - spacious,warm and demanding relaxation.

Next morning after bacon and eggs (!) we all went for a hike in the surrounding country. Ice and snow abounded and one had to be careful where the feet were being placed. OOps! Yours truly fell flat on his back when his feet simply refused to grip. Sarah and Carol immediately thought "Oh My God - HIS BACK!! How do we get an ambulance up here. No problems - picked meself up and plodded on!

We reached the turning point of our walk at a superb Cabin situated on a crest with views of the surrounding countryside which was quite breathtaking.Picture at top.

Thursday dawned at Minus 10 degrees! After another sumptious breakfast Rolph said we would go for a drive around the countryside. We drove along snow and ice covered roads with banks of snow on either side, through the most beautiful country finally coming to a ski resort where it was obvious that Rolph and Baard regretted not bring their skis! We saw people skiing with their dogs pulling them along, and one delightful black poodle who was a "seeing eye dog" - so much for Ben's Pete!!

On the way back to the cabin we stopped at a traditional Norwegian "cafe" where we were introduced to Roemmegrot a sort of porridge on which one sprinkles sugar and nutmeg - delicious but very rich. A last stop at a Chalet not far from the Cabin revealed some incredible Chainsaw carvings - and so to home.

Up early for Baard to drive us down to Gol to catch the train to Oslo, and a visit to an ancient Norwegian Church on the way.A fascinating building ,which was not open unfortunately, but very much reminded Carol and me of a similar preserved building in Olso - ornate/wooden/and windowless!

Sarah came on the train with us and we had another wonderful trip through fascinating country. Took a taxi from the station to our Hotel which was another of Carol.'s booking successes.Plenty of room for the three of us and nicely situated for walking through the Oslo central city. We had dinner quite early (after all it was dark at 4 pm) great hamburgers and an overpriced carafe of house wine - but just what was needed to round off the day.

Sarah went off on the airport bus in the morning to return to Sandnes, while Carol and I went down to the City and got a lense put back into my glasses.It was cold and raining and there seemed little point in hanging about in the City so we went back to the hotel, had a coffee,checked out and caught the airport bus to Oslo airport.Our flight (which was due to leave at 8.30pm) was the last scheduled flight at the airport, so we found the very substantial building almost empty. The flight was then delayed until 9.50 (due to big storms at Heathrow having delayed the inward flight)- so we had a considerable wait. But we bought a bottle of wine in the duty free, sat down in a closed restaurant,Len pinched a couple of wine glasses from the bar area, and we relaxed!No one said a word.

Arriving at Heathrow, we waited half an hour for the bags to appear on the roundabout and then caught a taxi for St Giles Hotel. Horror Horror. After a while I realised that the taxi meter was getting beyond what was expected. I asked the driver if he was taking us to the St Giles Hotel at Feltham - NO WAY - he was off to the St Giles Hotel in Piccadily in London!! The meter showed L32 at this stage and the driver told us that we were facing a further L30 to go back to Feltham. I was not impressed, but Carol restrained me from telling him to f... off for his fare, and he dropped us at Kew Gardens Railway Station which fortunately happened to be on the line to Feltham. We waited (with some trepidation) on a cold empty platform for what was the last train of the night which thankfully appeared on time (12.20) and we duly arrived at Feltham without having paid any fares. Bed was never so inviting!!

A wonderful week made perfect by the hospitality of Freydis and Rolph - and just so great to meet Baard's family and enjoy their company.

CHRISTMAS IN NORWAY

We had booked a night at the St Giles Hotel in Feltham which is near Heathrow for December 30th for two reasons. Firstly they provided car parking at a very reasonable rate, and also our return flight from Oslo on that date was not due into Heathrow until 10pm. As we had planned to call in to see Peter and Mary for lunch on New Years Eve it made sense to stay over. The taxi from St Giles to Heathrow Terminal 3 was L15 which was pretty reasonable. We had bags of time up our sleeves mainly because we were a bit worried about the confusion that was current in Heathrow with a few days of thick fog which severely restricted flights.

We always seem to find plenty to do at airports, and on this occasion we bought a new digital camera - a Sony Sureshot - Super little pocket sized camera with 7.1 pixels and lots of gadgets!!

Baard and Sarah met us at Oslo and we drove 120kms down to Fredrikstad where we had booked a hotel for three nights. Checking in we found that the allocated room did not have any lights! New room - into bed and slept like logs.

Baard picked us up at 11am and showed us the sites of the Old City - a 17th century walled city of remarkable beauty. Being Christmas Eve there were no shops open (hooray) and few people about to interrupt our sightseeing. Back to the hotel with Baard telling us that he would pick us up again at 4pm to go to Rade where his parents live and where we were to have Christmas dinner.

What a night!! Baards parents Freydis and Rolf were lovely people and superb hosts, and the presence of Baards brother Are together with Grandparents Mor Mor, Farfar and Farmor made it a wonderful occasion.I love the names given to Grandparents- Mor Mor is Mother's Mother, Farfar is Father's father etc. After a great meal we assembled to "Open the Presents" - a function which took some time as everyone had given something to everyone else. Rolf was my sort of bloke, keeping the drinks flowing!!

The next day we were picked up at 11 to drive over to Rade for lunch - en route visiting the marina where Rolf keeps his lovely double-ender cabin cruiser -it was on the hardstand for winter and we will have to try and get back in the Summer months to go out on it! Smorgasbord lunch with crab and prawns etc - food food and more food!See the photo above. Back to the hotel - another good nights sleep and looking forward to the train trip to Oslo and then up to Gol where the Hansen's Cabin is.