From Ireland to Norway

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Well, the luck of the Irish was with us!  We found an extra day in Dublin and used it to go to the Guiness Storehouse which is the most amazing educational tourist display I have seen.  We also had the luck with us when we had to return our rental car with no petrol (they requested no petrol) and managed to get to the airport with a sniff to spare and did not break down during peak hour on the M motorway.  Whew!

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The next adventure, Dublin to Heathrow, Heathrow to Oslo.  First part went well.  Second part not so good.  Bags lost between Terminal 1 and Terminal 5 (our inexperience or perhaps 'old timers').  We went to T5, bags did not.  Tried to retrace steps but ended up in international part of terminal not domestic.....  To cut a long story short, we now know a lot about Heathrow and that it is possible to do heaps of kms in an airport and be no closer to your bags, concluding in us missing our connection.  Not to worry, now we needed a long lunch and a large glass of wine - plenty of time for that!  Got the evening flight to Oslo and found our hotel without further effort. 

Up early next morning, off to the train station.  We had ditched a bag here and were now travelling light - so light that our clothes for 6 days now fitted in Catherine's carry-on size bag.  The Flam railway was amazing.  You could take 2,000 photos on a day like today.  We talked to a German fellow who had been to Sydney Uni 20 years ago.  He told us heaps about Norway and handed over his window seat as well.  Speaking of photos, these will come later as this computer does not have anywhere for me to put usb in. 

Arrived at the end of a fjord in a town called Balestrand, magnificent, chocolate box type of place.  So peaceful, serene, quiet - time to breathe and relax.  In these fjords are these amazing old hotels that have been here for a century.  Some in good repair and others not so.  The price of meals here is outrageous, so we packed a lunch of carrots, cheese, yoghurt and fruit and headed along the fjord for a picnic.  C was coming down with a cold and had a snooze in the arvo and I hit the trees above the town.  Tree and moss heaven!!!!  Too many pictures.  There is the sound of water everywhere, brooks and rills and streams and waterfalls and riverlets etc......

Another ferry took us to Bergen.  The old part of this city is a must see.  The wooden buildings all lean against each other.  There is a huge tourist area down by the docks but if you walk further to get to lovely wine bars and quaint cafes and see some amazing quirky and stylish people.  The raincoats over here are a fashion item, as with the gum boots.  We took the funicular to the top of the hill and walked back down to a Leprosy Museum that C was keen to see.  You can take the nurse out of the hospital, but not the hospital out of the nurse.  It was an interesting but depressing place.  We had to cheer ourselves up with a coffee and gf chocolate cake after than and wander through the parks and squares of Bergen.

We stayed in one of the best hotels that we have come across.  It is called The Augustin.  Fun rooms, fabulous food and the service was out of this world.  All the people appeared to love their job.  The joy was contagious.

Off again, to Ulvik this time.  More serenity (broken by a couple of coaches of Japanese tourists in the evening and then a huge cruise boat the next morning).  So multicultural here - aussie girl (that's me) doing Tai Chi by the side of a Norwegian fjord watching Danish tourists arrive.

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Anyway, we are off by train this arvo back to Oslo for two nights.  Will check back in later - the photos will follow when I have a condusive computer and time to upload.  I have not figured out yet how to get the photos to go where I want them, oh well...

au revoir