http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/AinaMarie/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from AinaMarie en-us Mon, 04 Jan 2010 23:23:16 +0000 Mon, 04 Jan 2010 23:23:16 +0000 At eight a clock on the 8th of july we went down Neptuns staircase it's a row of eight locks. When we arrived at the harbor at the bottom of the locks Jrgen and Arne changed the engine oil. After that we longed for some food since we hadn't even eaten breakfast yet. We tok a bus towards the town centrum and as we sat looking out of the bus window we suddenly saw something that looked like a http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/Fort-William/blog-427434.html On Sunday we filled some diesel at the marina and went on our way to Loch Ness. We anchored up outside urquart castle fired up the grill and drooled for some biff and sosauges. But unbelievably we had the German boat from the first lock beside us some 20 meters away. They didn't like the grilling apparently one guy came to the bow of their boat and complained that the grill could damage his ro http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/blog-423129.html After getting our canal license and paying for the marina we went into the town for a look and a bit to eat. Inverness is a nice place with old houses situated on either side of of the river Ness though it is very apparent that tourism is a major part of its income.On the fourth of july when we finally got out of the boat we went out and walked around town by our selves. Later I met Jrgen and http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/Inverness/blog-423113.html Next stop Wick and for what it seemed like it was an abandon town. On one of the first corner we past there was a small beautiful but dead rabbit on the ground with a tight red ribbon around its throat. Abandon may be a wrong word since there were people there mostly driving by or some crewcut kids on bicycles. All the building around seamed so dead colorless and sad though the raining ligh http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/blog-420300.html We arrived at kirkwall 29th of june at 730 after a nights sail.On our first day in Kirkwall we visited the highland park distillery were we got a great tour and a taste of the whiskey. It was fun to learn about the prosess and since Higland park actually is one of few who malts the barley themselves at least 20 that is we got a insight into that. The wether was warm and great we had a walk a http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/Orkney-Islands/Mainland-Island/blog-420291.html We stayed in Bergen for 3 days during that time Arne and Olav came on board and on the 24th we left to join the shetlandrace. The weather was warm and sunny while we were in Bergen but I think I had too high expectations for the visit. It was a very nice place and people there were happy to stop for a talk but the tourism there were a little to big for my taste. And also I had heard that Be http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/blog-414897.html 18.6.09 On our way to Skudeneshavn we lost our map overboard so we had to put all our trust in the GPS. When we reached Skudeneshavn it was like driving through a floating town. The houses we past where placed almost on the water and it felt like we moored up in the town square.Most of the houses where white and they all looked like where painted in a hurry.We went to a beautiful forest park w http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Norway/blog-413468.html 14.6 09 at 0500 in the morning Norwegian time weJorgen and me left Oslo on our way to Stavern. It was a 12 hour Journey were we almost at once got to test one of our new foresail a genaker. It was a sunny and comfortable ride with the 37 ms down wind. I even got a tan and a red nose... even though I used sun factor 50. Unfortunaly we didnt get to see much of the town we were just to t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Norway/blog-409531.html Its late at night and Im sitting and wondering about how we will get the boat ready in time. Our plan was to leave early tomorrow morning but it seems like we will postpone it until tomorrow night or even until the 14th hopefully not longer. My plans for tomorrow is to buy a rain hat since well... Scotland is known to be rainy.. But Ive heard that it will be warmer and less rainy than the http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Norway/blog-407906.html