Blogs from Bergen, Western Norway, Norway, Europe

Despite of staying up late to conquer the “exotic” washing machine, I somehow managed to still wake up very early. Sleeping in ‘the heart of historical old town building’ sounds like a novelty but I’m not wowed by it. Had it not been the cheapest place I could find – I might as well stayed elsewhere. Bergen is surprisingly cold so I put 3 layers of clothing before venturing out. Growing up in Indonesia, I’m kinda used to small alleys. Nothing fancy about it. But some guidebooks highlight that the “small alleys of Bergen old town” is something not to be missed. But then the question is – where is that damn small alley? Yes, I’m in the journey to find a small alley that should not be wider than 1 meter. But then again, every ... read more

The t-shirt in the shop window said it all: "If we had dolphins we'd kill them too". Hewn into that same t-shirt was a diagram heavy on the graphics. Norway takes some pride in its success at turning the cold shoulder to world opinion on whaling, right down to selling great chunks of whale meat in heavily touristed waterfront fish markets. Snubbing their collective noses at anti whaling lobbyists, Norwegians state: "Don't like it, don't come" In reality, Norwegians don't need our tourism bucks anyway, there's oil in them thar hills. Via that oil, Norway is rich, the perennial top dog in polls centred around the world's most liveable or the highest standards of living.The reasons why Norway is placed on such a lofty pedestal aren't exactly covert. Public wealth manifests itself in an ultra slick ... read more

Time is getting close to leaving Norway, so, I have decided to rush through the rest of Greece and move onto Norway in the next blog. Wed 18th we move out of Friscardo and set of to Praga. We had a hard passage with large swells {I thought they were but Capt Martin didn't} so finally settled off an island for the night after about a 4 hour sail and a 2 hour look for a sheltered mooring to spend the night we had a reasonable nights sleep. Next day we headed to Praga with another 4-5 hour haul on the moter into a strong head wind and a medium swell. Finally into the Marina in Praga were everyone enjoyed showers and a good clean up. Di and I left the others to carry on sailing ... read more

On Saturday the 7th July we sailed with good winds to the south end of Corfu. managed to sail for about 2hrs so Capt martin was happy. We moored in the bay of a village called Petriti, a small fishing village, then dinner on board and I slept on deck for some coolness. Over night we were subject to quite a swell coming through, but all comfortable. The next mornung set of for the island of Paxi and the village of Lakka. Took 3 hours and then into this magic bay with emerald waters and lots of other boats. Spent the rest of the day anchored out in the bay, watching people and boats come and go, drinking the odd beer or wine, reading, and cooling of in these magic waters. So nice!! Anchored in about ... read more

Bergen to Kirkenes - the half part of our cruise with Hurtigruten Thursday 31st May 2012 Fred and Lorraine left a little earlier than us as they wanted to take the funicular up Mt Floyen and we hadn't made up our minds on where we wanted to go. We walked around the old buildings near the YMCA and then came across the entrance of the funicular train, a long line of people waiting. Rags hates waiting in queues so we decided to walk up to the peak using the paths, stairs and roadway shown on our map. It was only 320m above sea level but the zig-zag course made it well over an hour before we finally reached the summit. Both of us were pleased with ourselves, even if we were warm and a little footsore, ... read more