Geo: 51.3814, -2.35745So this morning I was headed for Bath. But first I had to find my way to Paddington station. Thanks to my trusty train guide (Trish) I knew which trains I had to catch and made it there around 10am. There was a 10 o'clock train but there was no way I was making that (still had to buy tickets) So I found the ticket selling machine and purchased my ticket for Bath. No sooner did the ticket spit out but an announcement came over the PA that there were delays to all stations west of the city. I went to the info counter to find out "something" had jumped onto the tracks at Slough. I was told There may not be a train until after midday. So I went and got myself a ... read more

Geo: 63.4267, 10.3945Today I made my way back to Nidaros cathedral, having learned that the Archbishops palace was only closed on Mondays. The intel turned out to be correct because amazingly, it was open! The archbishops palace consists of three buildings. Originally it was built for the archbishop of Nidarros (surprise) but later became a military barracks and now it is a museum. In the 80's two of the buildings burned down. While excavating the grounds, medieval artifacts were found and as a result a lot more is now known about life in the palace. It was a little town within itself with all sorts of trade going on. There were blacksmiths and wood craftsman, all sorts of things. The archaeological dig found evidence that women and children lived in the palace as well....I'm sure they ... read more

Geo: 60.6333, 8.16667Today we went for a drive west toward Bergen. This way out the mountains were more dramatic, if that can be said. It was a lovely clear day and I could see all the way up to the rocky mountain tops, with little patches of snow on them. The snow is there all year. But we didn't go that high. Now if I am reading my maps correctly we went past lakes Sunndalsfjordan, Strandvatnet, Vetlebotvatnet and Vassbygdvatnet. Now say that three times quickly :-) The lakes go on forever, there is no fear of a water shortage here. To the Norwegians credit they use all this water to generate hydroelectricity, the only source of power here. No carbon footprint here....well except for the oil mines. We went past lots of waterfalls. Some were far ... read more

Geo: 60.6333, 8.16667This morning I was up early to catch the 8.05 to Hovet to meet my cousins dad. On the train I had my eyes glued to the window almost the entire way. It is really pretty here. Huge mountains covered in forest, except for where the rocky cliffs jut out. Every so often we would come across a small patch of land which had been cleared for agriculture. No more than about 60 acres. Almost every barn I saw was red with a white trim. I think that maybe that's the building code here. Oh so you want to put up a building for animals? that'll red and white only The are few areas of land which are cleared for other reasons. I saw a patch of land cleared underneath some powerlines coming down ... read more

Geo: 55.683, 12.5822Not a lot to report today. I got up and packed my stuff as quietly as possible. Another disadvantage of staying in a hostel, you don't have much room to sort out your belongings before they get packed, so my very full bag was badly packed and I barely got the zippers done up. I had breakfast, checked out of the hostel and then checked my bag into storage for the day. I had decided to find a nice spot to sit and read my book today. Kind of a rest day before I got on the ferry. To start with I walked to the botanical gardens, which were very lovely. They had a massive greenhouse, it think there were actual trees in there. However it wasn't very warm and after and the ground ... read more