"This European adventure combines the must-sees of the Balkan region and the lesser-known glories of North Macedonia and Albania - creating the perfect balance between old and new"!
May 1st Norwegian ‘Labour Day’ today and if all shops, museums, and other tourist sites being closed weren’t going to stop us going out, the weather certainly did! It was tipping it down. We actually ended up spending most of the day in our hotel, after checking out, as this evening we were catching the overnight train to Trondheim and didn’t want to spend all day carrying around our backpacks in the soaking rain. May 2nd Travel Day After a not so bad night in the sleeper from Oslo to Trondheim we changed trains and headed off up to Bodø. The weather forecast had been for cloudy and rain for all towns on the way north so what a pleasant surprise when for most of the time (well at least until we reached the ‘Arctic Circle’) we had sunshine and blue skies. Even with iffy weather though the views and scenery on the way up would’ve still been spectacular! On the journey there’s a real mix of mountains, lakes, and rivers, it’s just fantastic, ...
Following on from Jane-o (JEM from now on) welcome to our occasional blog/ diary capturing our next few months in the UK and Europe. Plans at the moment include trips to Norway, France, and the ‘The Balkan’s’, and some hiking here in the dear old blighty up in the Cotswolds. With a very good friend of ours (Danny) in the process of moving to Latvia( 🤔 !) we may even get a chance to spend a few days over there, we’ll keep you posted. For these first couple of weeks it’s been great catching up with Dad. JEM came over a week after me and although we’ve not done anything ‘touristy’ we’ve been doing a fair bit of walking/ hiking along the coast. Yesterday however we had a trip up to London to catch up with Danny and then JEM’s brother Chris. Danny we met up with at Greenwich, and, after a walk through the Royal Park, we took off for a real cockney lunch of Pie & Mash. This East/ South East London delicacy consists of minced beef pie, lumpy m...
A non-hiking day today as we’d planned a 2 night stay in Painswick for a break. As it turned out it was a little lucky that we did because the ‘rain-gods’ were out in force, it just didn’t stop raining all day! We still managed to get out though and visited the local church before checking out the local river The church, Saint Mary’s, and built in stages between 1370 and 1632, is a Grade1 listed building, but it’s also well known for the super-manicured yew trees in its cemetery. Folklore states though that the churchyard will never have more than 99 and that should a 100th grow the ‘Devil’ would pull it out. However, a recent count revealed that there’s now 103, so seemingly ’someone’ can’t count! 😆 Top L: Damage done by a cannonball during the English Civil War, in 1644, when Royalists were encamped in the church. Bottom R: On the church grounds an unusual set of stocks. Made of iron and known as 'Spectacle Stocks' they’re one of o...
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