Bodø and Narvik Norway

We finally got off the boat at Bodø in Norway. The weather is not kind it was almost sunny and not too cold but the. It started to completely chuck it down. We had a wander around the town which if I'm really honest was a cross between amble Marina (that was the nice bit) Newton- AYcliffe High Street and Redcar so ... yes, probably not the most Scenic bit of Norway! However the coastline coming up here was pretty stunning and we have met quite a few trolls...

Life on board the beautiful Balmoral continues... yesterday I did the book club and learnt the social foxtrot - still not up to strictly standards but working on it. Dr Fred hosted a lunch but there wasn't room for me🙁. Later in the evening the chaps did stargazing but with total cloud cover and rain so no aurora visible - just lots of friendly chatty people.

The following day we disembarked at Narvik which was a completely different experience to Bodø. The sun was shining, and the scenery was absolutely stunning. The town is surrounded by amazing jagged mountains covered in snow. In fact, the town was full of snow, and we have to wear our spiky shoes. We walked up the hill (actually I trudged) to take the cable car up the mountain.

656 meters above sea level - the views were just fantastically panoramic - we were very lucky with the day- fantastic blue skies, glorious sunshine, everything looking clean and dazzling - we wandered about on perilously steep mountainside... skiers zipping by - it did feel a bit like, one false step and you would back down the moountain too quickly🤣🤣. I had walked all the way up without any problem and then fell on my backside just at the cable car gate!! thats when we put the spikes on.....

We came back down on the cable car and wandered back down into town..

We even found a supermarket on the way down so I got a tin of sardines for my collection.

Norvik is quite a pretty town doesn't have a very exciting shopping centre but we're not shoppers so that didn't matter... there were some nice bits of sculpture about. It was nice to walk up through the suburbs and see all the different kinds of houses perched on the hill and most of them with the most amazing views. However in spite of the sunshine and the glorious skies it was actually only just above freezing for most of the day we were well wrapped up and we didn't feel the cold but I always feel like I've got so many clothes on I can hardly move🤣🤣

We really liked the idea that we were less than 1500 miles from the North Pole.

RubyStarrs in Paris...

Finally we have made it to Paris. It was a bit of a long travel day - we decided to come by train so we could experience the full glory of British Rail or whatever it's called now which actually delivered perfectly on time... and then the Eurostar which was incredibly disappointing! All that beautiful St. Pancreas Station and the Eurostar is sited in the dungeon... overcrowded, dark, lousy facilitated space... and then the train was an hour late it felt like a long time before we got any fresh air - but eventually we wound up in gay Paree... We navigated the metro and found our airbnb gaff. A mere 70 steps to the fourth floor on a rather lovely winding wooden staircase to a very nice roof top flat which is comfortable and gives a view across a lovely Courtyard with some obviously much posher flats. It's located really centrally about two minutes away from the Opera Garnier so a very good location for getting everywhere...

Funchal

So after three days at sea we finally hit Funchal in Madeira. An escape from the ship, and I have to say it was very pleasant indeed. First of all the weather is really splendid. Especially when you know that everybody else in the UK is suffering grim storms and vile winds.. Over here it is between 22 and 25 degrees is really quite warm. Funchal is a pretty city. It's built on a hill it with lots of lovely white houses with stunning red roofs. In order to get the best of it we walked along the sea front until we got to the cable car and we took it up the hill. It was a really good ride much longer than we imagined and it's quite weird because it goes right through the town - completely over everybody's house... So not only do you get a lovely vista of the bay but you can view the beautiful rooftops and get to look in everybody's gardens and to look at their picnic sets.. clean washing nice plants... scratty backyards.... We got off th

Another Day in Norway where our Trusty Traveller finds Tromsø, Trolls and Totally misses Aurora....

Tromsø - the most northern city on the planet... Its quite a pretty little town with lots of wood fronted shops, but of course like everywhere like this, it is just one big tourist hive and every shop is selling 'indigenous' gifts- didthe Sami make aurora themed mugs and fridge magnets? Nearest I'll get a polar bear (i hope) Although I have to say I did like the big stuffed polar bear and black bear and I am presuming that these are either not real (unlikely) or culled as they sometimes have to be. But most of the stuff is just northern lights tat or Troll tat. Peer Gynt.. famous worldover To be fair the best bit of Tromsø for me was the Troll Museum! We went to the art gallery which was quite interesting (see instagram account) but not astounding, but I always like to look at the local art. We had a mooch around town in the snow and then we went to find the Trolls. This museum was absolutely crazy daft... it was totally dedi

Planet Ruby Starrs

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