Skip to main content

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.



Labels:

Comments

  1. Caroline Mackay24 March 2024 at 10:18

    Awww fabulous 🤩 The foties are bringing back lots of happy memories... The snowy mountains, lots of trolls and the little red houses dotted about everywhere. Sam says, and I concur, if you get a chance to go to an Egon restaurant on dry land somewhere at breakfast time... Do it!!! The most amaaazing breakfast buffet selection anywhere ever!!! 😁 Crossing my fingers you get some aurora action 🤞 xx

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Alesund

Our final destination stop was Alesund. This is a very pretty town in southern Norway built on a peninsula. All the houses are painted pretty colours and a lot of the architecture is all very Art Nouveau based. This is because the town itself was completely burnt to the ground In 1904 by a fire for which they never found the original cause. The whole town had to be rebuilt and this became a huge National Effort and a lot of prominent and up and coming architects flocked to the town to stick there 20 pence in. Consequently the town is very heavily Art Nouveau which was very fashionable at the time. There is this wonderful Museum just off the harbour which is a very beautiful Art Nouveau house. It has amazing panelling, doors, wallpaper, and it's all furnished with beautiful art Nouveau Furniture. It also house a collection of of enameled Art Nouveau Trinkets,boxes, spoons, jewellery, very very beautiful.   There is an interesting collection of old books and paintings a...
1 comment
Read more

The Blue Dot

Excellent evening spent at the first Blue Dot festival held at Jodrell Bank.  Clever use of the radio telescope as back drop for the main stage... there were some major teething issues which hopefully will addressed if this event happens again - mainly access and parking.. it was a nightmare approach to the festival and fortunately as we were only doing one night we decided to ditch the car and chose to walk the last mile and half into the site... what a relief as if we had queued we would most certainly missed Public Service Broadcasting which was one of the reasons we were going.. anyway we caught them and then enjoyed fantastic set by Underworld - danced much of the night away in the rain - my trusty solfest poncho almost kept me dry.. it was a splendid evening and the telescope looked brilliant when lit up when it got dark. There was a rather fab "installation" called a luminarium, lack of site information - another hiccup meant we were really lucky to catch it just ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Goodbye Dissertation!!!

The dissertation is finished...  it took me ages to do all the detail stuff Harvard referencing ect... the simplest tasks were starting to drive me mad!! I cant believe how long it took me to work out how to number pages excluding the first two pages aagghhhh...  I suppose I should be grateful that its not like the olden days where you had to get it typed and bound before hand in - this essay has been a hard slog, a subject which I felt was interesting - how the digital explosion is ruining traditional creative methods turned into a fairly unexciting - pretty boring unexceptional topic!  there will never be a next time but my advice is think of something funky - does Danny Boyle like garden Gnomes - Racoon meets Lady Gaga - anything that might surprise you but not too grown up!! I have worked hard and will be rewarded with a mid grade because there is no passion in this essay - the hard slog is evident as is the lack of enthusiasm - C'est la vie you cant win them all....
Post a Comment
Read more