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.

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...

Isle of Bute

Another Landmark Trust tick - this time Ascog House on the Isle of Bute - stunning as always... a very comfortable warm accommodation for the usual 8 suspects. This time we had a wee tower house for Dr Fred and myself - a lovely bedroom up the stairs with a big window and a bathroom al to ourselves - having said that all the other bedrooms in the big house were large and serviced by two bathrooms so there was no hardship for any visitors! The grounds of the house were very extensive with ponds and secret passages - hidden paths and we even spotted a deer late afternoon - there were lots of old features - ornate staircases and a lovely hidden door which I did a quick sketch of. Bute provided quite a lot of entertainment as well - the weather was kind and we did a a muddy wander down the south of the Island taking in St Blanes Monastery and Kilcannon Bay. The views were spectacular and it was fabulous to be out in the fresh (and it was fresh on the tops) air and we...

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 ...

Planet Ruby Starrs

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