LEFOTON ISLANDS

What a lovely place, completely overturned my preconceptions. We are now well into the Arctic circle, the sun did not set last night. We are north of anywhere we have been in Alaska & Canada. Yet the islands are green, with trees a plenty. The average winter temperature here is zero Deg Celsius. Shirt sleeve weather today with balmy wind. Fishing is big here with separate seasons for cod, herring Pollock etc.

Rocky mountains shrouded in cloud, I thought I heard roaring from the top of that plateau.

Went to an old fishing village that is now an artist's colony, apparently the light is very good here and they can have the winter off.

A lot of farms here, one of the farmers bought a new tractor & plough that dug deeper than his old one. First go, he found the remains of a Viking long house. They recreated it as faithfully as they can and it is now a living museum complete with characters you can chat to.

That helmet was heavy, they gave me a Viking name - BosEidWal.

The family didn't like it much when Christianity turned up, they upsticked and moved to Iceland taking their houses & goods with them.

TRONDHEIM

Heading north, now up at Trondheim. Although we've been to Norway before, we haven't visited any of these places before. For Neil - you can get Pussers rum on board, I'm sure it's not the real thing but it is good!

Nice easy day, got up at 9, coffee in bed, breakfast at 10 on the pool deck, wandered ashore at 11:30.

There is a university here that is researching driverless boats. You can see a couple moored up.

Lots going on, kayak basketball, cold water swimmers. Really nice town, lots of oil revenue keeping it well tended & tidy. What happened to our oil revenue, ask Milliband for me. 4th biggest town in Norway.

Royal Palace all made of wood, 140 rooms. The Royal Family are something, Crown Princess is a clairvoyant. Makes our hangers on look good. She has had dealings with Epstein(bet P A knows her well) & her son has had claims of rape against him. Bet she didn't see that coming. They give free diet advice here.

Cathedral, they have problems here, nothing old here as everything has burned down several times.

Big Olaf on the column, the founder of Norway, buried in the cathedral - can't find him because it caught fire so many times.

For Jack - nice jewellery store.

MOLØY

Wonder how you pronounce that theta thing? Today has been beset by Bayeux Tapestry booking and estate agency stuff. Today is the day to book the British Museum exhibition. They sent me an email to get in the queue to book. I did so. 10000th in the queue at 13:00, I registered for them to mail me back when I got to the head of the queue. It's 17:00, I am now 7000th. They have gall to tell me that when they finally email me, I'll have 10 minutes to do it. Completed it about 19:30, ridiculous.

Went to the Maloy (stuff the theta) Raid Museum. This is the WW2 raid led by Mad Jack Churchill, no relation. In the day they used to make fish oil here, rich in glycerin & useful for making explosives. The Germans were shipping it home, so a commando raid was planned. RAF bombing first then landing by an old Belgian car ferry. Very successful, all objectives achieved. The Norwegian commander Martin Linge was killed but Mad Jack was OK. He was mad going ashore playing bagpipes with bow & arrow and broadsword. He survived the war having taken part in many commando raids.

NORWAY

 Left Rotterdam, had a sea day, ate ourselves silly. First port Eidfjord, which is a long way inland at the head of deep fjord, perhaps half mile deep in some places. Very small town with nothing much to do. Laid in bed, late breakfast, then in the hot tub & pool. Resumed eating in the evening.

The Hardanger Fjord is billed as scenic for our trip out to sea. Scenic, I'm not so sure, it's all very samey, big steep slopes, some snow covered, no sign of wildlife. 

Tough dress rules, no nakedness, very disappointed.

A frog broke into our room last night.

ROTTERDAM, AGAIN

 Here we are again, happy as can be.....(sing along). Nice day but blowing a gale. This is a big disembark-embark day so we have fight with all them people with luggage to get on & off the boat. Took a stroll over the Erasmus bridge into the old port. It's a really nice neighbourhood.

There is a working shipyard, you can see the guys working on the open forge making parts for the old boats.

Rotters must a bit of a party town, we saw a group setting off in a floating wood fired hot tub with a fully stocked drinks cupboard. The lightship in the background is British, formally in the Irish sea, now a pub restaurant.

Sat around for a bit, then hailed a water taxi, always lively & good fun.

DOVER

Back in Blighty, but only for one day, tomorrow Rotterdam then onwards to the Arctic circle. This is an odd cruise - it disembarks and picks up passengers at both Dover & Rotterdam. We didn't get the option of Dover, which is only an hour away from London - go figure. Went to the station & caught train to Canterbury. Nice easy trip if you get your timings right, we just missed a train - wait one hour do not pass go.

As it was a nice warm day we took a punt ride that takes you around the back of the old buildings.

Very low bridges, dark dingy, full of spiders webs & pigeons. We had a party of 3 enjoying a 60th birthday, all that freaked them out

Ducking stool, apparently Lin is a witch with green eyes & living in London. She didn't volunteer.

Helen of Troy.

Made the mistake of walking back to the ship from the station. Port guide suggested it was a pleasant 30 minute walk. Not it took an hour, wind tearing around you and the last half out on to the West Dock was featureless and grim apart from;-

A charming cafe and the South East & Chatham Railway station. This was started in 1909 to connect London with Paris by rail & ferry. WW1 intervened and the army took it over to transport munitions & troops over and wounded back. The railway took it back in the '20s and developed it with their own ferries. WW2 cropped up and after that in the '40s they built ferries to take rail carriages and joined with the French to make 2 luxury trains, all sleeper Pullman - Fleche d'Or & the Golden Arrow that could get you to Paris in 6.5 hours. Probably quicker than now what with all the airport security taken into account. The channel tunnel put the Kibosh on it in the '90s.

CORK

 Back in Ireland but down south now. We are docked at Cobh a 25 minute train ride from the city centre, convenient and easy to use. Another blustery day with showers. Second largest of Eire's cities, busy and a big pedestrian shopping centre reminiscent of Oxford St. Couldn't find too much to interest us. It is built on the River Lee (never noticed it when I was cycling) and has some pretty spots.

Cobh was formerly a naval port, the ground is contaminated from the munitions work carried out there. It still hosts the Irish navy, 4 patrol boats.