My Trip To Norway

Hi Folks, as some will be aware, I am off to Denmark then Norway for a holiday this Friday 21 June 2013 until 4 July 20913, it will hopefully be a trip of a lifetime, because I have promised myself that I would get see the Norwegian Fjords, for many years.

It all started with meeting my friend Mykle in London last year and him showing me photos of where he now lives in Norway, also my reading his story of how he moved there and the trip he does each year to come back over to England. This was the inspiration I needed to start planning the trip. I decided that a blog was the easiest way for me to give updates of the adventure rather than endless e mails.

Because I was waiting for an operation until that was carried out and I had the all clear nothing definite could be planned, then next task was to obtain travel insurance, which I eventually resolved, so the idea could start to develop into reality. I had also discussed a holiday with my friend Brian who has featured in previous Blogs and our other friend Alan, we talked about different destinations and in the end settled on Copenhagen, we were going for a week, so we then started working out how to get there and where to stay,

I contacted Which Travel for advice on things to do and see, then contacted my friendly travel agents Sue to ask for her help. It seems that Scandinavia, other than by ship is not listed in most holiday brochures. Unfortunately, Alan decided in the end that he was not going with us so we ended up booking for 4 nights, the first being the summer solstice(longest day) we booked the flight and accommodation and I bought a new lens for my camera to capture all the things I am hoping to see on the trip.

We are also hoping for a trip to Malmo in Sweden to see the bridge between the two countries. Brian will return home after 4 nights and my real adventure will really start I said I was considering visiting Norway and may call to see Mykle and his wife Jean, Mykle kindly offered that I could stay with them when visiting the area that they live in as a result we spent a lot of time through e mail and phone calls trying to work out an itinerary for me, up to this time I did not really know where he was in Norway apart from the fact it was away from the towns and cities, plus that it gets very cold in the winter, eventually we sorted out a trip that would enable me to see some of the best parts and beautiful scenery there, my friend Brian said I may see elk and wolves and possibly beavers, seems he had not done his research that well as Mykle stated this was unlikely, they lived further north.

The trip from Copenhagen, will take me by plane to Bergen where I will be met by Mykle, then boat to Sogndal, from there by car to his home in Myklebust for a few days, then we travel back to Bergen by coach, and I will stay for 3 nights, I then travel from Bergen to Oslo by train which Mykle tells me is quite spectacular, then later that day fly back to London, where as it will be in the evening I will stay before returning home the following day.

Due to uncertainty about the weather I will take a mixture of clothes, I have bought a tablet computer so I can continue to record the trip for the blog, the tablet has been a learning curve for me, but my son spent some time showing me what the various functions are for. I had forgotten how many pieces of paper are needed when travelling independently, as well as medication, transformers for charging devices, and guides, unfortunately over the weekend my back has gone into spasm, so yesterday I saw an osteopath, the pain has not yet abated, if it does not improve before Thursday I will have to go and see GP for strong painkillers, as I am not going to cancel the holiday

An Incident at Manchester Airport

Embarrassing Incident At Manchester Airport Last weekend I travelled over to Ireland for my granddaughters 21st birthday, when I got to Manchester airport I could not believe how quiet it was and I sailed through security apart from having to take my shoes off and put them through the machine, not sure what that proved at all.
Not having had lunch I went and bought a meal Deal then found a convenient seat where I could see the departure board and my flight boarding gate, I put my MP3 player on, got my paper out and started to eat the sandwich,
I’m not quite sure why but I suddenly felt I was being watched, so looked up, the young man sat opposite, who looked very intense had a pad on his knee seemed to be staring at me, then doing something on his pad, being conceited I thought maybe he’s trying to sketch me, so continued with my food and reading. I’m not sure why but I started to think about what he was doing, so now started watching him,
he looked very very intent, and I suddenly noticed he was not drawing but writing notes. I couldn’t decide what to do, should I confronted him, should I try to absorb myself in my magazine music, should I move seats, the information desk was nearby, maybe I should mention it to them, in the end I decided to move across the way so I was not in his line of sight and see what happened,
what I noticed was that he continued with the same behaviour, I now started to wonder was it something to do with the till at Boots behind me, it all seemed rather odd.
A member of staff came and started working at the information desk, so I decided to have a word with her, I politely explained and said it was a gut feeling that something was not quite right, she asked me what she wanted me to do, explaining that she could not approach him.
It was decided in the end that she would contact security and be advised by them, so I felt that was the end of it all. A few minutes later she came over to my seat, to inform me that she had spoken to security and that they had informed the police who would call down and chat to me about the problem.
Oh dear this was not what I was hoping for, I prefer to be anonymous but now was going to be the centre of attention and the man was going to know it was me that reported him. A little time later two young policemen arrived, I explained to them what had happened and how the man of made me feel quite uncomfortable and that may be there could be problems with other passengers because of his odd behaviour, we gave a description of him because by now he had disappeared, which in itself seemed a little odd,
one of the policemen took my details and said he would let me know what had happened. A few minutes later they came back, it appears that the man was a French person, an accountant in fact he was busy working on a project and had been totally absorbed in this, oblivious of all around him, he was flying back to France and everything checked out,
of course I was totally embarrassed, but the policemen reassured me that I had done the correct thing and it was better to have made sure all was well, I spoke to lady at the desk, she said similar, and also said there was something about his appearance and manner that could be a little off putting, but that all had worked out well in the end.
I am still unsure what it was that set me off, was it some basic instinct, was it the stress of being at the airport, was it something to do with getting old and less sure of myself, what would I do if a similar incident happened in the future, let’s just hope it just doesn’t happen.

A new start

I had not realized how long it had been since I last posted so I think now is a good time to start again soon as some will know I am off on a trip to Norway and intend to try to do posts on the trip I hope you will enjoy all of this in the meantime I will try to find something to chat about