Time to come home

Glasgow hop-on hop-off allowed us to maximise our city exploring so we spent the best part of the day looking around, including the impressive Glasgow university building that was used in part for Hogwarts, a National Trust tenement house and a general wander through the streets. 

As the trip draws to a close we have decided to spend two nights in the Lakes district and two nights in Yorkshire before driving down to Manchester to catch the first flight heading back to home. 

The drive down to Windermere in the Lakes was spectacular, particularly the dry stone walls that were going up hills that were seemingly impossible and stretched for miles. You had to admire the effort that had gone into their construction and I really doubt that the photos can do it justice. We have a nice little bnb for a couple of nights and there is another Tasmanian staying here! The first Tasmanian we have met in three months and we didn’t know her. She was however a retired teacher who lives in Austin’s Ferry and travelling alone so it was nice to talk about home.

We spent the day driving around the lake and took in a bit of Beatrix Potter by looking through her home and one of the properties she owned that was in original condition.

Our drive over to Pocklington was leisurely thanks to some tips from the BnB owner meaning we stayed off the motorway. The first town we stopped at was Harrogate for a wander and coffee. There were some lovely Roman Baths but not this time. Next stop Knaresborough a lovely medieval town that we stumbled across including Mother Shiptons Cave. Apparently she was a prophetess who lived in the cave and predicted the great fire of London and the end of the world when the “town bridge falls thrice” it has fallen twice already so particular attention is now paid to the current bridge that has been strengthened and is closely monitored. Adjacent to the cave was a limestone spring that has the highest mineral content in the water for all of Europe. Tradition was to hang objects under the dripping water and they were turned to stone in just three months. Hanging there today was rows of teddy bears and other interesting objects including shoes and hats. The museum next door has stone artefacts from celebrities including John Wayne’s hat that have been turned to stone. 

Lunch beside the river was entertaining thanks to the small row boats you can hire. Of particular mention were the Asians who had absolutely no idea and managed to get to the other side but kept rowing forward despite the bow being up against the bank. Other honerable mention goes to the attempts made to swap seats for photos. We climbed the hill to the ruins of yet another castle to get a good photo of a nice viaduct over the river and then wandered through the town and back to the car. Would recommend this little place to anyone in the region. 

Our AirBnB is 20 minutes out of York in a little town called Pocklington but a really lovely little cottage with fire, washing machine and cooking facilities - right up there with the best of them. A day in York was easily filled including a walk around the city walls, a stroll through the old alley ways of Shambles, poking your head into York Minster cathedral and a climb to Cliffords Tower. Exhausted would be a fair description of how we are feeling!

Our last day and we wake up to snow! Definitely must be time to go home..... en route to Manchester we stopped for a couple of hours at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. A lovely find and despite the weather we walked around the lake in awe of the sculptures and could easily have spent more time but it was time to get rid of the car and repack our bags ready for the early morning flight to Abu Dhabi. Bonus for us was the end of Daylight Savings so an extra hour in bed but still up at 5.30.

7 hours flight time and all went well until we were heading for the taxi....... yep we got scammed and ended up in a private taxi/limo and paid four times more than we should have but we were tired and hadn’t really done enough research or understood the conversion rate from Dirham to Aus dollars so it wasn’t until we were seated that we did the maths and realised we didn’t have enough local currency and credit card was not an option. Plan B was some Aussie dollars and then put it down to experience. 

Alcohol in the United Arab Emirates is up there with Norwegian prices so we immediately regretted not buying a couple of wines on our way through the terminal.

We are both pretty tired and therefore keen for an early night 9 30 pm local time but 5.30 UK time. Slept in as we are in a resort after all. Then a leisurely breakfast and a stroll to the beach for a dip in the ocean. Having left Manchester at 6 degrees it was nice to open the door to a balmy 30 degrees. And I believe the water temperature was also 30. Back to the pool at the hotel and then off on our desert safari for some 4 wheel driving , BBQ dinner and some entertainment. The pickup was in a Toyota Landcruiser and Robyn and I were initially put over the back with some snotty nosed arrogant Hungarian 14 Year old sitting in the front seat.... At the first stop the driver was pretty keen to swap us around as my knees were up around my ears and the bloody kid had slept most of the way! He cracked the shits and wouldn’t go over the back to let Robyn in the middle but at least I was able to sit in the front for the main game-  a thrilling 45 minutes playing around in the sand dunes with another 30 odd Landcruisers. Quite an adrenaline rush and heaps of fun. The dinner and show were good value and we were back in the hotel 5 hours after we left around 8.30.

A reasonably early start to day 2 just so we could fit in as much of the hop-on hop-off bus tour. The full circuit is close to 5 hours and the 24 hour pass comes in just under $100 each so we were keen to get as much in as possible. First stop was the Grand Mosque, simply stunning with the biggest dome on a Mosque in the world, one of the biggest Chandeliers in the world. 10 feet tall and 10 feet wide and over 4 million Swarovski crystal’s used in the 4 chandeliers. In keeping with the theme of bigger is better we were also treated to the worlds largest carpet (made by over 100 Iranian women and weighing 45 tons) and later in the day some rather impressive buildings including the  largest building with the greatest lean (purposely constructed)

All in all it was a good tour but we would have benefited from a second day but in reality we are too buggered to even consider another 5 hours doing the circuit again. Nice dinner but at $120 for a bottle of Wolf Blass RED label we passed on the wine....

Our last day was simply a sleep in followed by a trip to the beach and then lazing around the pool.

Well that’s it 100 days of adventure. Loved our first few couple of weeks in Ireland and the great little pubs with traditional and contemporary Irish folk music, gorgeous little towns, windy roads and a few castles.

Wales was beautiful and we could have easily spent some more time in the Snowdonia, the Brecon Beacons and explored more of the coastline. And a few castles.

England was great to catch up with friends I haven’t seen in a long time  (29 Years since I taught with Martin Allen and Mark Burks. A great week with Mike and Eilis in London. A bit of London sightseeing and a few castles.

Stunning scenery in Norway and the most incredible waterfalls, fiords, tunnels. The Hurtigruten was definitely worth the money and a bonus Aurora Borealis and wild Reindeer were two very special moments. Did I mention some castles?

Denmark will be remembered for it’s bridges, the Viking experiences. And more castles!

Sweden where we got to blow glass take in some Viking experiences including the Standing Stone Viking ship, a moose. And a castle or two!

Scotland was “Norway in widescreen “ stunning scenery, tourist drives and island experiences. The Isle of Lewis for the Standing Stones, Isle of Harris for Harris Tweed and the Isle of Sky. And yes a couple of castles including a personal favourite Doune castle where Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Outlander were filmed.

So much in such a short time but now it is time to go home. Just a short 14 hour flight!!!! To Melbourne. Up at 6am Thursday in Abu Dhabi - 14 hours later land in Melbourne at 4:30am Friday. Then just a short wait for our flight to Hobart at 8:25am. Think there will be a little catch up sleep required at some point. 

A fabulous adventure seeing so many amazing things but looking forward to getting home and seeing friends and family and of course sleeping in our own bed. 

Island hopping

Once again we find ourselves a few days behind in the blog. Since the last post we have done our best to fit as much in to a day as possible but as we close in on the finish line we can only dream of a few days in Dunalley doing absolutely nothing....

Our first stop was the Isle of Lewis off the west coast of Scotland in the Outer Hebrides, we were keen to check out the standing stones at Calanais on the other side of the Island from where the ferry docked at Stornaway. Not really a problem given the size of the island but it was definitely on a single vehicle track road with mostly conveniently placed, passing points. The stones themselves were pretty impressive. There were three main sites but as we have discovered there are sites dotted all over the Uk and Ireland. The origin and design are not clear but there are similarities to others but little is known. They were predominantly covered in Peat prior to being dug out and protected for future generations. We did all three sites as they were easily accessible and free......

Next stop was a Broche Round House ruin just up the road. An amazing example of Medieval architecture. All that is left is a shell of a building but still enough to give us an insight into the construction techniques including the twin walled rock structure with internal staircases and storage spaces. We finished the day with a wander through the Black House Village and a return to the port of Stornoway via a Northern loop of the island.

Leaving Lewis and heading to the Isle of Harris you would expect to travel over a bridge or via a ferry to transit from one Island to another but there was no distinction between the two “islands” other than a sign in the road on the mountain. Even the local tourist agency was unable to fill us in on why the two names were given for a single island! The only differentiation we were able to find was that Harris comes from a Gaelic word for mountains and there certainly is that differentiation between Lewis - largely flat and Harris _ very mountainous and hilly. We found ourselves driving from sea level to mountain top and back to sea level within minutes. The Isle of Harris is where Harris Tweed comes from, in fact, it can only be called Harris tweed if it is made on the Island. (given the fact I own a Range Rover it would be wrong of me not to get some appropriate attire for driving around Dunalley) We visited a Tweed shop in Stornoway as well as an exhibition centre on the History of Harris Tweed and it turned out to be a good decision because had we waited until we got to Harris we would have been even more disappointed than we were as one of the weavers (Yes there are many individual weavers who work from home under licence had passed away) so all the retail outlets and weaving showrooms were closed for the day!

Our accommodation on Harris was an old seaside fisherman’s cottage of the shore beside a small bay in Manish. Great little place but no windows on the shore side meaning you would have to sit outside in order to appreciate the rugged beauty of the bay. Too bloody cold and wet for that! But they did provide some outdoor chairs!

Early start for the 6.20 ferry that was 20 minutes up the road in pitch black on one of the windiest and narrow single lane roads ever known to mankind. (It is locally known as the Golden Road due to the cost to build but seriously it is one lane wide and follows the natural landscape. ) Plenty of sheep to navigate (not that they were at all bothered - mostly didn’t move) but thankfully no other cars. On arrival at the ferry terminal we got the text message from the ferry company that our sailing had been delayed by 2 hours.... Yep, our isolated accommodation was also without phone or wifi so we didn’t get the memo that everyone else had received. The town of Tarbert has a pub a grocery shop and a few Harris Tweed outlets but of course none of that is going to help you at 6.30 in the morning. We convinced the manager of the pub to get us a coffee and a bacon sandwich around 7.30 so at least we had something to eat and kill a bit of time.

Isle of Skye

The ferry comes in to Uig in the North and our accomodation is a little over half way down the East Coast at Broadford so the best option is to take in as much of the North and East as possible to avoid backtracking the following day. 1st stop the Fairy Glen for a lovely walk around some small mountains, very scenic but obviously a few other tourists around to get in the way of your photos. En-route to the Kilt Waterfall we stumbled on an Ironage farm structure - actually for storage - that hadn’t been in any of our guide books but it was discovered by a farmer when the tractor wheel broke through a lintel in a paddock and then followed a community project to dig it out and open it up for us to visit. Just a donation and no one anywhere to be seen. Unfortunately the rains that have been playing havoc on us lately had found there way into the entrance so that was as far as we got. Apparently it is 15 metres long and varies between 800 and 1500 mm high so we would have had to crawl through the mud in order to get inside. Next time! 

Kilt Waterfall was great although i did lose my sh*t with another tourist who pinched my car park so i gave him a serve and then put it behind me. 

Next was a scenic walk to an old site where they mined minerals used in production of dynamite, great little walk and very scenic but..... rain! And by the time we got back to the car we were soaked, bugger.

A little further down the road and just starting to dry out we came across the mountainous “old man of Stor” - an outcrop of basalt rock structures off to the side of the road but up a hill, do we or don’t we? It was only a Km, but it looked like more showers were coming. Bugger it, lets do it! Kilometre my ass, it had to be at least two miles and most of it uphill. 3/4 of the way up and the rains were getting stronger and the track looked never ending. We don’t normally let things beat us but i think we made the right decision to turn back. Lovely dinner at a seafood restaurant called Cleeries near the airbnb ( with a fire) and two weary little bodies but a great day out.

Day 2 on Skye was more adventure. The mountains are incredible and very reminiscent of Norway but the roads do take some getting used to.  We explored the main township of Portree - it didn’t take long as there really isn’t much to it, and then we headed west to take in a walk out to Coral Beach - underwhelming but it got us moving.

Time for a whisky? Talisker Whisky Distillery is the only on the island but they give a good tour and you get to taste/buy some samples and it killed a bit of time. Finally we headed out to the Fairy Ponds for a walk, more rain, and it was getting late but what the heck, its only a 30 minute walk each way! Stunning and you can only imagine what it might be like in the middle of summer as the waterfalls and crystal clear water which were actually shades of green/blue due to the mineral content were beautiful under the grey skies. I have actually been checking out the “shades of Grey” lately as we have certainly had our fair share of grey skies, seas, buildings etc over the last week. Back to the same restaurant again for dinner as we enjoyed it the night before and were just too tired to cook.

Another early start in order to get down to the bottom of the island for the 10.30 ferry, unfortunately the rain meant our early start was a bit wasted as there was no stopping and very little to see due to the conditions. An interesting Ferry trip and thankfully reasonably short at 45 minutes as it was rough and the ferry was being hammered by waves. I think we made the right decision to stay in the car.

Back to mainland Scotland and we are heading off on another of their scenic tourist routes with the end point being Fort William. The weather again was rainy and grey but the scenery didn’t disappoint. Not the greatest for photos but beautiful just there same. We stopped at Glenfinnan for a short walk (about 30 min each way) to view the train viaduct, still in use and featured in one of the Harry Potter films. Some lovely views along the way including of a monument to Bonnie Prince Charlie. 

Our stop for the night was a hotel in Fort William that looked far better in the photos than reality! The town was billed as the outdoor capital of the UK and it is where you would come if you were intending to climb Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the UK. It is surrounded by some spectacular scenery. But the town itself does. Not take long to explore and there were much better outdoor shops in Snowdonia. 

Next day, another tourist route that would take us through Loch Lomond national park enroute to Glasgow. A couple of photo stops along the way including an attempt, despite the weather the capture the beautiful reflections in the loch. A short stop in Luss on Loch Lomond for lunch and a look around before continuing on to Glasgow and another airbnb appartment on the river Clyde for the next three nights.

First day we decided to spend touring. First stop - “the Kelpies” - two spectacular metal sculptures of horses. Very impressive. They are part of a much larger complex of tourist attractions. Time restraints only allowed for photos before we continued on as we had two castles we need to bag! Next stop Stirling Castle - another castle that features very prominently in Scottish history. It’s early history saw lots of battles and serges, then once abandoned by kings and queens the military took over and gutted much of it because it might make the soldiers”soft”. It has since been taken into car by Historic Scotland and quite a bit of restoration has been completed. Great job!

Next stop Doune Castle - the site of some of the filming of Monty Python’s Holy Grail and the series “Outlander” as well as another new Netflix series on Robert the Bruce. The audio guide commentary was done by one of the Monty Python crew and was very entertaining including some short clips from the python skits as well as some bits of commentary bu non other than “Jamie Fraser” of Outlander fame. Very entertaining. Great visit.

Back to our accommodation for a bit of reorganisation, booking of the last of our accommodation and a night in!

Tomorrow- Glasgow city!

Scotland

Well this last week has literally raced by and we have managed to fit a lot in despite the weather.

Arrival in Edinburgh was straight forward although no duty free on arrival so probably should have purchased the bottle of gin before we left Sweden!

We left our gear at the hotel and headed out to explore the city on foot as the hotel we are staying in is only a short walk to the city centre. After a good walk around the new town area  (actually it looks like the old town) we then decided to visit the Royal Yacht Britannia. According to Lonely planet you should walk down from the city (Leith Walk) and then bus home so we trusted them and 3 miles later we were onboard with some tired feet. No doubt about it, it is a beautiful boat, tastefully decorated and an interesting insight into what life on board must have been like.

After a rest and allowing the feet to breath we decided to head out for some Scottish music at Au Bar and therefore a later night than we had anticipated particularly given the 5.45 start to catch the flight.

Day two and we were off reasonably early to take in Edinburgh Castle for our 9.30 booking. BLOODY GOOGLE MAPS..... yep once again we trusted google only to find ourselves under the walls of the castle and in need of some serious raiding ladders if we were going to scale the walls. This thing was built on this site because of the difficulty in penetrating the walls so nothing for it but back track and head around to the right entrance albeit 30 minutes behind schedule. We had a great look around, loved the history and continue to get confused by the complexity of the royal lineages- James the V1 and 1st...... Ah that’s right James the 6th of Scotland and 1st of England.After the castle - a walk down the Royal Mile so named because it was the route taken by the king from Holyrood Palace to the castle. Lots of fabulous old buildings with wonderful cobbled lanes heading off to the side, a bit of shopping along the way, a look at Parliament House from the outside because it wasn’t open - very interesting architecture. Finishing with a tour of Holyrood Palace. Still currently used including much of the original furniture. A quite understated palace as palaces go. But still impressive. The day was cold and the afternoon was wet so it was nice to get back to the hotel and rest some very weary legs!

Day 3  began with a 7am fire alarm whereby we pulled on some jeans and a jumper and headed out of the building. Many of our fellow guests appeared in dressing gowns and pj’s and thankfully we were able to wait in another hotel over the road but alas, no coffee. It is at this time you actually start to think about what you didn’t have with you if there was actually a fire including passports and photos- thankfully a false alarm..... the rest of the day was highlighted by a visit to Rosslyn Chapel  https://www.rosslynchapel.com/ 

This was right up there as far as visits were concerned and reminded us of the Jayne Temple we experienced in India. Magnificent stonework that has been well preserved and made famous by Dan Brown in the Da Vinci code. The trust looking after the Chapel have not looked back since the release of the book and the ten-fold increase in visitor numbers. The chapel is unique because it not only depicts religious scenes and icons but also scientific ideas and nature references. This is due to the interests of the person who designed and built the chapel. And yes there were also links to the stonemasons lodge. A perfect choice for Dan Brown. 

Another night and another Scottish music experience- this time a traditional Jam session at Sandy Bells and a new friend Paddy who had a very doubtful past that we decided to avoid as he had some significant links to the IRA (if he was to be believed)  and he had also had a significant amount of alcohol on board and we were there for the music after all. Minor problem trying to get a bus after midnight so back to walking and more tired legs.

Next day Aberdeen via the Argyll Coastal Tourist Route and a visit to Arbroath Abbey ruins.

Doesn’t look like much in this photo but it was an impressive building. You can certainly imagine what it must have been like when fully operational. 

We have a great little 2 bedroom flat close to the city in Aberdeen so it was nice to chill out for a couple of nights. 

We spent the morning at Dunotar Castle. Yes another ruin but once again very impressive. A stunning location on a cliff headland and whilst it has been left in ruins there are still significant buildings and you can not help but be impressed by the sheer scale of the site.

Back in Aberdeen and time to wander around the city centre. Rather underwhelming in most parts and the majority of buildings are constructed from a dull grey granite (that “sparkles” in the sunshine). There were however a few impressive buildings including a citadel and the university building right in the heart of the town.

Leaving Aberdeen we head to Inverness via another of Scotlands tourist drives. This time via the Craigorm National Park. Another stunning drive with beautiful autumnal scenes and winding roads. We decided to push on in order to get to the Culloden Battlefield and the Clava Cairns and standing stones burial site. If you have been watching Outander on Netflix you will appreciate why we wanted to go to both of these sites. The stones were the first stop and well worth the detour to be immersed in a small but significant site that includes a number of stone circles (not as big as Stone Henge but nowhere near the crowds and it was free!) The burial sites were large mounds of stone piles or cairns with an alleyway up the middle and into the centre aligned to the Summer Solstice. The CLAVA cairns were the inspiration for Craig Na Dun (the standing stones that transported Clare) in Outlander.

Culloden is the site of the largest battle ever held on British soil and was where the English took on the Scottish Jacobite rebels led by Bonnie Prince Charles who was trying to restore his father James, a Stewart, to the throne. Bouyed by their previous successes Bonnie Prince Charles decided to ignore advice from his advisors, clan leaders etc to return to Inverness where they could rest the men and reprovision before rengaging in battle. Bonnie Prince Charles, believing he could not be defeated, ignored this advice and after an ill fated march trough the night to try and mount a surprise attack the men returned to camp tired and hungry to receive the order to stand and fight. The battle was fought in difficult terrain and they were outmanned and outfought not being able to properly draw up battle formations. The battle was over within an hour with 1500 Jacobites dead and 300 English. Bonnie Prince Charles was whisked away to safety, later smuggled to France as a hero for his efforts. Another 1500 Scotts and Jacobite supporters were murdered in following months by Lord Cumberland who earned himself the title of Cumberland the Butcher for his ruthless attacks. The wearing of plaid and Scottish dress and the speaking of Scottish Gaelic was outlawed as the final assault to crush any future uprisings. The skill of the Scottish highlander fighters was embraced and used to their own advantage not many years later!!!

We had to do the drive to Loch Ness, you really can’t not come to Inverness and not go on a monster hunt! It was windy and cold so decided against the cruise/ hunt and opted for the visitor centre and then a circumnavigation around the Loch via Fort Augustus. An enjoyable day and great scenery.

We finished the day with a visit to Munlochy and Clootie Well just out of Inverness. A crazy tradition of tying strips of cloth (clooties) to branches in the forest.. for many this is a memorial to a lost loved one but I suspect some tourists get a bit caught up in the moment given the number of bras and nickers that had also been added 

Headed out for some live nusic and were treated to a great night out with some young lads going by the name of Tolqunon. High energy and great entertainment with traditional Scottish Folk. We have the CD to prove it.

What do you do on another wet and windy day in Northern Scotland? Go for a drive and see what you can see. We headed off back to the Craigorm National park with the intention of going on the funicular but too wet and too much cloud to be able to see anything. So a browse of the outdoor shops filled a bit of time then more sightseeing by car! We enjoyed the day. but it was really to wet to go walking (the locals didn’t seem to care but they were probably better prepared and used to the conditions) we just didn’t want to deal with wet jeans and shoes. We did however come across a paddock of these guys

I convinced Robyn to come into the paddock so we could get closer and managed to get a few good shots until the head bull decided to come our way so back on the other side of the fence we were given a serve by a rather angry mob that seemed to be far braver in numbers.

 Clootie Well

We were going to go out again but it really was too wet so we settled in for a night and put some washing on. Thankfully we stayed home as when Robyn got up to investigate the strange noises the washing machine was making she was confronted with a room full of smoke and I suspect another couple of minutes and there would have been flames...... the smoke alarm didn’t work but we managed to get our clothes out and put them in front of the heater to dry. Scary really when you consider that we always put the washing on at home and then leave it without giving a second thought. 

After leaving Inverness we headed to the West Coast at Ullapool to catch the ferry over to the Isle of Lewes. Our road trip today was another of their great tourist routes and instead of the 1 hour direct route we embarked on 7 hours of excitement. Narrow winding roads and spectacular scenery through Forrest, along Lochs, over mountains and around Fiords. The route is part of the 500 route named because it is 500 miles of coastline to do the full circuit. The lady at the Tourist Information Centre described it correctly as “Norway in Wide screen”

And right now we are on the ferry and approaching land after a two and a half hour trip.

An enjoyable last few days in Sweden

What a great few days to finish off our Scandinavian part of this incredible journey.....

Kosta started with a trip to a Moose Park to see the moose up close and personal. The males are bloody huge beasts with huge antlers that would require some significant strength. We saw a few early on that were being rather elusive but we were patient and managed a few photos but it was as we were heading out we came across a couple of others that were not so camera shy and were happy to pose for some photos at close range. Every October they have an annual Moose cull to remove around 100,000 or 20% of the population and therefore try to manage their numbers. Nearly everywhere we drove you could see the warning signs to be careful and I reckon they would do some major damage if you hit one on the road. One of the locals said they are particularly skittish at this time of the year as they know it is October and time for the cull. At the gift shop on the way out we purchased some moose sausages for dinner and hence a return to eating exotic foods. 

Next stop the glass factory to blow our own glass objects. Initially I had intended on a simple glass bauble for the Christmas tree but by the time I had checked in it had turned into a carafe for me and a bowl for Robyn. The blowing experience was fun and pretty straight forward as our instructor  was by our side the whole time to assist with the process and manage the technical stuff that would mean the difference between success and disaster. The whole thing only took 30 minutes but we had to return 3 hours later after they had been slowly cooled and were ready for collection. Our time was easily filled by a wander through some of the galleries and a factory tour to see how the experts worked. Kosta Boda glass is extremely thick and heavy so getting stuff home was going to prove too much of a challenge and freight prices seemed to double what we might have purchased, we did however see some truly beautiful glass art that would have been purchased if we lived nearby. Capped off the afternoon with a drink at the art glass hotel where they housed some lovely glass art pieces.

Next stop for another two nights was Örebro. Our digs were probably some of the best we had experienced, slightly out of town but a very nice Air BnB with good hosts and some thoughtful touches. Other ones we have stayed at lack the little things like cooking oil or salt and pepper but this one had it all. On the recommendation of Birgitta and Klas we headed into the town and climbed (elevated up) the water tower for city views and then a bit of a drive around to get some food and wine from the “System Boligalet”. It had been a long and beautiful drive from Kosta to Örebro with plenty to see and some beautiful autumn colours. We were both a little tired by the end of the day (Actually most days we are pretty tired - i think we might need a holiday when we get home)

A full day in and around Örebro included a walk in the Skaramboda (Troll) Nature Reserviet, a walk around a nature park, a recovered former tip site among other things called Naturens Hus, lunch and a wander through Wadkoping, an open air museum of an old village made up of relocated houses, where people can live if they are artisans and display and sell their craft in small gallery shops and then a walk up a hill to follow a sculpture trail on top of an old oil shale heap that is still smouldering 45 years after it was abandoned.

Next stop Stockholm!

The drive was quite straight forward on once again good quality roads. We decided a trip to `Sweden would not be complete without a visit to Ikea so included a detour on the outskirts of Stockholm to visit an extremely huge “blue box” IKEA. An hour and a half later we re-emerged! Next task check in and drop off the car. Now the driving got interesting - we lost GPS signal inside the tunnel so hence missed our exit which added a bit of drama to the journey once we got out of the tunnel but Siri got us back on track and we found our hotel - checked in and dropped off our luggage. Now the car. We had been told in Malmö that we could drop the car at any of the Europcar offices in Stockholm so wanting to avoid any more driving in the city than was necessary we googled the closet Europcar office and headed there - only around 10 min away - great! Refuel on the way and done but NO when we get there there is no Europcar office to be found. So we select the next closest only to discover this takes us into the heart of the city and we are now heading towards peak hour traffic, also lots of road works, tunnels and confusing exits etc. Needless to say we got lost, seemed to be driving in circles. We finally parked in a Raddison Blu car park (I think illegally but the stress levels were through the roof and we didn’t care) and walked to central station to try and get some advice on where we could leave the car. Armed with more directions we set off again and encountered more road works, probably drove the wrong way down a street that had been made one way by the road works but success - we found the Europcar office but where to park! I went in to ask while Stu waited in the car - mmm - more driving - we needed to go back down the street the right way and navigate around a couple of city blocks, dodge some road works to finally turn down past the Europcar office to access their multi story car park. Now just give back the keys!!!!! It had only taken about an hour and a half to return the car! Walking and public transport from here on! Purchased some 72hour transport passes, a couple of bottles of wine and headed back to our very spacious, comfortable apartment (we had been upgraded to a larger apartment - very nice!) Dinner at a little local restaurant just down the road from our accommodation - very nice. 

Day one - bus into the city and a self guided walking tour which started at the very impressive city hall, then a couple of churches and other significant old buildings, a meander through the cobbled streets of Gamla Stan which included a typical Swedish lunch of meatballs and finally the Palace and a look at the Crown Jewels.

Day two - off to one of the other islands that are part of Stockholm for a visit to the Vasa Museet to see the Vasa ship. It was a war ship commissioned by King Gustav Adolpheus built in the mid 1620’s meant to assist in the fighting in the 30 year war. It sank on it’s maiden voyage only about one and a half kilometres from where it was launched. It was truely impressive with hundreds of elaborate carvings and 64 cannons (designed for 72) all of which unfortunately added to its instability. It was too heavy, too high and too narrow with not enough ballast. A gust of wind caused it too wobble and water to come in through the cannon portholes which were all open for the great fanfare and ceremony that was too accompany the launch of this impressive ship. There were two cannon decks and the lower one was not far from the water line. Around 30 lives were lost. It was a major disaster in all respects and the king was not told for a couple of weeks! It lay on the bottom for 300 years. Several attempts were made to recover it but technology was not capable. Most of the cannons were recovered and sold around the world. It was raised in the mid 1960’s and restored over the following 30 odd years, including the building of a prup[ose built museum. It is remarkably well preserved and is 98% original. This was due to the brackish water, lack of oxygen and silt covering it. They have even been able to recover and reconstruct parts of some of the sails. An impressive and amazing sight. We spent two and a half hours which included 7 floors to see the ship from top to bottom and a 30min guided talk about the commissioning and sinking of the ship. Then on to find some lunch and a ferry ride to Sodermalm for a wander around a few streets and a visit to a photography museum (which included a “zillion” stairs to get down to the waterfront and the location of the exhibition.) enough walking - time for some rest (after we walk back up the “zillion” stairs) before we head to the airport at 7am and a two hour flight to Edinburgh.

In summary we have loved our few weeks in Scandinavia and are so pleased that we made the decision. Yes it was expensive but the scenery, the history, the Viking museums ,the people and the experiences that we have had have been well worth the effort. It has definitely been a highlight. One we would highly recommend. We 9or maybe our government) could certainly learn a lot if we had the will or the interest in doing things more efficiently and effectively for everyone.