Oslo- Day 7 - 12/10/11

Sarah had to be out at the airport bright and early for her flight to Stavanger, while I had the day in Oslo, with my flight to London leaving at 9pm.

I drove out to the airport with Sarah to see her off and hand back the car to the rental company. The airport is about 50 km north of Oslo but there is a very fast train service which takes only 20 minutes to get back to the hotel in the city centre.

After breakfast and a shower, I set off on a circular walk around the city stopping at the Munch museum:-

Then to the graveyard where Edvard Munch and Henrik Ibsen lie buried:-

Next stop was the National Gallery which had some more paintings by Munch, including "The Scream".

In the afternoon I went down to the port area intending to get a ferry across to the viking ship museum. The ferry had shut down for the winter and, as the bus to the island meant backtracking to the National Gallery for the bus stop, I decided instead to have a look around the nearby castle and fort and the Resistance museum:-

I managed to fit in a look around the Astrup Fearnley Contemporary art museum (I was a bit disappointed that the Michael Jackson and Bubbles sculpture was not on display though) and a look around the Opera house in the daylight before heading out to the airport for my flight:-

State of the art design, including the urinals:-

Frederikstad, Halden, Oslo - Day 6 - 11/10/11

I was feeling the after effects of last nights wine, we had been taken out for a delicious meal by one of Sarah's work contact's. I don't normally drink wine so had a sore head, wah!

I did my chauffering duties, dropping Sarah off for her meeting, then crawling into the back of the Volvo for a nap before going to the towns fort and sitting in the sun on the rampart's to read a bit more of the Stieg Larsson book.

Once Sarah had finished her meeting, we drove to Oslo. We arrived at about 5pm and were due to meet some friends of Sarah's for dinner at 7.30pm. As this was the only chance for Sarah to see something of Oslo, and the last day of car hire, we did a couple of sights on the outskirts of the city.

The downhill ski ramp which, unfortunately, was shut so we could not go up it for the view over the city:-

And the Vigeland sculpture park, one of the sights on my must see list :-

We arrived at the hotel just in time to meet up with Sarah's friends who took us out for a very tasty Vietnamese meal and showed us around the centre of Oslo. We ended the evening with a walk around the roof of the Oslo Opera house:-

Frederikstad and Sarpsborg - Day 5 - 10/10/11

Monday - another meeting at an industrial estate for Sarah, another day of sight seeing for me. Sarah's meeting was at Sarpsborg, a few miles away from our hotel in Frederikstad.

I realised that we were in Norway when I stopped at a petrol station to get a few snacks - crisps, coke and biscuits - and got no change from £10!

After dropping Sarah off I had a look around the sleepy town centre then went around another, less impressive open air museum and had a look at a bronze age (500bc) rock carving of a longboat, just outside Sarpsborg. I took Sarah to have a look once she'd finished her meeting:-

We headed back to Frederikstad and had a look around the historic old town:-

Gothenburg - Day 4 - 9/10/11

We stayed at the funky, modern, Hotel Avalon in Gothenburg. It has a glass bottomed swimming pool that overhangs the 8th floor of the building.

We had a walk around the town, going through a park and stopping for a look inside the palm house, a miniature version of the Crystal Palace:-

We followed this with a tour by boat of the cities canals and harbour and then did a bit of window shopping before heading off on the drive to Frederikstad, which took up the rest of afternoon apart from a stop for lunch.

Lunch was at Vatten, a gourmet cafe attached to the Nordic Watercolour Museum at Skarhamn, on the Balhus coast, a scenic area of coastline north of Gothenberg.

I had the fish stew, which was delicious:-

Stockholm - Day 3 - 8/10/11

Saturday, so no meetings for Sarah. We drove to Stockholm where we arrived just in time for the, once daily, 11.30 am Stieg Larsson tour. A 90 minute walking tour of Stockholm, yakking about the sites mentioned in the author's millenium trilogy

Here is Michael Blomquist outside his flat:-

And Lisbeth Salander outside her secret apartment:-

The view of Stockholm from near Michael Blomquist's flat:-

After the tour we took a ferry over to the Vasa museum. The Vasa was a ship that sank in the Stockholm harbour on her maiden voyage in 1623 - they had put the incorrect amount of ballast in the ship which meant that it went straight down to the bottom shortly after it's launch. It was dredged up in 1959 and has been put on display in an impressive building. It is remarkably well preserved.

The Vasa:-

Some of the sailors on shore leave, and a model showing how it looked in all it's glory:-

We had a fairly rushed tour of the Vasa as our parking was running out and we had a long drive ahead to our next hotel in Gothenburg. We ended up doing about 8 hours of driving on this day, arriving at Gothenburg at midnight.

Linkoping - Day 2 - 7/10/11

I spent the day exploring Linkoping while Sarah attended another meeting.

I came across this Nuthatch on the pavement which I assume had been hit by a car, hopefully it was just dazed and would flutter off:-

The cathedral:-

I walked through the local park which had this cafe in a greenhouse:-

Then walked to an open air building museum on the outskirts of town - the buildings were all moved here from the centre of town, to save them from demolition:-

Scandinavian Road Trip - Day One - 6/10/11

Now that I am back from my trip and have access to my photo's,I can update the blog.

We arrived at Stockholm just after midnight and, after having picked up the shiny new rental car, didn't feel like driving to the hotel in central Stockholm. Fortunately the hotel chain had a branch at the airport and Sarah was able to switch hotels.

The rental car (a Volvo XC60):-

In the morning we drove to Orebro where we split up, Sarah having her first business meeting and me exploring my first Swedish town. There wasn't a great deal happening in Orebro on a Monday morning so I strolled around, had a look at the castle and took the car back to Hertz so that they could change a faulty fuse which was preventing the Sat-nav from charging.

Orebro castle:-

After Sarah's meeting we drove to Linkoping where we checked into our hotel and headed out for a nice meal.

The restaurant and the hotel in the background:-

Venison for me, duck for Sarah, very tasty:-

Portsmouth

I've had my internet back for a couple of weeks now so had better update the blog. My friend Alex from Hong Kong was over at the beginning of March so I took a couple of days off. We went to Portsmouth and had a look at HMS Victory and the Gunwharf Quays shopping area.

The next day was spent in London. A tour of Freemasons Hall was top on the list of Alex's to do list so we did the free tour of the building first. I got the same culty vibe that I felt going around the Beehive house in Salt Lake City but no Lemon drop at the end.

After that Alex met up with clients for lunch in China town and I had a look in some of the second hand bookshops on Charing Cross Road and had a couple of pints in "The Porcupine." In the afternoon we walked over to the Tate Modern via Whitehall.

Goodbye NY

I've a couple more hours before my cab to the airport - a reliable driver that Nick knows who drove me to the airport last year. I've been in NY since returning the car on Friday morning. Had a Japanese meal on Friday evening with Nick and Dayna and a friend of theirs. On Saturday I went into Manhattan and went to the Tenement museum. It's an old tenement building that was sealed up and forgotten about in the 1930's with just the ground floor shops kept in use. It wasn't rediscovered until the 1980's when the purchaser saw it and preserved it as a museum. There are 7 different guided tours of the building that detail the lives of some of the thousands of people that passed through the area and lived there in squalid conditions. I did one of the hour long tours, very interesting.

Yesterday we drove out to Long Island and did a walk around the Caumsett State Preserve. Today I had a walk through Central Park to the Natural History Museum then had a quick shop in Macy's.

Back in New York

I am back at Nick's flat having returned the car this morning in Manhattan. I have been away from the internet the last few days as the motel's either didn't have internet or I was too fuffed out to update the blog. After the outlet centre in Maine I went to Lake Winnipasaukee and the White Mountains area but a lot of the attractions that I wanted to see had closed for the season, so I spent some time going to places on the off chance they'd still be open - usually to find that they weren't.

I wanted to see the Flume canyon in the Franconia state park but that was shut so I had to content myself with "the Basin" - a plunge pool at the bottom of some rapids and the Boise Rock - a big rock which Mr Boise crawled under when he got caught in a blizzard - he skinned his horse and snuggled up under the rock. His rescuers found him the next day and had to cut him out of the frozen horse skin but he survived.

The last 2 days I have been in New York State in the Adirondacks (same situation, most things shut November until May) so didn't see Fort Ticonderoga. It poured with rain all yesterday so I stopped at Glen Falls to see the Hyde Collection - a private collection of old masters amassed by a wealthy paper manufacturer at the turn of the last century I stopped at Saratoga Springs for a wander and coffee then drove onto Woodbury Common Outlet Centre for some more shopping as there wasn't much else to do in the lousy weather. I stayed at a motel there and drove into Manhattan in the rush hour this morning.

Off out with Nick and Dayna tonight for a japanese meal in Manhattan.

Lake Winnipesaukee

I spent the morning at the outlet centre shopping and drove up to the Lake in the afternoon. I was intending to stay by the lakes for a couple of days but most things are shut for the season and it's pretty dead. I will head further north today to look at the Whie Mountain area then start heading back towards New York tomorrow.

Boston & Salem

I spent the morning in Boston walking along the Freedom Trail which links all the historic parts of the City. I had a look around the Paul Revere house - only 4 rooms so didn't take long and had lunch at Quincy Market - reminds me of Covent Garden but mainly a food hall. I chose Thai and had a tasty red curry.

In the afternoon I drove north to Salem for the Halloween parade and have stayed at a motel (Best Western this time) just across the state border in New Hampshire.

Newport Mansions & Cape Cod

I spent the morning doing the 3.5 mile cliff walk past all the mansions I turned around and retraced my route, stopping to do a tour of The Breakers, one of the fancier mansions, built by a Vanderbilt in 1895 - a railway millionaire. In the afternoon I did a drive around the Cape Cod area and am staying at a motel south of Boston.

I will have a look around Boston today and then head up to a big outlet centre "the Kittery" near Mrs Seippel tomorrow, for a shopping day. I won't call in on Mrs seippel as its such short notice given I was intending to be in Pennsylvania, and I don't have her details.

Mystic - 29/10/10

I took the train into Manhattan with Nick on his commute then had breakfast and picked up the car at 10am - A Chevrolet, HHR? - not sure of the model name - it looks like a PT Cruiser...does the job.

I arrived at Mystic, Connecticut about midday and spent the afternoon at the Mystic Seaport - a museum of historic ships and then had a look around Mystic - I've not seen the film and didn't feel like pizza so didn't go in Mystic Pizza. I have spent the night at a Comfort Inn on I95 between Providence and Boston.

Today I am going to Newport, Rhode Island where I will take a tour of one of the many mansions.

Brooklyn Heights

I trip over was fine until I got into the cab at JFK airport after about 10 minutes the driver switched off his meter and said sorry he'd taken a wrong turning, his mistake. It then took him 2 hours to do a 30 minute journey...... Oh well, I got there eventually and he didn't charge me. I can't believe he'd queue up at the airport with absolutely no idea of the city and without a map or sat nav.

Yesterday was a beautiful summery day - 21 degrees and bright sunshine. I walked over the Brooklyn Bridge and explored Brooklyn Heights a nice residential area where a number of authors lived (Truman Capote, W H Auden, Thomas Wolfe) I stopped at Juniors restaurant for lunch to try their famous cheesecake - the first few bites were delicious but it was very filling and a bit sickly by the end of the slice.

I pick up the car this morning in Manhattan and have had a change of plan, I am going to drive around New England rather than Pennsylvania. My first stop will be the historic shipyard at Mystic, Connecticut. I will plan the trip as I go along, not sure whether I will find internet access on the way but will update this if I can.

Billing Aquadrome

I went on a day trip to visit the caravanners in Northampton. I've driven past the signs for this place on the M1 for years and wondered what it was. It's a huge campsite with a lot of lakes and an indoor pool with a waterslide. I was expecting a spaghetti junction like network of pipes in order to qualify as an "aquadrome" but there was just the one slide. The dogs were well behaved despite having to spend most of the time leashed as they weren't allowed in the caravan. I won the gogo fingerboard stacking contest and had the hairiest back in the Aquadrome - Woohoo.