So much has happened over the last few days and it is hard to keep this blog up to date. The basic problem is that the days are so long and as a result we are active for so many hors that it is hard to find time to record our doings. Our next port of call after St. Petersberg was Visby. This was a cute little town on the Swedish islano of Goteburg. It is still surounded by its medieval walls and has a numbe ...

Following our time in St Petersberg, we have made our way back to Finland & Sweden. On Saturday (14th), we spent a day in Helsinki, Sunday (15th) was in Stockholm and today (16th) we have been in Visby. Helsinki immediately struck us as a pleasant city. It was bright and sunny and the city is modern and open. It hadd a good feel to it. We had docked early in the morning by the container port which, compared ...

We arrived in St Petersburg yesterday at 6.30 am and what an interesting time the last two days have been. As we arrived into the port, we sailed down a very narrow channel and we could see a reef running only forty metres or so from the ship. We tied up at the wharf and if you've ever imagined a Russian industrial complex, we are right in the middle of it. We are tied up at the steel wharf. Opposite our ca ...

Well, we have had our first day at sea. The Baltic seems to be quite sheltered and the waves haven't been more in height than a foot or so. I understand that it is also less salty than the main oceans as a large number of glaciers enter the sea, meaning that it has a higher content of fresh water. On Monday, we had a free morning in Copenhagen so we went shopping on the walking street. By 1 pm we had return ...

I have got a little behind with my updates as we have had long days and I just ran out of time to do any writing. Today we have a free morning while waiting to board our cruise ship at 1.00 pm this afternoon. Back to where I left off. On Thursday (June 2) we left our hotel at Flam and drove through a number of tunnels to a ferry terminal where we caught a local ferry back to Flam. This was designed to give ...

On Monday 5th, we drove from Lillehammer to Geiranger Fjord. It was a lovely sunny day. By lunch time we had reached the little village of Lom where we had a sandwich in the café and a look at the little stave church on the other side of the stream. Stave churches are traditional churches based on a rock foundation with four central poles that support the main structure. They are made entirely from woo ...

Friday was a very wasted day - spent entirely in travel. We left our hotel in Windsor at 9.30 am and finally arrived at our hotel in Oslo at 7.00 pm. That's a long day for a two hour flight. Getting to Heathrow was relatively easy. We drove through Runnymeade, which I had no idea was so close to London and then on to the motorway to the airport.. They have changed the freeway exit to the airport since our G ...

Now that i am the airport, I should summarise some of my observations about travelling around the UK as an Australian: 1. The countryside is very green - I understand that this May was the wettest May month since 1982 2. Driving a car here is easy but its bloody hard work to find a parking spot or take a photograph. 3. It costs a lot to live here. I need to remember that every time I spend a £, it actually ...