Norway Day 6 - Wednesday 26th July - Oslo

 

Oslo

It was only a short delay to disembark the ferry an we were looking for a parking spot in Oslo by 10:30. Our hotel was 15 minutes outside Oslo so we parked in the car park near the station. It was around £45 for the 7 hours we were in it. You pay when you leave. Your car registration is read on entry and you just have to enter your registration into the payment machine when you want to leave.   Our first target was the ‘Munch’ museum dedicated to the artist Edvard Munch.  The collection is now housed in a new building that opened in 2020. The museum was bequeathed over 28,000 artworks and more than 42,000 unique museum objects by the artist himself.  This is probably why we spent a lot of time in there – although we did not see as much as this!  We paid for a audio guide each and it was worth the additional cost.

Some of our time was spent trying to view all three of the versions on display of ‘The Scream’ which are only uncovered for 30 minutes at a time on a rota system.  The pen and ink version gets more of showing which is why it took us so long to view them all.  A lot of the art tends to be on the melancholy side, so we didn’t make a purchase of any items in the shop.  We did have a tasty but expensive sandwich and raisin bun (between us as the sandwiches were a bit small) in the café, together with a very expensive and very poor coffee.  We did look at some exhibits of other artists and also enjoyed the view from the 11th floor.

Munch Museum

Lunch

                                        

                                                        Munch self portrait

                                            The Scream

                                           Roof of the Opera House

Our next adventure was to walk on the roof on the Opera House – an activity that they would not allow in England due to unprotected drops and deliberate uneven floor.  Some of the inclines were also quite steep.  After this we ventured up the main shopping street, but did not visit any of the shops.  By now it was getting late and we had to retrieve the car and drive out of the centre to our hotel.  Hotel Schon turned out to be very good.  Large room with twin sinks in the bathroom, work area, kettle and comfortable bed.  It was also possible to help yourself to tea and coffee in the foyer downstairs.  For our evening meal there was a Google recommended Thai restaurant right opposite the hotel.  This proved an excellent choice and Robert enjoyed Pad Thai and Lyn had stir fried chicken, both at £16 for the one course.  The portion size was large and we did not need anything else.  We both tried the ‘ginger tea’ which was a powder and came in a packet which we had to pour into our cups of hot water.  We think it was 100% ginger and was actually quite good.

The parking was secure and under the hotel and cost £22.50 for 24 hours.

Norway Day 5 -Tuesday 25th July - Ferry to Oslo

 The weather improved again today for our journey to Copenhagen and the ferry to Oslo.  More people in breakfast which was as good as yesterday.  Took a roll each again and asked to take one of the fruit drinks with us.  Vacated the B&B in good time at 9.30am so we had plenty of time for the ferry.  On route we called into a supermarket for provisions for our tea on board, the on-board meal being a bit out of our budget at £42 for two courses without drinks – and we could not be sure of the quality!  Our food from the supermarket came to about £33 and that included a couple of items for later use.

The journey to Copenhagen took us over a spectacular bridge between Funen Island and the island that Copenhagen is on.  Part of this was a suspension bridge.  The route took us through the city before arriving at the port just before 1pm.  We were able to check in straight away, then had a short wait in the queue before embarking.  Once up from the car deck it was chaos as they were still cleaning the cabins which would not be ready until 2.45pm.  Lots of health hazards in the corridors like vacuum cleaner cables and parts of beds!  We had to find a spot outside to sit whilst waiting.  Our outside cabin with window was not too bad.  Really worth paying the extra on this crossing for the window as plenty to see leaving Copenhagen, at midnight when we stopped at Frederikshavn port, and especially on the journey up the fjord to Oslo in the morning.  Plenty to do on this DFDS ferry service – restaurants, disco, entertainment, ‘bubble room’ – which consisted of a set of Jacuzzis and sauna.  We did intend making use of the later, but it was too full of people. Robert got asked to stop filming in the disco!

Norway Day 4 - Monday 24th July - Cycle ride round Odense

 Breakfast at 8am where we were the only two taking it – perhaps the £12 price tag put people off!  Turned out to be excellent with yoghurt, scrambled egg and crispy bacon, rolls – including homemade, selection of fruit, tomato, pepper, cheese and meat, local fruit juice in little bottles, homemade jam. We took a roll each and some cheese for our lunch as we could not eat everything in the basket they provided for us.  Robert had two bike rides planned and we chose the shorter one of 37 miles as although the weather looked to have improved, it was still a bit unsettled.  Lovely ride through very slightly undulating countryside on very quiet roads.  We diverted into the city of Odense, looked around and had an expensive (£7) take away coffee each.  The ride ended up being 45 miles with the city excursion and a diversion due to a road closure!  A pity we did not have another day to do the other ride.  Went back to Kerteminde in the evening for fish and chips (114 DK each) from a wooden shack, eaten by the sea. Interesting as the fish was coated in breadcrumbs and the chips were ready salted and extra crispy.  Served with coleslaw and tartare sauce.

Norway Day 3 - Sunday 23rd July - Rendsburg Transporter Bridge

 Breakfast at Weinbeck was very good, having made our choices on the tick list the evening before.  Our choice included smoked salmon and scrambled egg, cheese, fruit, yoghurt and homemade spelt rolls.  We were also served a little ‘house cake’ at the end of breakfast which consisted of sponge with fruit and muesli on the top.  Quite a few people staying so it was busy at breakfast.  Raining today and as it was a Sunday, the Lidl supermarket opposite the hotel was closed.  We did however, use the wine shop facilities to buy the quota of wine we are allowed to take into Norway – 4 x 70cl bottles each, plus some for Denmark!  Surprisingly for a wine shop, there were some decent wines at reasonable prices.

We did not have so far to drive today, but as it was raining our options were limited.  Google informed us of a ‘transporter bridge’ which we drove to and then realised it transported cars over the river for free, so it was essential to try it out. 

Cars a passenger are transported across the Keil  canal on the road platform hanging from the railway bridge above. A smooth and quick journey and timed to avoid any passing ship. The bridge was erected between 1911 and 1913 to a design by Friedrich Voss (1872–1953) and replaced the earlier swing bridges. Google also advised us of the whereabouts of a bakery that was open on a Sunday for the purchase of rolls to go with the green cheese for lunch by the bridge.  After lunch we continued our journey into Denmark. Kate did not point out the lane we needed to be in when joining motorway so we ending up going in the wrong direction past  the cars queuing in the roadworks we had been in the day before. The was about 10 km before the next junction and then we navigated across the country to join the motorway past the roadworks. It was then a straight forwards journey onto Funen Island for our B&B accommodation, arriving just after 5pm.  Convenient for unloading from the car straight into our room, but we made an error as we did not notice that the accommodation had a shared bathroom – there are quite a lot of places with this option in Denmark.  Turned out to be okay actually as two good bathrooms available.  Our host advised us where to go for food and we drove 10 minutes to Kerteminde on the coast for an expensive but tasty and filling Thai meal.  £54 without any drinks – sparkling water was ‘free’.

Transporter bridge Rendsburg

Transporter bridge Rendsburg

                                                    Thai Starter

                                             Bronks Bed and breakfast

Norway Day 2 - Saturday 22nd July - Drive Rensburg

 We arrived in Rotterdam at 8am, but it took about 1.5 hours to leave the ship and clear customs.  We drove through Holland towards Germany and a detour on route caused by roadworks  just happened to take us near the cheese shop we found last year – so it was rude not to stop for some Dutch cheese.  We decided to try the ‘Pesto’ flavour which was very green but was tasty.  Deciding to picnic for lunch, we parked in the same car park we used last year when we explored Amersfoot by bike.

A long journey ahead, we pressed on into Germany using motorways to Rendsburg and our hotel for the night ‘Weinbeck’ which as the name suggests, has a wine shop attached!  Quite a boring journey which just seemed to get longer the more traffic we encountered!  We were just in time for the meal that we had asked for in advance.  Small but adequate menu and we splashed out on two courses as it was our first real night on holiday.  Quite tasty.  Cucumber soup with smoked salmon, followed by pan fried perch sat on pea risotto, served with a salad.

    

                                                                Farmhouse chees shop

                                                                Green Pesto Gauda

Brexton coffee stop on route

Norway Day 1- Friday 21st July - Ferry to Rotterdam

 We set off early in the afternoon for the drive to Hull to catch the night ferry to Rotterdam.  There were quite a few delays on the M62 but we had left in plenty of time .  The cabin we had booked was tiny, had bunk beds and without kettle so we made use of the upgrade facility and for £20 we changed cabins for a four berth one which gives extra room and a sea view – a first for us on this ferry as we do not usually bother with the view! It was well worth the additional cost and we will ask again on our return leg. We took our own food on board for the evening meal so eat in the cabin before wandering up to the Sky Lounge Piano bar.

                                                             Dinner on board    

                                    

Arrival in the Netherlands

Commonwealth Games, Birmingham, 2022

A look back to the Commonwealth Games

Following the pandemic, we tentatively booked a few tickets to the Commonwealth Games to take advantage of them being on home soil once again. We secured all the tickets we asked for over consecutive days, and therefore could travel to the area and stay. They were Beach Volleyball (a new event for us), swimming (we have applied for this before but have never been successful), lawn bowls (we watched this in Glasgow 2014 and it was very pleasant, also it is out of the main city at Leamington Spa) and men’s gymnastics (again an event we have previously had no success in gaining tickets for).

We booked an Airbnb in Bourneheath near Bromsgrove which was a suitable distance from both Birmingham and Royal Leamington Spa. This turned out to be excellent accommodation, with very friendly hosts. We arrived from two parts of the country and enjoyed a cup of tea in the back area of the little one bedroomed cottage, situated behind the house of the hosts. 

Homemade sourdough loaf and a bottle of local wine greeted us, together with many other little treats and basics such as a little milk, butter and honey. The cottage is well equipped for cooking and even has a small dishwasher and a washer/dryer. It would be a good base for cycling or walking in the area.

There is a lovely view of the main garden from the eating area Saturday 30 th July. Our first event was beach volleyball and actually turned out to be more interesting than Lyn was expecting! The festival area itself was not too interesting, but has decent, if expensive food. However, we only bought very expensive coffee in the area as we had just eaten a tasty lunch in Wagamama. We were disappointed with the merchandise stall as the clothes looked a bit dull. We saw two whole men’s matches, with one in particular between South Africa and Ruwanda that was good, with Ruwanda winning to the delight of the crowd. We only had time to see the start of the women’s match before needing to head off to the swimming.

We arrived in the car park at 5.30pm so only had to pay 40p to park the car for the evening (free after 6pm). As we were early, we decided to take advantage of one of the local takeaways and devoured a vegetable pizza between us in the car. It was a decent walk to the Sandwell Aquatics Centre and mainly up hill – although we later discovered that we could miss out part of this. We managed to escape the entrance queue as Lyn was using her wheelchair due to the long walking distances and we were ushered through the ‘accessible entrance’.

This venue proved to be the worst for access to facilities as there were just too many people and not enough space. Once inside the swimming centre it was okay – but as we were seated right in the middle of the row, we didn’t move for the next few hours. The swimming was interesting, as were the medal ceremonies! Plenty of standing was necessary for national anthems. The walk to the car seemed a lot faster on the way back, but we got back to the cottage quite late so made do with beans on toastfor supper!

Sunday 31 st July. We were thankful that we didn’t have to have an early start today, due to our late night on Saturday. We headed to Royal Leamington Spa, parked in a multi storey car park and went to The Aviary café in Jepson Park. Delicious wholemeal vegetable pasties were eaten, washed down with coffee. A short walk took us to the Lawn Bowls area which turned out to be the nicest venue due to it’s size, the fact it was grassy, and the laid back atmosphere. 

There were two sessions and we watched matches that included England, Jersey, Scotland and Wales in the first session. In the second session we watched matches involving visually impaired players. On the way back to the cottage, we bought a Chinese takeaway to eat for our evening meal.

Monday 1 st August. Time to leave our accommodation and set off to the final event – the gymnastics in Birmingham Arena. We took one car and left Lyn’s on the drive of the accommodation. We had time to have lunch in a Mexican restaurant by the canal which was not the best, and ended up being a bit rushed. Once in the venue, we were treated to a variety of final events. The men’s floor, men’s rings and pummel horse. Also, two women’s events, the vault and the uneven bars. 

Quite interesting and entertaining, with yet more medal ceremonies. It took us a while to leave the city, but once back in Bourneheath we collected Lyn’s car and reconvened at a local pub for our tea prior to both returning home in different directions. All in all, a good weekend and worth the effort.