In search of the Northern Lights

Thursday was departure day and of course I forgot somethng - specifically the notes so that I could write up the BCWAC meeting of Wed evening.
Dudley was collected and I got the bus to Cardiff and had an unsatisfactory Subway lunch before getting the train and bus to Heathrow. Also forgot a plastic bottle but someone had left one lying around so I was able to slake my thirst.
Thought I had forgotten my foreign Credit Card so paid for bus to hotel on Nationwide. It will be interesting to see the difference as I found it and paid for the trip back to the Airport on the Halifax.
Restless night - eventually got to sleep with phone playing tunes.

Friday

Woken at 5am by the telly, as I had messed up setting that alarm. Shower, breakfast - didn't really take advantage. Back to airport and usual hassles, at least the gate was quiet and I got on the plane early and didn't have to struggle to get to my seat down the back.
The bus was waiting and took us to the port very efficiently and, unlike the airport we strolled on board.
  Lunch was fun finding a table and we are allocated seating for dinner. Boat is very intimate. Retreated to cabin for a siesta and when I got up it was dark, 4pm back to winter.
Saturday
I don't remember. We must have visited Hammerfest. The most northerly town, and the most
destroyed. Visited the museum. Most impressed by their display of mangles - reminded me of
mother doing the washing in the 1960's.

Sunday
Is today. The Dawn or morning light as we left Harstad was beautiful. Called on Stokmarknes, I think there was a dredged channel to get in - but it wasn't impressive. Visited the Museum dedicated to the Hurtigruten Fleet. We only had an hour, which was enough I guess. The scenery
around dusk was spectacular, as we threaded our way through a narrow, winding channel with snow covered mountains on each side. Then the snow came in and we cancelled a visit to a famous steep sided Fjord.

I skipped dinner and dedicated myself to sorting out travel to Villamora. Seems I will be home for less than a week before I am off again.

Monday
Stayed upto see Bodo. The place where we disembarked in 1972. 2.30am. Nothing looked familiar.
Morning shower and loos were occupied, I had to go upstairs. Weather was showers.

Radio 4 programmes seem to whiz through - half hours pass very rapidly, but I am getting Cabin
Fever. or is it.Boat Fever. Sit upstairs and watch the scenery go by.
We left the  Arctic Circle today - I have the photos - no photos of the mountain with a hole in
it as it was getting dark but it was also very dull.

Seems tonight was a special dinner - I guess we will lose some guests at Trondheim. I didn't attend, Lunchtime dessert was superb - I had all four - Chocolate Mousse base, Ice cream on top surrounded by strawberries and raspberries and topped with surprise tart. With a fish starter the middle course of pasta and veggy stuff was dissapointing. I do like the potato salad. On top of a 3 course breakfast I don't need to eat.

I guess I had better not mention my failure to notice the arrival time in Bergen and the need to purchase a new ticket back to Oslo.

Malta 2019

Two weeks was a mistake - and while I thought half board would be OK the Coral Restaurant is getting boring but I would need to pay for a speciality burger.
   That's not to mention the fact that this "Fully air conditioned" Hotel switches the air conditioning off in the winter. Had to open the patio door to stay cool, but there was an irregular squeek from somewhere so I changed to a 6th floor room from second and now I have the traffic noise at 6am. At least I feel more secure.
Other moans include advertising dog walking every Thursday - only this week it is Friday and they couldn't be bothered to tell anyone. I love getting up at 7.30am when I am on holiday!

Still it started OK. Got my bus pass - 12 journeys - sailing in the middle meant the 7 day unlimited didn't make sense and popped

into Valetta to get the walking tour pamphlets - which they had. As I was there I took the ferry over to the Three Cities and wandered around there including the Maritime Museum. Its in an old bakery - but look at the way those were built! Inside they had gutted an old steam dredger for half of the museum but the other half was OK. Not a lot about WW2 though.

Day 2 and I walked to the Gozo Ferry and went out to see what remained of the Azure Window.

Before (from 2016) and after!

Amazing that there was no trace of the thing. I expected a sea stack or something but there was no trace of it. Walked back from the ferry and the Red Tower in the red sunset was good.

Wednesday I walked about 8 miles via Popeye Village and down the coast ending up at Mgarr where I was able to catch a bus back.

Euromed took up the next 4 days. Not really part of the team, although the two Peters seemed friendly enough. As pin end finish I didn't have the responsibility of doing everything and I had a really nice boat once we had worked out how to get the anchor down.
Photos can be seen at:-
https://photos.app.goo.gl/wt4dK3xGDsDm27cm7

The weather got really windy on Monday so I took the 221 into Sliema, to see Valetta from the other side. Modern shopping centre at The Point and a nice walk northward through St Julians and St George's Bay. Thought about a cinema visit. (then I heard a review of Cats and decided against it)

Christmas Eve I took the bus back to Mgarr with the intention of getting to a walk a bit further south but the footpath shown on google seemed to be washed out and I found myself on the Victoria Lines which seemed clearer than the map so I followed them back to the middle of the island and the bus back to hotel. Spectacular views but the phone camera totally failed to capture them or even give any expression of them.

Wed Christmas Day I did the Fortresses walk around the penninsular's just north of here - took the other camera but have yet to try and do the photos. It was enough of a problem re-naming them so that they follow the same format as those taken on the phone. It was fun having three screens running (2 Computers and phone)

Not making good progress with The West Wing.

Thursday got up early for the non dog walking. On bus to Mdina by 10am. Transfers worked! Wandered around the fortress wondering how it came to be. Little mention of the Arabs in the Natural History Museum. Normans were built up.

Have to work on drinking Guinness and The West Wing,

Izola 2019

Monday

Getting up at 4.55 was OK. The train into Cardiff was the single carrage Coryton service, surprising number of passengers. Megabus driver seemed quite brusque - he was going to load the luguage, and unload it. The good news is that I think he was early and instead of a wait in Bristol I got oto the Exeter bus and was at the airport well before 9am. Check in didn't open for a coupleof hours.

Flight to Cologne was good. Flew over city on way in and saw the

Cathedral. Train into city was 3E. Little bit of difficulty finding hotel. It waqs clean and had plenty of powerpoints. 

Wandered around - Cathedral and Rhine are both very impressive. A nice compact City, I liked it but resisted the temptation to indulge in a beer and returned to a packet of Cashew Nuts. Having eaten the Asda Wraps on arrival.

Tuesday

Nice breakfast - rolls were still warm. Wandered across the river to the second station and got the train to Munich. The first one was older and had better views, as we followed the Rhine valley Second train was an ICE and had a much more restricted view. Started worrying about hotel as I approached Munich Nothing on Expedia - must have booked it with a different service.

Wandered around Munich. Wasn't as nice as Cologne I thought. More modern. The town hall clock

gave a nice performance. Market would have been nice if I had wanted to spend. Returned to hotel and worried about my return journey which had no documentation. Got into Halifax account and found payments but no way to contact BD. Spent £100 on a new ticket. Didn't finish processing  photos and Keith phoned thinking the meeting was tonight - he thought it was the day before his Birthday. He insists on getting the messages but then doesn't read them.

Wednesday

Woke up at 6am and ordered a couple of watches on e-bay. Wouldn't have got back to sleep with the need to get up at 7am. Wandered over to the station and got on the Salzburg train.

How come I only have trouble with German trains? The Munich-Salzburg train was 20mins late getting into Salzburgh. However, I have made the Railjet, and the views are spectacular as we follow a narrow valley through the mountains.

Connection was to an corridor train - old seats are much more comfortable. The views were not as good as I remember them. I must remember not to tempt fate - someone jumped under the train, apparently. This delayed us around an hour and meant I was worried about making the connection to the Kober train. However, they held it for us and even told us the platform number. It was a modern commuter train and the views were excellent - panoramas over miles and miles - the sort of things we rarely get in the UK. Don't understand why the last bit was by coach as there was clearly a train line into Kober.

Picked up OK, shown the venue and hotel. Didn't feel hungry at all despite not eating all day. Need to investigate fasting.

Thursday

Breakfasted and up. Wandered around the town. Got some contact adhesive and hope I have managed to fix my shoe. Had a drink. Came back to hotel and fell asleep and listened to BBC Sounds. Wandered back to club about 8pm and asked. Got taken to the other club and met Michael. Others had eaten so I continued with my fasting experement.

Friday
Turns out that Michael retired as a judge last year, so we were not properly constituted. Sailing was good, bit of a wait for the wind but when it came it was OK. I ended up chairing the hearing, except for when I was disqualifying someone for hitting the finish mark.

Saturday
Once again a wait for the wind. They started without us. Wind swung to the left, O flag for 420's. Once again ended up disqualifying someone for hitting the finish mark. They went back but didn't gybe and having told him we would I felt I had to protest.

Sunday
Even longer wait for the wind and a couple of General Recalls. 420's got two races in but then the wind began to swing and the race officer gave up. We had a couple of protests. Dinner was fish bbq Swordfish, prawns, salmon and octipus - the first time I have had octipus that wasn't rubber.

Monday
Spent the morning doing photos etc. Wandered around the town for a couple of hours had a siesta, listened to BBC.sounds.went and had a beer. Prepared to leave.

Tuesday
Rain during the night. Think I had an early night. Got out, no Taxi at 5am. Phoned them - they had forgotten! At least I didn't have to pay - hope they sort it out. Stood waiting for a bus, then noticed people going to the station and a train waiting so, surprise, surprise it was a train to Lubjiana with a corridor and not crowded. The hills were extremely pretty with the mist clinging to the trees and the valleys. Train to Stuttgard/Frankfurt was 20 mins late, connection might be interesting. We will be in Germany by then. Weather appears to have cleared up. We didn't stop at Munich. Saw the Danube and Ulm Cathedral looked interesting.
   It made up the time and despite the walk across the bridge I was in the hotel by 9pm. Top floor had been updated and it looked out over the station. A bit noisy but nice.

Wednesday
Lovely breakfast, croissants included - I will have to get some more honey and butter. Checked out and on the tra code on the german ticket did not work. Security wanted me to leave my multitool behind it just took a lot of queuing. Then there was no internet (well extremely slow and flakey)in the waiting hall. Got on board and mis-read the sign sowas in the wrong carriage. Decided to watch a film but it was over 10 mins longer than the journey. At least it re-started where it had left off when the connection broke. Then coming out we all had to be funnelled through customs - next time I must get a plane!
Tube to Paddington. Couldn't resist a McDonalds, only problem was the Coffee cost as I unloaded UK Vouchers for the trip. Supposed to meet Phil in Cardiff, train currently 4mins late as we approach Reading.

Vesuvius was Closed 2018

Sunday Dec 9 2018
The weather was quite kind for the walk through Porthkerry to the airport, even if I was a bit early. It was even kind for the first flight to Amsterdam as there wasn't too many clouds and I saw the Severn Bridges, thought I recognised the Cotswold Water Park and saw the bridge at Ipswitch. However, two more flights Amsterdam to Rome and then Rome to Naples got be a bit. Especially as the Naples flight was delayed by over an hour.

Bus into Naples cost 5 Euro (not the 3Euros the internet led me to expect), and Google said it was only just under 2 miles. I wouldn't have liked to walk it though as most of the roads were motorways. Found the Hotel Ideal and it's old but nice. They also lent me a UK Conversion plug which is nice of them as I forgot to pack mine and the cheapest I could find was 17 Euro.

Monday Dec 10
Did battle with the coffee machine and eventually found out how to get enough coffee out of it. Basically get a white coffee and add hot water and cold milk. Good buffet which has kept me going all day. Particularly pleased since last night cost 7Euro at the station and I was hassled by a beggar. Cheaper venues are available.

Also pleased that I got a 7 day local transport ticket for 16 Euros which is what theinternet said. Just need to check out tomorrow that it is good to Salerno.

Today was Naples. Started down at the harbour, decided not to go into Castel Nuevo, instead walked past the Opera House and through Piaza del Plebiscito (views of Baescillica Real Pontifica) and I suspect a palace to the seaside. Then retraced my steps to find to find the Funicular. I was half way up the hill when I did.

Rode that to the top and found Castel Saint Elmo. Great Castle and wonderful views. Lots of photos to be composited. Other Funicular down to Montesanto. Nice cheap area - it's the Italians who are a nation of shopkeepers these days. Rode Line 2 in the  wrong direction for a while, Station architecture got me off and heading for Museo. Credit card again got me into the Museo Archeologica Nazionale di Napoli (12E).

There was a temporary exhibition on the Art and Archeology on the Metro which was good but hard to find the context as there was only one map and some of the stations are under construction.

Lots of stuff from Pompei and Herculaneum. Much artwork talking about changing fashion in the preferred Roman Myths and how they were displayed - homan Myths. Didn't think much of the pornography.

Coming back to hotel got off train at Dante to look at the artwork. I'm very artistic. How 225 photos to process!And I was going to watch the late Sunday game (American Football) That was great Chicago won with reminders of the team of 85. Have I really been watching it for that long?

Tuesday Dec 11
Badly let down by Google today. Plan was to go up Vesuvius. Cheched 7 day ticket validity and discovered it wasn't good for that distance so went and bought a 3 day ARTECard at 32E very expensive. Got on a late TrenItalia train and got off 3 stops later at Erculonium only there was no sign of the No5 bus. Much walking later it was change plans and visit the ruins.

Lickily the card covered the cost of getting in so maybe things weren't that bad, but the ruins were pretty depressing. There was a nice exhibit of a boat and if that really was the coastline then it puts a new perspective on geography.

Circumvesuvius on to Pompei - bigger and more depressing. Pink Ffloyd exhibit was the best bit. Trained out to Sorrento because I could but much of that was in tunnels - there are lots of those and they are deep!

Not getting vey far with photos - Going for the Monday night game now. And fell asleep.

Wednesday 12th
Officially confirmed that Vesuvius is closed at least until next week. Given that I have done the ruins (originally scheduled for a day each) this is a bit of a blow.  Seems there was a landslide which has blocked the approach road. Difficult to close a volcano!

Decided to explore Line 6 and the Funicular at the west of town only to discover it isn't open, even though it is shown on maps. Walked to the Funicular but the top was boring. Decided to go to the Esher Exhibition but Google failed to clearly indicate the correct bus stop so I had a walk along the promenade to get there. It was good - although the chronology was difficult to follow. Wandered around for a bit more and as it was getting dark thought the best way home was via the 2 Funiculars with a pizza at Montesanto.

Got photos backed up but have failed to update the website or look at the files.

Thursday 13th
It was raining today! The trains were late but I was determined to use the last day of my ArteCard, so I made my way to Bagnoli and the Museum of the Sea. Only to find the place occupied by students - it was supposedly in a nautical school - students said it was shut anyway.

Next objective was the Souterran Tour, at least underground I would be dry. Tried to make it by 12 but took the wrong Funicular. At least it gave me a chance to look at the Arcade and have a Chocolat shake at McDonalds.  When I did get there I couldn't find it - just a very swish cafe. So off to Castle Neuvo. Which was OK. The Arte Card got me in for free.

Back to Line 1 of the Metro, checked out the University Station - interesting. Quick stop at hotel and on to the National Train Museum. Of course, this is not "artistic" so it cost me 5E and I had to wait until it opened at 4pm. They had a Christmas Market - she same sort of cheap wooden shacks as in Cardiff. Somewhat depressing in the rain, with hardly anybody about. The trains were interesting. 2hrs there.

Back at Hotel processing photos and listening to Radio 4.

Friday 14th
Thought I would check out the train departure but I was too late - but it is there on the timetable at 9.50 so an early breakfast tomorrow. Took the Circumvesuvio to the end of the line - the port. Finally worked out that as a 1m guage line it would be completely separate from the standard guage stuff. Discovered the local fish market and market - very fishy!!

Today was the day for checking out the Metro Art. Only I left the water behind - it was proving difficult anyway, as the Art Stations were not clearly identified on the brochure. Short while on the internet while in the room and videos and brochures identified so I was wasting my time. Carried on anyway as I also booked on a talk at 1800.

Getting tired and hungry by 1715 so treated myself to 2 cheesburgers and a chocolate shake before rushing back to Dante for the talk. All in italian so left, to finish Museo and Garibaldi. Back to finish by 1930 local time. Dead Ringers on the radio.

Saturday 15th
Day on a train.
Departure was 9.50 only it was coming from Rome and was 20 mins late. OK and started going through Phillips files only I couldn't figure how to rename or delete them Chrome problems.

The route was alongside the sea for much of the time and as good as Exeter to Plymouth only a lot lot longer.

Got put on a ferry for a 30 min crosssing to Sicily where the train split with my section going to Syracusa and the other to Palermo. Then it got dark and the views vanished but I found the power point so played music on the phone and did solitaire.

Hotel was further from the station than expected but only 5 mins.

Sunday 16th
Syracuse. Wandered around the island.

Monday 17th
Morning wander around the shore side of Syracuse and then on to Pozzallo on a Railbus.

Tuesday 18th
Waiting all day for the ferry was interesting, considered taking a ride on the train but instead practised sitting in the sun exercising patience.
Ferry left at 9.30 and I was met in Valetta and taken to the event hotel. EurMed Regatta and then back to uk.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/4CXubH8oTRBwRMkdA