Scandinavia- 31st Oct (Tue)

It was pouring in the morning as we waited at 7am, just outside the hotel for the shuttle bus to take us to the airport. There was snow all around. Luckily it was a very short wait.

We reached the airport early and our flight was at 850am. As we weighed in our luggage, my luggage weighed 15.8kg while Ross’s weighed 19.5kg. We took Norwegian Airlines today and it was free seating on the plane. On these budget and short flights, we had to pay to get food and drinks, but in any case, we had already gotten some breakfast in the morning.

We reached Copenhagen airport and had to walk quite a fair way to reclaim our luggage. There was a nice huge Great Dane dog that greeted us when we wheeled our luggage out of the arrivals gate. I was owed by its size and beauty, since it was the first time I saw one close up. Then we bought train tickets into the city. The lady at the counter wasn’t exactly very friendly or helpful and I only hoped that she understood me when I said return tickets for two. We boarded the express train which was only about less than 15 minutes to town. The express train was very new and clean too. It also has power plug outlets which I noticed when the guys sitting next to us charged their notebooks.

We reached our destination at the Copenhagen central station. It was a nice large station but had some scaffoldings around it. As we walked out of the station, it was raining quite heavily and a strong gust of wind blew and knocked down quite a few bicycles that were parked near the station.

We stayed in Hotel Guldsmeden, around 1km from the Central Station and near to the heart of the city. We had to wait for a while for the room to be ready and the young pretty lady at reception was very nice this time. She had a very clear accent and spoke perfect English. We had a drink and accessed the internet in the café while waiting for our rooms to be ready. We could even help ourselves to chocolate cake and brownies while waiting.

Within an hour, the room was ready. We found out that we had a lovely room with lots of character. It was well coordinated with dark wooden furniture and off set by the white sheets and curtains. There was even a chair with some kind of skin with black and white dots. We had a huge mirror with a nice broad characteristic border and a leather chair. The bathroom was mostly black and white décor with the hotel’s own organic cream and soap products. It was simply lovely but had a slight smell of tobacco. I usually hate the smell of cigarette but didn’t mind it so much since it was a nice smoky smell and not over-powering or off-putting at all.

We headed out for lunch as well as a long walk in Copenhagen. Around our hotel, there are lots of shops, there is even a small supermarket just downstairs. I had grown an obsession to check out the supermarket at each new place that we go to see what are the local brands and foods that they have. In the rows of shops around the hotel, there are also lots of shoe shops, clothes boutiques, Arabic food restaurants, cafes and a few sex shops. Fur and leather seems to be quite popular in Copenhagen. There are lots of hot dog kiosks around and we were thinking of having a hot dog but decided to go to a café instead due to the rain. We had freshly squeezed orange juice and sandwiches for lunch. We had problems paying by credit card because the café just installed a new system. He tried quite a few times and we ended paying cash.

We were wondering what to do, to do museums so that we can stay indoors in the rain or to do the walk. In the end, the rain cleared up enough for us to do the walk. We walked to Tourist Information to get the information and pamphlets we needed. Since Tivoli Gardens was nearby, we walked over and verified that it was only open in summer.






We then started our walking tour from Radhuspladsen (Town Hall Square), Lavendelstraede where Mozart’s widow lived with her second husband and where there were numerous late 18th century houses, courthouses, Nytorv (a famous square with fine 19th century houses), Stroget (a shopping street), Helligandskirken (Church of the Holy Ghost), and Kongens Nytorv (interesting buildings), Thott’s Mansion (current French Embassy), saw Hotel d’Angleterre (the best hotel in Copenhagen), the Royal Theater and then walked to the end of Nyhavn. Nyhavn has lots of restaurants and cafes along the canal. It is a beautiful canal with sailing boats, ducks and swans. Nyhavn was also the home of Hans Christian Anderson at various times.





We then walked through a park to get to Rosenberg Castle. It closes at 4pm and it was already after 4pm when we reached the gate. We then decided to head back for the long walk we had. We saw the National Art Gallery on the way back and walked past huge lakes Peblinge So, Sanket Jorgens So and Sankt Jorgens So. There was a strong gust of wind as we walked past the lakes. It also felt more chilly than it already was.


There are lots of cyclists on the road. There is a lane especially for cyclist.

After a short rest in the hotel room, we headed for the launderette. We had managed to find the location of the nearest launderette from the hotel and it was 2 streets from the hotel. Most of the instructions were in Danish so we had problems understanding it and asked a guy there. He was really nice and helpful and helped us with the machines.

While waiting for the laundry to be done, we read the materials we picked up at the Tourist Office. We decided to sign up to do a “Castle tour” day trip tomorrow. It had to be tomorrow because the agency only does the Castle tour on Wednesdays and Sundays. We only managed to finish our laundry at nearly 8pm. We thought of doing the trip ourselves but the easiest way we could cover two places out of Copenhagen would probably be by renting a car and driving. Ross decided that we should not risk driving again so soon since divorce will be more expensive than anything else.

We tried to call up the agency but the office hours were over and we could only book the tour first thing tomorrow at 8am. We headed next for an Italian dinner at the restaurant downstairs called Vagabond. The pasta was not exactly fantastic for me but Ross’s cordon bleu was better than he expected.

Scandinavia- 30th Oct (Mon)

We had to return the car at 9am (given around 35 minutes allowance) today. Breakfast in the hotel was quite good. We drove to the Oslo airport, about 5 mins from the hotel. The signs along the way were quite straightforward, it was quite a stress-less affair. We drove the car into the “return-rental car” car park, left it there and went to the Europcar counter at Arrivals floor. It was as simple as dropping off the keys.

We then bought the airport express train tickets. There were a few sales promoters around who were promoting the usage of kiosks to buy tickets. Through her guidance, we bought our return tickets from the kiosk, it cost us (640kroners for 4 tickets). The train goes from Oslo airport to Oslo Central Station. It was a nice new modern train that we sat in. The service was also very prompt. There was an officer who would walk through each carriage, smiling, to make sure that she would answer or help anyone who has any questions at all.

So we reached Oslo Central Station before 10am and the first thing that we saw when we walked out of the station was a huge statue of a tiger. We started on the walking tour in Frommers. The roads are nice and broad. It was pleasant to walk around. We walked on Karl Johans Gate, the main pedestrian-only street. We next headed for Oslo Domkirke, the 17th century cathedral, waiting for it to open at 10am. The building was in scaffoldings, and a beautiful blond lady in a hard hat came over to tell us that the cathedral is closed for 3 years for repairs.

I was surprised to see so many beggars on the street though and felt that Oslo had more smokers than anywhere we have experienced in Norway. I noticed something curious, there are 2 red lights for the pedestrian traffic lights. Instead of the normal red man, there is another red man right on top of the one that we usually see. I wondered what that was for, was it for the cyclists?

Next, we saw the Norwegian Parliament and then the Royal Palace where we saw the young guards guarding the place. The place looked pretty modest and simple. We headed next for the National Theatret and University of Oslo and then Radhuset, the Oslo City Hall.

After an hour or so, we stopped at a café at Arker Brygge for a hot chocolate.

We then headed back to visit the interiors of the City Hall. Ross thought it was quite good and interesting but I beg to differ. Next, we saw the statue of Franklin Roosevelt before heading to the Akershug Fortress and Castle. We decided to do a short visit at the Norwegian Resistance Museum and were impressed by how good it was. We ended up spending nearly two hours in the Museum and felt it was very interesting. We couldn’t help but feel the utmost respect for the Norwegians who fought hard against their German invaders. That didn’t leave us much time to have lunch, so we walked around the Castle a bit more before heading to Bygdoynes.

We bought 4 single trip tickets at a 7-Eleven store for 20 kroners each. It was a 20 mins bus trip to the Kon-Tiki Museum at Bygdoynes and we snacked on the bus, eating stuff we carried on our daypack. It was nearly 4pm, turning chilly and raining when we finished at the Kon-Tiki Museum.

We headed back to the City and had an early dinner at Dolly Dimple’s (pizza). The pizza was very good, in my opinion, better than Peppe’s pizza.

In the rain, we headed back to the Oslo Central Station and noticed that there was a protest going on outside. The banner was in Norwegian so we didn’t understand what the protest was about but almost everyone there (around 100 of them) were holding fire torches. But it was a peaceful protest and the police were standing around to make sure it didn’t get out of hand.

We will miss the chocolates here, the delicious double chocolate muffins and I will miss the custard bread with icing. The bread is always so fresh and the custard bread and a few other local delights can be found almost everywhere (7-Eleven, small shops and cafes).

We took the airport shuttle from the airport back to the hotel. We had to pay 50 kroners each to get on the shuttle and realized that we probably didn’t pay for the bus the first time round.

Scandinavia- 29th Oct (Sun)

We will be heading back to Oslo today. The initial plan was to do the scenic mountain roads but after the past few experiences, we decided that it might be wiser to steer clear of mountain roads with the probability of snow or ice. So we went back to Oslo on similar routes that we set out on.

We slept in late today and woke up slightly after 10am. We thought it was too late for breakfast and decided to just hit the road. Our car had frosted over through the night. We waited for a while to warm up the car. We saw other cars moving off around the same time and were surprised that everyone else was also starting off so late as it was nearly 11am before we moved off. From Lom, we went on R15 to Otta, got on the E6 heading south to Oslo and stopped at Lillehammer for lunch on the way.

We stopped at Lillehammer for lunch at nearly 2pm. We went to the same Italian restaurant we visited the last time we stopped here for lunch. The town was very quiet on a Sunday, most shops and cafes were closed. Luckily, the restaurant was open and as we sat down for lunch, we noticed that the time on the wall was 1pm. We realized that because of daylight savings, it has gone back an hour. We had been listening to the radio all morning and the English music was terrific but we didn’t understand the DJs as they spoke in Norwegian all the time. So we could have had breakfast this morning after all!

We drove right into Oslo. As we drove around in town, we realized that it might be a mistake driving into the city. There were tram lanes and we weren’t familiar at all with the roads. It was completely stressful for the both of us. But it was a huge relief for us of us to have survived the drive.

We first drove to Frogner Park to see Vigelandsparken. It contained the lifetime work of Gustav Vigeland, Norway’s greatest sculptor, on display in the 30-hectare Frigner Park. There are more than 200 sculptures in granite, bronze and iron. We managed to catch sight of his most celebrated work is the 16m monolith composed of 121 colossal figures, all carved into one piece of stone. It was indeed magnificent.

Next we headed for dinner at Aker Brygge where there was a wide selection of restaurants. Ross had thoughtfully found a Asian food restaurant called East Sushi and Wok on our guide book and wanted to check out the place. We had been eating a lot of Italian food and not much Asian at all. We had our dinner at East Sushi and Wok and desert “Oreo Madness” at FGI Friday’s.

We were staying in Gardermoen for tonight and the next to make it easier for us to return the car the next morning as well as to the airport early in the morning 2 mornings later. Gardermoen is 38km from Oslo and we managed to find a petrol station nearby, filling up the car before checking in at Norlandia hotel.

We drove a total of 438.6 km today.

Scandinavia- 28th Oct (Sat)

Breakfast was served in one of the rooms, room 213. A breakfast selection was all laid out, there was also ham, cheese, milk, yogurt and others in the fridge.

We loaded our backpacks back into the car and managed to hit the roads at around 8:30am. It was the earliest we managed so far. We were going to catch the touristy Flam Railway train today. The famous Flam Railway is over 65 years old and is one of the world’s most extraordinary stretches of railway, the steepest of its kind in the world. From Flam to the top, it comprises a climb of nearly 900 meters, a spiraling tunnel inside the mountain as well as a breath-taking view. Flam lies in the innermost arm of the world’s longest and deepest fjord, the 204 km long and 1308 metre deep Sognefjord. It is surrounded by precipitous mountainsides, thundering waterfalls and narrow valleys.

From Aurland, the railway station was 8km away. We bought a pair of round trip tickets and managed to catch the first train at Flam (9am). The scenery was magnificent, enhanced by the beautiful sunny weather we had. We had a 5 mins stop at the Kjosfossen waterfall. At the top, the station is called Myrdal. Myrdal had modern trains coming in from Bergen/Oslo. From Flam, there were very few passengers, maybe a total around 7 passengers. At Myrdal, quite a lot of passengers got off from the Bergen/Oslo train and boarded our Flam railway. Around 30 new passengers boarded our train on its return journey.

After we got off the railway, we hit the road and went on E16, past Aurland, and then at Laerdal, we went on R5 back to Fodnes ferry terminal where we took the ferry back to Mannheller. From Mannheller, we went on R5, back to Sogndal, had lunch at a cafeteria at Gaupne (cheese burgers) and then headed northwards by R55 to Luster, and then all the way to Lom. We drove a total of 241km today.

At Luster, we tried to look for the ancient stave church that was built in 1130, included in UNESCO’s World Heritage list but realized that it could only be reached by ferry. But that was not before we mistook another church for this church.

From Luster to Skjolden (end of the fjord), we started climbing the mountains. From Fortun, around 60km from Lom, there were traces of snow and the roads turned icy. In that last stretch of drive to Lom, we crossed Fantestein (a summit of 1434m). We had read that when the pass opens in spring, the sides of the channel formed by the snow ploughs can be more than ten metres high in some of the most weather exposed areas. We had been worried about doing this pass but assumed that it would be alright since it is such a touristy attraction.

The snow poles were really tall here, 5 or more metres high. The lowest temperature recorded on that stretch by our car was -10 degrees Celsius. Though the roads were dangerously icy, we were surrounded by beautiful waterfalls, snow white backgrounds, semi frozen lakes and streams. We were on the icy roads for slightly more than an hour and I drove an average of 40km/h on that whole stretch. It was very tedious but at least we didn’t meet with any incidents. We were lucky too that the weather was so good today, it wasn’t snowing and visibility was 100%. Though the roads were icy, it was a very thin layer of ice on the surface and not much snow on the roads at all.

We stayed in Lom, Fossheim Hotel for the night. The hotel seemed very nice and new though the area’s much colder than the places we have visited so far. We drove around the area and spotted an old stave church nearby (Ross recalls that Tor mentioned about this church before). The building was quite peculiar and the roof reminded me of Chinese dragon symbols.

We walked across the road for dinner and were freezing by the time we reached there. Ross had a pizza as usual while I had the taco buffet. The food was good. There was a pair of Caucasian couple who ordered right before us. I was puzzled why the lady kept staring at me all the while that we were ordering and even as I helped myself to the food. Ross noticed too and felt it peculiar too. He thought that it might be because Chinese are not that common around here, while I was worried that it might be because of any racism. In any case, they only had coffee and left soon after finishing their drinks.

Back in our room, it was quite chilly. We couldn’t seem to adjust the temperature to our liking. We also had problems finding an English channel to watch. The TV reception didn’t seem to be very good and we only managed to find 2 local channels, no cable. We watched a Norwegian game show, “Deal No Deal” and tried to figure out what was being said. After that, we watched an episode of “House” on our computer before “Nottinghill” came on at 10:20pm.

Scandinavia- 27th Oct (Fri)

We woke up early today to start our road trip again. We had a proper buffet spread for breakfast today and it was fantastic, a mouth-watering variety of food. There were also crepes for breakfast and lots of seafood as well as the more common bread, eggs, bacon, potatoes, cereal, yogurt, huge variety of biscuits and so on. We were impressed with the spread. The hotel bill for the 2 nights of stay came up to 4,500kroners.

The weather outside was still dreary, cloudy and rainy, not a good day to be out. Surprisingly, there wasn’t frost on the car. We headed first for the viewpoint Geiranger, one which is shown on many pamphlets and tourist booklets of a cliff dropdown to the fjord. It was misty and we couldn’t get a very clear view but it was still amazing.

We started from Geiranger on R63 heading South. The temperature was around -1 degrees Celsius as we headed to places with higher altitudes. The rain turned into snow and we were doing hairpin turns. Then as we neared Dalsnibba (a mountain of altitude 1476m), we were caught in a snow storm. The roads were icy and the roads were covered in snow. Quite a few times, the slippery road indicator lighted up in the car. We could see that the winds outside was howling, the snow poles were swaying and snow was falling fast. We saw a snow plough at work, heading towards us and felt reassured that the roads were in operation. So we continued driving in the snow storm, but soon, the winds got stronger, visibility got lower. I couldn’t see the roads very well and was using the snow poles as direction indicators. We came to a spot where the winds were terribly strong, I could no longer see the snow poles, and can only imagine snow being piled up on the roads. I stopped the car then, we panicked, not knowing what to do next. The best alternative seems to be going on foot to take a look at the road conditions. Ross tried to get out to check out the road ahead, to see whether it was passable. In less than half a second, he was back, covered in snow. It was a foolish attempt since he couldn’t see anything at all when he tried to stand on the road to see what was ahead.

The only alternative now is to back the car up and see whether we can turn around. In this extreme weather condition, we didn’t really know what else to do. Ross went down to try to direct me in backing up. I could barely see him through the rear mirror.

In our despair, I could see some lights of a moving vehicle heading towards us! It was a snow plougher! What a huge relief. I pulled up the car to one side as Ross approached the driver and asked whether the road was passable. He said yes, just follow him. Ross jumped back into the car, we were so relieved and excited to be able to get out of here. In that brief moment, we were really worried.

We followed the snow plougher and were excited to see all the snow being cleared. With the snow plougher light blinkers flashing, it was also much easier to see how the road went, regardless of the snow storm. In 30 mins time, we were out of the snow, onto the main wide roads.

From Langevatn, we went on R15 and headed towards Stryn where we had lunch at a cafe. We then went on R60 and when we reached Byrkjelo, we went on E5 and continued to Skei and all the way to Sognadal. From there, we continued down to Mannheller, where we took a ferry to Fodnes. At the terminal, we went on E5 towards Laerdal and then E16 to Aurland (through a tunnel). In actual fact, along the way, we went through lots of tunnels. The last tunnel was 24.7km, the world’s longest tunnel.

Today, we had also met quite a few undesirable drivers. One was a inconsistent driver who would drive at around 60km/h on expressways and keep in the middle of the road. I was behind him for quite a distance because the winding roads made it difficult for me to overtake. On other occasions, in a dual carriageway tunnel, there were drivers we drove really fast and overtook multiple cars at one go, ours included when we were driving at 80km/h. One of these overtaking drivers took his own sweet time in over-taking and was neck to neck for quite a distance to the last car he overtook. He finally sped up and came back in the lane just in time to give way to traffic in the opposite direction. This was also surprising because we have usually met good and steady drivers in Norway who would usually keep to the speed limit.

We had decided to stay in Aurland for the night and after a long drive of 300km today, we checked in at the Aurland Fjordhotell.

The owner recommended a great viewpoint on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. We drove up for a view before the sun set. It was the old top road to Laerdal. It was another series of hairpin turns but at least there was no trace of snow.

Scandinavia- 26th Oct (Thu)

We woke up later than planned this morning for breakfast. We headed down for breakfast at 9:00am. The breakfast was a very good spread of bread, salad (salmon, herring, tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce and so on) cereal, cooked food like bacon, cooked potatoes, eggs, fresh fruits, juices, tea and coffee.

After a few phone calls, we headed out for our walk. We could have driven to the beginning of the trail but decided to walk. After walking for 40 mins, we walked past houses, occupied and otherwise, deserted summer camping area, sheep, cows, ponies and lots of fruit trees (red and green apples, pears). There were lots of fallen fruits on the ground. At around 11am, we reached the start of trail 7 (the one highly recommended by the waiter last night). We soon realized that the trail was marked by red paint. It was a steep climb all the way up and we had some good scenery along the way. There were also small rock houses along the way, Ross assumes that they are shelter houses. We went through firstly climbing up large rocks, followed by a slush-ish water trail, leaves-laden ground amidst trees and plants before finally reaching the top. At 12:45pm, we reached the top. We had a clear panoramic view at the top, there were 2 wooden houses with curtain-covered glass windows and grass growing on its roof. The houses were locked. There were also icicles from the roof. Though we could have continued, we had some snow on the way and thought it wise to head downwards.

We managed a faster pace downwards. But the trail was quite steep and we had to be careful. I was thinking that we probably wouldn’t physically be able to do a trail like this 10 years from now, but Ross disagrees. Even now, I could feel the strain on my knees. But hopefully I am wrong and we can both get fitter instead.

From the bottom of the trail, we dropped by supermarket and then walked back upwards again to the hotel. We proceeded to the restaurant for lunch. The hotel had filled up. There was some kind of meeting or conference going on. We went into the wrong restaurant (though nice and fancy) and once we were seated, we were served a good plate of hot food. We were puzzled since we didn’t order and was told that this was a fixed meal. We didn’t feel like having something that heavy for dinner and asked for a menu. They directed us into the breakfast/dinner restaurant instead. We adjourned into the directed restaurant and ordered some food. We wanted to share a cream pasta (something we also had last night) and a club sandwich. The club sandwich was the worst we had anywhere. The bacon and egg was obviously from breakfast and were reheated. They came out very burnt. The pasta was also not as good as last night’s.

We asked for the bill and though we did feedback about the sandwich, no discount was given. We were quite disappointed but hoped that dinner would be better.

Back in the room, we felt really tired out by the walk we had. It’s raining outside and we felt pretty contended to just rest in the room. It rained for the whole day today. We were in the room on the internet, we had bought 24hours yesterday.

At around 7pm, we went down for dinner as well as getting some printing and fax done. The hotel was a bustle of activity with lots of people around. We headed for dinner in the restaurant and asked whether there was a la carte food served. The waitress initially said no but said she will check. There was a great spread of buffet served, lots of seafood and tempting range of desert, ice-cream, chocolate cake, something that looked like salmon tart, berry mixture, cream bulee and the like. We thought it was a fantastic buffet but since we had a late lunch, it probably wasn’t worth getting it.

We managed to get some ala carte food and when we asked for chocolate cake, we were surprised that the waitress came back to say that instead of just the chocolate cake, we can have everything at the buffet desert for 80 kroners per head. We readily took up the offer. So though we had worked our bodies hard at the hike, we made up for it by pigging out today.

Scandinavia- 25th Oct (Wed)

The sunrise here is at 8:20am. We wanted to catch as much of the sunlight as possible for driving. We set the alarm to get up at 7:30am but only got up at 8am. The breakfast was pretty good. Ross had his toasted bread with tomatoes and cheese while I had a variety of food including making my own pancakes. I failed on the first try, not knowing what to do since everything was written in Norwegian, but finally succeeded on the 2nd try. It was a bit burnt but I finished it anyway.

We checked out of the hotel after Ross finished talking to his dad on Skype. We got our luggage onto the car. The screen and windows had all frosted through the night. We started up the car and managed to defrost the windows before moving off. The temperature indicated outdoors was 3 degrees Celsius.

Ross initially wanted to go to Kristiansund and then head south to Geiranger but decided that the trip might take too long. Instead, we will head straight to Geiranger today and stay there for the day. At around 10am, we first back tracked a bit on E136 for 8km, then we turned out to R63 to Trollveggen but the bridge was being tarred and they have closed the road. We tried to ask the guys doing the roadwork on any other route to get to Geiranger. They kindof shook their heads and asked instead whether we have a map. They were nice and weren’t able to provide any useful information. In the end, we decided we need to work something out ourselves.

Therefore, we turned back to E136, heading in the direction of Sjoholt. Then we turned into R650 towards Valldal, passing the ferry terminal to Eidsdal and then got on R63 towards Trollveggen. Valldal seemed to be quite a lively town and we wanted to check out cafes or restaurants for lunch. The only café we found opened was serving a buffet lunch and we weren’t keen on it. Tor had highly recommended the scenic route on Trollveggen and we really wanted to try it. After traveling around 30km from Valldal, we came to a road close. It was snowing by then but we could see what Tor was talking about. The surroundings were simply beautiful and there was a nice river running through.

We had to turn back and headed back for the ferry terminal to Eidsdal, passing through Valldal again. The ferry ride cost us 72 kroners.

At Eidsdal, we got on the E63 to Geiranger. The roads were very steep and there were lots of hair pin turns. Ross had looked up on the internet last night and had decided that Grand Fjord Hotel might be a good place to stay. After reaching Geiranger, we spent quite some time looking for the hotel but simply couldn’t find it. We finally gave up and decided to stay at Union Hotel. It looked like quite a nice big hotel with a good location. At the hotel reception, Ross asked for the price for staying for the night. The price was higher than what he saw on the internet. We asked them for the reason and were told that the hotel was totally empty and they had intended to close the hotel for the day if no guests were turning up. At 1540kroners a night, we would get a nice room. Ross also asked about Grand Fjord Hotel and was told that the hotel is closed for winter (as are all of the other hotels in the area), only Union Hotel is opened. We decided to take the room. We were told that we would be given an extra nice room with a view. Since there weren’t any restaurants that would be opened for dinner, we were asked what time we would like dinner. It seems like the only restaurant opened for dinner in town was in Union Hotel.

We got our stuff into the room and were pleasantly surprised with the suite that we got. It had a nice huge bathroom with a nice bath tub. The living area and bedroom had full length windows that looked out into the fjord. We also had a huge plasma screen TV that could be turned around so that we could also watch TV on our bed. The bedroom was also nicely separated from the living area with curtains that can be drawn. The problem though is that the bed was the same as the other beds in other hotels we have had. Though we asked for a double room, our bed was formed from two single beds put together.

We had driven 250km today. It has been raining and at some places, snowing, for the whole day while we were out.

We got out and drove around in town for a bit. We also dropped by the supermarket (that closes at 5pm) to pick up some grocery. After getting out of Asia, we were glad to be able to find Coke Light and even Coke Zero. We were frustrated though that the bottle caps here don’t come off entirely. Norway also has a wide variety of local chocolate that we keep on sampling and simply can’t get enough of. We also saw lots of the word “Nyhet” on food packages and at first thought “Nyhet” meant no which is what it meant in Russia but felt that it made more sense if it meant new instead. I guess the same word had different meanings in different countries or of cos we could have remembered wrongly how the word was spelt in Russian.

We went back to the hotel room and simply chilled out. At 6:30pm, we went down for dinner. We realized that the interior of the hotel was very nice. There was a nice lobby, sitting area for tea and coffee, and then a classic restaurant area for meals.

We had a good dinner. Ross had a 3 course set meal with beef as main and I had an a la carte cream pasta. The cream and cheese pasta turned out much better than I expected. The waiter was very nice and friendly. He saw us looking at the walking map and said to ask him any questions if we have any. After dinner, we asked him some questions and he was able to provide us some very useful information.

Since today is Stewart’s birthday, we gave him a call today. We learnt that Stewart wasn’t feeling well and apparently pretty sick. We felt so sorry for him.

We plan to take a good hike for the whole of tomorrow and decided to stay for another day.

Scandinavia- 24th Oct (Tue)

Woke up early to make a few phone calls and run some administrative stuff. Had breakfast in the hotel and rushed down to the airport to pick up the car. We were surprised to find out that we had to pay for the airport shuttle since we didn’t have to pay for it last night. It cost us 50 Kroners each.

We headed for the EuropCar counter and got our car reservation. After clarifying some details, we finally got our car, a black 1,600 cc manual V50 Volvo. It has 5 doors and runs on diesel. We fell into our routine, me driving and Ross navigating. It took me a while to get used to driving on the different side of the road.

We started on the E6, heading to Lillehammer, where Tor is from. The roads were pretty easy to drive and there were not that many cars on the road. Because we were used to driving on the left hand side of the road, we tend to lean too much to the right. Most times a bit too near to the snow poles that lines the road. We hope we get better as we get more used to the roads. The speed limit on expressways was 80km/h and frankly speaking, it was a struggle for us to stay within the speed limit. There were lots of speed cameras and speed detectors. Most cars try to stay within the speed limit. Informative signs were well placed, we knew where the speed limit ends and starts. The scenery along the way was simply amazing. It is now autumn and the colours are simply awesome, along with the beautiful houses, lakes, rivers, waterfalls, even the rocks, snow-capped mountains and beautiful lush greenery.

We stopped at Lillehammer for lunch and loved the place. It was a very pretty and well-facilitated town. We had Italian for lunch and grabbed a chocolate muffin from a café for the road. The muffin was simply delicious.

After E6, we went on E136 and headed for Andalsnes for the night. The scenery nearing Andalsnes was even more magnificent. At one point, we saw a huge chunk of ice at the bottom of a mountain and kept wondering whether it was really ice or just a white rock. We finally concluded that it was ice that had fallen from the top of the snow-capped mountains.

We finally reached Andalsnes at 6pm after driving 420km for the day and looked around for accommodation for the night. Andalsnes is a small quiet town just by the water. The nearest stop we had to Andalsnes on Hurtigruten was Molde, just north of Andalsnes. We had problems getting accommodation since the first place we looked seems shut, the second place said they were totally out. Finally the third place, Grand Hotel Bellevue, said they had available rooms.

We parked our car and got our things out. We had a nice big clean room. But the TV had problems and kept switching itself back to channel 1 and switches off by itself after a while. We left it at that and went to walk around in town, looking for possible places for dinner. The town was terribly quiet. We had Italian food again for dinner. Both restaurants we visited today had quite a big seating area (around 50) but there was only one or two other tables occupied. We were thinking that the reason might be that it is off peak tourist season after all. The other reason might also be, as Tor told us, the locals believe in eating at home.

Meals are also not cheap, a meal around 200kroners (US$30) and a hotel stay here averages US$150.

We headed back to the hotel after dinner. We still had problems with the TV and requested help from the hotel staff. They gave us another room instead. The new room seemed to be slighter bigger and the bathroom was definitely bigger with a bathtub. Everything worked fine in the new room, we even got to access free internet but the signal was very weak from the new hotel room on the 3rd floor. When we went to the lobby to get a stronger network signal, at around 9:30pm, we saw lots of guests checking in. Maybe the other hotel was really totally booked after all.

Scandinavia- 23rd Oct (Mon)

We had breakfast at around 8:30am. It looked like a beautiful day outside.

We end our ship cruise at Kirkenes but will be doing the Russian Border through a booked tour with Hurtigruten. The ship was late arriving at Kirkenes, which was supposed to be 10am, we arrived at around 10:30am instead. We had packed our bags and carried them down ourselves. Our backpacks are now quite deflated cos we are wearing all our bulky winter gear. When we started our tour back in mid May, my back pack was around 18.5kg, Ross’s was 22kg. After been on the move for a while, we lessened our load and mine is now around 17kg while Ross’s is around 18.5kg. We loaded our bags onto the tour bus. The Hurtigruten staff, a tall blond Norwegian guy in charge of tours, has been very good at introducing the tours. We believe he did the tour announcements on the ship and seems to be fluent in Norwegian, English and German. He seems very jovial and extremely good in PR skills, except that he seems to have a forgetful memory.

The trip today was supposed to be “Visit the Russian Border”. We will visit Storskog, the Norwegian border station between Norway and Russia. We will cross the river Pasvikelva which marks the border. We also did a mini sight seeing of the old mining sites and Kirkenes city centre.

Our local tour guide was very young and skinny. We later learnt that he had just graduated from high school and then demobbed from military service. It is no longer compulsory to serve military service. He spoke with a drowsy drawl that almost put me to sleep but he spoke fluent English and Norwegian. Because of the history of the place, the locals used to speak Norwegian, English, Russian, Sami and Finnish. Our young tour guide is from Finnish descent, his father speaks Finnish but not him. The new generation no longer speaks Finnish.

We visited Storskog, after driving 15km from the Kirkenes. Before reaching the official border crossing, we stopped briefly at Elveness to get a good view of Boris Gleb, the small Russian power station community, where there is a red ‘Skolte Sami’ chapel.

The border has an interesting past. The border was fixed in 1826. Before that, the municipality was a common area between Russia and Norway/Sweden. When Finland became independent in 1917, it was allowed access to the coast via the Petsamo corridor. Finland lost Petsamo after 1945, at which point Norway gained a border with the Soviet Union. During World War II, the area became a base for the Wehrmacht’s offensive against the Soviet Union’s ice-free port of Murmansk. The cost was 328 bombing raids by Soviet planes and total destruction before the Nazis finally retreated. During the Cold War, the Iron Curtain was well and truly in place along the border and contact with former neighbours to the east was very limited. Today new relationships are being forged across the border and cross-border traffic is flourishing. Visas still need to be obtained to travel across the border and they can be a one day visa or more. The application time depends on how much is willing to be paid to obtain the visa.

We did a tour next of the deserted iron ore mines at Bjornevatn, mostly on the bus. It is a large open-cut mine which is a monument to over 90 years of mining history. The mines also contain the tunnel in which 2,500 people sought shelter for 2 months in the autumn of 1944 before the Russians liberated the area on 26 October. Ten children were born in the tunnel and all came out of it alive.

We next did a bus tour of the town centre before the bus dropped everyone at the ferry station at 12:30pm. The tour bus managed to drop those of us ending the cruise to the town centre. We headed to the nearby Tourist Information where the lady behind the counter gave out information grudgingly. We managed to find out the time for the airport bus and deposited our luggage there at 25kroners per bag. Though the centre will be closed at 4pm, our trip to the airport will be at 1815 and the airport bus guy will have the keys to the luggage. There was a Spanish speaking guy from our ship there too. We learnt that he was from Buenos Aires. He deposited his luggage too and will be on the same flight to Oslo.

We were wondering what to do next in the quiet town. We found a place that might serve pizza and realized that the pizza outlet only opens at 3pm, meanwhile, we decided to have a hot chocolate and a snack.

It was very cold in the snow. We saw that it was quite common to have this metal device like a small sleigh stand. It’s probably to help the users to keep their balance and move around easier in the snow and ice.

We found out that the only internet available was free at the library. We then proceeded to the library which was nearby to access the internet.

We managed to book an airport hotel at Oslo called Norlandia hotel, reached by a shuttle bus (3rd stop) from the Oslo airport.

At 1805, we proceeded to wait outside the Tourist Information Office in the cold for the airport bus. Our flight was at 7:45pm. The bus was slightly late arriving and the Spanish speaking guy didn’t appear. When our luggage was accessed, the Spanish speaking guy’s luggage was not there, so he had probably made some other arrangements.

The airport bus did a route around hotels to pick up passengers. We arrived the airport at around 7pm. While waiting for the flight, we saw the Spanish speaking guy. So he had made some other arrangements afterall. The check in and flight was all very smooth.

We managed to promptly board the shuttle bus from Oslo airport the moment we walked out of the airport. We had a nice big room but Ross complained about the size of the bed at night. The duvet covers at the hotel smelled a bit stale. I still felt giddy and felt like the ground was swaying, like we were still on the ship.

We went to bed late-ish, after 1am.

Scandinavia- 22nd Oct (Sun)

We were woken up at 9am when the cleaning lady knocked on our door. Since we were having brunch where breakfast hours were extended, we didn't really need to get up early. After showering, I went out to take some photos on the outer decks. It was a beautiful day with lots of sun. We could see snow everywhere around us. We have also been seeing lots of windmills on the snow covered islands around us.

At 11:45am, we docked at Honningsvag (71 degrees North and 26 degrees East, 1311 miles to the North Pole). the ship will leave again at 15:15. we boarded our English and Norwegian bus to the North Cape.
Our first stop was at the Sami camps where we got to see Sami (nomads) tents and reindeers.

The Sami tent was really small, much smaller, less than a quarter size of a Mongolian Ger. Right in the middle is a wood fire with a pot dangled on top of it. There were reindeer skins and boxes all around.

Along the way, we saw snow fences that were supposed to keep the snow off the road. There were also red poles being placed so that it helps to keep cars on the road in times of low visibility.

Next, we stopped at the North Cape plateau where we took photos at the North Cape monument (shape of a globe), watched a film and sent postcards. The point (71 degrees North in latitude) is accepted to be the northern extremity of Europe and is an island. Fishing is still the main activity. On the way to and fro, we took beautiful photos. The weather had been really good. Our guide said that it was one of the rare days of sunshine since summer. She said that to have sun in the midst of winter was like striking a lottery. I guess all of us have been very lucky. But when we were leaving the North Cape, the weather turned extremely foggy. But as we headed downwards, it started to clear up again.

The tour guide had been really good and very smooth in the delivery of both languages. We applauded as she concluded for the trip. Actually, we were late in arriving back to the ship. Our bus dropped us off at 15:22 when we were supposed to be leaving at 15:15. But it was a good thing that the ship was still there and there was no danger of it leaving without 3 bus loads of people.

Back to the ship, as we moved off, it was turning foggy and the waters started to get rough again.

We were in the Panoramic room and it got very rocky. I started feeling queasy and decided to lie down in the cabin.

At 6:30pm, we had a briefing for those of us leaving tomorrow at Kirkenes. We had buffet dinner at 7pm. It was quite a good spread with lots of seafood and we were rather glad for the free seating, to sit away from the people we were usually near to. The only problem is that we didn’t really like cold seafood.

Meals on board Hurtigruten had been pretty good. Norwegian food is served. For breakfast, we get to have Norwegian brown cheese, a variety of salads and at times Norwegian pancakes (like crepes). For dinners, we usually get some sort of meat (it’s not seafood all the time). I would appreciate more fresh fruits though. Only at breakfast do we get apples, oranges and grape fruit. But then again, these come in whole uncut form.

After dinner, we did some laundry again. There was also another Northern Lights sighting tonight. The best was still Friday night’s.

It starting getting rocky again as we got into bed. I actually got sick twice.

Scandinavia- 21st Oct (Sat)

It's Ross's birthday! It was a bit gloomy when we looked out of the window. We woke up for breakfast, it's usually the same buffet spread with some slight differences. Wasn't too bad I suppose. We chose a table near the windows and saw that it was snowing lightly.

We pottered around, staying mostly in the panoramic room before lunch time. It looked dreadfully cold outside though we did go out on the outer decks now and then. Soon, we could see sea-side towns covered with snow.

There was a stop at 11:15am for half an hour. Ross alighted for a short walk while I slept.

We had lunch on the ship. Something a bit special since it is Ross's birthday after all. But the spread at lunch wasn't fantastic. Looking back, the best buffet meal we had was the first dinner we had on board. That was different from the dinners from then on since the first dinner was free-seating and buffet style. It had a huge variety of good seafood.

After lunch, we settled back in the panoramic room again before the stop at Tromso, "Paris of the North".

Since the weather was so dreary, we checked whether we could join the tour group in Tromso. The man in charge replied that it depended on what kind of bus he gets when we arrive and we would have to check again when we reach.

The snow starting to get heavier as we neared Tromso.

Ross had birthday calls from his parents as well as his brother. As we alighted at the dock, Ross received the birthday call from Stewart's family. The boys are a bit sick but it was good to hear the kids' voice again. When Ross told them that we were in Norway and that it was snowing, their first question was exactly the same. "Have you built a snow man yet?". It was snowing quite heavily in Tromso as we alighted.

The first thing we did was to check whether we could take the group tour. We had to wait while the bus was being loaded before we received the happy news that we could join them. It was good being able to see Tromso without being too bothered by the weather.

Tromso has two whole months of the midnight sun, paid for an equal period of winter darkness. It is mostly a University town and the students keep the place lively. Tromso is set on an island, with fjords all around, the city is joined to the mainland by a long bridge (1 km long). The bridge was built in 1960. Due to the high volume of traffic, a tunnel to aid traffic has been built to link the town to the airport.

The midnight sun occurs in summer where the sun never sinks below the horizon of the lands above the Arctic Circle, and the sky is light 24 hours a day. The opposite phenomenon occurs in winter, when the sun never appears above the horizon. This period of darkness is called the Polar Night. As we are nearing the ends of the globe, we are experiencing these phenomenons.

Our bus was a Norwegian and English bus. The explanation was first given in Norwegian and then English. Most of us didn't understand that at first because we thought we were an all English bus. Our tour guide also told us it was the first snow storm that Tromso is experiencing for this season. The town was beautifully covered and clean, soft white snow. It was beautiful. It was also funny how the statue would be covered only on one side with snow due to the direction of the wind.

Our first stop was the Polaria, an adventure centre with the Arctic, Antarctic and Barents Sea as themes. The building resembles huge blocks of ice that have thrown ashore from the mighty ocean. We first watched a show in a theatre that had 200 degrees screen. It was a screening showing much about the nature of Norway. Next we went to the aquarium where we saw lots of fishes, crabs and bearded seals being fed and trained.

We then went back to the bus and on the bus, we were given a tour of the city. The tour guide pointed out the old buildings, the old town hall and so on. Next we went to the Arctic Cathedral, a 40m high tent-shaped building of glass, concrete and aluminium has one end entirely taken up by a stained glass window depicting the Second Coming of Christ. The Cathedral is actively used as the local parish church. Located at the foot of the Storsteinen mountain, the 1965 Tromsdal church is supposed to be a prominent landmark. There has been much promotion about this church in the materials but I didn't feel it lived up to its reputation. The walls were angular and painted white and looked almost as if they were made of ice.

We were driven back at around 5pm, leaving us another hour and a half before boarding. We walked around and had afternoon tea in one of cafes. We had lots of fun having snow fights. The snow was nice and soft and easy to handle.

Dinner was at 7pm as usual.

After dinner, I went to attend the Artic Ice ceremony while Ross went to the sauna. At the ceremony, they explained the changes on meals for the next day and we had this arctic circle ceremony where ice as trinkled down the back of our necks and we were handed out our Arctic Circle crossing certificates.

Tonight we had another Northern Lights sighting. It was still whitish tone though and wasn't really as strong as the one we saw the night before.

The water got really rocky as we prepared for bed. It was one of the rockiest we have had so far.

Scandinavia- 20th Oct (Fri)

We woke up in time for breakfast in the morning. Meanwhile, the ship had docked at Ornes at 9:15am for 15mins. After breakfast, we checked that the time crossing the Artic Circle was 7:20:08am. So none of us managed to guess the time correctly. The next stop was Bodo, from 12:30pm to 3pm. We had booked on the sea safari excursion for that.

While waiting, we were at the Panoramic room. It looked like a beautiful day today with the sun out.
At one time, the sun was blazing hot on us through the glass and lots of people had left the room. We managed to find a better seat, right in front but were annoyed to find that reading was almost impossible when there were two American ladies seated right next to us. They kept talking on and on and didn't seem to be able to lower their volume. I had problems concentrating when the volume was so loud. I wish that they were more sensitive to other people's needs.

There were lost of announcements going on. We were told that the town centre was quite far away from the ferry terminal but that we could take a bus or train there. There was other tourist options provided for those who weren't booked on for the excursion.

The excursion is basically a trip on a zodiac (inflatable boat) where we would be able to be closer to the natural scenery, bird life and the world's strongest tidal current. We would also have a good chance of seeing sea eagles. Sea Eagles are Europe's largest predatory bird with a wing-span of over 2 meters. Everyone will be provided with thermal suits, gloves and glasses.

We dreaded the cold and made sure we were properly wrapped up. So at 12:30pm we got ready to alight.
We were directed to a room where we were handed out thermal suits. All of us struggled to get into the suits. We felt all bulky and wrapped up with this extra layer. Next we were handed gloves, goggles and head gear. We were led to the four zodiacs waiting out in the sea. The group was then broken up into English and Norwegian speaking groups. When we were all seated, they asked for tickets. It was a laugh because it was almost impossible to be able to dig out the tickets now.

Ross and myself wanted to sit right in front but we were too late and got a seat on the fourth row from the front. It was fun on the zodiac boat. The couple on the row, 2nd from front, was the couple who sits next to us at the dinner table. The British lady was vain and kept keeping her goggles up (afraid that her mascara would smudge?). Each boat had a guide and ours warned us of splashing sea water at the coming stretch of water. That was when she dutifully placed her goggles on properly. But then she asked whether her shoes would get wet since she was only wearing trainers. I couldn't fathom what her options were if it did anyway. After that stretch of water, she did her best to keep the goggles up and kept checking for smudging.

As we headed out to the water, our unprotected face felt terribly cold, in fact, frozen. We could feel and taste the sea water on our face. It was fun as the boat went on the waves and bumps. It was clumsy and difficult taking photos in the zodiac because of the splashing water, the fact that I was wearing gloves, and that the boat was constantly in motion.

We passed by a stretch of water where there were yellow balls of floats and traps and we were told that it was an area for cod farming. We saw lots of snow-capped mountains in a distance. Then we came to an area where lots of birds were circling and we spotted two sea eagles. I could see their long fanned out wings! The guide brought us further along and pointed out the eagles' nesting area.

Next we came to the Norwegian sea where there was supposed to be the world's strongest tidal current.
There were lots of swells in the sea. There was also lots of bird life there as this is also where lots of fishes can be found.

We headed back the way we came. On the way back, we were slightly irritated with the two couples in the front two rows of the zodiac who were standing throughout. All of us behind could not see anything that was in front of us. If I stood too, the poor old lady sitting behind me would be able to see nothing, and those two guys were big blokes. I felt tremendously irritated and wished that I could say something. It was a huge sigh of relief when we could see the port. Besides my hands and feet were freezing.

We got out quickly and headed back with 5 mins to spare. They checked our excursion tickets on our way out.

As soon as we got inside the ship, it felt pleasantly warm. I got myself a hot chocolate and we both got some hot food.

There weren't that many stops for the rest of the day. The next was at 7pm to 7:30pm at Stamsund. We wouldn't be getting down cos it coincides with dinner time. After that, the next stop is Svolvaer at 9pm to 10pm.

Dinner was pleasant with Sergy. It was the last time we would be having dinner with her since she leaves the ship tomorrow. She will be catching the flight to Oslo day after tomorrow, staying a night at a hotel. In Oslo, she will take an hour's ride out to a small town, where she was born and see what she can find out about her roots.

I still haven't managed to feel totally warm yet after this afternoon's sea safari. I was keen to go out for a walk in Svolvaer. Before getting off, we went on the outside deck for a peek. We saw the northern lights! It was very much just wispy whites. We were so excited and felt very lucky! We were wondering why it wasn't announced but thought that maybe this was a too weak version.

The ship was late arriving to Svolvaer. At 9pm, the ship was still moving towards Svolvaer but they also extended the hours to 10:15pm. The town center was just next to the ferry terminal. We took a walk around and the night was feeling chilly. Our guess is that it's near zero degrees Celsius.

We kept trying to take photos of the Northern Lights but all we got was a clear screen of black. The Northern Lights looked wispy and whitish. At one point, it was whitishly green and blue. The wind was blowing really strongly. The wisps looked almost 3-dimensional and kept moving. At one point, it was strong white wisps right on top of the ship. We were lucky to have caught sight of it. We'll remember it as Ross's early 35th birthday present.

Scandinavia- 19th Oct (Thu)

We set our alarm clocks for 7am but managed to snooze until 7:45am. Had a quick breakfast and was out on the streets of Trondheim by 8:15am. The ship had docked at Trondheim at 6am and will be departing again at 12pm. The temperature had definitely dropped by a few degrees. The weather was gloomy and it was drizzling slightly and we had to go back to get our umbrella and raincoat. I guess we have been pretty lucky to get good weather so far, especially the sunshine in Alesund. We soon realized too that it was a long walk out to the city centre and it took us a while to get there. Along the way, we dodge cyclists on the pedestrian walks. At one time, there was even a scooter heading my way (in case you missed it, on the pedestrian walkway!). The town wasn't really busy, it just seemed like the town had just woken up.

We walked through the town and saw many beautiful timber architecture as well as old museums, churches and other buildings. We also saw some beautiful colourful timber houses along the Nidelva River. We managed to find our way to Nidaros Cathedral, Nidaros being the old name of Trondheim, and were lucky enough to enter the cathedral. The Cathedral was supposed to be closed for visiting after September but we were lucky that there was a group visiting ( we suspect our onboard tour group) and it was open for that purpose. The cathedral was built in the 11th century and is a classic European Cathedral representing different architectural styles, including Gothic and Romanesque. It features an intricate rose window on the west front and has many beautiful mosaic windows.

It was difficult to visit any museums since most were closed by August or September and those opened during this time only open from 11am onwards. We managed to find an internet cafe and managed to catch up with various outstanding issues. The package had finally been delivered but only after a demanded payment of A$367. I say demanded because when Ross's parents called FedEx, they were told that they had 2 days to come up with the payment or the package will be shipped back. No further explanations were given. We felt we had been very poorly treated throughout this engagement and were determined to make our opinions known.

On other matters, my company had finally released my paycheck to me and Singapore Police had finally received all the documents they needed to process my Certificate of No Criminal Conviction (CNCC).
Since today is my sister's birthday, we also managed to give her a call through Skype as well as a call to Val and Brian. The internet cafe had very quick internet service and provided headsets with microphone. We had so many administrative tasks (calls, emails, bookings, car hire and others) to settle that it was 11:30am before we were finally done. We rushed out and ran most parts of the way, unsure of how long we would take to get the ship and wary of any wrong turns that might bring us further away. We were desperate enough to flag down any cabs we might see on the way but didn't have much luck. Ross managed to navigate us to the Hurtigruten terminal with only 10 minutes to spare. By then, I was panting hard from the running but thankful that we weren't going to miss the ship after all.

We didn't have time to get any lunch and weren't keen to get the lunch onboard since it was going to cost each of us 275 Kroner. So we just snacked and had the food we had stocked up in the fridge.

We popped out for a while to take some photos on the outdoor deck. The wind was blowing so strongly that we were either struggling to walk against the wind or being pushed along.

At 6:15pm, we crossed another stretch of open sea according to our detailed day to day handouts. But the ship felt relatively stable and we passed through it unnoticingly.

I did our laundry with the washing machines and dryer buying two tokens for 20 kroners. The whole washing and drying took nearly two hours. I mistook the dryer for the washing machine and when I sheepishly explained to the reception, they replaced my token.
Dinner was served at 7pm. We had dinner as usual with Sergy.
She was her pleasant self and we had a good time chatting. There was also a guessing game going on what is the exact time we will be crossing the Artic circle, a range was provided from 6:30am to 7:30am. Both myself and Ross put in our guesses.

At 8:45pm, we docked for 45 minutes at Rorvik. There was a museum visit available which the ship broadcasted but we decided to give it a miss. We hopped off for a short trip to the nearest grocery supermarket and even managed to drop our postcards at the post office.

Scandinavia- 18th Oct (Wed)

We woke up at 8:30am to get breakfast before it ends at 10am. The ship was rocking slightly and we ventured out on the deck on our floor and caught a bit of the sunrise. It was a beautiful naturist sight that greeted us all around. By the time we got to the breakfast table, we had lost our appetite and not sure how much to eat since the food might all re-surface later. After another half an hour or so, the waters stablised. We realised that it was probably because we were making a turn near Maloy and hit some really rocky waters there. Ross wished that we could have gone back for breakfast so that we could have more food.

There was a stop at Torvik at 10:15am for half an hour. The ship was slightly late arriving Torvik and we got off for a short walk as well as some photos. As we alighted, we had to beep our cards through a computer system. When we boarded again, we also had to beep our cards again. We thought that was very smart. Torvik was a small little town. We guessed that the stop was meant more for loading cargo. Back on the ship and on the way to Alesund, we couldn't stop taking photos cos the natural scenery as well as the settlements was so beautiful.

We had another stop again at 12pm at Alesund for 3 hours. We alighted from the ship on a really steep gangway. On the way back, we realised that it was because the steps haven't "opened" up. We headed first for the quick walk up Mount Aksla, 418 steps up from the Town Park. Then we had lunch at Peppe's Pizza which turned out to have much slower service than we expected. We then walked around to the old town area and walked around there. We had such a good time and made use of every minute we were on ground because the town was so pretty and we couldn't stop taking photos.

We headed back with 10 minutes to spare. We sat in the panoramic room as the ship left Alesund and headed next to Molde. At 5:30pm, we had a stop at Molde and alighted for a walk in Molde. Ross shared with me that Tor pronounced Molde in a different way that he simply couldn't catch. Molde was a modern town but we had simply fantastic and beautiful views over the snow capped mountains as the sun was setting.

An hour later, we were back on the ship. At 7pm, we were seated at our reserved table, Table 6. It was a square table, the table set for 3 people. We took our seats, wondering who was going to sit next to us. Right next to our table was another table for four, we were separated by a table light. A lady of about fifties joined us by the name of Serje (pronounced Ser-ray). She was from Miami and we found out that she was born in a town west of Oslo, left Norway when she was about 4. Her family was in Estoria until she was about 12 years old before they went to US. We had a good conversation with her.

For dinner, we had scallops for appetizer, reindeer meat for main and rakush for desert. The reindeer meat's texture was slightly like kidney, and tasted pretty good. I felt the serving wasn't big though and left the dinner table feeling half full. I was wondering how the Americans coped with the size of the serving then.

We chatted with Serje through dinner and found out that she has two sons in thirties, one of which married Japanese. Amongst other things, we also chatted about the rocky waters experienced during today's breakfast and Serje surprised us by telling us that it was because of interaction waters with the North Atlantic Oceans. We were saying that hoping that was the end of the rockiness we should be experiencing. But towards the end of dinner, the ship was rocking quite badly. It went on for nearly an hour and an announcement about 15 mins after the rockiness started, saying that we were going through a stretch of open seas.

After dinner, we bought an hour of internet time but wasn't able to access the internet from neither our notebook (wifi) or from the ship's computer. We headed back to the room for an early night, watching shows on TV and feeling pretty tired out by all the walking during the day.

Scandinavia- 17th Oct (Tues)

I had to get up at 3:30am to call Singapore for the CNCC. It was engaged and I went directly into voice mail. I took the opportunity to call up my parents to check whether my cheque from the wedding dress deposit was in. I was not surprised to hear that my mail was left unchecked. But it was good catching up with the latest news at home.

After which, I managed to get through to Singapore Police and was frustrated to know that she had not received the fax that I paid to send through yesterday. I went back to sleep soon after with all these outstanding tasks on my mind.

We managed to wake up early in the morning in time to try the Norwegian breakfast provided in the hotel. We loved the breakfast and got to try the Norwegian brown cheese. Ross liked the fresh toast and cheese they had.

After which, it was a hassle of administrative tasks we still needed to tie up. Besides the free fast internet service we enjoyed, we could also scan and print documents at the Steens Hotel. It was indeed true what the guy first told us when we checked in, after we step through the door, everything is free. The people at the hotel didn't mind us using the printer, scanners or printing papers at all. We thought they were very decent indeed.

The good news I had from the morning's email was that Oracle had finally concluded on my tax issue and was ready to release my pay check. The only problem though is that there is still an uncertainty on the sum that HK IRD would be refunding me since I had overpaid in my provisional tax. PWC was supposed to follow-up but after the whole issue, I had very little faith in Oracle finance and PWC. And to think that the problem started because of Oracle requiring me to spend time working in China, therefore having a secondment arrangement. The bad news was that the package was still being held up at Australian Customs and the package had failed to get there in time for Nanny's birthday. Since it was already post working hours in Australian time, there wasn't much we could do about it anyway.

We finally managed to check out of the hotel slightly after midday, checking out of the room and depositing our bags in the hotel. Since Ross had a fax to be sent, we went to the nearby library. We found the staff extremely helpful and were very relieved to find out that though it was self-service, we managed to send a fax out to UK with no fuss at all. It cost only 5 Kroner for one page when my 5 pages the other day had cost 106 Kroner. And it was totally ironical that Ross's fax got through while my expensive fax didn't seem to reach its destination.

We headed promptly for a tram ride to bring us to the Floyen top station for a walk at Mount Floyen.
The restaurant on top was closed (we assume for lunch) so we had a hot dog snack at the souvenoir shop. We started on a fast hike, mindful of the time we needed to board the ship today.

It was an excellent hike. The nature was beautiful and almost magical. Taking the walk in the forests made me understand where Hans Christian Anderson got his inspiration from. The beauty of the forest was almost fairytale like.

Even though the tracks were quite well marked, we still managed to lose our way. At one point, Ross even admitted he was lost. We asked a passerby and found out that we were at Blamansveien, past the top point that we targeted for. We were tempted to go further, seeing how beautiful the scenery is but keeping mindful of time constraints, we decided to head down.

At the bottom, near the tram station, I took a photo, hugging the troll that Judith kissed back in year 2004. That would be an interesting photo to compare.

We enjoyed the walk thoroughly. Heading back to the hotel, we checked emails and the latest status of our ongoing tasks. We then ordered a cab to take us to the Hurtigruteterminalen, which turned out to cost us 110 Kroner which is equivalent to US$15 for a 10 minutes journey.

We reached the terminal at around 5pm and found out that we couldn't enter our rooms, though we could get onto the ship. We checked in our luggage and the staff helped to bring our luggage into the room.

The ship company we are traveling with is Hurtigruten. Hurtigruten provides journeys that start from Bergen and travels north across the Arctic Circle and beyond as it meanders through the dramatic splendours of the coast. Each Hurtigruten ship has a different style and character and we are going on the Finnamarken ship, taking the Classic Voyage North to Kirkenes. Norway was voted "The World's most unspoilt destination" in 2004 by the National Geographic Traveller Magazine.

Norway is so often described as a land of sublime natural beauty. On the Hurtigruten north voyage, we will get to explore the long coast and the towns on it. Norway has an unspoilt, unimaginably captivating wilderness, but in its myriad of coves and bays, in brightly coloured hamlets and in strikingly modern towns, there are several settlements.

Hurtigruten was started in the late 19th century with the delivery of mail being the initial reason for the establishment of what was known as the Coastal Express. For ninety years, the Coastal Express was the most important link between the south and the north. It was from this that the name originated from.

Hurtigruten came up, translated as "fast route", this was quite literally the quickest route to North Norway then. It was only in 1993 that mail delivery was transferred to planes and vehicles.

We were also hoping to see the Northern Lights on this Scandinavian trip. The Northern Lights or aurora borealis, which means 'dawn of the north', are a natural phenomenon caused by electrically charged solar particles passing into the earth's atmosphere. Great arcs are formed across the sky as ghostly wisps of green, yellow, red and violet dance above the horizon. I was first told of the Northern Lights by ChongLee who witnessed it himself on board a friend's boat.

Taking this cruise is also one of the best ways to explore the fjords. Fjords are carved by a massive sheet of ice up to 3km thick that covered Northern Europe in a succession of ice ages.

The ship we are on, MS Finnmarken, is one of the newest, having been constructed in 2002. It has an overall length of 138.5m, gross tonnage of 15,530 and has a service speed of 15 knots. It is able to carry 1000 passengers and has 283 cabins, 639 berths.

We explored the ship and found it very spacious. We had booked for a "best-available outside room" and were a bit apprehensive to know what kind of room we got. We were given our room keys but couldn't get in until 6pm. So we walked everywhere else on the ship and loved it. We could look into our room from the window outside and was worried that it looked small. We realised too, as Tor said, meals on the ship were not cheap. Thankfully, our rate included half board, so we only had to pay for lunch, which we would often eat onshore.

We got out of the ship, walked around in town and did some grocery shopping.

Heading back to the ship, we managed to get into our rooms. We found that we had made the right decision. The ship had slightly more 300 guests while full capacity was 1000. The room was much more spacious than the Trans-Siberian trains. In the room, there were lots of built-in storage, safe, fridge, a working table, vanity table, two beds, a TV, and an en-suite bathroom.

There is also a TV channel that tells us the current route of the ship, speed, longitude and latitude of our current location.

As we unpacked for the next 7 days, the room felt delightfully spacious and comfortable, much better than what we expected.

On the fourth floor, there is a "Tour Guide" desk. This is where we can check on the information on the entire trip (time schedule of all the stops through the 12 days, the excursions we can do) and everyday there will be new detailed information for the next day, given out at around 6pm. There were so much information to pick up, timetable of stops, the duration, brochures on the stops, maps and a detailed program of what we would be experiencing the next day. At the reception on the third floor, which is where we would usually alight and board at each stop, we could also add a charge facility to our hotel card so that besides opening our room door, it doubles as a charge card. We also managed to reserve the dinner table we will use for the rest of the trip after today. The guy who helped us with the booking said we would be sitting with English speakers.

Dinner starts at 7pm to 9pm, that's the daily dinner time too. We headed for dinner next and found a delightful selection of seafood as well as ice-cream for desert. Food was good.

We had an English briefing at 9pm that we were updated on everything including safety procedures and excursions. We soon realised that there were lots of Americans onboard since they liked to talk pretty loudly and simply share everything that they know. I noticed that there was a Chinese family traveling on board. The parents spoke to their children (a young lady and two young men, all around late teens or early twenties) in mandarin. The kids though seem to have an American twang when speaking English. From their mandarin accent, I suspect they are from Malaysia originally.

After learning that the Sea Safari is already half-booked, we headed straight for the bookings after the briefing. At the tourist desk, we booked 3 trips including Sea Safari, North Cape and Russia border. These are trips towards the end of the 7 day journey. There are 6 trips in total that we can do, and two available trips on the return journey, which we won’t be on.

At 10:30pm, we headed outdoors on the ship to watch the ship depart from its dock. The ship was initially very smooth but got slightly rocky as we got ready for bed.

It had been a busy and tiring day today and we were happy to go to bed.

Scandinavia- 16th Oct (Mon)

Woke up a bit late this morning. I had to wake up at 3am last night to call up Singapore Police Force for the status of Certificate of No Criminal Conviction (CNCC). Stayed up for an hour for that purpose. Both of us woke up late in the morning. The other bummer was that our FedEx package to Sydney containing our 2nd precious Silk carpet, earthen ware plate from Uzbekistan and Nanny's 95th birthday present (scarf) is being delayed at Australia Customs, while another package we sent at the same time by British Post had already arrived. We sent Nanny's present by FedEx hoping that it would arrive in time for Nanny's birthday. It was a good thing that Val and Brian called up FedEx to check and we realised that the customs was holding up the package. Priory, I thought the delay was because of the weekend. I also had some problems with my previous company since they haven't managed to clear my HK tax and therefore still holding my last paycheck after nearly 6 months of leaving the company.
Through email, we realized that Stewart (Ross’s brother) and family were in Xian. We were excited as it meant that we could get the terracotta warriors which Ross had regretted not buying. We called Stewart up and managed to get him to buy two terracotta warriors (with shipping) for us.

Therefore we had some administrative tasks to clear and couldn't go on a hike as we planned.

Getting out of the hotel, the first thing we needed to do was to fax a form to Singapore Police. It was quite a hassle as we realised that the hotel doesn't do it, the Post Office doesn't handle fax too. We finally went to the Tourist Office to find out where we could get a fax done. We walked to an office at Nordnes, the south western part of Bergen to get it done finally. Next, we visited the Bergen Aquarium nearby which turned out to be very good. There is a huge lifelike spider right in the center of the room exhibiting a wide variety of spiders. The Aquarium had penguins and seals outside, while the 3 storey interior had spiders, fishes, lobsters, crocodiles and snakes.

We had a long walk in the Nordnes, the parks looks simply beautiful with the lakes and autumn colours.

In the evening, we had a walk again at the park near our hotel and walked to the Hurtigruteterminalen to find our way around and where to board our cruise the next day. On the way there, we saw the Museum of Natural collection and could see the lighted interior which looked like the skeletons of two huge dinosaurs. We also walked past a University campus and nice apartments in the area which we suspected to be dormitories.

At the Hurtigruteterminalen, we realised that we could check in as early as 3:30pm which was good to know. After which, we had dinner at a Chinese/pizza restaurant called Wok. The food turned out to be surprisingly good.

When we reached back in the hotel, we found ourselves laden with administrative tasks, reading and planning confirmative routes and booking hotels and flights. At around 1am, it was already early morning, 9am in Sydney. We called up Nanny over Skype and wished her a happy 95th birthday.

She sounded cheerful and bright. It was wonderful to hear her over the phone. She also sounded excited for us that we were enjoying ourselves.

After the call, Ross went on to handle our administrative tasks, including the FedEx package. For some reason, FedEx said that Australian customs required a commercial invoice. Even though we founded it ridiculous, our hands were tied. We proceeded to fill in and provide exactly the same information that we had already provided when filling in the application for the FedEx order. We really didn't understand the purpose of doing it since it was information FedEx already had. Ross had to keep calling her back to make sure that everything is now in place.

Scandinavia- 15th Oct (Sat)

Scandinavia- 15th Oct (Sun)
Our flight for Norway today was at 10:40am. We head for Oslo and then Bergen, reaching Bergen at around 1pm. We checked out of the hotel with no fuss and walked to the central station for the airport express. We managed to board a waiting train to terminal 5.

The only hassle we had I guess was having to pick up our luggage at Oslo and checking it again for the flight to Bergen. It didn't leave us a lot of time to get to the gate, luckily, the flight was delayed by 30 minutes and we managed to book the Bergen hotel through a phone call and buy some chocolate snacks (Smash – chocolate layered chips that comes in a yellow bag, Freia - “Quick lunch” like kit-kat except that it’s made from real chocolate, Nidar – “Stratos” like aero bar, comes in a blue bag) that Tor had recommended. Ross had a great sense of achievement knocking off 3 items on his list on Tor's to-try list in Norway.

Reaching Bergen, we took the airport bus near our hotel. It was a 10 minutes walk to the hotel, a big portion of it and especially the last part was steep upslope. We managed to get to the hotel with our backpacks on our backs, panting and gasping for air.

We stayed in Steens Hotel (we are guessing Steens is Norwegian for Swans). It was a nice restored Manor house. The room and toilet isn't too big but nice and clean.

We headed out to explore the coastal touristy area, Brygens. When we were 10 minutes from the hotel, we realised that we had forgotten the camera and poor Ross climbed the slope again back to the hotel, while I decided it was time for lunch at a nearby Vietnamese restaurant. It was a small restaurant and ran by Vietnamese. The beef noodle soup turned out to be very good. When Ross joined me later, he had a bowl too. By the time we finished our meal, it was 4pm.

We proceeded for a long walk in Brygens. It was a very nice area and would have looked better with bright sunlight. But the day was slightly cloudy. It was also not as cold as we thought. It wasn't as breezy as Stockholm. It is a sort of nice quiet touristy town. The autumn colors were beautiful and Bergen seemed a very foresty sloppy place with wooden houses on faraway slopes.

There were also lots of students in the area we stayed. We headed back after our walk and did some administrative stuff, using the fast free internet service in the hotel.

I was actually quite tired throughout the day due to the early morning. Slept a bit while we were back in the room in the evening and had a take-away pizza for dinner back in the hotel room.

Scandinavia- 14th Oct (Sat)

Woke up at around 9am this morning. While waiting for Ross to get ready, I went down to use the PC (internet) at the business centre. It was wonderfully fast and I could even do printouts. The best thing though was that the internet and printing was free.


We headed out for Vasa Museum and walked to Blasieholmen, Skeppsholmen and Kastellholmen, doing some exploration before ending up back at Skeppsholmen for a ferry ride to Djurgarden. It's a Saturday and we see lots of families with their babies out for the day. I saw so many toddlers today! We went to Vasa Museum to see the ancient 17th century Royal Warship. It sunk on its maiden voyage and stayed below the water for 333 years before it was salvaged. It was indeed worth visiting.




After spending a good amount of time at the Vasa Museum, we crossed opposite to the Nordiska Museum where there was a chocolate festival for three days, starting today. There was a queue paying to get in and was really crowded inside. We had good fun stuffing ourselves with the sample chocolates that were given out and also had dinner at the cafe. Ross had surprisingly good pasta with ham and cheese, while I had an okay fried fish balls with salad.






We headed next for Skansen that was also known as "Old Sweden in a Nutshell". We took a long walk in the area, and also visited the Scandinavian Zoo (which included Elk, brown bear, partridge, otter, ponies and so on).

We then walked all the way back into Blasieholem to the National Museum. After spending a good hour there, around 5pm by this time, we walked on to check out the Berns Hotel. It was difficult finding the Berns hotel and even harder to find its lobby. We eventually gave up and headed back to the hotel.


Had dinner near the central station at the fast-food Thai restaurant and proceeded to Chokladkoppen in Glama Stan for dessert. It was a surprisingly quiet night with not that many people out on a Saturday night.

Scandinavia- 13th Oct (Fri)

We woke up late this morning with the comfortable beds in Sheraton.


We headed Wayne's Cafe (near Central Station) for breakfast to try out the cinnamon roll, recommended by Tor. It was good.



We headed next to the Tourist office at Sweden House. Our plan for the day was to walk around in Gamla Stan.



Along the way, I tried a hot dog at the street kiosk. I was impressed that even the hot dog seller was fluent in both Swedish and English. Sweden had impressed deeply with their bilingualism.

We had a lunch at Chokladkoppen. I had lasagna while Ross had a toasted sandwich. The lasagna turned out to be as bad as the pasta we had last night and we wondered whether this was the way pasta was done, hopefully just in Sweden.

We had dinner at Cattelin Restaurant which serves Swedish food. I had a potato pancake that turned out to be very good while Ross had roasted lamb.

Scandinavia- 12th Oct (Thu)

Left London early in the morning for our Stockholm flight at 11:30am. The BA lounge was pretty good and had lots of juices, fresh fruits and cereal.

It was a short flight to Stockholm and the time zone went an hour back.

We took the train from the airport to the Central Station. The train station at the airport was huge and cold, reminds me of a bit Soviet style with the massiveness. Upon reaching our destination at the Central Station, We changed some pounds into krona. Ross managed to navigate us to the hotel easily enough. We realised that the Sheraton Hotel was very near to the station. Within a minute of walking, we saw the Sheraton Hotel sign. Along the way, we also saw lots of Japanese Chinese restaurants.

We had excellent service at checking in. The lady who served us was fluent in English and very helpful. We were supposed to have a better room tonight (on SPG points) compared to the next two nights (which we paid for). We were glad to know that we would be getting a room with a good view and staying in the same room for the next few nights.



The view from the room was indeed excellent. We could see the water, bridge and beautiful buildings from our room. That was an excellent start. Soon after settling in, we set out to explore Stockholm a bit more. It was after 5pm by now.

Stockholm is simply beautiful and the coolness in the air is crisp. Honestly speaking, we had been worried about the cold but it wasn't as bad as we expected. There are lovely alleys and every corner we turn is beautiful.

We had pretty bad Italian food for dinner. The pasta we ordered was overcooked and soggy. We discovered Chokladkoppen which had fantastic hot chocolate and great chocolate cake with cream.

11th Oct (Wed) - London

We went to the Norwegian cruise office to pick up vouchers, carrying with us bags of things that we intend to ship back to Sydney. The day was pouring. After the cruise office, we split to our own appointments. Ross met his ex-secretaries for lunch while I went to the post office. Ross was also showing his ex-secretaries some wedding photos. I had to go to the agencies at South Kensington to settle the shipping for some of the stuff we had. After a long agonising affair and comparison of rates, I finally settled the shipment.

I met with Pare for dinner that evening while Ross met with Tor at Hard Rock at Piccadilly Circus for Casino and dinner. She was happy and excited to be in London having found a job that paid well. I joined them at the casino later. Lady Luck wasn't exactly smiling at the two of both and they lost some money.

10th Oct (Tues) - London

Ross managed to book the Norwegian cruise in the morning. He met his ex-boss (Mark Bentley) for lunch while I had some personal time for shopping. I was at Sloane Sq, Oxford Circus and South Kensington. I managed to buy some warmish clothes at a Gap sale at Sloane Sq. I wanted to pick up name cards from the Nottinghill Gate restaurants Chonglee and Tor had brought us to but the station was closed because of Thames River sewage water flooding. It remained shut the next day.

At South Kensington, I noticed a place called Mailbox who was agents for FedEx, UPS and other delivery companies. Picked up a name card as I thought that might be useful for our shipping purposes later.

I met Ross back home at 6pm. He had been late for his lunch appointment by half an hour because of disruptions in the tube service. It was a good thing his boss wasn't offended and they spent 2 hours over lunch.

We met Tor at his apartment to take us out for dinner. We settled for Gourmet Burger in the end which was turned out to be surprisingly good even for a not-so-keen meat eater like me and we went to the Casino after that. But we had problems getting in with Ross's sneakers. We headed for Baskin Robbins ice-cream after we failed to get into the casino.

Back home, Tor gave us lots of information on Norway and helped us to plan out the details of our trip. Both he and Judith have been extremely helpful. Ross has such great friends!

9th Oct (Mon) - London

We were desperate to do our laundry and went to the Launderette. It was fun and awfully fast especially when I thought we would be spending a long dull day there.

We had lunch at Sea Shells which was recommended by Tor and stated in Eye Witness to be a very sought after place for those far and near for fish and chips. It turned out to be disappointing. I had haddock while Ross had cod. The haddock turned out very fishy and Ross didn't like the texture on his cod. I asked whether my haddock was supposed to be so fishy and the waitress checked and confirmed that my fish was fresh. Anyway, I couldn't stand the fishy taste and didn't manage to have much of it. I had apple pie for dessert but it turned out to be more of a cake than a pie. It wasn't terrific too. We spent the rest of the day running errands. I went to get some photos printed and sorting out mailing we had to do while Ross checked on the cruise for Norway.

We met with Tor and Judith for dinner at a pub in Nottinghill Gate. Poor Judith travelled to Manchester for work today early in the morning at 6am. She told us during dinner that she had to stay there for the next few days for work. The pub had excellent Thai food and offered different degrees of spiciness. I was challenged to get the most spicy one and complied. It turned out to be really good.
All of us loved the food and it also had excellent and fresh chocolate cake which both me and Ross shared.

8th Oct (sun) - London

Judith brought us to her favourite breakfast place this morning. It was a good walk to the delightful cafe. It was lovely to be greeted by the smell of fresh bread. We reached there promptly at 10am which is the time it opens.
The seating area wasn't huge and it didn't take long for the cafe to fill up. We had a good healthy breakfast and shared fresh bread. Judith tells us that Tor used to make such good bread at home! When we parted with Judith, we took walks in the area, went to the Sunday market, went to Leicaster Square and walked to the Tower Bridge from there. We then headed back to Leicaster Square to catch "The Departed".
Sitting through the show, I was disappointed to learn that I knew each twist and turn of the movie as it was almost identical to the Hong Kong hit "Infernal Affairs". The only difference was that the bad guy died too in the English version. Ross enjoyed himself thoroughly but felt that it was a bit too violent.

Tor is due back from Lillehammer tonight at around 10pm. He was slightly late coming back and bought lots of Norwegian chocolates for us to try.

7th Oct (sat) - London

We met Chonglee for lunch at a Singaporean owned restaurant called Nonya in NottingHill Gate. The food was great and authentic Singaporean. We ordered lots of food, too much for three of us. I loved the spice, the sambal chilli and the freshly cut red chilli. We walked around NottingHill Gate after that and found quite a few delightful cafes there. Chonglee brought us to this place with a Victorian dungeon theme for drinks. After which, he also brought us to Hotel Chocolat (High Street Kensington) which sold delightful gourmet chocolate, some at very reasonable prices and hippy packaging.

Had dinner at Angela and Ray's place (Oxford Circus). We brought a box of Hotel Chocolat Pralines chocolate and wine. Angela made chicken wings with salad for us. It was very thoughtful of her to make us home cooked food after we had been on the road for so long. We caught up with their latest wedding plans and plans after London.