Wanna tunnel? Ask a Norwegian. They’ve been burrowing around inside the huge lump of solid rock that is Norway for over a century. Believe it or not, they are now investigating building tunnels for ships. Yup! Wanna bridge? Ask a Norwegian. They’ve connected the hundreds of islands that comprise coastal Norway with high, arching, seemingly…

I can’t recall how I found Den Kongelige Postveg (The ‘Royal Post Road’), in Naeroyfjord. The ‘Road’ is a small remnant of the postal route established around 1660 to deliver mail to farms and villages in Norway’s Western Fjords. At the time, I was rattling around in Google wanting to plan a nice walk somewhere…

Whoops! We’ve been both lazy and busy for the past six days, and I haven’t posted anything. So, time to catch up … The first two of those lost days were very definitely lazy. As we approached the Lofoten Islands on our way south, the weather turned grey and leaden and once again we missed…

At the tip of its mainland and coastal islands, and before it takes off for Svalbad in the High Arctic, Norway curls fully eastward, wrapping itself around the very top of Europe towards Russia and Siberia. So much so that Norwegian ports east of Hammerfest are further east than Istanbul, and the port of Kirkenes…

The Norse Gods of Travel Weather continue to reward us for shrugging off cold days of rain and low cloud. We really enjoyed yesterday, despite it being our second day of unremitting gloom. Weaving our way through the islands and fjords north of the Lofotens on our way to Tromso, the high ridges and mountains…

When I was planning our trip along Norway’s coast, I thought we’d miss much of it because the ship continues to travel through the dark of night. Duh! “Dark” doesn’t happen up here for around 6 months of the year. We’ve now crossed the Arctic Circle and are in a world of 24-hour sunlight, crossing…

Stupendous! Nothing more I can say really, especially when we’re told there are countless more Norwegian fjords which are just as spectacular. Words aren’t adequate. Pictures aren’t either, but here are some of our best from a wonderful day.

Yesterday, we sailed the astonishing 16km length of Norway’s famous Geiranger Fjord on the first day of our journey to the Arctic Cirlce. I’m still stunned with the beauty of today’s experience, and unsure that it can be adequately communicated in bloggy words and pictures. Whilst I procrastinate, I might make a brief excursion into…

Yesterday, we took the train from Oslo to Bergen. It’s not your everyday city-to-city transit. Climbing slowly upwards out of Oslo to an altitude of 2,200 metres above sea level, the train crosses Norway’s ice-scoured and sere granite Hardangervidda plateau before descending into Bergen in the Southwestern fjords. It’s a 7-hour jaw-dropping journey which takes…

Ian was expecting Oslo to be black and grey, hunkered down for the long, cold winters which rule Norway for all but three precious months of the year. I was expecting the reserved and unremarkable city I’d visited in 1971. We were both spectacularly wrong. Perhaps it’s the fact that we’re visiting at the beginning…

Not exactly ‘trains, boats and planes’, but almost. We had a long and diverse day travelling from Berlin to Copenhagen. First, there was a very full Deutsche Bahn train from Berlin to Hamburg, then a frantic dash to catch our train connection to Puttgarten in far northern Germany. There, the train rolls, complete, onto a…

From Prague, we travelled to Berlin along the beautiful Elbe River, arriving at the Hauptbahnhof, Berlin’s enormous new central rail station. It’s a city in itself – multiple layers of intercity rail platforms, criss-crossed with local light rail. Escalators, shops, lifts, and people everywhere. Like most of Europe’s 19th – 20th Century city stations, it…

Move over Paris – Prague appears to have replaced you in Ian’s affections. In mine, too, I think. What an extraordinary city! Half the world must think so, because they’re all here too – on holiday like us. Like millions before us, the plan was to start our visit by walking the Charles Bridge. Get…

It was a bit of a shock, swapping our quietly sleek and sophisticated Austrian Railjet trains for a relatively battered and noisy Czech train to go across the Czech border to Cesky Krumlov. Really, that should read Český Krumlov but, with apologies to the Czechs, I can’t cope with all those wonderfully exotic little diacritics…

Ian enjoys visiting castles, and we’ll be visiting three big ones in a row – Salzburg’s Hohensalzburg in Austria, and Cesky Krumlov and Prague Castles in Czech Republic. Thumping great European fortresses layered ever upwards over the centuries on top of conveniently big lumps of rock next to strategically significant rivers. It’s all about money…

Sometimes, travel offers small experiences that are both unexpected and really special. We were struggling with Hallstatt’s solidly traditional Austrian cuisine, like the wiener schnitzel, dumplings, goulash and lashings of potatoes offered by local cafes and restaurants, and were looking for something lighter and fresher. Well, to be more honest, I was the one who…

Usually, the Gods of Good Travel Weather smile sweetly upon us. But not in Hallstatt. Instead, the Gods dumped two solid days of rain upon us, accompanied by a sharp drop in temperature. On the first day, we retreated into the salt mine – as you do – to stay dry, convinced it would be…

Yesterday’s train journey through the Arlberg Pass to the Salzkammergut in Austria was an uncomfortable reality check for me. In the five decades since I first crossed by train, modern development has snaked its way deep into the Pass’s breathtakingly steep alpine valleys. Much of the green meadowland with its small clustered villages and dotted…

Five big churches face each other across the Limmat River in Zurich’s Old Town. Hidden inside each church’s almost impossibly slender spire is a set of large and very bossy bells, and at regular intervals throughout the day, the bells let fly. One set will start, then the others enthusiastically join in, until the narrow…

As our blog title suggests, there will be a few more castles on this trip. On our first shared trip to Europe a few years ago, I promised a reluctant Ian that he would have to endure only one castle, one ancient ruin, and one great cathedral. And so he did. But afterwards, he wanted…