Iceland 2011: Arrival

I keep hearing about what a surprisingly mild climate Iceland has – protected by the warm Atlantic current, maybe a bit of snow in winter occasionally, but not as cold as you’d think – no colder than New York, according to the inflight magazine. I haven’t seen a lot yet but I think Iceland is a very appropriate name. My view from the sky was of a frozen white wasteland (although I mean that in a nice way – it was spectacular.) It was also still light enough to see things outside at 4.30pm despite the sun officially setting over an hour earlier. It is snowy and there’s a bite in the air but it’s not unpleasantly cold. I didn’t see much on the drive over to Reykjavik either but I could see that the Reykjanes peninsula isn’t a field of black lava as I was promised but a winter wonderland.

Turns out the northern lights aren’t being switched on tonight so the trip to look for them is cancelled and I should get in touch with Iceland Excursions tomorrow (hoping the hotel will do this as they’re the ones IE actually contacted). This is why I planned this for the first night, so I’d have other opportunities because I know the lights are unpredictable and in the meantime, I get an evening in. My room is nice, I can’t get into the minibar which is probably just as well and it’s absolutely true that hot water here smells of rotten eggs. I am not looking forward to trying out the shower. It was cold but I’ve folded up the curtains so the heat from the radiators comes into the room and not straight out through the windows and turned the radiators up a bit so I have a little tropical paradise in here. It’s snowy outside, deep snow with clear footprints in.

Northern Isles 2011: Stromness, Orkney

(Offexploring insists on a photo with each blog. I can’t get my photos off my camera which is why today’s picture is of my window)

I got the bus today to Stromness. It was a pretty day, all blue sky and sunshine so I put on the thinner trousers and left my coat behind. I sort of realised that might not have been the best idea before I even got to the travel centre but by then it was too late to come back.

The ride over was pretty as well – it seemed between the odd shape of Mainland and various lochs that we were never out of sight of navy blue water.

Stromness was cold. The wind was stronger and colder than it had been in Kirkwall although the sun was warm and if you weren’t in the shade, it almost made up for the wind. I walked through town, heading south-westish until I finally found a view.

I don’t know why it is but Orkney looks sort of bare. The hills are green but it’s a sort of pastel green, as if it’s dying. On Shetland I was told this is because of all the salt in the air, which kills anything that tries to grow. Is Orkney just as salty? It doesn’t feel like it and it doesn’t look like it – Shetland was permanently misty with salt mist and Orkney isn’t.

I didn’t stay too long. I came back to the travel centre, looked at the tourist information centre, waited out in the wind and got the bus back to Kirkwall.

First job was to get changed but I took the long route back via the Peerie Sea and nearly froze before I finally reached the hostel.

I did much the same route round Kirkwall as yesterday but now in the sun and in proper layers, I was nice and warm (although my hat had to go on the radiator because it was still soaked from yesterday’s little rainstorm).

I sat on a bench on the harbour wall and watched boats going out, counted wind turbines and daydreamed. Then I came back via the park again, read a little bit of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and fell asleep.

Northern Isles 2011: Kirkwall, Orkney

Today I woke up earlier than I wanted, faffed around not doing much then went out to see Kirkwall.

It was nice. I went along the seafront, looked at the boats, met three cormorants sitting on the slipway and then got rained on. I’ve had these boots for about eighteen months and never ever have they leaked in the rain before. They had sloshing puddles inside!

I came back to the hostel to dry out and have some food and stayed in all afternoon, getting up occasionally to look out at the view. By about 5, the sky was clear and blue although already starting to turn pink. I put on my slightly damp boots and went out again.

I stood by the lakey thing over the road, took photos of the pink sky reflected in it and then went back along the seafront into town. The cormorants were gone and the tide had dropped about eight feet.

I wandered the town, looked at St Magnus’s and got lost, finally reemerging on the wrong side of Lidl, which is on my route into town and therefore a major landmark for me.

I had some toast and cheese and now I’m having hazelnut flavour hot chocolate and I suppose I should go to bed sometime. My boots are now drying on the towel rail which seems to be heated permanently.

Northern Isles 2011: Shetland to Orkney

I woke up this morning – after not really having slept – to a dark and very windy island. I packed and watched the Hoobs until 8, the time I’d booked for breakfast, then went downstairs to sit on my own in the bar and wonder how it all worked.

The manager appeared at last and offered me tea or coffee, then a choice of things that come in a bowl, like cereal or porridge or yoghurt. I had some cornflakes and having turned down any sort of cooker breakfast he made me toast.

He asked what my plans were for the day and when i said I planned to walk down to the bus stop and head for the airport, he thought about it for a bit and then came back five minutes later to tell me he had to go to the shop which was right by the bus stop and he’d give me a lift. We agreed on 9.30 and I sat and read for half an hour before going down and getting in the car.

I waited at the bus stop for about ten minutes. The wind, apparently down from ‘gales’ to merely ‘strong’ felt even stronger than yesterday. I made the interesting discovery that if I stood behind the bus shelter I was a tiny bit out of the wind but the breeze that cane under the sides was surprisingly warm on my ankles.

My plans had been to explore the headlands and cliffs but in winds I could hardly stand up against and thick mist – apparently all the salt in the air – I went to plan B which was to spend my holiday reading and not doing much.

Which is how I came to spend most of today at Sumburgh Airport getting through far too many books.

Despite strong winds at Shetland and pretty strong ones at Orkney it was quite a smooth flight although it was raining when we landed. This time I only had a ten minute wait for the bus and I knew exactly how to get from the town centre to the hostel.

I had some food and tomorrow I may actually go and look at Kirkwall. I have seen very little of it so far.

Northern Isles 2011: Loch Spiggie, Shetland

Today I got up earlier than I planned, faffed around trying to decide what to take to Shetland, how to pack it and what I didn’t need after all.

It was daylight by the time I left. I got the bus from the travel centre and went to the airport where my plane was delayed because of the weather.

The weather on Orkney was nothing compared to the weather on Shetland. I went outside to look at massive waves crashing onto the rocks and it was so windy you could lean on the wind and not fall over. Surprisingly, it wasn’t too cold as long as I kept my hands inside my sleeves.

I waited inside the airport before getting my bus. The helpful driver dropped me off at the closest stop to my hotel but it was still a mile and a half walk up a single track road. It still wasn’t cold. In fact, if it wasn’t for the incredibly strong wind it could have been a more beautiful day than I could have imagined here.

It was an easy walk and I kept coming across views – the first view of Spiggie Loch was amazing. My room overlooks it but right now it’s dark so I can’t actually see it.

I dumped most of my stuff and walked down the road, made friends with some noisy and curious sheep and then went to the beach.

Obviously the wind made the sand fly around all over the place but the water was turquoise and the sand was white and it looked like a very unexpected piece of paradise hiding on these windy rocks. But the sand was blowing in my eyes and the wind was really picking up so I retreated – backwards – to the road and further down towards the cliffs.

I did not go out on the cliffs. Partly because it’s so windy but partly because I couldn’t figure out how and partly because it’s really really hard work walking against a gale strong enough to literally stop you in your tracks.

Down by a hump bridge I gave in and started to head back. This time the wind was really really against me and it was also determined that I should walk along the left side of the road, so I did in case it blew me across suddenly into the path of a car.

I took shelter in my room and here I will remain until breakfast time. There is no mobile signal here but there is free wifi and I have half a book left.

Northern Isles 2011: Kirkwall, Orkney

My first impression of Kirkwall is that I don’t like it very much.

I left home at 8am to make sure I had plenty of time to catch the 8.55 train. Good thing I did too because it was replaced by an 8.38 bus because of engineering works. That bus got me to Bournemouth to join the train I would have been on and got me into Southampton airport in plenty of time.

I had some toast – with added salt in the butter – and orange juice while I finished off Touching the Void and then, since there wasn’t much else to do, I went through security. I tipped out my stuff into at least three trays, took my boots off before I was asked and did not get searched.

On the other side I sat and made a start on my next book, went upstairs to watch the planes taking off and landing, discovered that when planes are pushed out, a little man walks with them, joined to the plane by a curly bit of string which I took to somehow and for some reason work like the emergency stop cord you wear on a quad bike.

The flight was uneventful apart from the fact that my plane had propellers. We had a nice view of Edinburgh as we came in and of some mountains.

At Edinburgh I discovered that there was no need to leave the secure area I’d arrived in. I found a cafe called Eat which served toasted things, including takeaway toasted cheese and marmite sandwiches. I sat in a chair in front of a really big window overlooking another runway and ate chocolate and hula hoops and read a book while watching the planes.

This time I discovered that the little man is actually connected to the plane by a set of headphones. I’m not entirely sure why but it makes a little more sense than an emergency stop cord.

Four hours felt like four days. The airport got quiet, the planes stopped taking off so regularly and I was falling asleep. I wandered a bit, went into all the shops, looked at the supercars, stared at the departure board.

At long long last my plane was announced. This one also had propellers but that didn’t surprise me. I knew it was small but booking a seat when you know it’s the only one on that side of the aisle doesn’t mean you quite expect how narrow the plane is when there’s two seats down one side and one seat down the other and you can only just stand up straight.

It was dark long before we got to Kirkwall. The plane’s lights were flashing in the darkness and the bright white one on the end of the wing seemed to reveal static. I guess maybe it was rain being lit up for a split second at 310mph but it looked weird. Suddenly I realised just how dark it was and that I had a walk on my own with just a suitcase once I landed.

Kirkwall airport is weeny. There is nothing between the door I arrived through, the baggage carousel and the door I left through.

I waited in the bus shelter, out of reach of the rain and the worst of the wind. Got the bus into Kirkwall. You could see the sky turning orange as we came down the hill, so I realised that my walk wouldn’t be in total darkness after all.

Getting to Kirkwall was easy. Getting to the hostel was not. It was dark, damp and windy, I had 14+ kg of suitcase and once I’d passed Tesco (open 8am – 10pm on Sundays, well done Orkney!) I didn’t know where I was going. I got lost in a housing estate where all the roads had Scandinavian names like King Harald Kloss and eventually resorted to phoning the hostel for help. They were no help. I retraced my footsteps back to the main road and by a bit of luck, managed to stumble upon the right road.

My room is right up in the roof and it’s pretty. I dumped my stuff and went shopping because I knew I wouldn’t desperately want to get up early in the morning to do it. I ate cheese sandwiches in my room and then took all meltable stuff and put it in the fridge in the kitchen downstairs.

By then it was freezing. I’d opened the window when I first arrived because walking around town in four layers pulling a suitcase and being angry makes you hot and although I’d closed it, it had been open long enough for the room to be freezing. I retreated to my bed, watched Mock the Week and Being Human and then tried to go to sleep.

Norway 2011: Flying home

I got up early and had breakfast and finished packing.

I went down to the town centre to get the Flybussen. It wasn’t due for another half hour, so I went down to the harbour for a bit before coming back to the bus stop to find it populated by men who’d been fishing and sounded like they were from Somerset.

I got to the airport, checked in with the machine, scanned my own passport and took my bag over to be handed in. The man behind the desk decided I was Norwegian and gibbered at me until he scanned my luggage tag at which point he suddenly realised why I’d been looking so blankly at him.

That left me with three hours until my flight went. I went outside and down by the waterfront to take photos of the spectacular view. It did mean crossing a road where there were no crossings but I survived, in both directions.

I sat and read Sherlock Holmes until my gate was announced, got through security without being searched and then sat and read some more until I could get on the plane.

Nice view, nice flight, arrived in Oslo a couple of hours later. I navigated my way to International where I had my passport checked, bought something to drink with my last few Norwegian coins and got on the plane. Only they’d changed my seat at the last minute. You might think, if you were an airline, that someone who’d checked in online twenty-four hours in advance and chosen a seat right at the back next to a window might have done so because they wanted to see out. Therefore, why not move them so they’re in a middle seat right over the wing? That seems like a perfect choice!

And then no sooner were we in the air than the unpleasant lady sitting on my right decided to close the blinds for the entire flight. I have never hated a flight more, or an airline. I did ask why I’d been moved and the hostess just said “Oh, I don’t know if we’ve even got 25 rows”. I do not enjoy flying blind.

At Heathrow, I collected my luggage which had managed to change planes and not get lost somewhere in Scandinavia and walked the three thousand miles from T3 to Central Bus Station where there was no food and I had to sit and wait for over an hour.

The coach was too hot, the heating was broken, there was a small mutiny up the front which involved yelling at the driver who yelled back. And I do not like the blue LEDs that lit up the entire coach. We all had the overhead fans on but it didn’t really do a lot. At Ringwood, the driver got up and did something inside the overhead locker at the front which may house the heater controls – useless if you can’t get at them while driving – and I think he must have switched the heating off altogether because without the heat, the overhead fans soon began to feel very very cold.

And then I got home.

Rate this blog entry

Norway 2011: Midnight Sun at the Arctic Cathedral

I sat with the bus timetable for quite a long time, debating what time to go up the mountain.

I eventually settled on the 22.22 and went down to the main square to wait for it. Despite everthing I’d been told, the bus driver does not sell cable car tickets. We had a quick five minute hop over the bridge, then a quick trip around the houses on the other side and the driver stopped at the cable car and I jumped off.

The first problem was figuring out how to get in. I went to where there were people standing around (discussing how trees are made of aspirin) but there didn’t seem to be anywhere that sold tickets. I asked them. They said they had no idea because they’d been up there for dinner as part of a tour and hadn’t had to buy tickets. They also seemed surprised that someone should want to go up the mountain so late at night.

I went round the other side of the building and found the ticket man. He sold me a ticket and two minutes later, I was in a cable car.

Unsurprisingly, it was freezing at the top. It’s almost as far north as the European mainland goes, it’s nearly eleven at night, on a wet and windy night and I’m up a mountain. The view was great, right over Tromso Island, there’s the airport, there’s the arctic mountains in the background, there’s a faint glow where the sun would be if it wasn’t so cloudy.

I did not stay up there for an hour and a half. I took the next cable car back down where I discovered it’s surprisingly warm back on the ground. The next bus wasn’t for nearly half an hour, so I decided to do the ten minute walk back to the Arctic Cathedral and decide from there.

When I reached the Arctic Cathedral, I discovered that the clouds were thinning out. There were patches of blue sky. I decided to wait the forty minutes until midnight there and see the sun. The Hurtigrute boat was coming in and so I got to see it coming under the bridge.

The blue sky gradually appeared nearer and nearer the sun. I took regular photos. At midnight, it was unfortunately hidden by clouds a bit but I did see a lovely Midnight Light in the Sky. And I got a magnificent photo of the Ten To Midnight Sun.

There are summer concerts in the cathedral so at midnight on the dot, it emptied out and I was suddenly surrounded by people also taking photos of the glowing sky. Then a bus turned up containing lots of people for an unadvertised midnight concert. There were dozens of people walking across the bridge, under the bright light. The idea of walking back at midnight is a lot less scary at midnight than it is when you think about it during the day.

I waited, hoping the sun would reemerge and I could get a Ten Past Midnight Sun photo but it didn’t, so I headed back. Odd how that bridge seemed so scary on Sunday and it’s now very normal to walk across it. It’s 1,036 metres long and I’ve walked across it in various directions five times now. That’s 3.2 miles I’ve walked over that bridge in the last two days. I got back at about 00:45 and went to bed.

Norway 2011: Tromsø

Today I had my breakfast in the restaurant next door (because that’s where this hotel serves its breakfasts), came back up to my bed for another hour or two and then went out into Tromso. It was very damp and quite cold. Last night I saw a Eurospar supermarket just down the road so today I went in there. They have cheddar cheese! Cathedral City cheddar cheese!

I went down to the TIC where I was told that the last bus from the cable car definitely leaves at 00:15.

I prowled the town until I found the souvenir shop which I’d seen yesterday but temporarily lost and I bought a Norway flag badge for my blanket and a Viking ring.

Then I went up the back of the town in the hope of emerging into something that wasn’t city. No luck. But I did find the Polaria centre, just as the rain really started bucketing down. I may or may not have bought another duck. Just the one.

I went back to the hotel to eat my bread and cheese and stayed there for a long time. It was pouring with rain and while the setting is spectacular, Tromso is not hugely exciting in itself.

When I heard a honking down in the fjord, I went to visit the Hurtigrute boat – the Polarlys, which I saw sailing out of Trondheim on Saturday. Then I wandered down to the left of town and found myself walking over the bridge again. Because it’s very exposed up there, it felt far windier and rainy than it did on solid ground. I was very glad I’d practised walking over it in nice weather yesterday because it would have been terrifying doing it for the first time in that weather.

I sheltered under the pyramids of the Arctic Cathedral and then got my photo taken there to compare and contrast with yesterday’s sunny photo.

Then I had to walk back over. It was so wet! I stopped briefly in the bookshop, as I always do, in the hope of finding Mrs Pepperpot in Norwegian and then retreated to the hotel. I’ve had two cups of “chocolate milk” from the machine downstairs, which both turned out to be very hot chocolate. I thought I pressed the wrong button the first time, but no. I have watched Echo Beach, Top Gear (the one where they pretend to be 17-year-olds) and now Live at the Apollo – Jason Manford hosting and Michael McIntyre on next, so it’s time to switch the TV off. My arms itch like crazy. They’ve been soaked in cool water but it hasn’t helped.

I am going up this mountain tonight and departing the moment I’ve taken my photo of the sun. I am more or less packed and ready to go. Perhaps I will go as early as possible so as to be able to look at the mountains on the other side of this island.

Norway 2011: Midnight Sun in Tromsø

Last night I didn’t go to the cable car. I didn’t go to the Arctic Cathedral either. At 11.35, I dragged myself down to the harbour to see the Midnight Sun so I could go to bed.

The southbound Hurtigrute boat was in (the fourth in my collection) and its name…. Midnatsol.

The sun wasn’t visible from the harbour. I kept walking and discovered that it’s not really visible from town at all. I had to get somewhere reasonably high. The bridge. I headed out of town, got to the bridge at 11.56 and then ran up the bridge so as to be able to see the glow behind the mountains at midnight and take a photo of my watch. I did run up the wrong side of the bridge so all the photos are off the glow behind all the railings but never mind. Today I will go and visit the TIC and find out if there’s some kind of special deal. Otherwise, I think I’ve concluded that it’s not especially scary walking over that bridge at night.