The Next Adventure

After our week in Paris and week in Vannes we are moving on to the next big adventure which is driving the length of Norway.

We left Vannes with a sense of leaving home having loved our flat and really enjoyed the city and surrounds. Had a mad driving day through Brittany to Belgium courtesy of a route approved by the Travel Master and Navigator but set by the Peugeot (known as Phoebe as her number plate starts FB) GPS and to the Ibis hotel outside of Charleroi. It was just off the main highway so it was literally a drive and sleep day. Then a worse trip through Belgium into Germany and onto Kiel the next day. For some reason the Germans are doing roadwork the length of the motorway so it was 60kph then 80 then 130 then back to 70 then 60 then 120 then 130 etc etc. Very tedious. And we had forgotten you have to have coins to use in the loos at the service centres!!

Eric notes: Construction is ubiquitous in western Europe. It is everywhere. Perhaps it is the time of year that we travel. Not quite winter yet but after the high summer season. Although much of the building work would have started earlier. Perhaps it is the realisation that ageing infrastructure and buildings need renovation or replacement. Whatever the reason most cities seemed to have been turned into huge sh**holes of torn up streets, roads, and buildings. The sound of jackhammers, diggers, cranes and dump trucks is overwhelming. It's as if some kind of demonic force is transferring public monies to hoards of privatised construction workers in high-vis vests wreaking havoc and making visiting these places very unpleasant. But we are not deterred. Full contact tourism prevails. Damn the cement mixers. Full speed ahead.

However, arriving in Kiel was a surprising delight despite the dark and cold. I do find that many places we turn up with no expectations and its 'oh, this is nice'. Kiel was only a stop to get the ferry to Norway but in the end it was great. We went for a walk around the harbour until my ears got cold and found a bar which was channelling Marlene Dietrich called the Blue Angel. Eric tells me that it was a famous movie with Dietrich as Lola. SO of course they make martinis….. and then just as we were thinking one was enough they cleared the floor and started a swing dance class. So there was no choice but to have another martini and watch the class go through its paces.

When the dancers started to arrive I had uncharitable thoughts about a much older lady being wined by two young men at her table - but it turns out she is one fo the better dancers so I think they all like being her partner. It was a hoot!!!

Eventually we thought we should find dinner so wandered off to a place advertised at the hotel and there hung out with a crowd all 30 years younger than us eating pizza and drinking beer - I had broccoli soup and red wine of course. It was a great night and very unexpected.

I'd had a quick look on travel sites and found that Kiel is home to one of the last remaining WWII German U boats - U 995. It was fascinating. (one of the advantages of having a car is that we only had a couple pf hours before the ferry and we could do the 20 minute drive to see the sub and be back). They have kept it intact and it is a walk through of the whole sub. The lovely lady let us in for 8.40 euros instead of 9 as they only take cash and that's all we had. But we found a bank and Eric bought a cap so he was happy. Eric lived out his childhood dream of being a sub captain, I was certain I'd have developed claustrophobia. And unlike the movies the Command room is just another space and not big or roomy at all. The movies lie!!

Then back to the Ferry terminal to line up in out cars - get checked in via a scanner and a person standing along the cars, drive on board and find our cabin on level 10-741 - which is almost larger than an Ibis hotel room with a proper bed, then take the internal glass lift to the promenade level on 7 and wow - our first response was we are on the Poseidon because of the glass ceiling and then - we had accidentally got booked on a cruise ship not a ferry!!! Having spent 10 hours on the ferry to Jersey where there were just seats and a large cafeteria, this was astounding - it has a level of restaurants, shops, a pub with a band, and evening show with dancing and a cinema. It seems to be well heeled Germans and Norwegians for whom this is a 'trip' not just a way to get from A to B. We ended up in the fine dining restaurant just because we could and spent the whole time being amazed. The drive off the next morning was so simple once they fixed the ramp so that it would descend by banging at it with a hammer (Dad would approve) and the immigration was a nice young man speaking perfect English standing by the car window being amazed that we were Australians driving a French car and intending to drive all the way to the top of Norway!! He felt duty bound to impress on us how far it is. I said - we are Australians so we are used to distances.

So here we are in Oslo. I discovered from the guide book they have the Fram here. What's the Fram you ask - as Eric had to - she's the ship which took Amundsen to the South Pole and Nansen to the North Pole. For an Antarctic nut like me it was a wonderful thing - I was so excited!! And it was truly one of the best museums I've every been in they have made a 'tour' through the ship with good explanations and around the walls of the museums heaps of polar exploration stories not just the Fram.

We then headed into town to see the City Hall which is an amazing building designed in the 1930s and built in the 1950s. It is where the Nobel peace prize is awarded and is truly amazing architecture and design. I found it reminiscent of the Soviet buildings but they have included various designs inside - a medieval room, a Munch room and a King Haarald room etc. Then I let Eric explore the Architecture museum but other than the Le Corbusier exhibition I had museum legs and needed to settle in for the night.

Its cold here.