June 22-24. LGW-IST-KUL-ADL

Traveling again. But our flight wasn't until nearly 6pm, do hurry up and wait. We mostly sat around all morning. Well, I did, while Lynn finished packing. Then early afternoon we were driven to Gatwick, went through the various queues, then sat around for a few hours. Then more queues into the gate and onto the plane. 

Fortunately the first flight was relatively brief,around three and a half hours. Though when we landed we were taxiing for at least 20 minutes. Istanbul is a seriously big airport, but apparently not big enough: the plane stopped in the middle of nowhere and we were bussed to a terminal.

More plane seatbelts now have a sash strap that you pull down and clip on for takeoff and landing. I'm torn - I appreciate it cars they make seatbelts much safer, but in planes they're very annoying and I don't remember to ever put them on until told. I assume smart people have decided they make a difference, though it's hard to imagine in (and I prefer not to imagine it while sitting on a plane).

The leg from Istanbul to KL was the longest of the trip, around 10 hours. But we slept for maybe half of it (it's hard to keep track of the time) and it was pretty comfortable. As Dad predicted, it wove a path below Ukraine and above Iraq.

You might need to compare that with a map to make sense of it, the borders in that region are pretty complicated.

So I'll finish here, sitting in KL airport waiting for our final flight home.

June 21. Fordwich

We're officially in a heatwave, whatever that means, with the temperature around 30 degrees today. Our only excursion, and the last of our whole trip, was to Fordwich. That's the smallest town in England, ie smallest place with a town hall and council. The hall is a nice little building, about 500 years old.

Fordwich Town Hall

But our reason for visiting was to go out to lunch. The Fordwich Arms sits on the river, which is nice on a day like today, and has a Michelin star.

Trout with smoked butter and jalapeno granita

By the River Stour

June 20. Herne Bay

 In which nothing happens.

June 19. Birchington-on-Sea

 There's a heat wave on at the moment, with temperatures in the mid twenties. There's been a health alert issued. It is actually a bit of a problem; all the houses here are made to capture and retain heat. Despite them actually having some warm weather each year, this seems to catch the English unprepared and they have no way to manage it. People don't have air conditioning and the best they can do is usually open the windows.

Really very little happened today. We went to Quex Park, which is a manor house nearby, walked around the grounds and had a drink in the cafe. That was about it. Otherwise it was sorting things out and starting to pack for the trip home.

Quex House

June 18. South Again

This morning we packed up and started heading south again. Our first stop, an hour a way, was Bury St Edmunds. This turned out to be a pleasant mid-sized town with some sort of market running in the narrow high street. We mainly walked around the medieval abbey ruins and somewhat-more-recent St Edmundbury Cathedral.

Our next stop was just on the outskirts of Bury - another stately home. Ickworth is set in enormous gardens and it's an odd, neo-classical style with a huge cupola in the central building and then curving corridors to each wing. The upper floors were well-maintained and full of paintings. The lower level was an interesting re-creation of the servants' area.

From there we drove down to London, back across the Dartford Crossing, to the Bluewater shopping centre. We were there a couple of hours, in Marks and Spencer and having something to eat. The the final our or so through Kent to reach Herne Bay in the early evening.

June 17. Norfolk Broads

This morning we ventured across the river into the wilds of Norfolk. Specifically, the Broads, which really start from Beccles where we're staying. It's really just a network of rivers across a flat plain, and in 45 minutes we came to the northern side of the region because, like most things in England, it's not that big.

We started by visiting the ruins of St Benet's Abbey. This was a big complex a thousand years ago... now it's a ruin in a cow pasture with an 18thC windmill built in the old gatehouse.

From there we drove to the village of Potter Heigham and we hired a small boat for 2 hours to motor up and down the River Thurne. It had a painfully loud diesel motor unless you stuck your head above the cabin, and its top speed was about 5mph which was also the speed limit. We puttered through the river with tall reeds on either side - like Dedham a couple of days ago, boats are not a good way to see the landscape. We passed Thurne windmill and avoided some swans that were either inquisitive or threatening, depending on your interpretation.

Throttle at full speed

Beware of Swans

Thurne Mill

When we had returned the boat and our ears had recovered we drove to Wroxham, a village in the middle of the Broads, and walked around. Then circled back to Beccles.

June 16.Suffolk Coast

 Today we continued our whirlwind tour of Suffolk, checking out of Hintlesham and heading east towards the coast. Our first stop was Sutton Hoo. Short version - the wealthy owner in the 20's hired a man to explain the hummocks on her property. They turned out to be a graveyard and one contained the 1400 year-old remains of a wooden boat (mostly just the iron rivets) used as the grave of an Anglo-Saxon king and his valuables.

A high perspective from viewing tower

We pressed on and stumbled on Snape Maltings. On the outskirts of Snape, there were a series of huge buildings used to malt barley and now a concert hall and shops. They happened to be holding the annual Aldeburgh Festival. This seems to be a collection of largely-grotesque art works which we were told were very significant.

Distant Henry Moore sculptures

The first place we reached on the actual coast was Aldeburgh. This is a pretty village now famous for being pretty and consequently pretty expensive. We had lunch, strolled the pebbly beach and looked in the boutiques.

Our last coastal stop, a bit further north, was Southwold. This is famous for similar reasons. It's quite appealing even though there is a nuclear power plant on the horizon. The pier was pleasantly old-fashioned and we also went to Adnams, the large regional brewer on the High Street.

Southwold Pier

After this we turned inland and ended up in Beccles, at Waveney House where we're staying the next two nights. It's on the River Waveney, so the far side of the river is Norfolk. This is definitely a pub rather than a manor house, and so a bit shabby and down-at-heel compared to our last place. I booked it largely because the view of the pub on the river looked nice.

June 15. Dedham

 Much though we love a manor house, we've seen a lot and it's hard to tell them apart now. So we thought we'd take advantage of the weather to go places outside today. Fortunately, just near us is the Dedham Vale 'area of outstanding natural beauty'. That's an offical thing, at least in part because Constable and Gainsborough lived around here and created an image that modern Britain likes to mythologise like the ustralian outback or American West.

So we drove down to Dedham. Because it seemed idyllic we hired a rowing boat and set off down the river.

Of course we were immediately stryck by reality. It was a nice day, and in the UK it's Fathers Day and so extra busy. And the field opposite the cafe where we hired boats was thick with picnickers, most of whom had brought inflatable stand-up paddle boards (which I hate, the ergonomics make no sense). So the river was thick with people trying not to fall off and not looking where they were going, and other rowers who by definitions are not looking where they're going. Fortunately, once we got 500m downstream it thinned out considerably. By the time we got back the cafe was packed and there was a long queue waiting to hire boats.

After a drink we drove downriver a bit and stopped at Flatford. This was just as busy and is such a tiny village that you have to park a short distance away in a carpark and then walk. We soon discovered that it's popular because this was the location of several of Constable's paintings.

The landscape has changed a bit but you get the idea.

 

The places today were as busy as the places we've been in Europe. It changes the feel of it all; history as Disneyland. Which I appreciate we're absolutely contributing to. It's not always evident in the photos because we try to work around it. I don't know where it's heading and how things will look in the near future.

So we went on from there to Ipswich, specifically to the Ipswich waterfront area, for lack of a better idea. Ipswich is inland, but with a short, wide river, the Orwell, to the sea. It turned out to be semi-gentrified, which is to say it's been rebuilt but hasn't quite got the atmosphere or presence they may be hoping for. But good enough for us to walk about and get lunch before going back to Hintlesham.

June 14. Hadleigh

 

We prepared for today as though for an expedition - even though it's only a two hour drive to Suffolk. Going north from Kent there's London, then Essex, then Suffolk. We skirted the east edge of London and the Dartford Crossing  (tunnel going north, bridge going south) of the Thames was by far the slowest and most tedious part of the journey. Otherwise it was fine, and we had one stop at a services around Essex; I never cease to be surprised by services, on this occasion because they sell alcohol and there was a room of pokies.

Our first stop for the day was Melford Hall. A stately home with very large grounds containing fields of sheep and cows. We had some lunch and walked through the part of the house open to the public; the owners still live in one wing. It has a long history linked to the dissolution of the monastaries, an admiral and Beatrix Potter.

Melford Hall

Our next stop was Hadleigh, just a short distance away. This was our motivation for coming to Suffolk in the first place as it was the origin of the Alabasters. The whole clan came from one original family around Hadleigh and the name is a corruption of Arbalester.

You can imagine our horror and arriving in this quiet, historic town to find it overrun by Morris Dancers. There is a picture here of the first group we encountered on a corner of the high street, but we spotted at least three other groups terrorising the townsfolk.

We fled from the chaos and found some quiet around the church and adjacent guild hall. I looked for Alabasters in the cemetery, but the headstones were so old they had almost all faded to illegibility.

Guild Hall, Hadleigh

Finally we went on to our hotel for the next two nights, Hintlesham Hall. This is a stately home midway between Hadleigh and Ipswich. It hadn't occurred to me that turning a stately home into a hotel might be difficult, but getting to our room involves twisting corridors and several steps.

June 13. Whitstable

 Even considering that England is coming into summer, the weather is unseasonably good. It was sunny and about 25℃ today! We took advantage of this to go along the coast to Whitstable. Judging by the crowds, everyone else had the same idea. But the sun was shining on the water, there were small dinghies racing out towards the horizon and this was a good time for a seaside icecream.

Whitstable Harbour. Vintage lifeboat and large number of Con-trails

Still a working harbour, despite the tourists

We walked up and down the highstreet, then went to the Whitstable Oyster Brewing Company right by the sea wall. This was my major goal for the expedition, to try the oyster stout, made with whole oysters. This may have controbuted to the strong mineral flavours, accompanying the smoky and woody quality.

On the way back we picked up the hire car that Lynn and I will take away tomorrow.

June 12. Minnis Bay

We're still catching up with things after the cruise, so this morning was spent washing and ironing. So, that's an exciting update.

This afternoon we went east. Through Minnis Bay, which is the next village east, though we really didn't spend very long there, then to Westwood Cross shopping centre again.

On the way back we detoured to Goody Ales, the english equivalent of a craft brewery. Similar to the Australian ones, in a shed in the middle of nowhere, but different in that the beers (and even the ciders) were flat and, at best, coolish. Mostly you need to adjust your expectations, then it's fine. At least it is unseasonably warm and pleasant weather.

June 11. Herne Bay Again

Really very little happened in our trip back across the North Sea. Wind farms, oil rigs, some distant ships and mild weather.

We got off the ship at 10am in Southampton and re-traced our taxi route to Herne Bay. As you can see in this picture the weather is fine.

Neighbouring Wheat Field

June 9-10. At Sea

 Another two days sailing slowly from Norway back to Southampton. I anticipate no internet access and nothing to see but sea.

Because I have the space, I'll include a map of the walk I did on Saturday.

June 8. Stavanger

 Our last day in Norway - after this it's a gentle sail back to England. It was grey and wet when we woke, but fortunately it cleared over the next hour to be sunny the rest of the day (still about 12℃ but that doesn't seem to matter as much).

This meant Lynn could have a pleasant walk around the old town and harbour area.

While she was doing this, I went on a hike to Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock). This is a big rock thatover hangs Lyse Fjord. Stravanger is in a cluster of islands, so to get to the starting point the bus took us through a series of tunnels,. one of them the longest undersea road tunnel. The walk itself is only 8km round trip and seemed very popular, with a steady stream of locals and tourists all the way. There was a series of steep climbs then plateaus, some of it on granite steps and some across bare rock. About three quarters of the way there were a couple of alpine lakes.

Looking back to the distant track from the top of some stairs

Lyse Fjord

People form a polite queue to take their photos

This was warm work, but probably not as hard as the climb at Andalsnes a couple of days ago. It took me about an hour and a quarter each way, plus some time spent sitting at the rock. This meant I got back to the start with a couple of hours to spare, but there were shops and a large area where I could sit in the sun, drink a hot chocolate and listen to a podcast. I got back to the ship just before it was due to leave.

June 7. Skjolden

 Deep in the fjords again today. The Sogne Fjord, including the Luster branch we're on, is about 200km long and up to 1 km deep. Skjolden is another small village at the end of a branch. It's a pretty small community of a couple of hundred people who farm strawberries and rasberries. I've been surprised how inhabited it all is, there are villages spread right along the fjords connected by tunnels and roads. In the mountains there are cabins used in the summer and buried in the winter.

Skjolden

In the morning we had a bus tour along the Sognefjellet, a road that leads through the mountains and has the highest mountain pass in northern europe at Mefjell. It initially rose up the hillside along switchbacks.

Typical Valley View

Eventually we reached a plateau surrounded by higher mountains and patches of snow.

Nedre Oscarhauge viewpoint

We continued along to the highest point, by which time there was very thick, permanent snow, small glaciers, snow lakes and locals snow shoing or ski-touring in the distance (they ski up the mountains then take the skins of their skis, lock the heels and ski back down).

Mefjellet

We were back at the ship by lunchtime. In the afternoon we had a short walk into town, where there were pretty houses, one cafe and one supermarket.

The road into town

June 6. Olden

 I learned something today - I'd misunderstood the exchange rate, confusing the AUD with the GBP. So where I thought Norway wasn't too expensive, I was completely wrong and the latte and hot chocolate this afernoon cost about $20. This came to light when I didn't understand why the cable car ride down the mountain yesterday (and this was just down) cost $58 Australian.

Anyway, that's the main downside for what is turning out to be a spectacularly beautiful place. I'd expected it to be nice, but reality often exceeds your imagination. We were in Olden today. This is deep in the fjords, you go down the Nord Fjord and turn into the Innvik sub-fjordç and Olden is in one of the stubby branches at the end. All of that happened while we were asleep, of course, but this afternoon I'm in the lounge waiting to see us leave.

We got off the ship this morning and walked up the valley. There is a series of lakes, fed by snowmelt, which run through a river to the fjord. We just got a short way up the river.

Olden New Church

Olden River

After lunch we had an excursion. This took us up the Styrn Valley, one of the other branches of the Innvik Fjord, to the village of Hjelle at the far end of the lake.

Cafe, Hjelle

Fimnally, we drove back to Loen and went up the cable car to near the summit of Mount Haven. This was considerably higher than yesterday's mountain, over 1000m and the gondola went up a near-sheer cliff. At the top was a cafe, walking trails criss-crossing the gravel plateau between patches of snow, and paragliders lined up to jump off the mountain. We wandered, took lots of photos, and had a hot drink.

Loen Valley left, Olden Valley centre, Fjord right.