London to Norway

5th - 8th January 2012

Enjoyed a few days in London - sightseeing, shopping and theatre-going. Highlights included:

* a visit (with purchase!) to Lucy in Disguise - the beautiful vintage shop in Soho owned by Lily Allen.



Lucy in Disguise

* wonderful Vietnamese food in Soho

* the discovery of a new shopping district in South Molten Street - just off Bond St.

* learning that Barrett St is near South Molten Street and has many wonderful pubs, eateries and fantastic shops!! (Appropriate do you think???)


Phil outside the Lamb and Flag pub in Barrett St

* antique shopping at Bermondsey Street and Portobello Road

* seeing the Southwark Theatre Company's fantastic performance of Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales' at the Southwark Playhouse - underneath the railway arches on the south bank. The play was set in a tavern and the audience took on the roles of pilgrims making their way to Canterbury Cathedral. All great fun.

* exploring Shoreditch and Spitalfields

St Leonard's C of E church in Shoreditch - site of filming for the new BBC comedy 'Rev'

* catching up with our friends Tim and Stephen for dinner and drinks at Islington before a performance of Mathew Bourne's interpretation of 'The Nutcracker'

* another visit to our Michelin star restaurant - needed some more of that fantastic food!!

9 - 10 January 2012

Departed London for Tromso - Norway - the site of our Norwegian adventure. Found ourselves stuck in Oslo airport in the middle of a snow storm - consequently planes were not taking off or landing for some time. Made us a little late in arriving at our destination. Worth the wait, though Tromso is abolutely beautiful!











Walked for kilometers to reach the jumping off point for the cable car that plies its way up to the highest hill around Tromso. It was absolutely freezing at the top! The Arctic wind was blowing a gale. All this while Brisbane was a sweltering 36 degrees - a crazy feeling.









Spent the afternoon discovering more about Tromso, including taking a tour of Mack's brewery - the northernmost brewery in the world. Great fun! We were ducking under pipes, walking through rooms littered with broken glass (reject stubbies) - none of which would be allowed in our country! Very refreshing. Finished the tour with a beer in the Mack's bar - straight from the vat to the bar!



But tonight - the whole point of our trip to Tromso - dog sledding in the mountains around the town in hope of seeing the Northern Lights.

The dog sled trip was absolutely amazing. In fact, it's hard to find words to describe the fun we had. There were just a couple of other travellers, plus us, and the man who runs the tour (owns the dogs, sleds, etc, etc). Just two to a sled - one driver and one passenger. No prizes for guessing that Phil drove and Louise enjoyed the ride in the sled.
The dogs were beautiful. So happy and so very enthusiastic! Phil had trouble holding them back in some spots!

We travelled for around 15 km at a speed of approx 25 km per hour. It was pitch black (except for the light on Phil's head) and the sounds of the dogs running and the sled sliding on the snow were amazing. We even saw wild reindeer running through the snow.

Hope you can get the feeling of the trip from this video!





It started to snow very heavily during the journey, consequently there was a lot of cloud cover which made it difficult to see the lights.

We finished our fantastic trip with a cup of tea in an Inuit (eskimo) tent and - after driving through a blizzard(!) - very much enjoyed the warmth of the fire.





Just as we got back into the car to drive the half hour back down the mountain to Tromso, we looked up into the sky (the snow had stopped temporarily) and saw a feint streak of green. At last - the Northern Lights!! Not in their bright, brilliant, dancing glory - but a streak of green nevertheless. The night was complete. All boxes ticked. Brilliant.

We leave beautiful Tromso tomorrow. Such a lovely town. Gorgeous architecture, friendly people. fantastic scenery, absolutely no daylight at this time of year (just a wierd, eery twilight in the middle of the day!) - a real experience. So glad we came...

Back to London tomorrow for a few more days before we make our way back to Brisbane!