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Day 17 - London final day The weather was, I believe, uncharacteristically lovely here today. Temperature around 70 degrees with a light breeze and just enough fluffy pillow clouds. We walked to St. James park where we encountered a very large and elaborate monument dedicated to Prince Albert out of his can (an ancient teenage joke). We also had a nice view of Royal Albert Hall Now they know how many holes it takes… Prince Albert We found the perfect cafe for lunch in Hyde Park just next to, yes, a large number of busy tennis courts. And a beautiful garden. Tennis Anyone Please! And then on to Harrods, where the smell of perfumes on the ground level was overwhelming, and the maze of designer this and designer that was over the top - though we did see many people with Harrods bags. I thought this ensemble particularly interesting (picture it in your parlor): We had tickets to a raucous musical, “Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder,” but it was too loud for me, so I retreated to the quiet of...
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Day 16 - London Anne got off to an early start and visited the Victoria and Albert museum, walking distance from our hotel. I chilled out in our cozy hotel room and collected my energy for another multi-mile walking day. ( 3.7 miles) Next to the War Rooms entrance: We visited the Churchill War Rooms after a short ride on the Circle Line from the South Kensington station to Westminster station. Headed through the crowded narrow passageways to the cafe, where we had a surprisingly tasty lunch. The war rooms complex is hard to describe. The overall structure is a steel-reinforced bunker designed to keep those running the war for the United Kingdom safe from the Nazi bombs. The main elements are many preserved rooms behind plexiglass. These rooms range from a large conference room where the war cabinet met to Churchill’s office and bedroom. Also preserved are the rooms where the typists worked, the radio room, and the kitchen among others. In the cafe. Channelling Churchill  The visit ...
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Day 15 - Saturday in London Thankfully breakfast was served until 11 am, so we were able to sleep in. We had matinee tickets to see Dominic West in “A View from the Bridge.” While it was first staged in 1955, its treatment of issues around illegal immigration are relevant today. The staging and acting were outstanding, and the nearly full audience gave the cast a resounding standing ovation. We then walked to the National Portrait Gallery where we spent a few hours wandering among an amazing collection of paintings, photographs, and sculptures of centuries of famous royals, writers, poets, scholars, politicians, artists, athletes, film stars, and political activists. Who knew there were so many! King George V and Family
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Day 14 - Friday Bergen to London This miserable travel day ended with an excellent boeuf bourguignon at a nearby French bistro.  We got off to an easy start as we had a driver take us from our hotel in Bergen to the Bergen airport for the first leg of our trip to London. The 40 minute flight to Oslo was crowded but happily short. Then we had to run to the opposite end of the Oslo airport to catch our flight to London - Anne and I became separated as she exited the rear of the airplane, while I exited from the front (we were not sitting together). I was the last person to have my boarding pass scanned before they closed the gate. This was another crowded flight and at least Anne and I were in the same row this time - she by the window and me on the aisle across from her seats. SAS offers free coffee and tea, but you have to buy water 🤪. Then the hiking began. (It was now 7:30 pm Oslo time - 6:30 pm London time.) We bought tickets to the Heathrow Express train which would cut our tr...
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Day 13 - Thursday in Bergen Our tour guide today, Frank, a native Bergendian, showed us around various neighborhoods within walking distance of our hotel. The history of Bergen going back to 1070 has been shaped largely by devastating fires over the centuries, the last one in 1955. A number of the remaining wooden houses from the 1700s are sinking as they were built on landfill close to the central quay in the city center. Cruise ships can dock just near the city center, and there were two big ones in port, disgorging hundreds of passengers to the area. Bergen is the second largest city in Norway, but even with all the added visitors it did not feel crowded. I have deliberately not talked about meals, as that is generally not of much interest (we did avoid whale and elk on several menus), but our lunch was included with the tour, and it was a doozy. We were served the tasting menu, featuring the chef’s version of classic modern Norwegian cuisine. The first course was a fish soup which ...
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Day 12 - Wednesday Scenic ride to Bergen Our driver, Trond, was cheerfully talkative, so we learned much about current events in Norway and his life in Bergen. (He told a very interesting story about being a diver for Dan Snyder who brought his Rolls Royce on his mega yacht.) Aside from passing through many more tunnels, we traveled on many very narrow roads running along side of lakes and fjords. There was also a significant amount of road work underway where traffic was one way for extended periods. Much of the work involved blasting large sections of the roadside cliffs  to widen it.  We stopped at one huge waterfall that you could walk behind. Our hotel in Bergen is in the center of town and big on Edvard Grieg, as is the city itself. He was born and  lived in Bergen and had an interesting life and career - though the seagulls don’t seem to understand his importance!
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Day 11 - Loftus Tuesday’s highlight was a short ferry ride from our hotel across the fjord to Aga. The settlement is named after the farmer who founded the village. We visited the cidery now run by a 7th generation man named Aga - who is 38 years old. Our guide was a delightful local woman, Bente, who showed us how the ciders are made - the business is expanding rapidly - the ciders range form 7 to 9% alcohol and are easy on the palate.  We also had a tour of Aagaunet:  Agatunet is one of the few remaining and the largest listed historic hamlet in Norway. It consists of 45 listed houses, the oldest from the Middle Ages, and ten associated boathouses. The main building is the Lagmannstova, the oldest documented courtroom in Norway. It was built by the knight and lawmaker Sigurd Brynjulvson Aga around 1220. The Norwegians have cultivated an apple tree that looks like a grape vine (see picture below), so they are much less prone to damage and much easier to harvest. Apple trees W...
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