Wow! What a day!

We were at iMfolozi game reserve in Kwazulu-Natal , South Africa. We got there the first night just before supper, and in the following 25 hours, we saw the most incredible array of animals! We saw Cape Buffalos as we rounded the first turn inside the gate; then we saw Impala, Baboons, a White Rhinoceros, two Waterbuck, and some Vervet Monkeys, all before we even checked in to the camp! We stayed at Mpila Camp where we got to stay in a little chalet for five people that has a thatched roof and full kitchen facilities. We were excited to see that there were tracks of a large antelope and some kind of predator in the ground near the chalet—maybe we would see animals right in the camp!

For dinner our first night here, we had barbecued lamb chops with fresh salad. The sun went down so quickly, that at 6:30 in the evening, my dad was out there cooking in the dark! We were happily enjoying our meal when I looked up to see a Spotted Hyaena looking in the window at us from the patio! That explained the predator prints. We had heard that they could steal meat right off the braai (Afrikaans word for BBQ), but we were startled to see him check us out, and then saunter over to our braai looking for treats! The next night, we cooked indoors!

We woke up with the sun the next morning, and were on the road within half an hour of the gate opening. What things we saw! We started off slow with some of the Impala we had seen the night before, but this time they were accompanied by several Wildebeest. We had heard that there was a Leopard sighting yesterday on one loop, so we went there. We never did see the Leopard, but we saw over 40 White Rhinoceros!!!!!
Before we were done our day’s game viewing, we had also seen Giraffes, Elephants and several different antelopes! The Elephants were right beside the road, and one crossed behind us as soon as we moved onward. He was a young fellow—probably in his last year with the maternal herd, and full of adolescent angst. Despite the fact that none of the others even acknowledged our presence, he got right upset that we were there, flapping his ears, trumpeting, and kicking rocks at our car! We got out of his range as fast as possible!

More Game-Viewing Adventures!

After our stay at Mpila in Imfolozi, we had a couple of nights at Hilltop Camp in Hluhluwe Park followed by a stay in St. Lucia with drives into iSimangaliso Wetland Reserve. At Hluhluwe, we saw more elephant, lots of Nyala, baboons, white rhinos, zebra and giraffes. We had an incredible grasslands viewing experience on our way back to camp before dusk one evening! We were coming down a hill into an impressive expanse of tall grass, when we started seeing impala, zebra, then rhinos and finally a whole herd of giraffe—complete with babies! We thought this was all impressive enough, but then rounded a curve and drove through a herd of about 100 head of cape buffalo! They just went on, and on, and on! We also saw impressive reptile sightings at Hluhluwe—we saw young crocodiles sunning themselves on rocks in a stream; we saw four-foot long leguwan lizards; and on a tree at a rest stop, we saw a pair of blue-headed lizards with stunning colours!
At St. Lucia, we went on a boat tour up the estuary and saw all kinds of hippopotami along with the biggest crocodiles I’ve ever seen! My mum got to be really good at spotting the crocs swimming along the reeds when they only have their eyes and a few bumps on their backs exposed. The first time she spotted one, it gave us all a bit of a shock—it was way closer than we thought, and nobody had noticed! The guides on the boat were great company, so we had fun swapping stories about the different types of wildlife and climatic conditions we have on our separate parts of the world. Another experience we had in that area was a visit to the butterfly house set up by one of the nearby villages. They have a full butterfly nursery and education centre, which we enjoyed. They also have a lovely tea shop where you get the best scones served out in the fresh air, under the trees, which we enjoyed just as much!

We have a flat in Paris!

When planning this trip, I was wonderfully pleased to find a B&B website that listed a little flat in the south of Paris where we could stay four nights for a very reasonable rate, and make our own meals when we didn’t want to eat out. It was every bit as perfect for our needs as I had hoped!
We arrived in Paris by train from London, so that we could have the Chunnel experience. Man, that train is fast! Apparently, the top speed for our journey was reached in the French countryside when we hit 198km/hour! We were moving! We had ordered Paris Passes to museums, attractions, and transportation, so we had to pick them up first at a most unexpected location—the Hard Rock Café! I hadn’t planned to start our French experience with an American one, but we were hungry and tired; the music and food were good; so, why not?

While in Paris, we focused on a combination of cultural and culinary experiences. On our first day, we planned to visit the Musée de Moyen Ages (Middle Ages Museum) and try some authentic French cuisine, so we set out for Cluny. Sadly, the heavens opened, so we got to buy our second umbrella for the trip! We had an excellent lunch at Polidor, a little restaurant that has been faithfully serving its customers for about 150 years! Fortified and warmed, we set out to find the museum, only to discover that it was closed on Tuesdays! NNOOooooo!!!!!! That was a clear indicator to head back to the flat for quiche and pizza from the local bakery!

The second day, in better weather, we took a boat tour down the Seine to find our bearings, then travelled west to east from the base of the Eiffel Tower (where we sat in a park warding off the September chill with hot crepes filled with Nutella, bananas, strawberries, and Chantilly cream!),
to the Orsay art museum, and back to Cluny where we got to visit the Middle Ages museum after all.



We still had a wee bit of energy left, so we walked up to the Notre Dame Cathedral and searched for Berthillon, the ice cream shop extraordinaire that my friend had made me promise to visit before we left Norfolk. Well, I’ll tell you—it was worth the search! It’s not by mistake that they claim to have the best ice creams and sherbets in the world.

Our final day of touring around Paris, we devoted to a trip out to the Palace at Versailles. What an experience!

London Attractions and Friends in Norfolk

After our stay in Manchester, we went down to London for what would have been the Labour Day long weekend, had we still been in Canada. We decided to see the town! Over three days, we went to Madame Toussaud’s Wax Museum, the British Museum (my son had wanted to check out their Egyptology section for years, and he wasn’t disappointed!), the Tower of London, the Sea Life aquarium, and took rides on the London Eye and a river boat on the Thames! We also had a great evening out at a West End musical show: We Will Rock You showcasing the greatest hits of the rock supergroup, Queen.

We had an unexpected adventure in Greenwich. We had decided to try to fit in a side trip out to the Fan Museum there at the end of the day. Unfortunately, the map in our guidebook was nowhere near a useful scale, and we ended up hiking up hill and down dale all over the town of Greenwich! We took so long, that by the time we finally stumbled on the museum by chance on what seemed a little side road, it had closed five minutes prior! There was nothing to be done but find a spot for dinner. We did end up at the Café Rouge, where we both had a super meal before we got back on the train and returned to our hotel on the other side of London.

We left London on the Tuesday morning and headed north again, this time to Norfolk, to visit my wonderful friend from high school and meet her family for the first time.  They made us warmly welcome in their house in the countryside, introducing us to their lifestyle and friends, as well as taking us on side trips to the seaside, proper English pubs, a fabulous garden, and the Out There festival of circus and street performing arts.

 The coastline shown in this picture is rapidly eroding--sometimes as much as ten metres can slide into the sea in a single night.

As you can imagine, this is a grave concern, not only to local authorities, but to the poor homeowners who have had to abandon their property.

These clever stilt performers were among the fascinating acts we saw at the festival. In the afternoon, there were also workshops for any who wanted to take part, so my friend's husband took the   kids to learn how to clown around with minimal props--they had a great time!

Manchester 

After a great stay in Edinburgh, we hopped on the train down to Manchester, England. We had chosen to stay right in the old centre of town in a hotel that was built in 1815. It is situated right beside Manchester Cathedral and Manchester’s oldest standing building—it holds the Old Wellington pub and restaurant, and the first floor was built in 1552! The upper floors were added later (like the 1600’s) and at one point the entire building was moved about 300m. To do the move, they had to take apart the entire building beam-by-beam and reassemble it like a giant jigsaw puzzle at the current location.

We met up with my mother’s brother and his wife (visiting from Canada), and Mum’s cousin from Australia, so that we could all go on a tour around the countryside to see where my maternal grandmother grew up. We had a beautiful day to drive!

 




Our first stop was in the “cool old town” of Chester, where we checked out an incredible medieval cathedral—I couldn’t believe the detailed stained glass windows and mosaic work depicting scenes from the Bible, or the fine woodwork in the choir stalls!

 After that we went to Bebington and Birkenhead to see where Gran lived as a girl and where her father’s family had come from. It is pretty country in which we managed to find her actual childhood home (in spite of the best efforts of the GPS)!

After the family-members had moved on to London, we took a day trip to Skipton in Yorkshire to check out England’s oldest standing castle that still has its roofing. There was also a market on the High Street that day, so we enjoyed that as well. this picture is of the southward view from one of the castle towers down over the main gate and then the high street of Skipton in the distance:

 

Scotland!

After an amazing couple of months in Scandinavia, we flew south and spent almost three days in Edinburgh, Scotland! Unfortunately, the rain which had accompanied us for so much of this summer had not been leaving Scotland uncared for. Our first day was mighty wet! Thankfully, it cleared up in time for the evening. This was really important, because we had tickets for the closing show of the Edinburgh Military Tattoo! What an amazing spectacle that was! "Smashing!" says my son.

The combination of narrative as the announcer guided us through stages of Scotland's history--from the Ancient Celts to the modern digital age--and the truly impressive musical and precision performances of the various military groups from Scotland and around the world, was just astounding!

They also tied in impressive visual effects using lighting on Edinburgh castle, itself, and with pyrotechnics.






On our second day, we woke to the impressive sight of Arthur's Seat and the Salisbury Crags in the sunshine right outside our window!  How's this for a start to the day?

Taking advantage of the improved weather, we went shopping and sightseeing in the city and visited the Camera Obscura and World of Illusion. That was fun!!! We saw the whole city laid out before us; we walked down hallways through a vortex and a hall of mirrors; we looked at holograms and optical illusions. It was really neat.

The camera obscura has been in place next to Edinburgh Castle for over 150 years and uses much the same technology as a periscope to show realtime scenes of the city, complete with moving people in the streets.

Our time in Scotland was short, but we certainly found it interesting! Perhaps one day, we'll make it back again.

Back Across The Country Again!

We did some serious zigzagging in our last week in Norway! Having returned to the eastern province of Hedmark, we spent a few days with my father's second cousin (a different cousin than in Ålesund) in the town of Elverum. She and her husband welcomed us, made us comfortable, and took us to some great, local landmarks! One of them was the Skogsmuseum (forestry museum), which has impressive displays of historical logging and forest management practices both in the museum and involving a series of small outbuildings shown in the surrounding woodlands. We went on a walk through the outer section, including an island in the river Glomma or Glåma (both spellings are accepted and tend to shift by region). This is Norway's longest river and it is named for the old Norse word for thunder. Fortunately for us, we did not have reason to respect that name as we saw it in fine weather conditions.

However, there was plenty of evidence for other, past incidents of massive flooding, as we saw on this flood-stone which showed the water levels at the spot near the Skogsmuseum that the river had reached at critical points over the past few centuries. (Flomhøyder means flood height)

The other impressive landmark we visited during our stay was in the nearby city of Hamar, where we went to see the preserved ruins of the original Roman Catholic cathedral, called Domkirkeodden in Norwegian. The limestone walls were severely damaged over the ages by the Reformation protestants, marauding Swedish armies, and local farmers who needed building materials. However, in an effort to preserve the remaining limestone ruins from the deprivations of acid rain, conservationists have constructed an impressive glass enclosure around the rest of the church:



Unfortunately, I don't seem to have a single picture from the day in Hamar, so this one is from the website (http://www.kmb.no/vare_turer.htm) of a Norwegian tour company that takes its customers to a wide variety of Norwegian cultural sites.

While we were there, we were extremely fortunate to hear not one, but two individual singers perform Gregorian chants for us, showing off the amazing acoustics of the enclosure. We were told that the acoustics were an unintentional side effect of enclosing a building the size of a cathedral, and not part of the design of the enclosure! 

After a few lovely days of pre-fall splendour in the east, we were on the road again--back to the west coast of Norway! We took the stunning train journey from Hamar to Oslo to Bergen. Although all of the scenery was impressive, nothing could be so startling as the return to near-winter conditions at Finse (elevation 1222m above sea level)!

Our stay in the Bergen area was at the home of one of my grandfather's cousins with whom I had visited a few times previously. She made us both welcome and helped us find opportunities to visit not only Bergen, but also the coastal town from which my great-grandfather had come: Salhus.

In Bergen, we explored some shops, gardens, the fish market (which, although very famous, was not to the taste [smell] of my son), and the Rosenkrantz tower at Bergenhus fortress.

Despite my best efforts, this picture looks like the buildings are leaning--they are not. The tower was simply high enough that, with the limited space to back away when taking the photo, perspective took control and I have leaning towers where they don't exist! We did climb up through the tower on some ancient stairwells, so we know!

When we went to Salhus, we met two of our hostess' sisters and one's husband, had a lovely lunch, and explored several local sights. We found out how the town was named: It was the site of a ferry service to islands across the fjord during the salt trade. If one arrived too late in the evening for the last boat, one could overnight at the "sail house." Over the years the name shifted to "Salhus" instead of "Seilhus" which caused some confusion about the origins of the name, as "sal" is the Norwegian word for "room". This would also carry some authenticity, however, as folk who stayed at the sail-house were rooming for the night. The original sail house is still standing, occupied, and beautifully cared for:

We also saw the old knitting factory (now a museum), the impressive bridge that now completes the journey once involving the ferry service, a military battery operated by the Nazis in WWII to control marine activity in the area, and the community graveyard where we saw the graves of many of our ancestors.

Been a While

Well, it has been quite some time since I have had both the time and the Internet access to sit down and write here! As that infers, we've been really busy!

After we left southern Norway, we spent a lovely night in Stavanger with another cousin. Although we had a very short visit, as we were on our way up the coast toward Bergen, then Ålesund, on the following day, our cousin made us very welcome and took us on a side trip to share one of her favourite photography locations with us! We went to a fabulously beautiful stretch of beach along the Atlantic coastline! I hope I've remembered correctly that the name of the beach was Sola Strand.

The next day, we took a bus (and a couple of ferries) north to Bergen in time to catch the Hurtigruten cruise up to Ålesund. There are actually several different ships in the Hurtigruten fleet, some of which sail to other lands, but most of which cruise up and down the western coast of Norway from Bergen northward. The ship we were on was called the Vesterålen, and though we travelled only as far as Ålesund, she would continue north for almost two more weeks.

The weather in Bergen was wet (as a massive understatement), but as we pulled out past Salhus, we moved out from under the clouds, and by the time we had passed Askøy there was the most amazing double rainbow between us and the shore:

We had about a week in Ålesund, staying with other members of our family, this time on my great-grandmother's side. Up until now the family visits this trip have been from my great-grandfather's side. It was exciting to also share stories and look at pictures from the other side of the Norwegian part of our family! My son also greatly enjoyed spending time with his fourth cousin, who happens to be a boy of the same age, and many of the same interests! As a close friend of the family (same age again) joined them, the three fellows had a great time playing video games, talking, swimming, and once in a while conversing with grown-ups. One of the times that we convinced them to join us for a walk, we went up to Fjellstua to exercise their young dog (and the rest of us) and to check out the amazing view of the city:

Another amazing view I got to see when I went visiting with Dad's second cousin and a friend of hers (the young fellows decided to hang out in Ålesund, that day) was the impressive motorway, called Atlanterhavsveien, that runs along, and bridges between a string of islands northwest of Molde.

The above satellite image comes from Google Maps. I took the following photo of one of the most impressive bridges along the route:

All too soon, it was time to leave Ålesund, but our kind hosts drove us to our next destination via the most scenic route possible: via Geiranger Fjord!

 The first picture was taken by my son from the ferry as we crossed Storfjord on our way to Geiranger.


The middle picture is of the head of Geiranger fjord, itself. You can see that there was a bit of a temperature inversion holding that thin cloud layer half-way up the valley.

The last picture is up at the very top, on the far side of the fjord, as we continued our way up over the mountains to eastern Norway.


A few hours later, we were in Lom at the top end of Gudbrandsdalen, one of the major valleys in eastern Norway, where we saw this amazing stave church: