Last London trip Sept 6th

We've enjoyed london so much, we were back the subsequent sat. The weather was not as sunny as the previous one, but even so, we had fun eating crepes in the rain, drinking mocca at star bucks, roaming in the museums for the whole afternoon, and having duck at four seasons.

Baby sitting

Baby sitting

It was our first time baby sitting our friend’s baby. We volunteered to baby sit Audrey while her parents watch a musical in London. It was 4 hrs long. But this girl was incredibly easy. She is able to communicate, follows instructions and is potty trained!

Park was the best choice to bring the two toddlers, and thank goodness, there was a live band, and did our kids have a great time dancing to the beat. They tired themselves out running about and chasing pigeons. She fell fast asleep the moment she sat down in the pram for the rest of the hrs.

Nathan was awake the whole time, so we decided to get his face drawn at Leicester Square. He was good on the chair, sat there rather still for 10mins. Later, we had Audrey and her parents drawn too, a birthday present for her mum.

Lake District August 18-22nd

This was our second time visiting lake district, but we stayed at a different town –Keswick.

As always, travelling around in England, we hope for sunshine, and this time, we could hope for no rain, less to say sunshine. It drizzled every single day, and rained heavily on some mornings and nights.

Lake district is well known for her lakes and mountains. Depending on the season you visit, Autumn is the prettiest, where colours of the rainbow are displayed on the vegetation on the mountains. In Summer, we saw mostly green, some red and purple.

We did 2 hikes up to latrigg (400m) and Ashness Bridge (200m). These are push chair friendly hikes. Nathan went on foot half the time. This chap enjoys walking, a little slow and takes us longer to reach the summit, but patience did pay us off, watching him conquer the heights.

Norway July 2nd-9th

Spectacular! Spectacular! Spectacular!


Norway was the 5th European country we’ve visited, and by far, the most glorious one. She has the fjords, sea, snow capped mountains, alpines, steep plunging rocky hills, majestic waterfalls, plus good choices of sea food (the most popular Norwegian salmon) and friendly people.

We stayed at 4 different places. Thrice at youth hostels, and the last night at a hotel. Everywhere is clean and pleasant, cultured and peaceful. Only noises from laughter and chatting, no sign of construction or big machines. It is a paradise for cyclists, mountaineers, walkers, like us, and drivers too, esp caravans, which are seen in most hiking locations. It’s easy to get to places by bus or ferry, but be prepared for a couple of hours of travelling, nicely compensated by beautiful scenery, which made the journey quite wonderful.

I would have appreciated the Norway trip to the fullest extent if I had not been ill. Still, thankfully, I count myself really blessed to come so close to God’s creation in every way possible.

Finse

Finally, our last night at a hotel. We had no other cheaper options here, where everything is snow and rocks. At 1200 m above sea level, Finse is the highest train station in Norway.

If only, if only we had more time, both LC and I kept lamenting – that we could walk a longer distance and climb more heights in this area. Nathan even walked on ice, for a short while.

The clear blue sky made all the difference to our stay here. There isn’t every much to do around here, except biking and hiking, and sitting on a nice big rock to admire the fantastic white and blue scenery that surrounds you.

Balestrand

We stayed 3 nights at a third youth hostel. Balestrand is a nice town, with a church, an aquarium where we had all 3 dinners, and of course the sea port where the boats and ships docked. Nathan saw star fish, a few gigantic lobsters, fishes, urchins and crabs in a pool at the aquarium.

One very wet day, we stayed in to watch Wimbledon, a final match between Federer and Nadal. It was a long hard fight for 5 solid hrs!

We made a day trip to a glacier. Nathan was too young to walk on it, so we only visited the museum and watched the glacier from a distance.

Flam

The train ride was the highlight – Flamsbana, which took us from Myrdal to Flam, 800m above sea level to zero. Along the way, we saw a gorgeous waterfall.

At Flam, we stayed at another youth hostel, but we were delightfully brought back to the ‘kampong style’ of living – common bathroom and kitchen facilities, not even a basin in our cabin (hut with 4 single beds). We had a small cooking area and fridge, so we decided to make 2 breakfasts and one dinner – ham and cheese omelette and sausages with bread. What an adventure.

From Flam, we took a day out on a cruise along the one thing every tourist speaks of – The Norwegian Fjords – long and large water bodies surrounded by high steep cliffs on all sides. We saw waterfalls, billy goats and seals along the way.

Beautiful, glorious and amazing was the scenery!