Why you really need to go to Norway
Posted on November 18, 2014
One dark February afternoon, whilst sat at my desk at work, I decided I should book a trip to Norway.
I’ve wanted to go for a long time, inspired by incredible photos of beautiful Fjords, huge forests and healthy looking people climbing mountains. Most importantly, however, it was as a rainy Wednesday afternoon at work aka: ‘the danger zone’. Other trips booked on a Wednesday afternoon include Budapest, Washington and Skye, so you get the idea.
After reading about a few places in Norway, I decided to try Bergen. Bergen probably isn’t the most popular place in Norway to visit, with the cultural city Oslo and the magical northern-light filled Tromso, topping the charts. However, with BA opening up a new route there from London and my guide book describing it as ‘one of the world’s most beautiful cities’, I thought it would be worth a trip.
A few weeks later and I was free from the office and flying into Norway. The flight to Norway itself is worth a trip. As you near Bergen airport, below you are hundreds of small islands and waterways, sparkling away in the sunshine. It was one of the most beautiful landings I’ve ever had (and as a nervous flyer, landings for me tend to be fairly traumatic).
Once we arrived in the immaculate Bergen airport, we quickly found an equally immaculate bus and set off on the immaculate roads towards town. If there is one thing that Norwegians do well: it’s fantastic infrastructure!
As soon as we were dropped off in Bergen, I knew we had made the right choice. It was a beautifully sunny Saturday and Bergen marathon was in full swing. Whilst blonde, athletic types jogged past, I had my first sight of the infamous ‘Bryggen’. Set on Bergen’s wide waterfront, with mountains in the background, this Unesco World Heritage-listed waterfront district is also known as ‘the Wharf’. Made up of lopsided, colourful, wooden buildings, these now 58 restaurants and boutiques date back to 1702 (after a fire burnt down the original buildings) and originally housed the fishermen that had worked and lived here since the 12th century. The buildings are truly beautiful and you could easily pass a day here, sitting in the sunshine and enjoying a drink or bite to eat on the waterfront.
We then checked in at our hotel: Det Haseatiske Hotel. This special little hotel is near the waterfront and is the only hotel in Bergen to be housed inside the old timber buildings of the Bryggen. It’s creaky, uneven, and brilliant! If you’re visiting this area, definitely try and stay a night here.
One of the first things to do in Bergen is to take the Flobanen Furnicular to the top of a nearby mountain, for views across Bergen – once the capital of Norway. The views are breathtaking, allowing you to see Bergen’s unique location, surrounded by seven hills and seven fjords. The walks around here are also worthwhile and we found a crystal-clear lake and great forest trail, back down into Bergen. En-route you’ll pass lots of colourful, timber-clad houses and cobble-stone lanes, which just add to the whole feel of the place.
Another thing to do in Bergen is most definitely a Fjord tour. Bergen is known as a ‘gateway’ to the Fjords and tours are easy to come by. We booked onto the popular ‘Norway in a Nutshell Tour’, which included a train journey and Fjord journey. We set off bright and early on a breath-taking train ride from Bergen to Voss, past crystal clear lakes and tiny villages. We then got on a (predictably, immaculate) bus to Gudvagen, where we began our boat tour up the spectacular fjords to Flam. It’s difficult to describe just how beautiful the fjords are. It’s almost surreal. The water is icy-blue and reflects perfectly the enormous mountains and hills surrounding you. It’s so peaceful (aside from the greedy squawky seagulls!) and fresh, that I could happily have spent a few days on that boat. Anyone who goes to Norway must make sure they do a boat tour! At the other end, we got off at Flam and began a famous railway journey through snowy hilltops and past ice-cold waterfalls. The whole day was perfect.
As we were only there for a few days, we didn’t have a huge amount of time to fit much else in. But I would definitely recommend visiting the Bergen museum and Leprosy museum (why not?!), along with as many walks around the hills that surround Bergen as possible. A word or warning, Bergen, as with the whole of Norway, is expensive. I enjoyed a lovely £18 glass of wine! But it is most definitely worth it. Norway, I love you!
The Isle of Skye
Posted on November 11, 2014
When you think of Scotland, you automatically think of rugged mountains; red and purple moss; lonely lochs; cobble beaches and possibly unpredictable rainy weather. Now imagine all of that, packaged up, and put onto one Island: and you’ll have the Isle of Skye.
The Isle of Skye is Scotland’s biggest island, roughly 50 miles long. Apparently its name comes from the old Norse word – ‘sky-a’, meaning ‘cloud island’, which I think summarises the place quite nicely. Clouds, mist and fog hang over this pretty island, covering its most famous mountains, the Cuillen range, throughout most of the day. It has a dreamy feel to it and is nothing short of magical.
After the longest drive of my life (I know that anyone from America or Australia will think this isn’t a long journey) but 10 hours in a car, with a very excited dog, was endless. Once we got to Skye, we had no phone signal, the weather was rainy and blowing a gale, and there were some fairly tense conversations going on regarding directions. But once we made it to where we were staying, all was forgotten as this place was beautiful! A converted chapel, we had panoramic views over Loch Harport, complete with a bath tub overlooking the mountains and a sauna!
The next day we set about organising what we were going to do and decided to firstly visit the Quiraing. Our guide book described this as Skye’s ‘most remarkable scenery’ and it definitely didn’t disappoint. After a few thousand years of slipping cliffs and an ice age, the Quiraing is made up of huge jagged pinnacles, sunken lakes and rocky mountains. We spent three hours exploring the area and it was breathtakingly beautiful. A definite must see for anyone visiting Skye.
The afternoon we spent in a pub in Portree (don’t judge) in front of a big old fire, before heading back home for a sauna. Portree has a very pretty little harbour – one that commonly comes up on Instagram, but aside from that is quite quiet (aside from the local gaggle of elderly boozers!)
We were up bright and early the next morning for more adventures. The weather was amazing so I (Laura) thought I would nip out quickly to do some early morning photography. I saw a mossy hill and decided, for reasons unknown to me, that I should definitely climb it. However, what I thought was a mossy hill was some sort of bog – a really boggy bog. I sunk quite quickly to my shins and I won’t lie – thought I was about to meet my death on the hills of Skye. I went into panic mode within about 5 seconds and grabbed madly at the bush next to me. I might even have cried. After 10 minutes hours, I freed myself and trudged back home, soaking wet but trying to style it out as locals drove past. So a word of warning – don’t trust any soft looking hills in Skye.
After my near death experience, we then explored two places I was desperate to visit: Fairy Glen and the Fairy Pools. Just south of Uig, the Fairy Glen is a surreal place. It’s almost like a miniature Machu Picchu. Full of miniature hills, pinnacles, tumble down cottages, little trees, and small streams, it’s a little bit like someone took Skye’s landscape and shrunk it. It’s amazing! It reminded me of a film set from The Hobbit and we spent a good three hours there.
In full fairy swing, we then headed to the fairy pools, close to Carbost. Backing onto Skye’s enormous Cuillen mountain range, the fairy pools are the product of an enormous waterfall, which you can follow for an hour or so. Each pool is made up of crystal clear water and surrounded by purple moss and flowers. At the top, there are some bigger plunge pools, which you can swim in during the summer. Like all of Skye, it was beautiful!
This blog post will never do Skye justice. It’s an insanely beautiful place: quiet; peaceful; serene and other-wordly. Scattered with bizarre but beautiful landscape, pubs (we ate a LOT) and with the smell of wood smoke always in the air, Skye is now firmly in my top three destinations. It was well worth the never-ending drive there and even worth the dog throwing up on me after one bendy road too many.
So my advice? Get to Skye!
Our Oxford guide!
Posted on November 3, 2014
Tomorrow, we’ll be doing a very exciting takeover on Dame Traveler’s Instagram account! We’ll be showing our favourite spots around the beautiful city of Oxford, England. So, to tie in with our little jaunt around this city, we thought we’d also do a blog post on the dreaming spires for our lovely readers!
A mini guide to a day in Oxford
1) We’d firstly recommend you rent a bike so you can zip around nice and quickly. Riding a bike is a beautiful way to see Oxford and will save you plenty of time if you want to squeeze a lot in. For our visit last weekend, we rented some bikes from Walton Street Cycles.
2) Armed with your bike (remember to ask for a basket so you can shove your bags in it) start the day nice and early to beat the crowds and head to the Radcliffe Square to view the beautiful Radcliffe Camera! This is a reading room of the famous Bodleian Library, and pretty amazing looking. Oxford students can study in the Rad Cam, although we found it too much of a goldfish bowl when we tried!
3) From here, walk the few steps to the Bodleian Library (also know as the “Bodley” or “Bod”). This is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It even has an underground tunnel (you can book a tour of this) that leads from the Bod to the Rad Cam. How very Harry Potter! Speaking of Harry Potter, the Duke Humfrey’s Library is the “Harry Potter” library and again can be visited on a tour! Although beautiful, from a practical studying point of view, the Duke Humfrey’s is not the best place for hard-work as you can only take a pencil and paper in. No pens, no water. We didn’t last that long!
4) Next, have a peak around some of the University’s colleges. We recommend you avoid the more obvious such as Christ Church (Harry Potter hall) and Magdalen and explore some of the smaller and more beautiful colleges such as Lincoln or the gardens of Worcester. Mini fact: there are 38 Colleges at Oxford and 6 private halls, if you’re a student at Oxford, you will belong to one of these.
5) After lunch, head to the Pitt Rivers Museum and Oxford University Museum of Natural History! Take a look at the very creepy shrunken heads in the Pitt Rivers. Both are great places to go if you have children!
6) Finally, to end the day and rest your weary legs, treat yourself to some high tea at The Grand Cafe! This is said to be the site of the first coffee house in England!
NB: If you’re looking for a real “pub” experience in the evening, head to The Turf Tavern. This tiny 13th centruy pub is usually packed full of Oxford students and sightseers and does great fish and chips 🙂
Autumn in England
Posted on November 1, 2014
Well, true to our word, we went out today and enjoyed England in all its bloody autumn loveliness! We’ll be putting together an Oxford travel tips blog next week, but for now enjoy this beautiful scene from Lincoln College!
What’s wrong with home?
Posted on October 28, 2014
This is a question we’ve been pondering for a while and one we haven’t really gotten to the bottom of… Last weekend, I (Laura) went on a little trip to the Peak District (UK). Was I bursting with excitement? No. Would I have been bursting with excitement if I was getting on a plane somewhere else? Yes (aside from the flying terror we’ve blogged about before).
Peak District
It was, however, something of a revelatory weekend for me. No passports, security checks, smelly planes, or terrifying few hours floating in the skies – just a short drive and voila: I was somewhere completely new. We stayed in the cosiest cottage and spent the weekend enjoying long dog walks and pub dinners. By the end, I felt totally relaxed and no different to if I had spent the weekend far away. What was also surprising (to me) was that my weekend pics on Instagram were hugely popular. Whilst I thought they were OK, verging on boring, people genuinely love them. To me, they were pictures of some fields, cottages and cows – British stuff we see most days. But to others they were a world away from where they are and so exciting. Maybe even beautiful?! We both lived and studied in Oxford for a few years, another place that although beautiful, isn’t somewhere we would choose to visit regularly. Yet, ironically, people travel thousands and thousands of miles to see the dreaming spires every summer. It’s frustrating not to be able to see what they can see.
Peak District
So, the moral of this slightly rambling blog? Although travel is amazing – it also takes the magic away from home. We get so fixated with other places, we forget that where we live is pretty special in itself. And what better way to beat the post-travel blues then by genuinely enjoying the sites and sounds of your own home? We’ve therefore decided to persevere with trying to see a little more of the country we live in, through the eyes of a tourist. In fact, we’ve decided to make a new years resolution to explore more of the UK next year, and try to appreciate what we have on our doorstep*. In the meantime, if anyone has any tips on enjoying your own country and satisfying the “itchy feet” problem without leaving home, let us know (you’ll save us a fortune). *Although, let’s add a disclaimer here that we will still be travelling to other lands. There’s not enough sunshine in the UK to cope with the entire year.
Seville: the land of flamenco, tapas and terrifying marriage proposals
Posted on October 12, 2014
So, I (Claire) have just got back from four amazing days in Seville; the city that has knocked Barcelona off the top spot as my favourite European city. It is, without a doubt, one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been and I dare you to go and not fall in love.
For one, it’s filled with the most amazing buildings, like the well known Seville Cathedral and Real Alcazar, which are completely heavenly. It also offers the most delicious tapas for great prices; you can easily stuff yourself for 10-15 euros. In fact, it’s actually one of the few European city breaks where we haven’t had to eat bread and butter for the month after…
The city is lined with cobbled streets, leading to beautiful flower filled squares of restaurants and quirky shops. Flamenco is also a staple in the city, with venues offering daily flamenco shows. This is another must, but avoid the dinner and show -the food isn’t the best.
Aside from the more obvious tourist spots, which are still beautiful and worth a visit, there were three spots that topped my list:
1) Banas Arabes: These baths are set within a Moroccan riad-style building and are pure heaven. Lit only by candles, the baths consist of four different areas that offer: hot, warm and cold baths, a steam room and huge jacuzzi with sun lounger style seats you can lay back in to enjoy the bubbles! The baths are a perfect spot to come for a soak and relax. There’s also an option of a massage if you fancy it!
2) Metropol Parasol: This ‘flying waffle’ is the largest wooden building in the world and sits over one of the traditional shopping squares in Seville. You can pay a few euros to stroll along the panoramic walkway that give you amazing views of the city. It was almost like a giant waffle playground in the sky and a lot of fun!
3) Parque Maria Luisa: My favourite place, however, was Parque Maria Luisa. This is the city’s main park and a place (I imagine) heaven would kind of look like. The park is full of fountains, duck ponds, mosaic tiles, exotic birds, horse and carriages, lakes and picture perfect buildings. We spent a good two hours there exploring the little paths that almost always led to another beautiful sculpture/design of some sort and I can confidently say it was the best way I’ve spent an afternoon in a long time.There was something, however, that happened in the park that may make me a little bias towards this lovely place…
Towards the end of our visit to the park, I noticed my boyfriend’s palm was getting increasingly sweaty and his strange advances to keep hugging me were getting kind of awkward. Now, for anyone who has told you that a marriage proposal is beautiful and joyous, they’re lying (or more confident of change than I am). For me, the next five minutes of my life in that park were potentially some of the most terrifying of my entire life. Before I knew what was happening, and before the flight or fight mode kicked, my boyfriend was on the floor, asking me to move from the happy world of girlfriend to adult world of fiancé. It was bloody scary and although I managed a ‘yes’, the whole event resulted in me having to put my head between my legs to stop myself vomiting into the beautiful fountain behind me.
It was a pretty surreal experience but the beautiful park was the perfect place for a proposal (if any men are reading this!)
So, aside from my irrational reaction to a marriage proposal, Seville turned out to be a total gem of a city that you really must visit! With great food, beautiful buildings, cobbled streets, mesmerising flamenco and glorious sunshine, you can’t really go wrong, so go, go! And if you see a little bench by a fountain in Parque Maria Luisa, think of me!
Marrakech: the Tale of One Bad Egg
Posted on September 30, 2014
Marrakech is an incredible place to visit. Endless mazes of souks; bright vibrant colours; the amazing smells of spices and burning oils; magic lantern shops; flying carpet shops; snake charmers and fortune tellers, all ensure that Marrakech is a sensory overload for any visitor. I loved it.
Marrakech is split into two parts: an old town at the centre (think winding passageways, souks and donkeys) and a modern town on the outside (big hotels, business plazas and fast cars). To make sure we truly experienced the place, we chose to stay in the old town, in a traditional ‘Riad’ and stayed at the incredible Riad Dixneuf La Ksour, which I could not recommend enough. This place is an oasis!
We spent our first few days there exploring the old town and, like typical tourists, were royally ripped off. A word of warning: you will be invited into an endless amount of ‘apothecaries’, which sell oils and powders for every single ailment. Once inside, you will be given samples of lots of beautiful smelling things: amber, frankincense, rose water etc and told how they will transform your life. Excited, we naturally bought everything. However, once we got home, we realised the sample they showed us and the actual items we took home were VERY different. I actually have no idea what they were. I tried to burn the frankincense and it smelt like burning petrol. I rubbed the ‘amber’ perfume on my neck and got a really great rash. Oh.
Whilst in Marrakech, I would definitely recommend taking a few trips out. For a small amount of money, we took a car to amazing places like Aït Benhaddou – a town built into a red, sandy hillside; we saw the Kazbah were Churchill used to spend nights being seduced by exotic Moroccan dancers; and visited the Atlas mountains and froze to death. The landscape in Morocco is breathtaking – a lot like Mars, so it’s worth a visit.
On our last day, in Marrakech, however, everything went drastically wrong. We were on a trip to the mountains and stopped off by a small restaurant by the side of the road. Once there, we were shown to our table where, surprisingly, food was ready and waiting. Now, I am not sure how long that food had been there, but I noticed a lot of flies on mine. However being British and overly-polite, I decided to gently waft the flies away and went for it. It seemed to be a chicken/eggy dish and it tasted weird. Right then, I knew I was going down. A few hours later, on a dark, rainy taxi ride back down the Atlas mountains, I began to sweat. A lot. My stomach began to make some very disturbing noises and was churning. The taxi driver declared I was hungry and kindly gave me half a chocolate bar. I forced it down and held back the retches. By the next day and our flight home, I knew something was definitely wrong. To cut a long story short, I had salmonella – salmonella that lasted nearly three months and included highlights such as: 9 visits to the doctor, 3 trips to the hospital, drinking 2 litres of laxative and one procedure I am still not ready to talk about. Perhaps ever.
I loved Marrakech and would recommend it to anyone. But sometimes one experience travelling seems to taint a place and unfortunately for me, I shall ever equate beautiful Morocco with a bad egg and the time my digestive tract took me on an adventure I would never like to repeat.
Awkward kissing in Paris…
Posted on September 23, 2014
As a special treat for turning 28 (oh, hey 30, just around the corner), I (Laura) got taken to Paris this past weekend. ‘Hourra’ as the French would say……
I’ve been to Paris twice in my life: once when I was 11 and I had my portrait drawn in Montmarte (an hour of constant smiling all for a portrait that made me look like the ‘Scream’ mask – I cried) and again last year, for one cold night in January during which I saw a homeless man pooing in the metro station (I retched). So this was my third time lucky in Paris!
Armed with my ‘Lonely Planet’ guide, I took off around Paris. Our hotel was situated on the road between the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower, so they were two things ticked off the list immediately.
As a quick aside, I would suggest going up the Eiffel Tower at night. We walked past a five hour queue during the morning, so instead went up there at midnight, when there was no queue at all. Even more importantly, at night it glitters and sparkles so very beautifully whispers – magic!
I won’t waffle on about everything we did but will just mention some highlights:
On Saturday morning, we decided to avoid the tourist traps and headed to the Jardin du Luxembourg. In the middle of Paris, these 23 hectares were dedicated to the children of Paris by Napoleon and were filled with puppet shows, ponies and carousels. Luckily, all of this is still there, plus amazing chestnut tree filled boulevards, flowers and Parisians taking a break: reading; playing bowles; playing chess and generally chilling out. There is also a big lake in front of The Palais du Luxembourg with children playing with little boats. The whole thing was like a big Parisian dream – it really is beautiful and worth a visit.
That evening we took one of the din
ner/river cruises. We used the popular Bateaux Parisiens company and would definitely recommend using them. We had a great table by the window and whilst gorging ourselves, floated past the main sites of Paris: Notre Dame, The Louvre, The Eiffel Tower etc (surely this is the dream way to sight-see?) There was only one downside of the cruise and that was the trauma of the photographer. I saw him saunter over out of the corner of my eye, so, being British, my boyfriend and I did our best to pretend we couldn’t see him. He, however, ignored this entirely and demanded we smile for the camera. We did so, reluctantly, but then it got one hundred times worse – he asked us to ‘kiss passionately’ for the camera. We were both deeply horrified but for some reason, obliged. What came next was 5 horrible seconds of forgetting the basics of kissing whilst a crowd of diners looked on. The photograph we got back at the end will now be burnt and we shall never speak of it again.
But back to Paris. Of course, we saw all the other famous sites and museums, but you’ve probably heard of all that. So a few other suggestions – visit the Latin Quarter if you like boutiques and books, and make sure you visit the bookstore ‘Shakespeare & Company’. This is a really magical bookshop with its very own live-in authors who give readings in the evenings. Also (and this was recommended by another user), make sure you visit ‘Angelina’ – the most picture-perfect Parisian tea room. I inhaled my pastry in approximately 10 seconds.
Thank you, Paris!
Fiskardo Fabulousness
Posted on September 17, 2014
As summer draws to an end *cry* we thought we’d share with you another little piece of paradise we stumbled across on our travels.
Fiskardo is a tiny village located in the north of Kefalonia island (Greece). This colourful, happy little place consists of a handful of restaurants and hotels nestled round a cove of clear-sea. We stayed in a lovely villa just up the road from the main town and had probably the most relaxing week of our lives there. Although there isn’t a huge amount to do there other than float around in a pool and enjoy the town’s loveliness, here’s a little list of suggestions of what to do:
Myrtos beach
1) Located a mile or so down the road from Fiskardo is the famous Myrtos beach, which is as dreamy as it looks! We should probably put a disclaimer here that the road leading up to this beach and onwards to Fiskardo is bloody terrifying. We spent most of the time with our bums clenched, sweating profusely as we made our way here. It is, however, completely worth it!
2) The highlight of our stay here was renting a little boat for the day and setting off on a mini-adventure, with a picnic, round the coves that can only be accessed by sea. Chugging along these coves was probably one of the best travel memories we’ve squirreled away so far and is definitely a must if you do visit here!
Cove hunting!
3) Assos village: this secluded village sits at the bottom of a windy road (more bum clenching) and sits in a horse-shoe shape round a clear sea. We came here for an evening and fell in love with this sleepy little place. The fresh seafood is delicious and the sunset over the little bay is beautiful.
The only downside to Fiskardo is the cost, we’re not going to lie, it’s a bit of a killer price wise. This was explained in the evenings, when we would watch little dinghies of glamorous people arrive ashore from their private yachts…we don’t have a private yacht. To confirm this, when aboard our tiny boat for the day, we chugged past a yacht called Pelorus once owned by Roman Abramovich. It was hideously large and confirmed that we were probably the poorest people in Fiskardo. Don’t let this put you off though, it’s worth it, even if you live off bread and water for a few months.
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Twins that travel 