TravelStream™ news feed for member eandr on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/eandr en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sat, 11 Oct 2008 01:11:28 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/eandr/2/1157121000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/eandr/2/1157121000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/eandr/2/1157121000/tpod.html Sat, 11 Oct 2008 01:11:28 -0400 United Kingdom & Scandinavia 2006

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Warsaw, Central Poland, Poland

In Warsaw we landed on the alternative terminal Etiuda that used to be a domestic (military) one but now is being used by the European low-cost airlines. We discovered that this was where the infamous "taxi mafia" has moved from the main Okecie terminal. Having a good recent experience in Okecie we assumed that the "mafia" was gone but we were wrong.
When we tried to get into the taxi the driver asked us where we wanted to go and then quoted an outrageous fare. On the matter of principle I quoted back some choice words and we went to a public bus that was waiting at a stop literally 20 metres away.
It certainly was one of those trips that we will remember for a long time. With Iceland having particularly impressed me, I have spent a lot of time (and money) researching various topics, reading a complete history of the country and a number of novels by the country's Nobel Prize winner Halldor Laxness. Maybe I'll get a chance to go there again.
And yes, a few months later the Flygbussarna bus company did pay us back the full cost of the taxi and even of the bus tickets for that unfortunate trip to the Stockholm airport.
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Oslo, Oslo, Norway

During a short walk to the hotel we noticed a number of exotic looking ladies looking for customers on many street corners. Otherwise the streets looked quite empty.
The city is relatively small and quite pleasant. The tram network was easy to use and we had no problems navigating to the locations we wanted to visit.
Apart from the Royal Castle, probably the best known attraction is the Vigeland Park with the famous sculptures of people and human bodies.
We have also taken a small ferry to cross the bay and visit the Viking Museum in which they have some well preserved Viking ships on display.
Not surprisingly, after our Stockholm experience we chose to take a train rather than a bus to the airport.
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Myrdal, Western Fjords, Norway

From Bergen, we had a booked cruise to go to the longest fjord in Norway.
The fjords provided the most spectacular images during out tour. While Iceland was clearly the most exotic part of the trip and an unknown before we got there, Norway's breathtaking vistas were something we were anticipating and looking forward to. And we were not disappointed!
A 5-hour cruise from Bergen to Flam covered the best part of the longest fjord in Norway.
Flam is a very small place, mostly serving as a transfer station for tourists like us who get off their boats and then board a train to Myrdal on the main line to Oslo.
The focal point is a large bar-restaurant crawling with tourist but just a couple of hundred metres away you can find yourself in an almost perfect solitude staring at crystal clear water and surrounded by forbidding mountains.
The train ride indeed provides spectacular views during its short 50-minute climb to Myrdal. It stops once near a picturesque waterfall encouraging the tourists to get off and take photos. Somewhat controversially perhaps, there seem to be loudspeakers hidden somewhere on the hill playing music when the train stops. Two blue clad nymphs (huldras) appear out of nowhere and dance to the music.
Myrdal seems to be nothing more than a train stop. As we had to wait quite some time for our train I decided to get us some ice cream. This proved to be a bad idea when Edyta's front tooth ... left her mouth and stayed in the ice cream on the first bite. Fortunately we were just 2 days away from returning to Warsaw and with my sister immediately arranging a visit to a dentist in Warsaw this didn't spoil the rest of the trip too much.
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Bergen, Western Fjords, Norway

A very pretty view opens as the plane approaches the airport. There are a number of little islands with pretty little houses on them. The water is deep blue and the grass perfect green. On one of those little islands I noticed what looked like a full sized soccer pitch right on the sea. I suspect they must have a good supply of soccer balls to ensure that matches don't get abandoned due to the loss of the ball.
Bergen is a small but very well known and popular town. It has a typical Scandinavian feel about it, a pretty small harbour with a busy market right next to it.
Like most places in that area, it is located right at the foot of a mountain. You can go to the top of the mountain via a cable rail.
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Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden

The ever attractive Gamla Stan (Old Town) was our first destination. We criss-crossed it, got to the square at which a Nobel Prize winner in literature is announced and finally selected a restaurant in which to have our anniversary dinner the next day.
The next day, apart from the above mentioned dinner, we spent time walking around the city and visiting the famous skansen.
Since we were leaving early morning the next day, in order to avoid any surprises, I went to the Central Bus station to find out exactly where the Flygbussarna airport bus was leaving from. I noted the number of the stand and the departure times.
Next morning, everything went seemingly to plan until we got off the bus only to find out that ... we were at a wrong airport. The Flygbussarna leaflet we got when we arrived in Stockholm did not even mention any other airport but there we were some 100 km away from the Arlanda and less than 2 hours till the scheduled departure.
Interestingly, the bus driver did check our tickets and the tickets did clearly state the destination as Arlanda. Unfortunately he seemed to have other things on his mind as he was all the time speaking on his mobile phone steering the bus with one hand (no hands-free equipment).
I ran into the small terminal building and must have looked really anxious as I was immediately approach by a staff member who told me that the only option to get to Arlanda from there was a taxi. She felt she needed to add that a taxi trip there would be very expensive but somehow we sensed that. The taxi was arranged for us very quickly, we made the driver aware of the circumstances and he did his best to get us to the right airport in the shortest possible time. As confirmed by the taxi receipt, he covered the distance with average speed of 115 km/hour! We certainly hope he did not get a speeding ticket for his troubles. And, yes, it was expensive, 200 Australian dollars.
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Copenhagen, Denmark

We scheduled less than 2 days for Copenhagen since we both have been there before and there was nothing in particular that we wanted to see.
The lady at the hotel who was checking us in was rather talkative and told us some stories about Australians when she saw our passports. She was jokingly complaining about the Danes designing the famous Sydney Opera while building an ugly, new opera house in their own capital.
Well, ugly or not, it is certainly no match for the one in Sydney.
There is no shortage of undoubtedly pretty sites in Copenhagen though. Royal homes and palaces are among them.
A picturesque harbour of Nyhavn and the Strøget shopping mall add to the character of the city.
Finally, a mandatory visit to the Little Mermaid and we were ready to fly again.
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Reykjavík, Iceland

During the excursion (see previous entry), I asked the guide if she knew anything about Robert Fischer and his whereabouts in Iceland. Sure enough, like seemingly every Icelander, she knew quite a lot. In particular she told us what his favourite restaurant was and also pointed us to a bookshop that was owned by a friend of Fischer's.
Unfortunately when we got back to Reykjavik the bookshop was already closed and the next day we had to leave before it was to open. Nevertheless we checked out the shop and there was enough Fischer memorabilia on the windows to confirm the guide's words.
Blue Lagoon It is rather paradoxical that with all that abundance of natural geothermal sources, an artificially heated pool is one of the major attractions. Located between Reykjavik and the Keflavik airport, Blue Lagoon features a large outdoor pool heated to some 40 degrees with the fancifully shaped bottom. While artificially constructed it does have great appeal and does offer some natural resources like certain ointments that you can use there for free or ... buy in Reykjavik.
With the outside temperature of 10 degrees Celsius, you jump rather quickly out of the water and run into the wooden pavilion that houses the site's indoor facilities.
No longer surprised, we found more people speaking Polish at the Reykjavik airport. What did surprise us however, was a rowdy Icelander who loudly complained to the attendants at the gate about the delay of our flight. The only word he was saying we could understand was "Express" so presumably he was mocking the name of the airline. After a few outbursts the staff lost their patience and made the man disappear somewhere so we were spared his presence on our flight to Copenhagen.
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Reykjavík, Iceland

This was easily the most exotic part of our trip, if not of all our trips. Iceland is really an oversized volcanic rock and as such features weird landscapes and strange natural phenomena.
We took the so called Express Golden Circle tour that covers the most interesting locations within a few hours drive from Reykjavik.
We drove along highway number 1 which, as our tour guide helpfully explained, carries number 1 because ... it is the only national highway in the country.
Volcanic hills and endless lava fields covered with green moss was practically all we could see from the bus. The first stop was at Thingvellir near the historical location of Althing, the Icelandic Parliament. The Parliament has been in existence since the 10th century and used to gather in the open field under tents.
Nearby are the Rock Walls which are yet another spectacular post-volcanic formation.
It is there that the European and American tectonic plates meet and we were pointed to a fairly narrow line of volcanic gravel that apparently indicates that border on the surface.
The Gullfoss water falls offer spectacular view of forces of nature in action.
And then, of course, the geysers. We were taken to famous Strokkur which is very popular with tourists because it erupts frequently and regularly, every few minutes in fact.
The final highlight of the excursion was a visit to a village that is built near the geo-thermal sources and is entirely dependent on them for power. Apparently, a few years ago one of such geo-thermal sources decided to erupt in the kitchen of one of the houses there!
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Reykjavík, Iceland

We landed on time in Keflavik, just after 11pm having gained 1 hour due to the time difference. Keflavik is the only major, international airport in Iceland and there is a bus to Reykjavik which is some 90 kilometres north.
We took the bus and managed to get off at the right place well after midnight. Armed with a map printed off the Internet we marched in, what we thought was the direction to our guest house. Even in summer Reykjavik is rather cold which, somehow, we didn't quite expect. The average maximum temperature in the middle of summer is about 10 degrees Celsius. And here we were, in the middle of a windy, late summer night. After a while Edyta developed a suspicion that we were walking in the wrong direction. There were no obvious points of reference, we only saw roads and hills in what looked like an extremely spaced out city. The nearest building seemed some 10 minute walk away.
We decided to go back to the bus station for some help as we remembered that there was a taxi stand there. Luckily there was one cab still present and the driver managed to locate our guest house in some directory he had in the car. 3 minutes and 20 dollars later we were at the door and apologising for such a late arrival (after 1am). We got to our nice little room at what looked like an attic The sloping ceiling was to give me hard time during our 2-night stay there as I kept banging my head on it.
When we woke up, the first thing we heard was the conversation in the adjacent room in Polish. The hopes of escaping our compatriots in this remote country were thus officially dashed. Later on we were to hear more Polish in the city and when we did our research on Wikipedia we found out to our astonishment that Poles are the biggest minority in Iceland numbering some 1,600.
Early next morning we took a short walk to the centre of Reykjavik. As expected, it looked rather provincial and it was cold, windy and extremely expensive. Later on we learned that often Iceland boasts the highest "Big Mac index" in the world occasionally coming second only to Norway. It is only a myth that Switzerland is the most expensive country in the world.
By the way, while in Reykjavik we did not come across any major fast food chains' outlets. That morning we just grabbed some hot dogs with coke in a small bar at a price of some 15 Australian dollars for each such "combo".
The central point of Reykjavik is the Hallgrímskirkja church.
It sits on a hill and is visible from everywhere. We were to be picked from near the church later on for a pre-booked "Golden Circle" day trip.
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London, England, United Kingdom

But there was still London to conquer. We were not game enough to drive in London so arranged to return the car in Maidstone and catch a train to the capital.
The Sara hotel in London was certainly not of the highest quality but had a great location, very close to a subway station.
The next morning we went on a pre-booked day trip around London. You could not help but admire the skills of the bus driver negotiating in quite an incredible manner narrow, overcrowded streets.
We started at ... yet another cathedral. I do admit though that Westminster is worth a visit. Then we went to the Buckingham Palace and spent about an hour waiting amidst a big crowd for some fancy dressed guys to walk past us and disappear in a matter of seconds. Well, if you ask me all this effort to get a glimpse of the change of guard is really a waste of time.
The trip did include a lot of truly interesting items like the City, the Tower, a cruise on the river Thames and others. We only briefly stopped outside the St Paul's cathedral so had to come back the next day to see it inside.
The second day in the capital was for us to explore it on our own. I re-visited the places I was at back in 1997 when working at the Mind Sports Olympiad in the Royal Festival Hall. I still remember calling Edyta at home from just outside the Hall to learn that she was expecting. That telephone booth unfortunately does not exist any more and the entire front of the building looks different. Unless my memory fails me, there were much fewer shops in the Royal Festival Hall then.
We went for lunch to The Sherlock Holmes Pub located just off the Trafalgar Square. Edyta remembered somebody recommend it to her many years ago and it was still there.
The Baskerville Hounds tasted not too bad!
Now it was time to resume travel by air. Getting to the Stansted airport was very easy; there is an express train that takes you directly there with no fuss and at a reasonable, for London, price. We expected some run down, second rate airport but, while rather small, it seemed well organised and much friendlier than Heathrow. Of course, the security was extremely tight; we had to go through the shoe and belt removing ritual and our camera was subjected to examination by some mysterious apparatus.
The waiting hall was quite busy when we arrived. It was full of Poles (you wouldn't have guessed) and very orthodox Jews. The former duly departed on a plane to Cracow and the latter to Tel-Aviv. And there we were, waiting for a flight to the mysterious Keflavik.
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