My around-the-world-travel odyssey

  Reading, England, United Kingdom
Friday, June 13, 2008

Next month I will be leaving for my second "wintering" in Europe. I'll be flying around the world this time - with New Zealand Air, but spending most of my time in Europe, visiting friends and family.

Apart from the flights I've booked - almost everything else is deliciously up in the air - so Watch This Space:

Dep Thurs June 12 Sydney 1530
Arr Fri June 13 London, Heathrow 1435

Dep Thurs June 19 London, Stansted 1055
Arr Thurs June 19 Haugesund, Norway 1340

Dep Thurs July 22 Haugesund, Norway 1405
Arr Thurs July 22 London, Stansted 1445
Open ---------------------------------------
Dep Tue Aug 19 London, Stansted 1405

Arr Tue Aug 19 Friedrichshafen, Austria 1640

Dep Tue Sep 02 Friedrichshafen, Austria 1705
Arr Tue Sep 02 London, Stansted 1740
Open --------------------------------------
Dep Thurs Sep 18 London, Heathrow (T1) 1615
Arr Thurs Sep 18 Los Angeles, California 1930

Dep Mon Sep 22 Los Angeles, California 2145
Arr Wed Sep 24 Sydney 1030

I will be arriving on Friday 13 in London when everything that can go wrong will go wrong for those who are superstitious. Friends from Reading are very kindly picking me up and bringing me to their place where I'll be staying as a houseguest for a week. One of the highlights will be an evening at the Globe Theatre at London's Bankside on the 15th to see King Lear.

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

The Globe Theatre, completed in 1997, is a close replica of Shakespeare's original playhouse, which has been faithfully restored with wattle-and-daube plasterworks and beams. Its resurrection is the brainchild of American Shakespearian actor Sam Wanamaker, who settled in London in 1952 after becoming blacklisted in USA during the McCarthy era. The new Globe is an open-air theatre with seating over three levels in a semi-circle around its stage. The theatre strives for excellence in performance and during the season, from late April to early October, it recreates the conditions as close as possible to those of Shakespeare's time.

The Globe complex offers daily tours every 15 minutes, and entry to Shakespeare's Globe Exhibition, featuring the world's most extensive exhibition devoted to Shakespeare. The Swan & Globe, the pub in the Globe complex, offers local beer, boutique wines and modern English fare with ingredients sourced from local British 'farmers, foragers and markets'.

Love's Labour 's Lost(2)

From London it's on to Norway to spend time at my brother's place on the island of Spissøy, about two hours south-west of Bergen - right out at the edge of the North Sea. Following the completion of a three-point bridge network, linking the islands of Stord and Bømlo to E39, the main coastal road between Oslo and Trondheim, this area is now within easy reach from London via low far carrier Ryan Air to Haugesund - barely an hour's drive away.

Tour operators have still to discover this gem, which has long been popular with German holiday makers for its boating and fishing activities. DIY travellers can book everything online - from Ryan Air tickets and Hertz car hire to accommodation and even joint accommodation and boat hire. Almost every small inlet or boat harbour in the area is lined with renovated boathouses painted either white or brightly coloured red or orange, offering comfortable, modern living facilities for up to 10 people, with boat and fish cleaning area thrown in.

The scenery is not what you would normally associate with Norway - no wild mountains or waterfalls plummeting into the fjord here. The landscape is dominated by a myriad of islets and small natural harbours and inlets, where you find patches of green between grey or black barren rocks, worn and furrowed by the ocean and ice age glaciers, where vegetation still incredibly ekes out a living between cracks and crevasses. This video of the ferry trip from Stavanger to Bergen shows some of the scenery from the outer islands on the west coast of Norway.

At the edge of the North Sea

The area is excellent for walking, swimming, boating and fishing. The water can be surprisingly warm - 20C is not unusual - thanks to the Gulf Stream Current and the long summer days. Fishing enthusiasts can fish for varieties such as cod, mackerel, plaice or pollack. Fishing is a good way to get to know the locals, most of who speak or understand English.

Flaggruten...Stavanger to Bergen

I'll be there in time for the midsummer night revels on the eve of June 23. Sankthans or the feast of St John's is one of those pagan festivals which were adopted by the church and given a Christian makeover in this case made into a saint's day to honour John the Baptist. But in Norway, which is protestant, they stopped praying to saints 500 years ago, so it's now basically a pagan festival and celebrations can get wild around the bonfires.

Last year, my niece had about 20 young people invited for a party and my sister-in-law slaughtered one of the free ranging lambs they keep on their island property. We slow-roasted the lamb over an open pit of glowing coals the whole day for the evening feast. There had been a prolonged drought on the island, so the bonfire was not lit, but there was much drinking, eating, laughing and dancing in the midnight sun.

The first thing that strikes you when travelling in Norway during summer is the never-ending daylight. At nine o'clock at night, the sun still shines above the North Sea horizon, which, more often than not can be surprisingly calm on a summer's day.

Norwegians take advantage of their long summer days by staging a string of outdoor events and festivals - from the Bergen international Festival in May; rock concerts in the woods; and jazz concerts by the sea; to musicals and open-air theatre; and historic re-enactments. Bømlo, like many other communities at this time of the year, is a hive of cultural activity. Concerts and musicals such as Les Miserables, Jesus Christ Superstar and Chess are staged regularly at the Moster Amfi amphitheatre.

I will spend more than a month in Norway and hope to visit my hometown Bergen and a distant cousin in Stavanger which is Europe's cultural capital this year where I will attend the Bocuse d'Or culinary competition.

I'm hoping my son Francis will join me in Norway - he's being posted to London by the bank he works for and the plan is to return to London together.

I have about a month in the UK before I go on to Austria to stay with my brother on the shores of Lake Constance. I'll only stay there two weeks this time, leaving me more time for another trip which is yet to be decided.

Finally, on September 18 I take off for Los Angeles where I'll have four short days to meet up with friends and perhaps squeeze in some time with distant relatives from Seattle before I leave for Sydney on September 22.