Bergen and the Hurtigruten

We caught an early morning flight to Bergen in order to catch our Hurtigruten ferry.

We are going to the top of Norway and back in the next 12 days and we are hoping to see the Northern Lights on our travels. 

There have been a few surprises during the day, and the first one is that it is absolutely freezing here in Norway - actually not such a surprise. 

The weather was lovely though with bright sunshine and lots of snow on all of the hills surrounding the town.

I had my photo taken with a giant wooden fish and it was a real problem to smile as my face had frozen into a sort of botox type frown. 

A real surprise was that once the sun had set at just before 3pm the sky actually stayed quite light for a couple of hours, which is going to be helpful as we are heading due north overnight. 

Best surprise of all though is that the ferry is very smart and the food is absolutely gorgeous. Lots of fish, but non too scary and loads of berries with every course. 

Sports Personality at Liverpool

We caught a train to Liverpool yesterday and we had originally hoped to get tickets to a radio show about the Sports Personality of the Year. We didn't manage to get the tickets though, but the  train and hotel were already booked, so we came anyway and planned to see the sights.

We also hoped for good weather as every time we have been here before the weather has been terrible.

No change there as the rain poured down through the fog on our journey. 

Once here I  happened to see online that some last minute tickets had just been released for the SPOTY show, so we raced over to the arena to snap them up. 

We spent the afternoon wandering around the Tate Modern - good with some inspiring ideas for our house, the Liverpool Museum - large building with lots of closed sections, and the great outdoors - cold, windy and wet. 

However, it was also full of fancy buildings, boats, statues, fair rides and tasty food. 

We found the Fab Four statue where Daz blended in perfectly and a Superlambanana which reminded us of a great visit back in 2009.

Then it was over to the show,  and we had seats quite close to the stage, but with a side on view. 

It was an excellent evening and fascinating to watch the way that the stage is cleared and changed as soon as the video clips were played. 

It was a shame that Mo Farah wasn't in the studio to collect his prize, but it was very funny when the video link with him broke just as he was due to make his speech! 

Final day in Istanbul

First stop today was the Grand Bazaar - the largest covered market in the world with over 4,600 stalls. It was a  beautiful building with multi coloured stalls in every direction. We went  to slowly wander and look around, but in less than ten minutes had spent all of our money, so that cut the excursion short, but we got some nice stuff!

Then we had another visit to an amazing mosque and we also got a good view of Asia across the water. 

I am also aware that my string of fish was not very revealing yesterday, so we went back and got a better picture of the fishermen, with the European side in the background. 

Later we went down into the cistern, which is a 1,500 year old water storage tank that was built by the Byzantine Emperor out of bits of Roman columns. It is an a huge space and is famous for the Medusa heads that hold up the base of two columns.

Finally, a delayed birthday celebration for me, with an incredible view of the city and the sunset. 

All done now, time to come home. 

Trek around Istanbul

We spent almost all of my birthday yesterday travelling and we arrived at our hotel at about 8pm,although that felt like 11pm to us.

Our hotel is lovely - it is warm, comfortable and has a fantastic buffet breakfast. Although Bhutan and Nepal were amazing places we often ate in our coats and the food choices were very limited, so we really appreciated the difference. 

Today we set off with a map to explore and we started with the Blue Mosque which is very near to our hotel. I had to dress in a skirt and headscarf that were provided at the entrance, and we carried our shoes with us in little carrier bags.

The mosque is enormous and is famous for its intricate blue tiles and high domed ceiling.

We then accidentally walked a long way out of our way, but eventually we reached the Galata Bridge where hundreds of fishermen were having great success catching little silver tiddlers. Thank you to Darren for taking such an excellent photo of a string of fish being hauled up above us by a fisherman on the top deck of the bridge. 

Then we walked up to the Galata Tower - right in the middle of photo four - and caught a lift to the top where we got great views of the whole city.

The Great Boudha Stupa and Durbar Square

After fighting the traffic for far too long, we arrived in Kathmandu, and straight out on to a guided tour.

First was the Great Boudha Stupa, and we turned a corner and were face to face with it.

It was ruined in a massive earthquake that devastated much of Nepal in April 2015. This Stupa was the first tourist attraction to be repaired, and what an amazing sight it is.

We then went to Durbar Square, which was also badly hit, and many of the buildings are either badly damaged or completely wrecked. Most of the remaining buildings are supported by large wooden props and it will be many years, if ever, before they are restored to their former glory. 

Finally, we took a walk through the main shopping area, which was quite an eye opener, but rather ruined by the dozens of impatient motorcyclists who hooted their horns constantly and pushed their way through the crowds. 

Ps, I climbed up next to a soldier guarding the Palace and was surprised to find that I was about twice the size of him! 

Sunrise over the Himalayas

We woke early today and looked out of the window to see an orange glow over to the east. We quickly dressed in almost all of our clothes and took up our positions on our balcony.

It was extremely cold, but then we were at 2,200 metres above sea level.

Gradually the clouds changed from dark grey to purple and then to pink, and the sun started to hit the top of the mountains to the west of us.

Finally, the sun peeped over the horizon and within a couple of minutes its rays were beaming straight across our view, and then the mountains disappeared behind a blinding haze. 

Excellent start to the day, a quick breakfast and then a bouncy ride back down to Kathmandu.