pearl murphy

Lecce 1

Every year about this time we meet up with our good friends Paul and Angela for a city break somewhere, usually in Europe. Paul and Angela live just outside Nice, in the South of France so it’s a nice way for us to get together In previous years we have met in Lisbon, Porto, MarrakechContinue reading “Lecce 1”

And onto Harrogate

Yesterday we left Darlington after a lovely weekend. Thanks must go to Val and Julian for masterminding it all, and to Jim and Sarah for sharing it with us. Our next stop is Harrogate for a midweek bridge congress. We are staying in an Airbnb so we needed to buy a few provisions on theContinue reading “And onto Harrogate”

St James Park

This evening Newcastle United played LFC at St James Park. As we were in the area anyway I had made an enquiry about a ticket for the game and my good friend Vince came good. So off to the match I went. It was an evening kick off so we had a leisurely day beforeContinue reading “St James Park”

Hopetown

After a busy day on Saturday we had a relaxing morning yesterday chatting, doing jigsaws and quizzes, watching TV …. We ate a light lunch and then headed out for the day. First stop was Hopetown, Darlington’s railway museum, to help celebrate the bicentenary of the Stockton/ Darlington railway It’s a great place to learnContinue reading “Hopetown”

Seaham

We’ve come up to the North East for the weekend to spend time with some friends, Val and Julian, who live in Darlington. Jim and Sarah are here too. Last night we had a barbecue (and ate far too much lovely food). Today we have spent the day at Seaham. It’s an interesting town withContinue reading “Seaham”

Lerwick

And so to our last port of call, Lerwick I was helping on an early excursion so needed to be at the meeting point for 08.00. Luckily the clocks were put back to UK time overnight and so I had had an extra hour sleep. Usually we meet for the excursions just off the shipContinue reading “Lerwick”

Bergen

The weather is more overcast today although still warm. We are at Bergen which is much bigger and busier than our previous ports of call. We also have company with a Viking cruise ship also here. We deliberately had no excursions planned so that we could just spend the day together and probably have aContinue reading “Bergen”

Skjolden

Today we are at Skjolden which is a small town at the far end of Sognefjord which is the longest and deepest of all the fjords. Indeed it is the longest navigable fjord in the world. As planned we had a lie in – but then so did most people so the breakfast buffet wasContinue reading “Skjolden”

Olden

Another day, another fjord. Today we woke up at Olden on Nordfjord. A place even smaller than Andalsnes. We had both been assigned an excursion to help with. I had a short journey by coach and then a hike up to Briksdal Glacier hike with a local expert on geology, specifically glaciers. Denis had basicallyContinue reading “Olden”

Andalsnes

Specifically the ship had docked at Andalsnes at the end of Romsdalsfjorden. As we are treated a bit like crew on these cruises we are able to volunteer to help on the shore excursions but it’s a bit of a lottery as to what we get assigned to. In this case Denis didn’t get assignedContinue reading “Andalsnes”