dover

Along with seeing as much of Europe as we can while we have the handy hub of Heathrow nearby, we’re also trying to take in some of England. A few weeks ago, we spent a day in Kent with stops at Dover, Sandwich, and Canterbury. As our Lonely Planet says, the city of Dover isn’t worth the trip, but the walk along the cliffs was a perfect way to spend one of the first really warm weekends of the year.

We didn’t visit the castle, but we drove around it and viewed it from the cliffs. It’s an impressive structure, set just a little way off of the white cliffs and surrounded by green countryside. Some kind of crop was in bloom, Paul thinks rapeseed, making the scene even more stunning. Our walk along the cliff tops took us past a large field of the flowers, which smell like honey. We met many friendly walkers on our two mile stroll to a lighthouse and back.

From Dover, we drove north to Sandwich for a lunch of …fish and chips. This village has a nice old center of meandering narrow cobble stone streets that we walked before getting in the car and taking the scenic country route to Canterbury. I was impressed with how rural England can be. We walked around the walled medieval city and had a cup of coffee before heading home. It was a great day trip, and I hope to do more of these over the summer.

Oslo

We took advantage of the bank holiday last Monday and spent the long weekend in Oslo. This was my first visit to Scandinavia. My first impression was of the airport, which looked just as I expected, all steel and blonde wood and glass like an Ikea store. Our bus to the city was easy to find and ran on time like all the transportation that we took while there. It’s a smooth running country. We noticed that everyone on the motorway seemed to be driving at a reasonable speed and with plenty of space between cars. We saw no traffic violations nor heard any loud mufflers or horn honking the entire weekend. Norway is a few weeks behind England in weather, so we got to see the sweet green of new leaves and tulips as tall as irises. The hills were a lovely contrast of the dark needles of the pine trees and the light leaves of what I think were mostly elms. There was rain and mist intermittently that made the scene even more charming. I would have appreciated gloves and a hat at times, but we managed the cold with frequent stops in cafes.


The locals sat outdoors under blankets provided by the restaurants. Many had overhead heaters as well. The greater Oslo area has around 750,000 people, and after London’s crush, we found it eerily quiet. We’d read that Norwegians love recreation in the outdoors and thought the city might fill on Monday. There were a few more cars and people, but it was still quiet by comparison. We visited the most popular tourist attraction, the Olympic ski jump, which can be seen from the city. We took the metro there. Within five stops, we were out of the city and climbing the hills into suburbia. The homes are a bit of a cross between Swiss chalets and Romanian villas, like gingerbread houses without the gingerbread. There were crowds of mountain bikers getting on the train after what looked to be a day of riding in the mud. The advertisements and route maps for the metro are not affixed to the walls of the train so that people with muddy pants can unhook the posters from the wall and sit on them to protect the cloth seats. So civilized.


While we were at the top of the ski jump, it started to rain and even a few flakes of snow fell. The view of the city and fjord are worth the trip and the climb of about 50 stairs. We also took a two hour boat ride down the Oslo fjord with commentary in English and German and blankets. Oslo’s expensive so we didn’t do many things that included an entrance fee, but we did go to the resistance museum inside the castle. We tried to go to the Munch museum, but found it closed after a longish walk to get there. The Scream hasn’t been returned yet anyway.



We spent the warmest and sunniest day in a statue park with hundreds of human statues engaged in every imaginable activity all by the same sculptor. Our hotel was located fairly close to City Hall where the Nobel Prize is awarded. I don’t feel a pressing need to return to Oslo, but I think seeing some of the natural beauty of western Norway would be nice.