I wonder how many hours I have spent in total, my camera at the ready, hovering over a flower as a bee does and waiting to be able to capture said bee in a half-decent shot? More times than not I fail, but whenever I succeed I get a thrill. Or, dare I say, a buzz?!
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The Hurtigruten line is first and foremost a postal service and ferry, although it caters well to tourists too with a cruise-like offering of quality food, excursions and on-board lectures. Many of the stops the ships make are brief, typically twenty minutes. Supplies for these small coastal towns and villages are off-loaded, post and parcels collected. A few passengers embark or disembark. Most are locals, visiting family or returning home after time away. Only a handful will be tourists, hikers perhaps.
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The most famous sight in Tromsø is probably the Arctic Cathedral … except it isn’t actually a cathedral. Despite the popular name, this is a parish church, but a very substantial and eye-catching one.
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Much of the Norwegian landscape looked a little unreal to me even in its natural colours. The drama of its mountains, the almost eerie light around midnight, even the snow and rain. All these lent it a magical air.
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Sometimes little details can be as evocative as the complete picture, and perhaps never more so than when contemplating the past. Visiting the iconic sites of Herculaneum and Pompeii back in 2007 I found myself as intrigued by the small details of life in these cities as I was in the grand civic buildings.
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If you’re looking for summer warmth this isn’t the place to come. On my recent trip to Trondheim (south of the Arctic Circle) and Tromsø (north of it) I experienced some sun, yes, but also rain, hail, sleet and snow!
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May is an especially lovely month in England. At the start of the month spring is at its height, while by the end there are hints of the summer to come. With spring being late this year, the early part of May felt more like April, with chilly winds and frequent showers. But the trees were green at last after the winter bareness, and there were flowers everywhere!
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When the Shard opened in London in 2012 it did so to quite a fanfare, and to a rather damp squib (in my view) of a laser show. But despite the laser show disappointing, the tower never has. Although not to everyone’s taste (the fractured ‘shards’ at the top that give it its name divide opinion), I have always found it striking.
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I live in a busy London suburb and even though we have a nearby park which I love, it can’t really be described as peaceful. So when asked where I find peace and calm in nature, my answer has to be, that I find it most easily when I travel.
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Like many Londoners (and indeed town dwellers worldwide) I discovered the pleasures of our local park during the pandemic lockdowns. Whether on our permitted visits to the shops or on the also permitted daily walks close to home, Walpole Park was our refuge and our delight.
