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Back up to main 2010 site This is all
written from memory in 2011, 2012 and 2013. It’s quite big, so you may want to just read the title of each day. Here is
the Itinerary of all my bookings, I'd be stuck
without it, so I printed enough copies to have 1 in
each bag and trouser/shorts! |
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Tuesday
June 8th - Flight to Santorini via Athens I
met Alan and his 2 research colleagues at Heathrow. We flew to Athens where
we had to change for a flight to Santorini, this involved getting our
luggage, a wait and re-check-in. Bizarrely on the way out I was stopped as a detector alerted the guards to some
radioactive material I was carrying! after much
searching, it turned out to be my World War II compass! We
arrived at Santorini’s small airport in the dark
and gathered a few conference attendees from around Europe and I found us a
minibus to take us to the hotel in Thira. I
wasn’t allowed to stay in the same room as Alan’s 3, so instead of having a
quarter hotel room fee, I had to get a whole room to
myself, which turned out to be far larger than theirs and with a massive
balcony with pool view, much better than theirs, kind of worth the extra
money in the end. We had a drink in the bar and retired, I decided I’d go on
a boat trip tomorrow. |
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Wednesday
June 9th - Santorini Boat Trip After
breakfast, I bought a tour boat ticket from hotel reception. I went out and
found that the amazing Santorini crater/cliff view was only 20metres round a corner
from the hotel. I could see the other islands and several big cruise liners.
It was already hot and very bright with no cloud, so I stayed in the shade
whenever possible, even with UV cream on. I walked around the crater edge,
past many shops and restaurants to the zigzag path that went 200m down to the
old port. The
path was stepped and slightly cobbled and the 100s of donkeys along the side
had been crapping all over the place. I was a bit late so I ran down the path
past many donkeys, some stationary and some coming up. Apparently it is quite
frightening riding a donkey downwards as they go fast that way, knowing that
their food is at the bottom. In the end I had time to spare so after finding where my boat departed from, I wandered and took a few photos of the cliff and various boats full of tourists. I saw a boat in the spot that mine would be leaving from, I thought it wouldn’t be mine as I saw it leave 3 minutes before the departure time, but alas it was, so I went to the office, they said it was time, but I pointed to my atomic watch and they put me on another boat which would catch mine up at Nea Kameni. The
central island of Nea Kameni was incredibly stony and quickly found I had the
wrong shoes on as my sandals filled with stones, but some other people were
worse in flip-flops. The hike to the geothermal centre was good, with some
steam still escaping from the ground, smelt of sulphur though. No shade at
all. Next
the boat took us a little further round Nea Kameni to a bay with a miniscule
church and a chance to swim to it through a small channel rich in minerals,
the water was very coppery. I was pleased I could remember how to somersault
jump off the boat into the sea. Next stop was the island of Thirasia, the opposite side of the ring of Santorini from Thira. There wasn't much here, just a few bars/restaurants by the stony beach and similarly there were donkeys to take you up a windy path to the small village at the top of the cliff. I would have liked the climb, but it was far too hot and I didn't want a donkey so I stayed at the bottom and had an ice-cream and quiet slow drink. The boat finished up by dropping off some people at Oia (the North-western tip of Thira island where the famous Santorini sunsets are supposed to be best) and then ending up back at the old port. I got the new cable car back up to the top of the cliff. It then took me ages to find the hotel, even the locals I asked said it was hard to describe where it was, I eventually found it as I recognized some ruins round the back of it. I
had a swim in the pool to cool down. I went out for dinner, minus Alan as his
phone wasn't working. I chose one of the many restaurants with a sunset view.
I took many sunset photos and then worked out the best settings on the camera
for night shots of the town. |
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Thursday
June 10th - Santorini Hiking Today I decided to go on a coach tour. I bought a ticket from hotel reception and went down to the little square on the main road slightly down from the hotel to wait the coach. After half an hour of trying to stay in a shady but visible place I learn by chance from another tour operator that my tour was cancelled. So instead I got a taxi to take me up the mountains - the road zigzags wonderfully up 200m as far as the dividing point between Mount Illias where the Illias Monastery is and Messa Vouno where Ancient Thira is. A great place for an ice-cream van. I headed up towards the Monastery, at the peak of Mount Illias there was way down the other side, discovering that my sandals were the wrong shoes to be wearing again. Half way up the climb, I remembered that actually I really wanted to see Ancient Thira, especially as the magnificent excavation of bronze age Minoan ruins at Akrotiri on the south west peninsula were closed, but there was no alternative way down from Ancient Thira - maybe another Santorini trip when Akrotiri is open. Nearing the top of Mount Illias (450m) I took some photos, the self timer wasn't quite long enough as I managed to take 4 photos of me just getting in position with my finger on my nose pushing my sunglasses up. Here I had some lunch. I passed the monastery and then descended steeply over rough ground. I found a path which was walled either side, it must have been hundreds of years old, I followed it gradually down for about a Km past a small remote church, then onto a road for about another Km to Pyrgos, where I got an ice cream and water from the 1st shop I could find. I went up to the main church at the top of Pyrgos and took some photos. Then I carried on walking and managed to flag down a taxi to take me back to Thira. I bumped into the 1st taxi driver, he asked me where had I hike, I said all the way up Illias and down to Pyrgos and he gave me "Bravo". I
had a quick look in Thira cathedral, then I went
into the Thira historical museum, which had some great artifacts
from Akrotiri. I walked north through Thira town along the cliff to Theoskepasti, down the windy path and up the small
peninsula and then a small rock climb up to the top plateau for sunset.
Lastly some better night photos of Thira. |
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Friday June 11th - Santorini Coach Tour and Flying Cat to Heraklion in Crete Yesterday's coach tour materialized. First we were dropped off in Thira town centre, where the guides attempted to lose us by swapping buses and walking the group in a disorganized way - I wasn't sure I was on the right tour anymore. The tour then had free entry to the Thira historical museum, which was rather annoying as I'd been there yesterday. Next we went up Mount Illias to the Monastery, sound familiar? The guide's jokes weren't very good, she probably told the same ones every day. At last something I hadn't already done: the village of Megalochori. We had a walk through this with historical commentary. It was ridiculously hot and the sun was so overhead that there was barely 20cm of shade at the bottom of a wall, on the plus side, if you just covered your head and shoulders you were reasonably protected. Next we went to the black beach of volcanic pumice, which was very long and had many straw umbrellas. The ground was very hot, so it was amusing to see sunbathers dash barefoot from the sea to their sun loungers, I had sandals. There were many bars and restaurants along the beach road with proprietors trying to encourage you in; one told me I had a cool bandana, I agreed with him, but asked him if he really thought an insincere compliment was really going to entice me in, he didn't get it. We moved on to a pottery, somewhere near Megalochori, the potter was very skilful spinning up ornate vase in a matter of minutes. Next we went to the Santos Winery, which had a great view looking across the crater and down into the new port. Then I found that the tour was going to get back to the hotel at 17:00 rather than the 16:00 advertised on my hotel's leaflet, this would be too late to collect my bag and get the 17:30 ferry. So I had to borrow the guide's phone to call the hotel reception - get a message to Alan in his conference that he should pick up my bag and get a taxi to Santos. Luckily Alan did get this odd message and was relieved to see me at the winery gates, then it was only 5 minutes drive down to the new port. I found where we had to queue to get our boat, the flying cat! a hall at the port side. Despite having tickets, at the entrance we had to pay some semi-official looking guy some kind of port tax for which he gave us a ticket stub, only a euro or so, but it half looked like it could have been a conman earning a few hundred euro from the many passengers. The boat was an hour late, confirming my opinion that Greece doesn't have much concept of running on time or have any accurate clocks, it's more than just been laid-back, I think they are just inefficient - multiple mistakes on the bus tour too. The boat eventually arrived and we sped off to Crete. Arriving at Heraklion, we found our way to the hotel only a few 100m from the port. It was late so we hurried out for dinner, we found a restaurant and had some great sea food. I tried a bit of Alan's octopus leg - seemed like pure muscle. Completed to here on 20/03/2011. |
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Saturday June 12th - Crete, Heraklion, buses and taxis to Gortys, Phaistos, Agia Triada and Matala Getting dressed, I found that I had left my anti-perspirant in the very first hotel of this long trip! a special 100ml can that I spent ages looking for in UK pharmacies, small enough to pass the stupid airport hand luggage rules. It probably would not have been effective enough on me in this scorching weather anyhow. There are three bus stations in Heraklion, the one that has buses to the ruins of Gortys town was the other side of Heraklion, so we got a quick taxi there as we were late. We were just in time to buy tickets and get the bus to Gortys, which took about an hour. Gortys/Gortyn, was the Roman capital of Crete, was first inhabited around 3200 BC, and was a flourishing Minoan town between 1600-1100 BC. It was boiling so we spent as much time in the shade as we could. We paid a few euro to go in the main site and saw the first ever written code of laws carved onto the wall of the odeon. Then we went across the road to the second site, which was unattended and open but with a high closed fence around the most important centre Praetorium (about 100m x 100m). The
buses are not very frequent in sparsely populated areas like this, so when a
taxi went past a short while later, we hailed it and paid to go to about 10Km
Phaistos Next we wanted to see nearby Agia Triada, the best way seemed be to walk 3Km, though this was in the blistering sun. It was a nice ancient site, possibly a royal villa but probably not worth the sweltering walk. There were just 2 staff there and no other visitors. We were a bit stuck there, we tried asking the staff for a lift as it was closing time, but we had to call a taxi. The
taxi took us to Matala, a beach on the south coast,
famous for many caves that were inhabited by
hippies for a while. This is the southernmost point of the whole holiday. We
had a look around and then we got a bus back to Heraklion. We walked through
the Venetian city walls and all the way across the city back to our
hotel. |
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Sunday June 13th - Bus to, Knossos, Koules Fortress, Museum, Buses to Hania via Rethymno We took a bus 5km to Knossos, the palace of the legend of the Minotaur. It's the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and probably the ceremonial and political centre of the Minoan civilization. It's mostly open air so the sun was a problem again. We got the bus back and went inside the Venetian Koules Naval Fortress that we could see from our hotel. We found a whole room full of stone cannon balls. Next we walked to the Archaeological Museum, where many items from the sites we had been to were displayed safely. We
checked out of our hotel in the late afternoon and headed west along the
rugged coast towards Chania by bus. To break up the near 3hr journey, we
stopped at Rethymno for supper and got the next
bus. This was an excellent spot with our table overlooking the sea and Rethymno fortress. We got to Chania near dusk. |
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Monday June 14th - Samaria Gorge The Samaria Gorge is one of the "must do" things in Crete. It's spectacular and probably the best day's hike I've ever done. The typical round trip is a long hard day but well worth it. Sadly Alan had caught the sun too much and his allergy had flared up badly, the sun rash he gets had exploded all over his back, even where he hadn't got any sun. He wasn't well enough to do the Samaria Gorge, but when I got back he was able to advise me which was the best of several different ice cream shops near the hotel. The day starts with a bus at 07:30 or 08:30 to Omalos. The bus journey itself is fantastic, an hour and a half trip winding through hilly villages as it ascends 1250m to the Omalos plateau. The park rangers count you as you go in, so they can count you out as you leave at the bottom of the gorge later. The 16Km hike is mostly downhill and horizontal with a few up bits. The path starts well and steep with shade from trees. But there are plenty of rough bits further down over large stones out in the open. There are plenty of places to top up your water bottle. The abandoned village of Samaria in the centre is a park ranger station with toilets. In the summer the water course is a nice stream that you cross many times on portable wooden bridges - I expect these are removed in the winter when the stream is a raging torrent that closes the gorge to tourists. It's a long walk in the sun, but the views are amazing. At the end/exit is the tiny village of Agia Roumeli on the south coast, which is just a tourist spot and has no roads. The way out is by ferry, which leaves at 5pm. I had a couple of hours to waste, so to remove a few layers of sweat I had a bath in the stream under an ancient bridge (with some tadpoles). The ferry cruises east with views of the beautiful and steep coastline, stopping at Loutro and then Sfakion where the 18:30 bus waits for the boat. 16 hairpin bends takes the bus to the top of the Imbros Gorge (another good hiking trip), the road goes along the top edge of the gorge looking down into it on the right side. This road has recently been improved with several short tunnels removing bends. The bus descends from the mountains back to the northern plain and in to Chania at dusk. I was relieved to
get back and find Alan at the hotel. We went for supper at one of the many
restaurants on Chania harbour quay. The "small" mixed grill we had
was massive and excellent. |
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Tuesday June 15th - Hania, flight to Thessaloniki In the morning we went around the markets of Chania and went in the Chania Archaeological Museum which was surprisingly good/big. Next we got ripped off at an expensive ice cream cafe. We both had flights in the early afternoon, so we got a taxi to Chania airport. I gave Alan my few souvenirs that I had got so far to reduce my bag weight/size and backed-up the all important photos to his laptop. Alan flew back to England while I flew to Thessaloniki on the mainland, Greece's 2nd biggest city. Landing in Thessaloniki I found a bus from the airport to the "Ikea" bus depot - easy for me to spot. From there I got a bus into the city centre and got off close to my hotel. I went out to the waterfront for supper. I could see the White Tower (the symbol of Thessaloniki) across the water from the quay side restaurant. |
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Wednesday June 16th - Thessaloniki I went to get tomorrow's train ticket to Sofia as I'd read that Thessaloniki station is confusing and the staff are unhelpful - they weren't too bad. I got a bit lost on the way there and had to use my phone to determine my position. There's a Greek train strike on so it will be bus to the Bulgarian border. I
wandered around the city centre and viewed various sites - Byzantine
churches, the Roman Arch of Galerius and the Rotunda. I was disappointed to
find the White Tower was closed, so I went into the Byzantine museum. During
supper I saw soldiers with riot shields marching towards a demonstration. In
the evening I wandered along the waterfront which was lined with 100s of
huts, each one belonging to a different social club/hobby with members
socialising. |
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Thursday June 17th - Thessaloniki, train to Sofia (Bulgaria) I
had most of the day in Thessaloniki.
I walked uphill to the old city walls in the north east and went to Saloniky tower. Then further north to the Acropolis,
which had been badly converted to a modern prison, now disused and open to
the tourism. The
replacement coach left Thessaloniki
and headed north and then east. After we cross the border, it terminated at
the 1st Bulgarian railway station where we got the train. The
train looked terrible from the outside as it was covered in graffiti, but it
was fine inside. The train arrived in Sofia in the late evening. I
found my hotel quickly as it was nearby. I had declined assistance from the
luggage boy, but he must have found out my room number (on about the 10th
floor) as a few minutes later I was surprised when he knocked on my door and
asked if I would like any “nice girls” for a good price – he wasn’t just the
hotel luggage boy, he was also the hotel pimp! |
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Friday
June 18th – Sofia I
walked from my hotel to the city centre, the first stop was the Mineral
Baths, which looked great on the outside but were closed (down?). Next was
the Mosque (the only one left in Sofia I think). Shoes had to be removed to
go inside, where the floor was soft and it was very tranquil. Then I passed
an archaeological dig in the very centre of the city. I
went to the central park and decided to soak up some culture by doing what
seemed popular – playing chess outdoors. I sat down with a guy ready to play,
but he wanted to play for money, so I stumped up my last Euro from Greece,
which he seemed happy with. (Bulgaria uses the Bulgarian Lev). I thought I
held the game well as he was probably a bit of a shark. As the game reached it's climax, "the kings of
stern" appeared, hanging around behind my opponent looking a bit mafia-ish and I got one of my best ever quick photos. Then
I went past the Russian church to Alexander Nevsky
Cathedral and took lots of photos. Toilets were no where
(or not free, I can’t remember) so I paid to go in the National Gallery for
Foreign Art, which still didn’t have any public toilets, but I found the
staff ones. Next
was the Church of St George, built by the Romans in the
4th century it is considered the oldest building in Sofia.
It is quite small and is in a courtyard between the Sheraton Hotel and
President’s Office. Lastly a quick look at the Bulgarian Parliament. I
went back to the hotel where there was a large gypsy band playing for quite a
posh wedding. I use the hotel’s free internet PC to find and book the last 2
hotels for the trip that I hadn’t had time to do before leaving - Krakow and
Warsaw. Sofia
is a nice small city and I managed to cover the essential central sites in a
day. There are of course more and also not far are the mountains. |
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Saturday June 19th - Meet Paul in Sofia, Train to Belogradchic, Lightning Storm I
went to the station where I was very glad to see Paul, who had just flown in
from London. He was quite annoyed when he found out how much the taxi driver
had ripped him off. Paul had one bag slightly bigger than mine, containing a
large airline flight manual that he was studying/learning and a few clothes,
then he had manage to bring a massive amount of camera gear (for free) by
stick it in the multiple large pockets of his photography jacket. I
bought us tickets to Vidin (on the Danube in northern Bulgaria), but I
couldn’t manage to explain that I wanted just to go to Oreshetc
today and then to Vidin tomorrow. The train journey was pretty good as the
track followed many deep and winding river valleys through the mountains
including past Lakatnik Cliffs. Paul tried to read
his manual (as he was revising for an exam) but he fell asleep as he’d had to
get up extremely early for his flight. The
4hr train journey arrived at Oreshetc in the late
afternoon. There’s no bus, but I had read there would be some taxi’s waiting
to take tourists to the amazing Belogradchic rocks.…four
vehicles. So we shared one with another tourist. The road was very bendy as
it climbed quite a bit. Although our driver was the oldest of the 4, he was
also the most crazy daredevil, so even though we started last, we finished
first as he did most of the overtaking when approaching hairpin bends! He
also tried to convince us to go to a cheaper hotel whom
he must have had friends or relatives with. Our hotel was pretty cheap by
western standards, but it was top quality inside and our room was a huge
suite with an excellent view of the rocks. There was a spa in the hotel with
some excellently (mis-)translated treatments such
as “Death sea minerals” and many forms of “raping” (wrapping) – you could be
raped with chocolate or a Bulgarian dream! I explained what this actually
meant to the staff. We
went out for supper. Paul ordered an oddly named/translated dish, something
like “hotch potch”. Then the rain poured down heavier than I’ve ever
seen before, but only for 10minutes; the roads couldn’t cope with it. We
went back to the hotel and as dusk came a fantastic lightning storm came that
lasted ours to our delight. Huge bolts of lighten about once per minute.
Great photos, especially with the rocks in the background. Many long exposure
pictures and I was very pleased to get a fab photo
as good as Paul’s with my basic compact camera that was many times less
expensive than his top range SLR. |
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Sunday June 20th - Belogradchic Rocks and Fortress, train to Vidin In
the morning we walked to the fortress and rocks and took loads of photos.
There are so many odd formations that Belogradchic is trying to them added to
a new list of 7 wonders of the world. It’s a really unique and great looking
place. In
the afternoon we got a taxi back to Oreshetc
station which was quite run down. The trains were ok though. Our tickets were
for the wrong day as I’d not be able to by the right ones in Sofia due to not
speaking Bulgarian. The ticket inspector noticed, but gave up trying to fine
us as again we couldn’t communicate. Our
first sight of Danube in the distance was from the train. Then there was an
unexpected change from train to bus as Vidin station was being rebuilt. We
went to the Danube and then found our hotel in Vidin, which was a nicely
converted old Turkish bath and left our luggage there. I think we had a swim
in the outdoor pool and then went for a walk around Vidin. We
walked along the Danube to Baba Vida, the medieval fortress of Vidin. Then we
headed inland a bit and came across a great ruin (that I later found out was
a synagogue) where restoration/conversion had been started and then stopped
with much still to do. Our path back to the hotel went through a dodgy looking housing estate; Paul thought we would be ok
because his jacket looked “slightly gangster”. The Funniest Meal
In Ages. We looked around for dinner and chose a
restaurant boat moored on the Danube near the hotel. Basically it was a
higher class fish and chips restaurant. It was nice to sit on the deck and
watch the river. Ordering
our meal was just the start of the fun. First there was a choice of chip
shape, with pictures! : French fries, julienne, crinkle cut, steakhouse, balls(!) or potato wedges. I can’t remember which type of
chips we ordered, except that we chose differently, but when the food arrived
all the chips were the same. We
ordered our fish and as the champagne was really cheap we got some of that
too. When the bottle came it turned out to be just Asti Spumante
- a Bulgarian misunderstanding of champagne maybe. It was still cheaper than
UK for sparkling white wine, except that it was brown! Not to put off, we
found it still tasted OK and I don’t recall any digestive problems the next
day. Unfortunately
there were millions of mosquitoes around and I was slapping them on my arms
and legs so much that it was funny and annoying at the same time. I had to
cover up and deny the midges any opportunity to feed - it’s supposed to be my
supper not theirs, so I put on the detachable-bottom-legs of my
trousers/shorts mid-meal. The mosquitoes must have been a common problem as
the restaurant provided us with insect repellent as a matter of routine. The
insect repellent said “Ne Punti” which we took to
mean “no mosquitoes”, so we had actually managed to learn 2 words of
Bulgarian which became our catchphrase to be repeated throughout the holiday.
I tried to learn some of the many languages of the 8 countries this journey
passed through, but I failed miserably and defaulted to useless English tourist.
Months later I discovered that the insect repellent was actually Italian, so
“Ne Punti” wasn’t even Bulgarian! Then
we messed about with the camera making me look much bigger than Paul by
putting my long legs in the background and Paul further back. It
was the funniest meal I’ve had in years, but it’s a case of “you had to be
there”. There were lots of jokes I can’t remember. The purpose of this
journal is a reminder to me as much as it is a story of for others to read. |
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Monday June 21st - Cross the Danube to Calafat (Romania) 'Taxi' to Drobeta We
bought some food for our journey and then got a taxi round to the Danube
ferry to go across to Romania. The
ferry was only one level, basically a floating platform and big enough to take
a dozen or so lorries and many cars that we queuing up for half a mile (that
we had to walk past). It’s incredibly slow and inefficient (vastly different
from the Norwegian ferries that I later experienced in 2011): We landed in
Romania where there was the option of walking to the station: there are 4
type of train in Romania: slow, very slow, extremely slow and excruciatingly
slow, also they went in a very roundabout route or did not go quite where I
wanted or with several changes, so I knew a taxi might be a better option,
faster and still fairly cheap. So we hired “some guy” who was hanging around
the Romanian border with a car. Probably a bit dodgy, but in the end it took
only 2hours (instead of 6hrs by train) to get from Calafat
to Drobeta-Turnu Severin,
and it was only 35Euro for 100 miles, so well worth it. Romanian roads were
supposed to be bad, but the one to Drobeta was newish and very good. We saw a
few horse drawn carts (with rubber pneumatic tyres) taking farm produce along
the roads. Route 56A cut off the corners of the Danube, but we joined it
again approaching Drobeta. The driver struggled to find our hotel and
suggested something cheaper (or belonging to family/friends), but I’d booked
all our accommodation in advance. The Hotel
Continental (at 3stars) looked like it was the poshest
in town, but had definitely seen better days years
ago during communism. Cue many communist jokes. A school football team was
staying there and we could tell this was quite a treat for them. We walked to
Drobeta tower, which looks old and defensive, but I have just discovered it
is a water tower from only 1914! Then we had to shelter in a shop as there
was a very heavy rain shower. Next we went to site of Trajan's Bridge, a
Roman segmental arch bridge, the first to be built over the lower Danube. Though
it was only functional for a few decades, for more than 1,000 years it was
the longest arch bridge in both total and span length. The bridge was
constructed in 105 AD for the deployment of Roman troops in the war against
Dacia. 1,135m long, 15m wide, 19m high!!
Quite an incredible achievement two thousand years ago. The only
remaining ruins were the 1st buttress, which had to surrounded by a concrete compound built to protect the
monument from the rise of the water due to the construction of the Iron Gate
I dam. Protecting the bridge end was
Roman garrison which we could also see ruins of. Supper was in the hotel restaurant with a
stern waitress and the “Peoples team of athletic achievement, winners of the
South West regional U14 boys football tournament
playing for the greatness of the country and the glorious leader thereby
avoiding the gulag”. |
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Tuesday June 22nd - The Iron Gates to Hunedoara Castle We
got a proper taxi from Drobeta, though it was a little odd - denim seat
covers (which the driver must have thought were extremely cool, but just
looked very dated to us) and we had to drive to the other side of town to a
particular fuel station for some special fuel. The driver thought we were odd
too as we wanted to go far past the Iron Gates 1 dam and beyond
Orsova….western idiots wanting to see the great landscapes. The
scenery was stunning with high and near vertical rock walls on either side of
the Danube. Our driver told us that the dam was of such national importance
that there were soldiers there and no photos were allowed as we went past. We
carried on to the Statue of Dacian king Decebalus, at 40m high it is the tallest rock sculpture
in Europe. Then we turned back to go to Orsova station. At the train station I managed to get the right
tickets by writing what I wanted on paper. The train to Caransebes was only
50miles, but it took nearly 3hours though beautiful sunny valleys. The lights
did not come on in the tunnels, so our compartment went pitch black. At
Caransebes we got another taxi from the 1st driver that we found could speak
reasonable English. 60miles via Hateg to Hunedoara,
it poured with rain for the 2nd half of the journey, so we couldn’t stop at Sarmisegetuza roman ruins. On the outskirts of Hunedoara
we were surprised to pass through what appeared to be a small “China Town” of
exotic oriental houses with ornate roofs. We got to our hotel and then walked past the huge
and mostly derelict steelworks to Hunedoara castle. We wandered all the way
around it in the drizzle and took many photos, shame about the scaffolding at
the magnificent front. It’s a great castle, but the town is quite run down
and the steelworks next to it are environmentally criminal, built when
tourism probably didn’t exist. Supper was at the only restaurant we could
find, the Corviniana. Then some night photos
followed by trying to dry our clothes. |
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Wednesday June 23rd - Hunedoara Castle, travel overnight via Budapest (Hungary) to Auschwitz (Poland) We went to the
castle again and this time went inside. It’s pretty big and most rooms are
open to the public. There were not many people around so we were able to take
some pictures that you’re not officially allowed to. In the afternoon we
got a taxi to Deva station. The traffic was heavy and we might miss our train
so the driver sped though some back streets (well, more like a track through
an industrial site). The train was late
and then had to wait even longer at the Romania-Hungary border for another
train to pass. In the end we got to Budapest 2hrs late so we had missed our
overnight train (pre-paid/booked) to Auschwitz, disaster! We decided on a
madcap plan of hiring a car and driving across Slovakia overnight! A plan
made even worse by that fact that I don’t drive, so Paul would be doing all
of it while I read the map (i.e. slept). Hoping to charge all expenses back
to Hungarian Rail. We got a taxi to
Avis at Budapest airport. There were hired a small car with a one way
surcharge to Krakow. We stocked up on some food and lots of RedBull for Paul and drove off into the night, heading
North. The roads were good and we crossed into Slovakia. I stayed awake as
long as I could; well done to Paul, I don’t know how he kept going. After dawn we
passed a big castle on a hill, which we tried to photograph (but failed from
the motorway). I later found this was Orava castle,
and went back to it a year later (see Slovakia 2011). We crossed
into Poland in daylight and the navigation got a bit harder as we came off
the motorway and went cross-country to Auschwitz. |
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Thursday June 24th - Auschwitz to Krakow We
got to Auschwitz concentration camp
mid-morning, very tired, so we tried to sleep in the hire car for an hour
before entering the site/museum. First there is a museum with a video to
watch, then we went into the main site where you can go in some of the many
accommodation blocks where there are various historical exhibits to see. Next
we drove a mile to Birkenau extermination camp
which is even bigger, but the accommodation blocks were not brick so they had
not survived, though some had been rebuilt to show visitors. At the far end
are the ruins of the gas chambers and crematorium that the Nazis had
demolished to try to hide what they had done. A thoroughly depressing place
that I won’t write much about. We drove to Krakow where the traffic was
incredibly bad so it took ages to get into the city centre. I dropped the
bags off at the hotel. Then we needed to get to the Avis office before it
closed at 5pm….we got so near, but then a 1way street about 20metres from the
office meant we couldn’t get there and got diverted, so we just missed the
deadline. We had to drive out to the airport where there was another Avis
office open longer, then we got a bus back into the city centre; what a waste
of time. By the time we got back to
the hotel it was dark, so I think we just ate and went to bed. Later I went
up the clock tower myself, the views were a bit
restricted. |
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Friday June 25th - Krakow Krakow
centre is beautiful, it is a grid of 2-6 by 10
blocks with a huge square in the middle. It’s still mostly surrounded by city
walls with parks and the castle on Wawel hill on
the south side next to the Vistula River. We went to the main square where
the cathedral is. At the top of one of the cathedral towers, a trumpeter
plays a tune at the start of each hour. But the trumpeter never finishes the
tune to commemorate the famous 13th century trumpeter, who was shot in the
throat while sounding the alarm before the Mongol attack on the city. Next we
walked south past St Andrews, then around and into the castle. We tried to
take some amusing photos of the statue of Pope Jean Paul II (he’s from
Krakow) but he’s just not a very funny guy. |
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Saturday June 26th - Krakow, train to Warsaw and sleeping in the worst toilet in the world Sunny
today. Paul was still sleeping, so I went into the Barbican by myself. It was
interesting, but quite small. Despite
having a much better camera than me, Paul had not done any perspective
photography tricks, so we spent a while trying to make it look like he was
pushing the top of the clock tower from the ground. He became slightly
addicted to pushing tall buildings. We had a quick look round the Jewish
quarter and then caught the 3hour train to Warsaw. At
Warsaw, our hotel in the very centre was easy to find as it was very close to
the main station and opposite the massive Soviet Palace of Culture and
Science. The Palace of Culture was built by Russia as a gift to Poland in the
1950s, it had a mixed welcome. It is still the tallest building in Poland. It
was evening so we had supper nearby. We
went 2 miles to a night club that I had found out about. It was in a slightly
derelict industrial building so it had a dark atmosphere. First we tried the
wrong entrance at the back which was locked, but then found the way in on the
opposite side. The music was good. Inside there was only one toilet cubicle
for the whole place, so it wasn’t too pleasant with a soaking floor - after
Paul came out he said “Don’t go in there” and something about it being the
worst toilet ever, so I went in the back bushes outside. The bar was
incredibly slow, so when we finally got served, we decided to get a lot of
drinks at once - I got a litre bottle of sprite (which the staff thought was
very odd) and Paul got several beers. Holding all his beers at once and in
the effort to free his hands rapidly from this burden, Paul suffered for it
and ended falling asleep in “the worst toilet in the world” - the queue were
not pleased. We got back to the hotel very late. |
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Sunday June 27th – Warsaw Got
up late and had brunch. We wandered around the Palace of Culture and then
through a park and past the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We walked up the royal
route to the old town. The old town and castle were completely and
meticulously rebuilt to their pre-war state after they were systematically
demolished by the Nazis when they left, but we couldn’t tell. We
went up a small tower that had an observation platform and viewed the old
town and castle. Then some messing about with the
fire tuba busker. |
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Monday June 28th – Warsaw Our
hotel was reasonably priced (by Western standards) but it was very posh,
possibly the best in Poland. We had Champagne for breakfast; Vodka was also
available and included. We
bought tickets for a city sightseeing bus and did a complete circuit. We went
to Lazienki park and walked through it from the far
end past lakes and red squirrel to the Bathing Palace. Then onwards past Ujazdow Castle. In
the afternoon I went 100m up the Palace of Culture big tower to the
observation platform where there are great views of all Warsaw. In the
evening we went and saw more of the old town. |
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Tuesday June 29th - Warsaw, Fly to Stockholm (Sweden), Paul goes home, overnight train to Ostersund In
the morning I went to the Techniki museum in the
Palace of Culture. We uploaded pictures from my camera to the internet as a
backup as Paul’s part of the holiday was coming to an end and we would separate. We
got a bus to the airport and Paul flew home to England, so no more Mr T jokes
for a while. My flight north to Stockholm was delayed by an hour or two, so I
was worried I wouldn’t get my overnight train that I booked to Ostersund, but
that was slightly late too. I
had a cabin to myself on the train, it was nice, but I just don’t sleep well
when I am trying to sleep on trains. (If I’m not try
to sleep in a seat, it seems much easier to fall asleep). There was a shower
at the end of my carriage, which I was pleased about, but it only dripped
cold water; it also felt strange getting naked on a train. |
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Wednesday June 30th - Inlandsbanan Train to Jokkmokk In
the morning we arrived at Ostersund. No time to look around as it was a quick
change. Now I was on the Inland railway http://www.inlandsbanan.com/,
which now just takes tourists in the summer (and freight), mostly though
pretty lakeland. Trains are once a day in each
direction and my first part would be 12hours. There is a ticket
collector/guide who assists and gives local information on the loudspeaker
and also sings(!) There are no refreshments on the 3
carriage train, so at some of the stations there are locals who know (or are
contracted) to sell refreshments from the backs of their cars on tables. 2
stops per day are long enough to get a whole meal. Here I found Ben&Jerry’s “Wich” - a
large ice cream cookie sandwich. There was a couple on the train who were
going on a 2 week hike into/across absolute wilderness, carrying their tent
and much food on a sledge/trolley that the husband had proudly built; they
got off somewhere suitably remote. The
train made a stop at the Arctic Circle for a few minutes which I wasn’t
expecting. This meant my whole next 24hrs wasn’t really necessary, but it was
still nice. I got off the train in the evening at the village of Jokkmokk,
slightly north of the Arctic Circle and found my hotel next to a lake. |
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Thursday July 1st - Jokkmokk, Cycle to Arctic Circle, Train to Gällivare, Midnight Mountain Sun I
hired a bike and cycled 4miles south on E45 to a tourist spot on the Arctic
Circle next to another lake. Here there was a display that showed how much
the Arctic Circle moves - quite a lot, making my wonder I’m at this specific
spot. Cycle back to the Jokkmokk for another “Wich”
which I was becoming addicted to. I had spare time, so I used my last Swedish
Kroner in the museum of the Sami people and had supper in a restaurant/pub. I
went to the deserted station and waited for the train (same time as I got off
it yesterday). It was about half an hour late. It wasn’t far to Gallivare,
but there was a meal stop on the way so it took a while. At
Gallivare I found there was tour bus going up the nearby Mount Dundret to better see the midnight sun. This sounded like
a good idea, so I left my bag in my room, got some more Swedish Kroner and
bought a ticket. It was quite chilly at the top and I had to put on all the
clothes I was carrying. Now there would be constant sunlight for the next
5days until I got home. It was quite odd as I never felt like going to bed,
even though I was tired. |
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Friday July 2nd - Train to Narvik (Norway), Cable Car, Bus to Narvik-Hardstad Airport, Fly to Tromso Got
up early for train to Narvik in Norway, but this was late too – 3 out of my 4
Swedish train have had significant delays. The train headed north past Kiruna’s massive iron mine. The railway’s primary
function is to transport iron ore from this massive mine, so the track is
super enforced to carry 8600ton trains to the ice-free port of Narvik. The
train passes many lakes including Lake Torneträsk,
which is 40miles long and 2-6miles wide with many
islands. From here to Narvik was the most beautiful part of the whole
holiday, really stunning; I highly recommend it (in summer at least). The
railway had mountains right next to it and on the other side was the lake and
then more mountains. Shortly after crossing into Norway, we reached Rombaken
Fjord and the train descended 500m down the side of it to sea level at
Narvik, awesome. Norway is very expensive (about twice as much as
UK), so at Narvik I got a very basic lunch from a supermarket. I had a few
hours to spare, so I got the cable car that went 600m (half way) up the local
mountain,
Fagernesfjellet. There was a mountain biker
repeatedly going up the cable car and down the tracks, which I watched with
his wife while having lunch. I
got the infrequent coach around Narvik fjord to Narvik-Hardstad
Airport; this was a beautiful trip in itself. The airport is small and has
about 4 gates. Due to the infrequency of the coach, I was there for several
hours. Some of the time I was the only customer there and there far more
staff than passengers. The
plane to Tromso could carry about 50 passengers, but there were only about 5
on board. The safety briefing was in Norwegian and as I was the only
Englishman on board an air hostess delivered the safety briefing in English
to me personally. The flight was just 40minutes to Tromso. It was late so I
went straight to my hotel. My hotel was next to the airport, but the opposite
side to the terminal, so I had to walk all the way round the airport,
1.5miles. |
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Saturday July 3rd - Fly to Honningsvag on Nordkapp Island, hitch/walk to village Walked
back to the airport straight after breakfast for a flight to Honnigsvag on
Nordkapp. I’ll be back here again in 3days. This plane was even smaller than
the one from Tromso. We didn’t go very high as the plane made a stop at
Hammerfest that I was not expecting. It’s a bit like a bus service picking
more people up. Flying is the best way to get around here as the distances
between even small towns is large and there are few roads due the rugged
terrain of mountains, fjords and lakes, and low population. The further north
I went the more barren the land became - no trees. We
landed at Honnigsvag and I managed to get a lift most of the way to the
village. I checked into my hotel which gave me a huge room and left my bag there.
I wandered around Honnigsvag which was quite a cute little village with a
small school, but also a dock large enough for large cruisers, all in the
shadow of a 250m hill. The industries of oil and fishing were quite apparent.
I struggled to go to bed as it never got dark. (Still, it’s better than
winter when it’s permanently dark for months). |
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Sunday
July 4th - Bus to the North Cape, hike to Knivskjellodden At 11am I got
the bus to Nordkapp proper, the most northerly point. 20miles of virtually empty
road plus a few detours to tiny settlements. You have to pay to enter the
Nordkapp site, which is a large building including restaurant (and hotel I
think) and the big globe monument at the tip of the 300m cliff. Sadly no sun
to see, just dull overcast clouds. There is also a big downwards tunnel that
comes out in the cliff face. For some reason I was the only person in shorts.
So here I was, Nordkapp, the North Cape of Norway,
71degrees North, well inside the arctic circle with perpetual sun. I had made
it! From the south coast of Crete, 2500miles as the crow flies, at least 3500
the route I had come: 4 weeks, 4 flights, 10 trains, 7 buses, 3 taxis and a
hire car. The most southerly point of Europe to the most northerly. This was
it - I felt quite a sense of achievement and relief. But no, actually this
isn’t it - Knivskjellodden on another peninsula is about a mile further
north, a 5mile hike over marsh and rocks… I must also mention that one reason I went
here is that this is where my great uncle, a World War II commando climbed up
the 300m cliff in the dark, with explosives, to destroy a German radar
station that was tracking and aiding attacks on Allied conveys to Russia. The
tourist site is here, not at Knivskjellodden, as Knivskjellodden has no road
and no plateau for buildings and car park. I grabbed an
overpriced muffin as I didn’t have long before the bus left. The bus headed
back towards Honnigsvag and I got off at the start of the path to
Knivskjellodden. This really is the middle of nowhere. A car park with a few
cars and a caravan. I hid under the tiny shelter that protected the
information sign/route map while it rained a little and then I set off. The
terrain was OK, path mostly clear and reasonably marked. Stony, then marsh
with planks of wood across it. A stream to cross and past some lakes at
lunchtime, then down down down
to the sea, here I saw 1 other person. There were lots of reindeer around,
but they always ran away before I could get close enough for a good photo.
The final mile is along fairly smooth rock that slopes a bit sideways to the
sea. Now I really had made it. I took some pictures of the 300m Nordkapp
cliff across the bay. I climbed 100m up to the top of the Knivskjellodden
peninsula for a better view. Then, rather than go back down to the path by
the sea, I thought it would be good to avoid having to climb up 100m again,
so I carried back along the top of the peninsula. But this then meant
climbing across large boulders for half a mile which was slow and dangerous
and if I had slipped, there would be no one to help; bad idea. I managed to
get back to the proper track. I passed an outcrop of marble that I had seen
on the outbound journey and took a nice lump, 1-2Kg. I would have liked to
have taken much more, but it would have been a pain to carry and too much
weight in my hand luggage on the flight home. Then I saw 2 more people just
starting their hike to Knivskjellodden, it was early evening, but it was
never going to get dark, so no matter, they would not get lost. I got back to the car park about 2 hours after the next
scheduled bus, so I faced an 8 hour wait for the next one, not good with damp feet and no more food. I asked the
remaining populated cars in the car park if they were headed to Honnigsvag,
but no luck. There was no traffic, so hitching was going to be very slow. I
sat down and took my damp boots off ready to try hitching. I could see far
enough along the road to be able to get my boots on in time if I saw a car
coming. The first one stopped for me and took me back to Honnigsvag,
brilliant! what a relief. Supper, bed. |
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Monday July 5th - Hurtigruten Boat to Tromso, 18hrs I
started very early as I was getting a Hurtigruten boat at about 6am. http://www.hurtigruten.co.uk/ is a
boat company that runs 11 ships from Bergen all the way up the Norwegian west
coast to Kirkenes (almost Russia). There are 35
ports the ships stop at and there are enough Hurtigruten ships that every
port has a boat stop at it every day, north and southbound. I think it
provides quite a service to the remote communities there as well as being
touristic. You can get a cabin for a round trip of about 12 days for around
£1000 per person, a really great trip and a good way to see the Northern Lights
in winter….maybe another time. I was just going Honnigsvag to Tromso,
18hours. Tired and dull weather to start with, I tried to snooze
in a chair. Then breakfast, which wasn’t included in my ticket, but I thought
my ticket was expensive enough to warrant a bit of grub, so as no one was
checking, I helped myself to the buffet and stashed some rolls for lunch too
:) The 2nd stop was Hammerfest, where we had an hour and it was sunny, so I
went up a nice path to the top of the Hausberg, 80m
for a good view of Hammerfest harbour. Now the passing scenery was getting
better/greener. 4th stop Skjervoy, enough time for
a short wander. Extortionate supper on board. Then the longest and last leg to Tromso in between many
mountainous islands, beautiful. A great voyage.
Arrived at the port of Tromso on the East side of the
island at about midnight and got a bus at midnight to the same hotel by the
airport on the west side again.
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Tuesday July 6th - Tromso, Fly Home Tromso is a small
island half coved by a medium sized town, a large population centre in this
sparse region. It is quite built up, so to avoid the traffic, tunnels has
been bored through the central hill to link the east port side with the west
side of the island, the airport and the bridge to the next larger island;
here is the first underground roundabout I have ever seen. I’d just missed a
bus, so I got taxi from the hotel to the mainland so that I could go up the
cable car to the top of Storsteinen. The cable cars
only went ever 15minutes and I lost my place in the upwards queue when taking
photos, so I didn’t have much time at the top. Spectacular view of fjords,
Tromso island/town, the arctic cathedral, bridge from mainland to Tromso,
bridge from Tromso to next island and it’s mountains
behind. I
got another taxi to the airport for my flight home as I was now in a hurry. I
had the large lump of marble in my bag, it had sharp
edges and would have made quite a weapon. I was so concerned amount having
the rock in my bag when going through airport security that I completely
forgot to empty my water bottle (stupid rule anyhow). The security team
didn’t notice any of it and I breezed through. At Gatwick, Luba was waiting
for me in the arrivals lounge. We found Paul and Sarah in their car which was
full of their possessions as they had been house-sitting for me. Keys
returned and went home. Amazing to think I had been somewhere as remote as
Honnigsvag just 36hours ago. |