Scottish Borders, June 2005
The summer of 2005 started of with poor weather in Holland. It had been a cold and windy spring. So plenty of reasons to doubt my judgement of holiday destinations. Neather the UK nor Norway are famous for steady summer weather. But the gods were with me. I spent the week with good friends in Duns and as I had brought my car over I could get about and do my own thing when I wanted to. I've posted pics of the area before so I will keep it short and sweet this time. Below you see a scenic river view at Coldstream and the 'smithy' across the road that Kim and Tom now use as there office. Very convenient.
I've played 3 different golfcourses during my stay. The view from the 6th tee at the Eyemouth golf course is imposing as always and the Duns course is a nice friendly course. But not if the wind is blowing as it was now. Funny how that never shows ond the pics..
Kim took a day off from work and we spent that in Edinburgh, always an entertaining city. A different view from the castle and a street just near 'the royal mile'.
A colleague actually got married in a castle just south of Edinburgh, Dalhousie Castle Hotel in Dalkeith. A strangely quiet place so near to the town. Recently a falconry started on the premises. We had a nice chat with the girl that minded the birds. And here's a closeup view of one of her birds, a barnowl. A beautiful lille bird that I've seen in Scotland myself. And time to take the ferry back home.
Southwest Noway, June 26th - July 4th 2005
It was a mad dash, back from the UK on Friday, too many errands to run, packing the bike and on my way to Norway Saturday morning. A 650 mile ride to north Danmark and then the ferry crossing from Hirsthals to Kristiansand. As most of the pics could have been taken in Norway just about anywhere I'll let the pictures do most of the talking after this introduction. I was fortunate in Norway as well, quite good weather and no speeding tickets. Not a mean feat as the limit is 60, 70 or 80 kph (=50mph). Control is strict and the fines are horrendous. Not a biking country at all!!! A shame, for the countryside and the roads are fine. I went on the Suzuki V-Strom650 with a truckload of gear. Unfortunately the bike fell over off the sidestand on the first day. I won't show the damage, still too painfull ;-)
I stayed in youth hostels. Cheap, good breakfasts, enough creature comforts, use of the kitchen and many travellers from all over the world to share experiences with. Always a good choice in my book. This Youth Hostel is in Stavanger. And the little house I rented was at the hostel in Feda.
The tubes on the bike contain my travelling fishing rods. I went fishing almost every day. Actually I got the idea for this trip from a holiday report of Patrick Verheiden on www.norwayfishing.nl. And would you believe it. When I arrived at one of the spots he described I met his parents, who had just started their holidays at that same spot. They were travelling with a little more comforts than me though. And thanks for the donated beers, much appreciated!!! A few days later the same spot at Randaberg was occupied by an oilrig-to-be. What a massive building site that was.
As you may guess I've not eaten out but have actually been eating the catch of the day everyday. Sometimes cooking at the hostel and sometimes using a throwaway BBQ on sale at every gasstation. I caught a great variety of fish ranging from seatrout, whiting, gurnard, codling, coalfish, pollack, mackerell, dab and what not. But obviously most of the fish went back unharmed.
Unfortunately I've not landed any real big fish, an 8 pound pollack was easy the biggest catch. But it was certainly enough to be entertaining. Perhaps next year I'll opt for Sweden again. Not so strict in traffic regulations and I think a better chance of good weather. I have no complaints now but I arrived in the first week of decent weather so it could have been much worse.
Anyway, enough time left to change my mind a couple of times. If you want any details about the fishing in Norway, just drop me a line. Mailadress is on the homepage.
