Category: History
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Tallinn-Helsinki, day 5, 010125
We awoke after the New Year’s Eve celebrations to a blanket of snow in Tallinn. It was roughly zero degrees when we had breakfast and then slightly warmer when we ventured out. We walked up the steps close to the hotel that allowed us to access the upper town. We saw some great views of…
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Tallinn, Estonia, day 4, 311224
Well what a fabulous day to end the year. We started off with a breakfast and champagne before heading out into the Estonian winter. We decided to go to Creative City first thing, but it was freezing cold and snowing. It wasn’t the best day to be wandering around, but I wanted to see the…
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Tallinn, Estonia, day 3, 301224
It was a fairly early start this morning, due to us starting out on the second part of our break. We packed our bags before heading down to breakfast which opened at 8am. The dining area was quiet and we had a good choice of breakfast items again, served with a pot of tea. Afterwards,…
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Helsinki, Finland, day 2, 291224
I didn’t have the best night’s sleep in the hotel. I think my body clock was all messed up, with an early start yesterday and the two hour time difference. That along with the excesses of Christmas were surely having an effect on me and I felt very restless. I didn’t rush to get up…
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Helsinki, Finland, day 1, 281224
Travelling down to Heathrow on the day after Boxing Day was not the best journey I have ever encountered. The whole of the country was pretty much shrouded in thick fog. On top of that it seemed that every man and his dog was travelling home after the festivities. There was so much congestion with…
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Svalbard Express,day 16, Bergen, 210924
We woke at about 6:30am with the ship heading towards the Hurtigruten terminal in Bergen. It was thick fog which contradicted the weather forecast, it was supposed to be sunny all day. The ship docked at 7am as scheduled, but we weren’t in any rush. We needed to have breakfast first and say goodbye to…
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Svalbard Express, day 15, Ålesund and Sæbø, 200924
Ålesund – Storhaugen viewpoint We knew that we would be arriving in Ålesund at 8am, so my alarm was set for 6:30am. This was to allow us time to get ready and also have breakfast before we disembarked. We only had a two hour stop here so needed to make sure we had enough time…
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Svalbard Express, day 14, Brønnøysund, 190924
So, I slept right through last night, through the force 8s and 9s that the Captain of MS Trollfjord advised us about yesterday. I think what “helped” was the fact that it was a head wind most of the way, which meant that the ship wasn’t rocking from side to side when we travelled from…
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Svalbard Express, day 13, Harstad, 180924
Sol og Vindhuset We had a good night’s sleep, probably the best we had had since travelling from Longyearbyen to Ny-Ålesund. We felt refreshed and had a good breakfast before leaving the ship just after 9am. We knew we needed to keep up with good exercise and fresh air, so we planned to visit an…
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Svalbard Express, day 12, Tromsøya/Finnsnes, 170924
When we awoke this morning, it was with a bit of relief that the boat had stopped rocking and we were safe in the sheltered waters near to Tromsø, on the island of Tromsøya. We ate breakfast without feeling green around the gills anymore, and then went up on deck to watch the shipping being…
jctraveller 