Home of the Beatles

Liverpool.  It's the home of the Beatles and the home of the Curly Blow hair do.  If you're from Liverpool you know its an essential part of the prep for a night out on the town.

Considering I've lived so close to Liverpool for the most part of my life, I have never been to this city.

It was a gloriously beautiful day on the Saturday when we got there.  And we were able to have lunch on the docks.  But being outdoors has its consequences and unfortunately we had some birds flying above that thought it was a good time to have a poop.  Luckily it didn't land on me, but on the girls with a lot of hair... :-)

Hip Hop Dance Festival

The International Dance Festival is in Birmingham this month.  There are street shows, theatre shows and free classes, indoors and outdoors, for you to learn all types of dance.

The activities on offer have been inspiring.  Particularly the Breaking Convention show that a friend and I went to see at the theatre.

There were several acts, but there was one particular act which was of dancers from all around the world.  What you didn't realise at the start, when they were all doing their back flips and spins, was that they all had a disability.

Some had a prosthetic leg and others had disabilities that they were born with e.g. genetic defects, blindness, deafness.

It was amazing that their passion for dance was so strong that it was enough to overcome their disability.  An inspiration to us all.

The video below is not from this particular act, but of another group of dancers.  It still is good enough to make you want to get up on your feet and dance.

Games: Chess, Black Jack, Roulette & Bingo

There are games on board the ship...

... Pimped up chess set... which had us deep in strategic thought...

...Black Jack and Roulette at the casino... something I am rubbish at.  Good job I'm not a gambler.  And a game where my sister managed to triple her money...

...And Bingo... although this seemed to be fixed.  It was always the same group of people winning...

Party Tricks

Today was a whole day at sea.  So what better way to past the time than a champagne and wine tasting.

There was a lot of wine at this particular tasting and not a lot of food... but I still managed to take this video of the head Sommelier showing us his party tricks with Champagne with a steady hand.

The Final Dock: Eidjford

It's the last stop on this cruise and the sun is shining.  We've stopped at Eidjford.  A little town surrounded by mountains.

It was a bit of a ghost town.  You could only see the other passengers of the cruise ship for miles around.

As per all the other places we docked at, we walked to a look out point to get a nice scenic view of the place.

Then lazed out on the pebbly shore of the Fjord.

As with most holidays, it wouldn't be a holiday if I didn't fall flat on my face.

And as if it was over due, I do just that as I try to get a good picture of the brother-in-law trying to make a flat pebble skip across the surface of the water.  Typical.

Picturesque Alesund

Out of all the Fjords, Alesund really delivered on the beautiful scenic views.

It was a cloudy day, but had it been bright blue skies and a blazing sun, it would have taken away from the majestic feel of these mountains.

It's almost like they were more comfortable against a cloudy backdrop.  Stunning.

Dinner at Cirque

Following the massive hike we did today, tonights dinner was well earned.   Particularly the multiple course meal my sister, brother-in-law and I had at the Cruise's gourmet restaurant, Cirque.

The first course was Foie Gras with a Rhubarb Jelly.  Now I'm not a big fan of Rhubarb, but this was amazing. A perfect combination of savoury and sweet.

Next on the menu was a Butternut Squash Soup.  That was presented in a kettle.  Yummy and with all that cream... very rich.

Next up was Veal served with creamy mash potatoes.  Usually the portion sizes are smaller to enable you to have more courses, but I was starting to get defeated.

And last but not least, there was the molten chocolate cake.  One of my favourite desserts.  And a great way to end the meal.

The Hike Around Geiranger

A childhood memory of mine that always makes me smile whenever I remember it, was of a family trip to one of the reservoirs near where we used to live.

We used to take a walk around the reservoir after sunday lunch and on this occasion, our neighbours had joined us.  I remember my next door neighbour carrying a bag full of snacks.  Which inevitably led to him being chased by a couple of Rams.  I remember laughing a lot.

It is now that I think Karma can be quite the b@%*&... (excuse my French)...

Today was a stretch the legs, till they are ready to fall off, kind of a day.  We did a massive hike around the mountains of Geiranger, led by the brother-in-law.

He did well.  We made it up and down safely and in the time frame we had.

Halfway up the mountain was an area where Lambs, Sheep and Goats were grazing.  I was almost at the gate to enter another area when I heard bells jangling.  I turned to see where the noise was coming from and the picture below was what I saw...

My initial thought was that they were running towards something behind me.  It wasn't until they were approaching me that I realised that they were aiming for me. The flee or fight response kicked in.

What to do, what to do.

I ended up staying in place and got nuzzled by the animals.  Particularly the coat wrapped around my waist.  Luckily it wasn't mine.  Hehe.  Sorry Ala.

Docked in Bergen

We're here.  And it feels like we're home away from home.  It's grey skies and with the kind of drizzle that doesn't feel like a lot to begin with, but a short amount of time in it and you're completely drenched.

It is the greenery, the mountains and the foreign language that are the tell tale signs that we are somewhere other than the UK.

We have docked in Bergen.  A little city on the west coast of Norway.  It is very pretty with the different coloured buildings that decorate the waterfront. 

You can tell this was the first stop on the cruise as we're all full of energy and happy to be on solid ground, having spent a full day on the boat.

We walked to the highest point in Bergen, so that we could get a nice birds eye view of the town.  Not bad even in the haze of all the drizzle.

Norway is know for its trolls and we did encounter a few on our way to the top.  I couldn't help a picture or two with them.

Birthday Celebrations

This year Dad turns 60.  To celebrate he wanted to go away on a family holiday.  With all the schedules, the first week of May worked out best, which also meant that we would all be together for my sister's birthday (which is today, so Happy Birthday Sis!).

The destination was Norway's Fjords, via the comfort of a cruise ship.  As you can imagine, me, my sister, brother-in-law and Ala were some of the youngest people on the ship.

It was particularly amusing when we participated in a pop quiz only to learn that the topic would be out of our era e.g. popular music of the 50's.  Although fair play to us we got 5 questions right.

The evening music was also a little bit out of our genre.  A lot of the music was old school and we had to push to get a bit of MJ's 'Blame it on the Boogie' on.  Something of a favourite of my brother-in-law's.