Norway Trip - Part I (Tromsø Coastal Driving)

Ok, I had to get this post out ASAP after our trip because all of our family and friends are eager to see the beautiful photos I've taken after seeing Graham's teasers on FB. Part I of this post is about our driving tour around the area, and Part II will be on Aurora hunting and Tromsø City.

First, we visited Tromsø in northern Norway mainly in hope of seeing the Aurora Borealis before the season ended. Why did I decide to pick Tromsø? It is not even on the top 10 destinations if you search for 'Aurora hunting' on Google! I didn't want to fall for those overpriced, potentially overrated tourist traps anyway, so I searched for the most populated cities in the Arctic Circle instead. After some internet research and Google Maps reading, it became more attractive to us as it offered many outdoor and wildlife activities, beautiful and unique landscapes, a good chance of seeing the aurora even with a really low Kp index (< 1), and it is not an overcrowded tourist destination. Here are some information on Tromsø and what it offers.

We hired a car to drive around the islands and fjords for a day, we highly recommend it if you like to drive. Fortunately the weather was good enough for us to have a pleasant and safe drive along the coastal roads during the day, and allowed us to see plenty of aurora in the evening on our own hunting trip. We only drove one day, since it was only a 3-day holiday.

As is my posting style, I'll be explaining the details of our trip with route information on some cutely edited maps. The roads are super windy and there are plenty of pit stops along the way for photo opportunities.

I have to also define what a Fjord is. We were super confused at what we were looking at and were calling everything a fjord, our Norwegian tour guide (not from this part of the trip) had to keep correcting us. Lol! Check out the National Geographic for fjords with nice photos and Wiki for Norwegian geography if you're interested in some extra reading.

A Fjord (inlet) is a long, deep, narrow body of water that reaches far inland, often ends in a U-shaped valley with steep walls of rock on either side. There are lots of rivers, lakes and straits as well, so it's really hard to tell unless you look at the map. Or it'll just be in the name of the town! Lol! 

Before we started, I had to hire some winter walking boots since my leather boots had no tread or insulation whatsoever! We asked the shop assistant and he suggested Sommarøy island as a nice destination. There are two ways to get there, through the mountain pass that cuts across the island of Kvaløya or the longer coastal road. We decided to check out Ersfjordbotn first and taking the mountain pass to Sommarøy first. It was the correct choice, as the mountain pass was more treacherous and was better navigated in daylight than no light at all if we came back late in the afternoon! The coastal drive was a little featureless, just mountains after mountains. Pretty, but boring.

At Ersfjordbotn, there's a little rocky outpost that is still covered in snow, so we walked all the way out to the tip of it. Not sure if it's as accessible when all the ice and snow melts. Be Careful where you step! Follow previous footsteps if possible, or you might end up in a wet rocky foothole!

Ersfjordbotn - this side of the land strip appears to be a boat/yacht harbour. The road ends here and our car is parked all the way back there.

The other side of the strip and around the U-bend valley is where most people live.

Half way there, aiming for the big rock in the far centre right.

Despite the heavy clouds and a glimpse of sunshine, this place looks pretty amazing!

At the rock, it has now been claimed by Captain Squeaky as the first Seal landing!

Finally reached the end, I don't think testing the water was a good idea.

Panorama of Ersfjordbotn! Must be nice to live with such a view!

Just realised how clear the water is even this close to the shore! More super clear, blue water to come!

The drive across the island was quite scary at first; the path is lined by some red light-reflecting sticks and a 1-2 meter pile of snow as your crumple zone. Fortunately, not many people drove at this time of the day, and we got used to the condition quite quickly. Until you have to pull so far off the side that you're just about to fall off the track to let some truck go past...phewwwwww

The next fjord we drove past was frozen halfway up the inlet! Apparently it's quite normal for that to happen, but it was a big deal for us since frozen canals are no longer a thing. :( 

Wonder if people actually just walk across it, maybe with snowshoes, would be so much faster than driving around it.

Can you see the thin line of water where the fjord is no frozen? These red sticks are not  really a good indication of the road, cos they're in the snow!

More panorama of the magnificent view! IMO, this fjord looks nicer than the last one. :p

As we get closer to Sommarøy, a unique mountainous island started to emerge from the background. It piqued Graham's interest when it was only an interesting-shaped peak behind all the other mountains along the coast. Then it turned out to be an awesome mountain island (added by Graham).

Here I present Håja, Graham's favourite landmark from this entire trip, aka. Graham's island!

The bridge to Sommarøy is one-lane only, so you have to wait at each end at the lights to cross. There's a little cafe for refreshment and a Hotel in the first section of the island There's a smaller second bridge that connects to the rest of the island where people live. According to our tour guide, this island is a fish receiving port from fishing boats. It is also a great spot for aurora viewing.

You can walk over this bridge just like most other bridges, but it's so narrow I don't know if it's a good idea...

The Arctic Hotel looks like it has some nice houses and a great view of all the small islands (skerries) in the area. It even has a rockpool/lagoon!

Really shallow water here, would be really nice in summer!

The last leg of the drive was along the bottom of the Kvaløya island. Because it was so boring and relatively more populated that the middle of the island, we decided to do a little detour to a small island of Håkøya between Tromsø and Kvaløya. Again, there's only 1 road in and out of the island and the end of it was big enough for a bus to turn around. We were pretty exhausted by that time and went home for a nap before more driving for an evening of aurora hunting.

Yeah, another bridge! This one is flat though.

This is the large bridge connecting Tromsø and Kvaløya. There's just too much incline on these Norwegian bridges!

Overall, driving allowed us to see a lot of interesting things at our own pace. We were interested in a tour that also takes you on this island, but it was booked out. We didn't see any reindeers despite passing several 'Reindeer crossing' signs. We did see a herd of cross-country skiers preparing for their adventure across the middle of the island though. :p

Dutch Suburban Living - Bike along the Dike

Sorry for this belated post! It actually happened several weeks ago but we've been busy finding a new place in Amsterdam. Yes, we have our own little place and will be moving in soon. To top it off, I fell off my new bike and scraped my hands pretty badly, so I'm pretty incompetent right now... Nothing broken, just superficial but inconvenient injuries... :'(

Anyway, as you can tell from the title. Graham, Tristan and I had a very pleasant biking tour along the section of the IJmeer Dike in Almere. I didn't have a bike then, so I was riding on the back of Graham's bike, like a kid. It was fun but tough on my poor butt.

To show you our biking route, I have meticulously prepared a map displaying the landmarks we went past that were somewhat worth a mention. It'll also help to relate the chronological order of the photos with the locations on the map, I hope. :) I am very proud of my map! ^^

So to explain, we started from 'Home where the cats live' and rode along the train line (blue) to Almere Poort. We went through the development areas of this town, indicated by the 'Pile of Sand' (literally and figuratively), to get onto the bridge that connects us back to the mainland towards Amsterdam. Basically, Almere is a giant island reclaimed from the lake in the 60's - 70's.

Anyway, the bridge is the A6 Highway that EVERYTHING goes on (Motorway, I don't know what they call these things here). We only rode halfway to the middle of the bridge to take some photos. Then we rode back along the 'Doggie Beach' (its actual name is Muiderzand) where every man/woman and his/her dog within the 10 km radius come to bond!

We were already riding along the dike, this country is made out of dikes ffs, but the official IJmeerdijk starts just past the 'Marina'. It felt like we were riding forever, and it doesn't help that this freaking dike literally goes on for MILES. Well, it runs the whole circumference of this 'island'...
We decided to call it a day when we reached the 'Wind Turbines' and went back towards home through some farm lands and a 'Forest'. Seriously, I couldn't wait to get home by the end of it, my poor butt!

I think we did about almost 20 km of riding, Graham did all the hard work while I kept stopping to take photos along the way. :P The dike is very pretty and I definitely recommend some sort of bike riding experience along one if you have time, and a nice cruising bike, and nice cushioned seats, etc.

Now the photos!

The road that suppose to connect to the beach/dike ended up in a construction site, and we had to go over a pile of sand to get to the bike tracks again! 

The beach also looked like a construction site... If you'd even call this a beach in Australian standards. :P

Finally got on the bridge, only occupying 2 of the 6 bike lanes! Actually, it is a car lane but cars don't usually use these lanes. 

Trying to take a photo from the divider, but all I can get is this tiny island in the middle of the lake.

Back at the beach, and this time around, everyone is walking their dogs! Hence, 'Dogie Beach'.

The Dike officially starts right here! Skipped the Marina, because who wants photos of a million boats?!

Last stretch of 'beach', and Amsterdam is on the other side, where those tall buildings are (might need to zoom in).

     

Onwards to the wind turbines! Apparently there's a '1 bird per stick' policy!

At this point, it's just water everywhere you look, except for where we're standing of course. Oh, and Netherland's other specialty - Clouds! 

Passed this strange building, still don't know what it is... Anyone?

OMG, we're finally here! Just dump your bikes on the side of the road!

     

And for size comparisons, they are actually huge!

Fastly, some farm lands (so exciting, not!). Not sure what they're growing, but kale and endives are traditional Dutch... 

Drinks at The Duchess Amsterdam - Wedding Anniversary Part II

Even though this follows the previous post, it is not entirely related. Just happened to be on the same day and I need to post more photos for you guys to see.

Well, after the high tea, we wanted to drop by The Duchess (inside the W Hotel) to have a drink and check out the place for next time. It was a bit of a trek for us, because I decided to buy a new Nespresso machine and all the promotional items that came with it. We were lugging a lot of stuff all the way back towards Centraal station. By the time we arrived outside, well, it looked a bit desolate, and Graham didn't want to go in with all our stuff since it was a fancy hotel and you know what I mean... 

Anyhow, I insisted on checking it out, so we went inside and up a set of stairs to the outside of their reception. It looked so empty, we spent some time standing outside looking in and feeling too awkward to go in because the doors were closed as well. We were made uncomfortable by the ostentatious decor that we were not prepared for. Just as we were about to leave, a young man in casual attire greeted us from behind in a completely nonchalant manner and opened the door to let us in, as he was just heading into work. So long story short, really nice staff, made us feel not out of place in this uber-fancy restaurant! Oh, the only other place I've been to that looks even nicer than this would be the Hydro Majestic. I'm know I'm not well travelled or exposed to the expensive things, but I can appreciate things for this quality and uniqueness, and the Hydro is definitely in a league of its one. How many resorts are there in the world that spans 1.2 km along the clifftop overlooking a valley and a mountain range?! It's worth travelling to the Blue Mountains for it, just not the high tea. ;) Lol!

Even the reception was completely empty, well I guess they were at the staff meeting?

We took a seat on the outer corner of the Tea Room, as most seats were occupied or reserved. There was plenty of space on the seats however to lay all of our stuff and spread comfortably without getting to close to the people next to us. 

All our stuff in the corner, Graham checking out the drinks menu, some people were having tea and a staff meeting at the back!

Finally have the whole place to ourselves! The carpet is a little too bright and floral imo...

They have an interesting cocktail menu. Yes, a menu for just cocktails, not just a couple of pages, but a full selection of different varieties! Then we realised why there is no menu for high tea, because it was just an open bar! You know, when it's fancy, you can just have whatever you want! 

As tempting as it looks, I think the cakes at the Gartine still looked better! I prefer cakes over sweets after all. <3

As we were having a break and admiring the beauty of this place, a patron staying at the hotel came and sat opposite us with his dog. Of course, I had to strike up a conversation and ask for permission to take photo of the dog. It turned out the dog was a Shiba Inu puppy! OMG, cuteness!!!

Just had to snap a few more photos of this place to show you how fancy it looks, also my camera was about to die. I need another word for fancy, maybe glamorous?

     

Marble benches and table tops everywhere in the restaurant! Look at how comfy these chairs are!

     

The stairway to the rooms, or you can take the lift, and the beautiful canal view from the window.

And it turns out The Duchess is a Michelin restaurant! So we'll need another special occasion to go back there for  the food! Of course, you'll read about it when that happens. 

High Tea in Amsterdam - The Gartine (Part I)

My husband and I have this tradition of having high tea on our wedding anniversary. We like high tea, and we have tried many places in Sydney. From our experience, most well-known high tea places are over-rated or not worth what you're playing for. We rate our high tea based on the quality of two things; tea and food! Having a nice view is pleasant, but nice view is not hard to come by when you're in Australia! Just have a picnic in your local National Park instead if that's what you're into.

In our opinion, The Tea Room in the QVB is still our favourite; it has the best scones, very nice and delicious selection of tea, beautiful setting and decent pricing. We highly recommend it. You do have to pay extra for the 'Tea for Connoisseurs' option, or you'll get average tea bags. At least you have the option for better tea, which a lot of other places just don't offer.

The places that offer 'groupons' are cheaper but nothing special; they all have generic Twining's tea bags and some more fancy places have T2 tea bags. Whoopty doo, like we don't already have too many T2 containers at home!

The worst place is probably Bygone Beauty at Leura with their not so traditional tea, mini 'not-cupcake' scones, overpriced menu and crappy crowded setting! The most overpriced would be the Hydro Majestic! Ok, it is probably the most beautiful and scenic tea room you'll ever find in Australia, but $65 for some less than average high tea just cannot be justified!

Anyway, there are just too many places that offer high tea these days in Sydney. Keep in mind, I'm not rating the tea houses for their service and what not, that's a whole different story. We have also been to Adore Tea in Canberra, they have a very extensive tea selection to satisfy every a tea junkie. I would say they have the best tea, but we have not tried their high tea. Their regular food is also very nice, so I think it'd be worth going back one day.

Ok, I've talked too much about Australian high tea, I know you've been waiting for the Dutch high tea experience, and you're finally here! :P Sorry, I'm such a troll!

So it was only the 2nd weekend since we arrived in the Netherlands, our only source of info for decision making was Google and the web sites of the places. I pretty much picked 2 places that looked really pretty from their website and had decent reviews on Google; one was the Gartine cafe and the other was The Duchess hotel, both located in central Amsterdam. The Duchess did not specifically mention high tea on their menu, so we went with Gartine and were pleasantly surprised.

So, first thing is that this is not traditional English high tea; so no scones. We ordered the 'High Tea Large' set, which consisted of 3 courses; a soup starter, a pastries and sandwiches main, and a sweets/cakes dessert, and a pot of tea of course.

The soup was a creamy cauliflower and potato soup with truffle oil. Yes, the soup photo is missing, because I conveniently forgot to charge the camera the night before, and the lovely staff let me charge it at their counter so I could capture the rest for you guys.

The main was quiches with ingredients from the garden (zucchini), sourdough sandwiches with aged Amsterdam cheese, onion and green chutney, and choux pastries filled with a smoked salmon cream.

The desserts were oatmeal and cranberry biscuits, vanilla macarons, and their selection of cakes of the day.

Cakes left to right: Amaretto cheesecake, lemon meringue, smooth chocolate cake and coconut yoghurt cake! 

The ingredients are supposed to be freshly picked from their garden, I'm not sure if I could actually taste the freshness, but they were more than delicious! So nice that Graham willingly ate the cauliflower and zucchini in the dishes! The place smelled so good whenever they prepare a dish, and I had my eyes on the cakes long before they came out. There was more than enough food for 2 and we doggie-bagged the left over cakes! I think the cakes are their specialty, they were fantastic! So rich in flavour but not overpowering in any aspect, novel combination and great texture. I'll go there again just for the cakes!

Ok, the tea selection was decent, they came in nice silk bags. They were nice but not the best we've had, and quality and quantify of food made up for that tiny downfall. It is definitely the most delicious high tea we have ever had! 

Now onto the setting, because I really liked how cute it looked from their website. The place was smaller than I expected but I guess that's traditional Amsterdam houses. It was clean and tasteful. The staff were very pleasant and were prompt to change the used dishes between courses. The plates were all traditional Delftware, but nothing matched, not even our knives and forks! Lol, it was very entertaining for us to play the matching game while we waited. 

A bucket of fresh oranges next to my chair under the counter?! Why not.

Very pretty floral wall feature and chandelier - felt like the only source of light in this place. Lol!

The front of the Cafe, looks just as cute on the outside. 

So our overall experience with Gartine was extremely positive! So the next time anyone comes and visits me, let's go have cake there! :D It's a small place, so seats are limited and booking for high tea is essential. 

This post is getting too long, so I'm putting the next leg of our adventure in the next post.