Back when my bones were warm . . .

So it is cooler. Heading for a maximum of 16 degrees. With a breeze.
And wet.  Again. 
But today it is wet enough to hinder some of the options of things to explore. 
Being a Saturday, it is also a later start for most of the attractions. We decide to head to the National Theatre stop and go to The Viking Planet, a relatively new attraction that only opened in June 2019.
From the comments on their site, most people seen to enjoy the experience.

As we enter Princengate, one of the four streets that bound this building, we can hear the music festival we saw them setting up for yesterday in full swing.  The band is on a stage inside a partially enclosed marquee, there are a few children playing on the playground that was constructed, but in the drizzle, everyone is hurrying by under umbrellas or a range of rain jackets, seemingly oblivious to the music. We are bound for the tram stop on the opposite corner, and like all the other people passing by, we do too.


It is only a couple of tram stops from where we are, and as we near, the rain lifts for a few minutes, allowing us to have a look at the statuary that is dispersed among the gardens of the National Theater.  Currently showing is Romeo and Julie(tte) and Alice in Wonderland.


Like many other areas within the City of Oslo, there are gardens and green spaces, filled with flowering beds.  In the centre of the square between the National Theatre and the Universitat buildings are formal and rather austere surrounded by lots of cobbled stones, but also with large tubs of flowers at regular intervals. Large brass statues are in every square and courtyard, no doubt notable scholars. And in pride of place is the Norwegian counterpart of Sydney's El Alamein Fountain!

We realise that we again are walking away from the area that we are wanting to visit. Google maps is a fail as far as using it for walking directions. I just wonder how much of it is because we are surrounded by large stone edifices.


Finally City Hall is ahead of us and we know that we are about to reach our destination. This is an imposing modern towering building and rather stark. And even though there are garden beds along the broad stepped raisers to the entrance, they seem lost against the brick and concrete.  The bells are ringing and we see a wedding party gingerly try to rush to waiting cars at the bottom of the steps in the again increasing rain.  But we are here to see something else - The Viking Planet which is across the crescent from City Hall.

You actually enter the building through the souvenir shop. There is a uniformity in the offerings at most of the museums here - not only in the basic choice of souvenirs, but also the prices - that is good.  And each attraction then also has a range of unique products, but again, at comparable pricing.
Tickets cost us just under AUD$50 each. We are not too phased at the cost and by the time we have finished our experience, we actually think that it is really good value for money. The staff are very attentive and eager to assist. They explain the basic concept and offer suggestions on the route through the attraction. I actually think that being a wet day has worked in our favour as there are not a lot of people here.  

We began with the Fjordr - the cinema taking us through more than 1000 years of history before setting the Viking life in the context of European history. 

Then came the highlight of the visit, the Longship Ambush - VR Cinema experience, told as a story being recanted to a youngster - and from where the title of this blog originates. As neither Donna nor I had ever used a VR (virtual reality) headset, the staff member made sure that we were well seated in the seats and the headgear correctly fitted before telling us to make sure to look all around us. Now, if this is the future of movie experiences, bring it on.  It was AMAZING. It is a 4D experience as the chairs move to adjust to the movement of the longboat on which we are 'seated'. We set out in the longboat on a raiding run and move from active rowing to gliding passed small settlements quietly across the water. 

At one moment, a huge whale surfaces right beside us and the rower straight ahead of us jumps up (too late) to grab his bow and arrow to fire at the whale. Let me tell you, as an archer, he makes a great oarsman!  This seems to be the pivotal point in the journey and now we are the subject of flaming arrows, some falling short, some overshooting the longboat and eventually, many making their target and the longboat begins to burn. As we reach near the end of the fjord, another longboat comes rushing in from the left and rams us with a bone-crunching crash that beaches our longboat. We are boarded and before long the entire crew is dead. We finish the experience a little 'exhausted'. This is a full immersion experience with the seats rocking and bucking and shaking at the appropriate moments.
We sit through it twice, and in the second sitting, you see so much that you miss the first time.  Obviously, with the headsets on and all the experience

happens quietly from the outside, there are no photos of this experience to share.

We work through the other exhibits in the centre - from the Hologram Theatre where we see life size depictions of 25 Viking characters with the implements of their daily lives, the building of a Viking boat, the creation of the Viking Volka (female shaman), take a Viking 'selfie' and finish up at the Sagascope - a 270 degree cinema experience that shows daily life in a Viking village

through to their murders in a raid, Viking winter explorers etc.

All in all an amazing 2.5 hours or so.

Venturing back in to the street, it is still raining so we opt for a late lunch/early dinner at the nearby Prima Fila Ristorante where we share a Marghuerita Pizza and Tagliatelle allo Scoglio with a glass of Prosecco each.
Back on the bus because it stops almost in front of the entrance door. Music has now stopped, so I guess you call that concert a wash-out.

We have re-packed ready for any earlier departure. Tomorrow we head for the coast in a 12 hour train, train, ferry, bus, train day between Oslo and Bergen which includes the scenic Flam railway. Just a little excited! 

Ickham not Wickham!

all the leaves are brown
and the sky is grey
I've been for a walk
on an autumn day
Yes, California dreaming is playing on the local radio station - very fittingly! There is nothing so miserable as when it is 4:30 pm in the afternoon and totally dark with all the street lights on.

After a lazy morning we set out from Wingham for a bit of a drive around the area. And it really is no coincidence that we are staying here - there is a Wingham in the Taree area on the central north coast of New South Wales - so we came to see if there was any resemblence. And you know, there is - lots of cattle and rolling hills! And they are of a like size.

First stop is the small village of Ickham that is a mere 2.5 kms away by road, but a million miles away in terms of how different it is. Wingham is located right on the very busy Canterbury Road, while Ickham is caught in some time warp on a small back road. Just outside town we pass fields that are being beseiged by geese - lots of geese, hundreds of geese - and as Michael gets out to take photos, their brief reprieve on the ground from the journey south for the winter is interrupted as the take flight again.

From here we turn towards the north coast of this part of the UK towards Sheerness and the Isle of Sheppey. As we travel along we see signs to the Spitfire Museum at Manston and would you believe Michael's luck - our route takes us right past it. Go past? Never! So off he goes and I pick up my book.

"Fighter trail etched white on blue,
Bomber Captain, Seaplane Crew.
Like gods, these men, though wrought as we,
Are brushed with immortality.
Their youth not lost to as years go by,
But grandly, in a moment souring high,
Through conquered sky."
- Harold Balfour

With it's memorial garden overlooking the Manston aerodome and the singular bronze statue of an RAF pilot, the museum is more of a memorial to Airforce personnel of all nationalities. However, on entering the building you get the distinct impression it's dedicated to the Supermarine Spitfire and the Hawker Hurricane and the respective crews.

The museum is quite small but full of memorabilia, including a restored Spitfire XVI and a Hurricane II and displays of ordinance carried by both aircraft. There is an impressive array of uniforms belonging to aircrew and which have been donated to the museum. A selection of aviation art is also displayed which mainly concentrate on the Battle of Britain. Whether a visitor has any interest in aviation is immaterial, this is a memorial and museum which has been tastefully designed.

So from Manston we follow the coast around to Herne Bay. This historic town is on the southern estuary of the Thames River as it empties in to the North Sea. Known for its old pier and it's impressive clock tower there is also a solitary statue of a Coast Guard statue patiently and vigilantly out to sea - making sure that all are safe, and ready to jump into action if anything goes awry out to sea.

We are still not at Sheerness despite it only being 60 kilometres from Herne Bay. You see we are averaging about 30 kph! Where there are not small towns end to end, there is farming land - marshy land that now supports sheep grazing. And there is only one narrow road that goes right through this area. And time after time we find ourselves in a bottleneck of traffic as we come up to temporary traffic lights around roadworks. It is well dark now, and not quite 4:30 in the afternoon! There is no point going any further so we make the decision to turn back for Wingham. All in all, the last couple of hours has been frustrating to say the least. And as if to add insult to injury, we hear regular traffic updates on the local radio that seems to put us in the very middle of the jams! Wait? Is that them in the car behind us??? Could be as we pass just in front of the landmarks they name time and again!!

We eventually get back to the Dog Inn and a well awaited Cider. Austin our chef has promised us Steak and Ale Pies for dinner even though they are not on his menu for the night. That menu has surprised us a little. While it is always great to find great food in the most unexpected of places, we really did not expect to find a chef of his calibre in a small town miles from where the major restaurants lie. He explains that not only is he the chef for the restaurant here, he is also head chef for the group of hotels owned by the owners. And although we are really looking forward to our pies, when the waitress gives us the menus to choose entrees, we groan at the other choices we might have had. (Pardon the shadows on the menus please)

Still, we had asked for the pies and we are looking forward to them. For our entrees tonight we decide on:
Pan fried tiger prawns, chorizo and plum tomato (Michael)
Homemade lemon and coriander fishcakes, garlic tartar (Maria)
Our mains were those amazing pies - heavy with succulent chunks of tender beef in a deliciously rich ale based gravy and topped with the cleanest, crispest shortcrust pastry - mmmm
"Dessert menu?" she asked. "Oh yes please" was Michael's reply (even though we probably didn't need it!)
Plum Clafoutis with raspberry coulis and the ripest red strawberries (Michael)
Warm apple, sultana and calvados pancake with creme anglais (Maria)

Ah the day has been redeemed! Onya Austin!!!

A stroll through Zagreb - dead and alive

Daylight saving finished today which meant we all got to sleep in for another hour - whoo hoo. Michael and I certainly got more sleep than Donna did as she battled with her cold last night. She is on medication from the pharmacy, but it sure doesn't have the efficacy of some of those we are more used to being able to get at home. What she really needs is a good decongestant! And that space that Donna could call her own last night was very hot - the window is on the other side of the room, and the airconditioning unit over the door, so it means that Donna's alcove had no circulating air. Poor thing was hot all night.

And it has stopped raining - yahoo! It is still cloudy, but more of the light high type than the dark filled clouds that threaten to burst their edges at any moment. But that is not all together a bad thing - it means that we will not have to worry about beating sun today as we return to inner Zagreb to have more of a look around - today we are concentrating on the Lower Town.
But first we are off to Mirogoj to have a look at the cemetery. And today we are armed with the name of the streets on which it lies to make sure that Kate can direct us there correctly the first time!! We get about half the way up the hill when we encounter what I had thought we might - thousands of people on their way to the same spot. The traffic was at an inch by inch crawl for the last kilometre or so and with cars parked over the (?) footpaths on both sides of the road, as a driver, you had to be ever so careful not to bump the myriads of people walking up the hill. But Frances came good on the second try and we got a parking spot along the wall about 150 m from the entrance gate.

Now, that wall and its cupolas look far more stunning in the light of day. It hides a 500 m long neo-renaissance arcade with 20 domes. There are lots of famous Croatian people buried here - both in the arcade and within the cemetery proper. Graves here are amazing - there is everything possibly imaginable from austere simple crosses or headstones to elaborate works of art that include all forms from the very traditional to art deco to very modern and abstract. Yet they all sit very happily side by side. We go on a search for old graves but don't find many before the turn of the 20th Century. Ahh, the cemetery was only built in the late 19th century - so that explains that. And do you know what is a little spooky? Some graves have the names, birthdates and the numbers 20 already engraved - for people who are not yet dead!

The number of people out here cleaning graves and just visiting is amazing. There are whole families here - with kids (and some teens too!), there are groups of old ladies and the odd very old couple who look like they are not long before permanent residence here themselves! People also stop at a couple of other spots to reflect and/or pray. One is at grave of Franjo Tuđman, the first post-communist leader of Croatia, others are at the memorials to the fallen in the various wars and the last is to a gilded crucified Christ that stands half way down the main avenue. At all these, people leave wreaths and lit candles. You know, it was that interesting that you could spend a whole week here just ambling through the thousands and thousands of graves.
And so now that we have seen at least some of Mirogoj, we take our leave for the lower town of Zagreb. Being a Sunday, there is no charge for the normally metered parking IF you can find a spot. Luckily, we are happy to leave the car at the far end of the area we want to visit, down near the main rail station. There are less residences here and we get a spot first time - thanks Frances! The area we want to see measures about 3 long blocks by 5 blocks. Now, anyone who knows me knows that this is going to be one huge day for me!! So, off we set . . .

First stop (because this is where we have parked the car) is King Tomislav Square - a large open green space with a monument to Croatia's first king (9th century) standing proudly at one end and looking towards the main Railway Station. It is situated across a myriad of tram lines, bus stops and a major road. Built at the end of the 19th Century, it was one of the stops for the Orient Express Rail Service between Paris and Istanbul in its hey day and the nearby Hotel Esplanade was built to cater for these first class passengers.

At the northern end of the park is the classically beautiful Art Pavilion. Parts of the building are shrouded at the moment with works underway. We wonder whether there are problems with the footings as there are lots of core samples being drilled and at the moment, they lie in wooden boxes drying out.

The next park up is much plainer and is basically a green space with a playground and playing fields. With so many people living in the centre of the city, these sort of facilities are really needed. And then comes Zrinjevac. This is the most beautiful square and park that we see in all of Zagreb. It is named for the Croatian man who died heroically defended a Hungarian fortress beseiged by Turks in the 16th century. The park is very formal in its layout with mature Plane trees, flower beds, neat rows of fir trees and plenty of pathside seating.

Within it are located some important pieces of Zagreb's history including the Meteorological Post where weather conditions have been recorded since 1884. The clock however, is wrong by ten minutes! The first fountain in Zagreb was built here in 1878 just after the opening of the Zagreb waterworks. And nearby stands a bandstand - hmmm, I could just as easily be describing a nice part of Queens Park in Maryborough back home! And there are busts to many notable locals - all recently cleaned with their engraving re-gilded by the look of them.

Lining the streets that border this trio of parks are some amazing examples of architecture - most in Neo-Classical and Neo-Renaissance styles. Opposite the park is one building of great interest - it houses the Archeological Museum. We go on over, only to be stopped by the guard at the door. It closes on a Sunday at 1 pm and it is now almost 2 pm. She does however, kindly let Michael walk through the still open doors into the foyer to have a smidgen of a look.

So we are now at the northern most point of the parks. From here we turn to the west and follow the streets to Petar Preradović Square. This is just short of the half way point and there are a number of cafés open and doing a roaring trade. So we decided to join them all in a coffee and cake. But first we want to find the grounded Sun. No, not that yellow thing that hangs in the sky, but rather a contemporary sculpture that is set in the ground amidst the forest of café umbrellas. In relation to its size, there are supposedly metal spheres representing the planets placed around the city in true scale to this sun. Hmm, no clues as to where and if it were true, then we should at least be able to find Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, but no such luck - we wonder whether they are pulling our legs! In the immediate vicinity are two architectural gems - the Octogon and the Napredak Skyscraper, which the architect hates being called a skyscraper as it is only 7 stories high, but it was the first of the modern tall buildings built in 1936 to serve as a commercial and residential building.

The Millenium Café beckons so we sit and enjoy good coffee and great cakes while we gather our gusto for the remainder of our walk and give our tootsies a momentary rest. Thirst quenched we walk back through the square taking photos of the statues of Petar Preradović and Tim Ujević. Both were poets and Petar was an army general as well.

From here it is a few blocks over to the other set of parks that we want to visit. It is amazing to see under the grime of centuries that the grand old buildings now house couture design houses and up market retailers. Street signage is almost non-existant, so you need to walk directly past them to know that they are there. Many of the buildings are covered in scaffolding and hessian and plank walkways that are raised above large holes in the footpaths. Seems that there is much to be done! Masarykova Street houses some lovely commercial buildings and apartments with exquisite finishing touches such as coloured tiles, statuary around doorways and fancy balconies.

And so to the other set of three parks and squares. At the northern most is Marshall Tito Square although there is no statue to him to be found - guess there are mixed feelings about him! The square houses the elegant facade of the Croatian National Theatre, the Well of Life, the Museum of Arts and Crafts and a stunning statue of St George slaying the dragon. His poor horse looks scared half to death! Now, many of the sculptures around Zagreb are the work of one man - Ivan Meštrović and this is considered possibly his best work. It is very striking and you can imagine the figures from young, to lovers to old people reacing in to scoop out the precious water in the well. It is no deeper than the sculpture. This is one busy place - although with the buildings closed on Sunday afternoons, there are not too many tourists around. In fact, the local skateboarders outnumber us all!
The next park is filled with walking paths set amidst mature trees, oh, and that water supply! Nothing much to look at otherwise. And so we come to the last of the large squares within the Lower Town. This is Marulić Square. It houses Croatian State Archives that was once the National and University Library. The building is heralded as the best example of Croatian Art Noveau architecture with its detailed facade elements. The statue of Marko Marulić dominates the open space behind the Archives. He is known as the father of Croatian literature, writing in Latin, Italian and Croatian and wrote Judita (Judith), an epic poem that was the first work to be published in the Croatian language.

And we have now reached the border of the green horseshoe that is formed by these six garden squares and the Botanical Gardens now in front of us. But the day is done and none of us want to explore them, so we turn and head back past the Hotel Esplanade and the Railway Station to the car. We make a quick trip into the Upper Town so that we can get a photo of the amazing tesselated tiled roof of St Mark's Church and one also of St Catherine's Church and the nearby tower. We can't even pull up here for a few minutes as the streets all around here are home to the various consulates and embassies. And Michael is told tersely that he must not take photos of these buildings - a bit hard when they lie directly behind St Marks which comes a very close second to the Cathedral in terms of the wow factor. Sheesh! In the last light of the day, we admire finally the gaslight lamps - more than 200 still exist today in the Upper Town and are lit on dusk by two lamp lighters. Neat, very neat.

We walked a total of 4.24 kms today - no wonder we are tired! There is no way we want to eat out near the hotel tonight and so we decide to try to find somewhere here in the city. We know that there are some restaurants at Kaptol near the Cathedral, BUT, there is no parking up there. Donna pulls out her Croatia guide and we find that we are but a few blocks from one called Restaurant Čiho that specialises in seafood.
Entrees:
Salata od hobotnice (Octopus salad) Michael
Creme škampi juha (Creme scampi soup) Donna and Maria
Mains:
Kraljevska grdobina sa crnom palentom (Royal Frog-fish with Black Polenta - cooked in squid ink) Michael and Maria
Pijana grdobina (Drunken Frog-fish - cooked in white wine) Donna
Desserts:
Čokolada palačinke (Chocolate pancakes) Michael
Orah palačinke (Walnut pancakes) Donna and Maria

Yep, a marathon day today! And bed awaits . . .